At only 18, Stephan De Robillard is settling in well to the NPL NSW Men’s Competition.
The youngster has already scored three goals for the Northbridge Bulls side and has big ambitions to make his mark on the league.
“It was a tough season, especially because we’re a young side,” he explained.
“For me individually, I feel like I’ve learned a lot, being only 18 and playing first grade.
“We’ve done well but I would say, means to be more consistent.”
After making the step up to the NPL New South Wales Men’s Competition, De Robillard said there are some key differences between the teams and players.
“I would say one would be probably physicality because they’re much older, they’re bigger they’re smarter but I would say we’ve got them on pace and technical ability and fitness.
“It’s good that we learn playing those teams, so we grow that maturity and experience.”
While the lockdown is keeping the Bulls from training as a team, they are still working hard to remain prepared for the return to football and keeping in touch through Zoom.
“All of us are staying fit, we’ve been staying in contact on Zoom making sure we’re all up to date on our fitness.
“Each week in the fitness program gets harder so we’re always prepared.
“There are these tasks our coach gives us and basically we’ve been put in groups and we’ve got to work together – it’s like homework basically, football homework.
“We’ll analyse another team and then we get together on Zoom and then we share our answers.
“That’s a good way for us to all stay in contact.
The youngster isn’t finding a lack of motivation a problem in the lockdown, drawing on his eagerness to establish himself in the men’s competition.
“For me, the motivation is always there just because I was so pumped to play top tier NPL Men’s football and it’s my first year playing first grade.
“I want to prove myself this season and see how I could perform.
“The season hasn’t been fully called off so until it is called off, then I can have a break.
Outside of training to keep fit, De Robillard has been trying to keep busy through new hobbies.
“I’ve been doing a couple of new things that I don’t normally do to stay occupied and bike riding is one of them.”
When football returns, the youngster has clear goals for the remainder of the season.
“Because we’ve drawn our last four, we haven’t lost, we’d like to obviously keep that streak of not losing but we want to try to win all the games, the rest of the games.
“For me individually, I want to try to score in each of them.”
-By Madeline Riley