Coach: Andrew Marth
Home ground: Knights Stadium, Somers Street
2015 season:
League: 4th, 2(2)- 2(0) Elimination final defeat against Hume City
Dockerty Cup: Round 6 (3-1 defeat to South Melbourne)
Club Overview/history: In 1953, a group of immigrants from Croatia in Footscray decided to register a club. Then known as SC Croatia, the club acted as a social hub for families from post-war Croatia. The club achieved its first divisional championship in 1959, leading to continued success in Victoria in the 60s and early 70s. A period of expulsion from the competition and mergers (named Essendon Croatia in this time) marked a difficult number of years thereafter. The introduction of the NSL would see the new beginning of an eventual period of sustained success in Victoria again, before the club was finally granted into the national competition in 1984 as Melbourne Croatia (the club’s name since 1982). The early to mid 90s saw the Knights earn numerous minor premierships and championships, along with a forced name change to Melbourne Knights. After the NSL’s decline, the club ended over a decade without silverware by taking out the Dockerty Cup in 2014. The club has a reputation for launching the careers of many internationals, including Socceroos legend Mark Viduka.
Pre-season:
Melbourne Knights 1 (Talajic) defeated by Avondale FC
Melbourne Knights 2 (Brekalo, Andrijasevic) defeated St Albans Saints
Melbourne Knights 13 (Andrijasevic x6, Jurcic x2, Purcell x2, Colosimo, Batur, own goal) defeated Echuca-Moama Border Raiders 1
Vic Cro Cup finallists: Melbourne Knights 0 defeated by Dandenong City 0-2
Last season: 2015 saw the Knights race out of the blocks with a blistering start, winning five consecutive games to sit atop of the table. While form and fitness fluctuated throughout the season, the club sustained enough points to finish in a solid fourth position. Their finals run came to a halt at the first hurdle when, after a 2-2 draw with Hume City, Chris Oldfield stepped up to famously save four consecutive spot kicks to deny the hosts a semi-final berth. On the FFA Cup front, the Knights narrowly missed out on a second consecutive national appearance after a dramatic defeat to South Melbourne in Round 6, a reverse result from the corresponding fixture in 2014.
Transfer movement:
In:
Stefan Cali, White City Woodville [NPL SA]
Dean Campelj, Avondale FC
Nikola Jurkovic, North Geelong Warriors
Fraser Chalmers, Hume City
Tim Purcell, Dandenong Thunder
Nick Glavan, Melbourne Victory
Jacob Colosimo, Avondale FC
Out:
Tomislav Uskok, Central Coast Mariners
Chris May, Avondale FC
Alex Dao, Box Hill United
Anthony Colosimo
Rodrigo Covarrubias
Players to watch: The departure of two of the club’s best players in Chris May – who ironically returns to Somers Street via Avondale FC – and Tomi Uskok are massive blows to the club’s fortunes, but their departures open up opportunities for two youngsters. Fraser Chalmers once played for Brisbane Roar and saw game time against Villareal in a friendly. Nikola Jurkovic comes from sister club North Geelong Warriors. Despite heading into the season at 18-years-old, the midfield enforcer already has a full season of NPL experience under his belt and has been touted as the next Uskok. His former North Geelong teammate Robbie Zadworny had an impressive start to life at Somers Street after his mis-season move in 2015.
Ivan Grgic is another promising youngster, previously chosen by FourFourTwo as a top talent outside the A-League. Meanwhile, Stipo Andrijasevic has long been touted as A-League quality, and if he keeps up his late season form, the striker surely would be knocking on the door of an opportunity. Nick Glavan comes from Melbourne Victory and will be looking at making his way back into the national spotlight.
What to expect in 2016: The Knights go into this season disadvantaged by the departures of May and Uskok, but it opens the door for a youthful outfit to make their mark on the competition. There’s still plenty of experience out there in the form of Milan Batur, Marijan Cvitkovic and Ben Surey, with overall a balanced squad on paper. Andrew Marth alluded to mid-table consolidation this season, but another finals tilt isn’t out of the question.
Image: Graeme Furlong