With José Luis López' addition, Ernie Merrick's off-season recruitment seems to have reached its end. But work on the Victory's W-League and National Youth League teams is still well underway. Melbourne has signed Matilda's goalkeeper Melissa Barbieri, who becomes the first signing for the Victory's inaugural W-League team.

The Melbourne Victory has signed five more players for its inaugural youth squad, who play their first match at home this Friday afternoon against the Queensland Roar youth team. The new kids on the block are Cameron Drake, Milos Lujic, Dimitri Hatzimouratis and Qantas Young Socceroos Mathew Theodore and Ante Cicak.

The A-League National Youth League was announced on Wednesday and already the Melbourne Victory are making headlines with the news that they plan to have an 11-year old in their squad. Trey O'Sullivan is the kid, and if he does indeed become a member of the Victory's youth team, he will certainly be the youngest player [.

The Melbourne Victory and Queensland Roar youth teams met this afternoon in Green Gully Reserve for the opening match of the A-League National Youth League. It was the visitors who went home with the points, with Queensland's Joshua McVey and Mitch Nichols giving the Roar a 2-0 win. Melbourne's performance was promising but frustrating.

Ernie Merrick is somewhere looking for players, but Gary Cole says the club's "not at liberty" to discuss the coach's whereabouts: "He's going to various places over the course of the next seven days to look at a few different players. We're not going to discuss where he is, that just complicates things.