State League One outfit Keilor Park have unveiled the prized signing of 2011 VPL Championship winner Joel Nikolic who joins the club from the Moreland Zebras.
The 31-year-old has spent the past four seasons with the Zebras under former manager Danny Gnjidic, scoring a total of 32 goals in 65 league clubs for the club.
The forward originally made his senior debut for Green Gully in 2004 under Joe Mullen and spent the next nine seasons at Green Gully Reserve, winning three club Golden Boots between 2006-08.
A bit-part player in Gully’s Championship winning season of 2005, Nikolic established himself as a first-team regular for the club in the 2006 campaign under player-turned-coach Andrew Marth.
He continued on his progress and good form into the next two years after that under returning manager Ian Dobson before missing the entire 2010 season on the sidelines as the Keilor East-based side won their 8th state title following a 3-0 victory over Richmond in the Grand Final.
The classy forward returned in time for the back end of the 2011 campaign as Lubo Lapsansky’s men defeated the Oakleigh Cannons 3-2 after extra-time in an action-packed Grand Final at AAMI Park with Nikolic finally claiming a Championship medal having started the contest.
He spent one more season at Green Gully Reserve under Dobson in 2012 and in total scored 35 goals in 133 league games for the Cavaliers. The move to Reddish Reserve in 2013 revitalised his career as Nikolic ended the season as one of the league’s top goalscorers after netting 14 goals in 20 matches for Moreland.
An experienced campaigner, he continued this form into the NPL era and began 2015 in fine form by scoring seven times in 10 appearances before suffering a season-ending knee injury in a home clash against Melbourne City.
Despite spending over 12 months on the sidelines, Nikolic returned to the park in late June of last year as a substitute in a 3-0 defeat away to Dandenong City and ended the campaign with three strikes in 11 outings.
His departure from CB Smith Reserve comes as a welcome boost to Keilor Park who has competed in the state’s third tier for the past five seasons.
The club founded by Austrian migrants will celebrate their 60th anniversary in 2017 and have added a further three new additions to their playing roster.
Former Werribee City midfielder Damir Marusic arrives at Keilor Park Recreational Reserve from Altona East Phoenix as does Josh Martignano with the duo joined at the club by English import Jack Satterley.
The signings of the four new faces is a welcome boost to new coach Paul Falzon who has lost the services of Brazilian defender Junior Irineu Mota (Bendigo City), long-time midfield servant Sean Sacco (Moreland City) and Cameron Davies (Werribee City) with the trio making the move to NPL2.