JUDAS? Marco Rojas of the Victory kicks the ball during the A-League pre-season match against Adelaide United.

He was labelled a Judas for turning his back on the Phoenix but it is pretty difficult to paint Marco Rojas as a villain.

We all know the story – Hamilton whiz-kid is spotted by fan group Yellow Fever, Ricki Herbert gives him a shot when Paul Ifill falls over and the Chilean-Kiwi proceeds to light up the A-League with a potent combination of speed, fearlessness and trickery.

But it all turned sour in Wellington when Rojas turned down a contract extension with the Phoenix in favour of a move to the league's benchmark club, Melbourne Victory.

Rojas agonised over the decision, torn by the fans that gave him his start but, speaking from his new home in Melbourne yesterday, there are clearly no regrets.

At the time Rojas was vague about the reasons for his move to Melbourne, with murmurings about facilities and the prospect of playing in his preferred position of central midfield.

So has it been everything that he'd hoped?

"The facilities are unbelievable, I've never experienced anything like this and even someone like Harry Kewell coming back, he's just amazed at what they're like," the 19-year-old All Whites midfielder said.

"It's top-notch and it's helping me a lot to be a better player."

Even better than the Phoenix's base at Newtown Park?

"Yeah the facilities are a bit better but it's only because ... they've got a bit more money I guess and they've been able to put that into their facilities. Melbourne's a pretty big sporting capital and they've got the Storm and the AFL teams that train in our facilities as well."

Rojas' rapid ascension to sporting stardom last season, coupled with the messy move to Melbourne, meant he quickly became used to media attention.

But it's not something that comes naturally and Rojas has been happy to keep his head down in Melbourne as the sporting media go ga-ga over Socceroos star Kewell.

"Yeah I'll get used to it one day but I've never been the biggest talker. So I like to leave it to him for now and maybe when I get into the season I can start doing it. That's all I ever want, to just play football and it's been good just to do that with no worries. It just makes me so happy to be able to train every day and play football and to do it here, it's been very good."

THE BIG risk Rojas took in moving to Melbourne was going from a sure-fire starter to competing with the Victory's galaxy of stars, including Kewell and Carlos Hernandez.

He missed three weeks of preseason with an injury suffered at the under-20 World Cup but a Victory spokesman said Rojas was "flying" at training and he would "fall off my chair" if he didn't feature in tomorrow's season opener against Sydney FC at Etihad Stadium.

While publicly modest, Rojas is confident in his abilities and is not nervous about the competition.

"No you've always got to fight for your position and even at the Phoenix I would have had to fight and train well and play well. It's no different here, all I can do is do the best that I can and it's up to the coaches, the headaches of all these attacking players."

Rojas says he couldn't ask for a better role model than Kewell, the former Leeds, Liverpool and Galatasaray man who shares his willingness to run at defenders and express himself.

"He's a good guy, he's really easy to talk to so everyone gets along with him. Apart from the fact that he's one of Australia's biggest footballers, away from the spotlight he's a good guy and I'm enjoying being in the same team as him. For sure, I look up to him."

The Victory play the Phoenix at Westpac Stadium on October 30 but Rojas said he "hadn't really thought" about what type of reception he would get from the fans.

"I remember when the schedule first came out, a couple of my friends reminded me but apart from that I've only been focusing on getting myself into the team in the first place. When the week comes I'm sure I'll be happy to go back and to play. It was a great experience, the two years that I had there, and I've got no regrets. It was only positive for me."