In round one the season looked bleak for Jonathan Aspropotamitis. He was one of five centre-backs vying for two starting positions at Western Sydney Wanderers and if the team sheet for their first game suggested anything, he was at the bottom of the pecking order. Of the five, he was the only one available yet was not selected for the clash against Sydney FC.
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As the youngest of the five, his omission was seen as a preference for experience in a game played before a record crowd and the beginning of a year in which his education would come on the training ground, not with the Wanderers' first XI.
Standing in his way were two Australian international defenders, Nikolai Topor-Stanley and Robbie Cornthwaite, plus Spaniard Aritz Borda and former Australian youth international Brendan Hamill.
"For most people it would have put them off, it would have scared them. But I used it as a way to get better, because I saw them as competition," Aspropotamitis said.
He acknowledged the uphill battle he faced as early as pre-season and Aspropotamitis' mission was to make coach Tony Popovic's selection choice as difficult as possible. Being fifth-choice wouldn't mean his season was one spent learning, rather challenging the experienced quartet.
To complement his strengths in the air, reading the game and playing out of defence, Aspropotamitis picked one of the fittest and fastest players in his squad and challenged himself to reach the lofty standards set by the fullback, Scott Neville.
"He decided to come with me for every running drill we'd do. He wouldn't try and hide or just get it done, he tried to test himself and keep up. Nobody pushed him to do it," Neville said. "His attitude is going to take him a long way, as well as his ability, obviously."
In the wake of the subsequent 4-0 loss against Sydney in round one was a suspension to Borda and the abrupt departure of Topor-Stanley to the UAE. It opened the door for Aspropotamitis to start in round two, a 2-1 win over Adelaide United. The mantra from Popovic is a team plays the way it trains, and only the hardest workers during the week are rewarded with starting positions.
"If you don't come in everyday as a footballer, as a sportsman, and you don't want to be in a starting position then I really don't think there's any point in turning up," Aspropotamitis said. "If the competition is really strong then it only bodes well for the team. I only took that as a positive."
For "Aspro" - a moniker he once toyed with to appease struggling commentators - his entire football education has been about workrate. It included practicing kicks against a wall at home after school each day, summer skills clinics or the countless games studying his idols - Mats Hummels, Thiago SIlva and more recently, John Stones.
It's no surprise that by round five, the youngster was given the first of his 22 consecutive starts to emerge as the surprise leader in defence this season; as much a show of faith from Popovic as it was a sign of his labour at Blacktown each week.
"Repetition, that's all it is in any walk of life, repetition until you get good at things. Then you master it and there's always still room to improve," Aspropotamitis said.
That much has been learned by commentators who now pronounce his surname with ease, such is the regularity it appears on the team sheet. By Friday night, it will roll off the tongue should he start in his first A-League finals match when the Wanderers face Brisbane Roar.
