By Tara Murray
It’s a bit of a homecoming for Mindy Barbieri at Keilor Park for the Victorian Premier League season.
Barbieri spent some of her junior career at the Eagles before going on to make her W-League debut at the age of 15.
Having decided to step up from the professional leagues for the moment, Barbieri was keen to still have a kick.
She said coming back to Keilor Park was a no brainer.
“It is amazing,” she said. “To be honest I never thought I would be able to have the chance to come back to one of my junior clubs.
“For me, I’m really excited for the season to begin. It has been overwhelming to be back at one of my community clubs.
“I’m really comfortable and there’s great support from the team that has welcomed me from the get go. It has been great.”
Barbieri said the opportunity to come back to Keilor Park had fallen in her lap.
She had decided to take a year away from the A-League Women competition after playing more than 100 games in the W-League and A-League Women since making her debut.
A conversation late last year set the wheels in motion for her to return to Keilor Park.
“I attended their VPL final last year and met their coach,” he said. “The convos started flowing from there.
“It’s definitely exciting to be playing at one of my junior clubs. Keilor Park had a big impact on my professional career.”
Having had the A-League Women season off, Barbieri said she was actually enjoying pre-season which has been under way for two weeks.
Barbieri comes back to the club which has cemented itself as one of the top women’s sides in state.
It narrowly missed out on promotion in the National Premier League Women’s competition.
Barbieri said it was exciting to see what the club had been able to do. She said while the club wants to be an NPLW team, they were taking it one season at a time and focusing on this year.”
“Being able to see where they are now compared to previous years is exciting,” he said.
“Seeing them come more competitive in the league is fantastic. Being able to be in the position they were last year, it’s something of a driving force this year.
“We’ll jump back into VPL and look to possibly be in the position to play NPLW.”
Barbieri said she’s not sure what the future holds for her professional career.
She said she wanted to see how things went at Keilor Park this season.
“My first focus is coming back into Keilor Park and having an having an impact, not just on field, but off field.
“I want to give back to them. That start at a community club is really important.
“I’m excited to jump back into playing.”