About our Football Program

Rowville Sports Academy currently ranks as one of the most successful school based football programs in the country and has won the most School Sport Victoria Premier League titles of all schools invited to compete at this level across both our male and female teams.

RSA Football is partnered with Melbourne Victory Football Club and they have recently launched a new Performance School at Rowville Sports Academy. The school is aimed at developing talented youngsters through the school environment.

The Director of Football, Stuart Munro brings a wealth of international and national experience including a background, as most notably a former Glasgow Rangers player. Stuart has had a renowned coaching career in the A League and the Australian Soccer League. Stuart coached Gippsland Falcons, Carlton, Parramatta Power and South Melbourne in the former NSL, twice being named Coach of the Year, and spent three years as Assistant Coach of Perth Glory in the A League.

The Football program is modelled on the elite development programs that our coaches have had experience with and our partnership with Melbourne Victory FC provides us with the curriculum and research that makes the Football Group a worldwide powerhouse. The emphasis on player development is unambiguously directed to the technical skills needed to be an elite player. This direction is supported by small sided play, drills and tactical and game situational practices.

The student athletes in the program benefit from the school’s outstanding sporting facilities with a state of the art artificially surfaced full sized pitch, access to ice baths and physiotherapy as part of their recovery programs and our partnership with RISE Health Group and Deakin University exercise physiology students to create individualised and tailored athletic development and strength and conditioning programs appropriate to each person’s level of development.

The girls in the program benefit from the highly competitive practice that they receive day in day out, training with the boys in the program, something highly recommended by the Matildas, Sam Kerr. However, they have their own Women’s Head Coach, Melissa Maizels. Melissa is an Australian soccer goalkeeper who plays for Australian A-League Women team Melbourne Victory and previously played for Perth Glory and Canberra United. 

Rowville Secondary College is proud to have had quite a number of our students earn overseas contracts, play in the A and W Leagues and represent country and state. Our footballers play in the School Sport Victoria competitions at all age levels as well as playing friendlies against other prominent football schools including some from interstate and overseas.

Football Coaching Team

sports academy facilities

Rowville Sports Precinct

In 2014 RSA opened the Rowville Sports Precinct: a modern facility housing three basketball courts, a state of the art fitness centre, on-site physiotherapy, and ice bath and healthy café. Having these elite facilities on-campus enables us to improve the quality of our training sessions, reducing the time spent travelling off-campus.

We share the facilities with RISE Health Group who provide RSA students with Physiotherapy, podiatry, dietetic and psychology services. RISE Health Group are also responsible for coordinating all strength and conditioning activities for the academy. Out of school hours, RISE Health use the facilities for personal training, group fitness classes and health consulting.

east campus pitch

Opened in 2010, our floodlit synthetic football pitch provides a premier facility for our football students. All football training sessions are held on-campus between the Eastern Campus Pitch, fitness centre and basketball courts.