Kingston City have confirmed the signatures of three new faces as well as a host of re-signings for the 2016 NPL1 Season, as Nick Tolios’ men look to kick on from a promising 2015 season.
Goalkeeper Dennys Martin and midfielders Slaven Vranesevic and Rowan McNamee join the club, while the highly rated pair of Stelios Konstantinidis and Damian Iaconis have re-signed with the club despite interest from rival clubs.
Martin, Vranesevic and McNamee join Championship winning defender Ryan Love as new arrivals at the club following the latter’s signing at the end of October.
20-year-old Martin links up with City having spent the second part of 2015 at Pascoe Vale, where he was back-up for the in-form Alex Pavlidis after initially spending the first five months of the year trialling in Germany.
Prior to that Martin had stints with the Springvale White Eagles, Southern Stars, Port Melbourne Sharks, Dandenong City and Hume City and will be hoping the move to the Grange Reserve provides some much needed game time.
Vranesvic 21, links up at the club after a tumultuous 2015 which saw him axed mid-way through the season by Sunshine George Cross, forcing the winger to spend the second part of the year at State League 1 club Casey Comets.
Vranesevic and Martin will be familiar with one another having played together at the White Eagles in 2012, with the former also having spells domestically at Southern Stars, Noble Park United and South Melbourne, and overseas in Red Star Belgrade’s youth system.
McNamee is the least experienced of the trio, having totalled seven senior league appearances for Oakleigh Cannons over the course of the last two seasons.
A member of Sam Poutakidis’ Championship winning Under 20s squad of 2014, McNamee is the son of former Australian tennis player and prominent sports administrator Paul McNamee.
In addition to the new signings, the club also announced the re-signings of six members of the 2015 senior squad with club stalwart Nick Stamatiou and midfielder Deniz Sabanovski joining Konstantinidis and Iaconis in re-committing to the club.
Youngsters Lucas Morrey and Steve Ferg have also been promoted to the senior squad after making their senior debuts in 2015.
City is also hopeful that visa issues which are plaguing star striker Sean McIlroy can be resolved with the club keen to keep the Scotsman on board in 2016, while James Karvelis has already departed the club for the Port Melbourne Sharks.