The last couple of weeks have been strewn with success for Hibernians FC.

The senior team have won the U*Bet FA Trophy for the second successive season and finished runners-up in the BOV Premier League.

The club’s junior sides have also finished their commitments on a successful note as the Under 17 selection were declared Youth FA Section A league champions while the Under 19 team finished on top in the Section A knock-out.

More success can still come Hibs’ way if the Under 17 team win the knock-out competition later this week.

No doubt, the Paolites are enjoying all this success due to the club’s excellent youth policy.

It is enough to say that in this season’s FA Trophy final there were no fewer than 16 players who graduated from Hibs’ junior academy.

Apart from veterans, Mario Muscat and Andrew Cohen, Hibs had Daniel Balzan, Chris Cassar, Bjorn Kristensen, Jean Paul Farrugia, Jonathan Pearson, Ayrton Azzopardi, Keith Tanti, Johann Bezzina, Brandon Muscat and Scott Chircop in their squad.

If this was not enough, Qormi, Hibs opponents in the FA Trophy final, had four players from the Paola club academy in their team. These were Leighton Grech, Matthew Gauci, Tristan Caruana and Matthew Bartolo.

Nursery president Norman Buckle and his team of hard-working volunteers and coaches deserve all the praise for their excellent hard work.

In my opinion, other clubs should emulate Hibs because this is the only way forward if Maltese football is to survive the ravages of our time.