Image: Smile for Peter
For Dusan Bosnjak, the self-acknowledged “form of his career” may have arrived in the nick of time. The 25-year-old last week put another crucial two goals away in Oakleigh’s 4-3 win over South Melbourne.
These goals had serious sentimental value. They were both put past his former teammate at Melbourne Heart, Nikola Roganovic, and were scored against the club Bosnjak made his debut with at the age of 16, South Melbourne.
It’s been a long and arduous journey since 2007 for the creative midfielder, however recently the Oakleigh forward has reaped the rewards for his hard work off the field. As Bosnjak blithely remarks: “Whatever I’m doing it’s working, I’m just doing the same thing”.
He is jubilant at such success for good reason. If anyone could understand by a young age the trials and tribulations footballers face, it’s Dusan. Once a prodigious young talent, captaining Melbourne Heart’s National Youth League side, a broken leg brutally scuppered his career in 2012.
Many footballers would have been embittered by such a dream-curtailing event at only 21 years old. However for Bosnjak, it was never going to hinder his progress any more than it had to. He recovered to play the end of that same season for Bulleen Lions.
This experience has arguably proved pivotal for his career so far. 2016 is his first season in the National Premier League that hasn’t been continually hampered by injuries, a devastating fact for a player entering the peak of his career.
Hamstring tendonitis sidelined the forward for large periods of the last two seasons. Bosnjak describes last year in particular as “painful”. But he says to “be fully fit by the start of this season, its paying dividends.”
That may be an understatement. 17 goals in 20 appearances so far this season has seen him rocket to the top of the NPL’s golden boot race.
His two goals to one in a battle against South’s perennial holder Milos Lujic last weekend puts him in clear contention to become only the second Oakleigh player in the club’s history to gain the award.
This would be just remuneration for a forward that last season ex-manager Arthur Papas called “one of, if not the most, talented players in the competition”. It would also once again put him in the spotlight as someone who can potentially succeed at the highest level.
A deciding factor in this journey will be how Oakleigh continues their current run of successful results going into the finals. They currently sit in fourth, a huge turnaround from last season, but as Bosnjak puts it: “On a mental edge, no one has it over anyone in this league”.
Putting to one side the plethora of injury setbacks to Bosnjak it may be no coincidence that his success has been closely mirrored to that of his parent club.
From the heights of the eccentric Miron Bleiberg’s era, where Bosnjak picked up the honour of becoming the NPL’s first ever player to be awarded player of the month, to the injury-plagued inconsistency of Arthur Papas’ reign, he has played under a selection of Australia’s most interesting and diversely experienced managers.
Under Peter Tsolakis, 2016 has seen Bosnjak’s game brought to new heights and it would take bravery to predict just where Oakleigh and Bosnjak could go from here.
“The board’s come in and they’ve changed a few structures they had from last year and from then it’s all worked,” he said.
“I’m sure out of every team above us and below us nobody wants to verse us, because on our day we can beat anyone. Everything seems to be gelling for us so we’re riding it.”
It’s that mixture of ambition and reality that sets Bosnjak apart. Developed through hard work and perseverance, formed from a career of plaudits and despondence, it’s a recipe for success many players have crafted and he has reason to be confident.
Bosnjak is understandably jovial throughout the interview following such an important and relieving victory. However, as soon as the subject of personal ambition and the future of his career arises, his tone becomes serious.
“Yes I am (ambitious)” Bosnjak answers, without a glimmer of false expectation evident anywhere within his tone. “I’m obviously happy here, but you want to do better, you want to push yourself and see how far you can go.”
Experience has taught Bosnjak that chances aren’t given; they’re earned. He speaks about his future with an authority and seriousness that evades most players his age, especially at this level.
If the Oakleigh forward continues to impress, if he ends up taking the golden boot, there may no shortage of A-League clubs ready to take him as seriously and he takes himself.