Photo: Mark Avellino
South Melbourne has re-signed a number of key players ahead of the upcoming 2017 campaign while upcoming friendly opponents the North Geelong Warriors have decided to promote two of their brightest young stars to the senior squad.
2016 NPL Champions South Melbourne have re-secured the services of a further five integral first-team members having already re-signed seven players from the existing squad as well as welcoming seven new members into the dressing room at Lakeside Stadium.
The club’s longest serving player and industrious left-back Bradley Norton is the pick of the bunch, with the 25 year-old former Adelaide United player entering his sixth season at the club.
In that time he has made 129 league appearances for Hellas, netting eight goals for the player who began his senior career in a more attacking role with the Port Melbourne Sharks in 2008.
Spells with the Melbourne Knights – where he was first coached by current South supremo Chris Taylor – and Northcote followed before featuring twice in the A-League for the Reds in 2010.
The former Victory Youth team member joined former coach Peter Tsolakis at South in 2012 and hasn’t looked back since, captaining the side in last year’s 3-2 Grand Final win over Oakleigh.
He took over the armband from regular captain Michael Eager, who lost his place in the starting eleven at the back end of last term, but has returned and is once more expected to be announced as skipper.
The 27 year-old former Kiwi youth international won a Championship with Northcote in 2013 before joining Milos Lujic at South and has been the cornerstone behind the club’s success in recent years.
Eager, who is also comfortable as a defensive midfielder, has featured in a total of 73 league games for the club, winning two Championships, a Premiership and a Dockerty Cup at Lakeside.
Alongside him and Norton for those triumphs has been right-back Tim Mala who enters his fourth full season with the Oceania Club of the Century having joined mid-way through 2013.
Having begun his senior career at Bulleen alongside current teammate Kristian Konstantinidis, Mala won a treble with the Dandenong Thunder in 2012 under Taylor before joining him the following year.
Since then he has reinforced his reputation as one of the league’s most consistent players, making a total of 87 league appearances while contributing a number of vital assists in the process.
His former Thunder teammate and ex-Melbourne City utility Matthew Millar is another to re-commit terms following a standout year of football in 2016 which culminated in the youngster winning his second NPL Rising Star Award in the space of three years.
Having made his senior breakthrough at George Andrews Reserve in 2013, Millar earned plaudits over the course of the 2014 season before joining Melbourne City Youth.
In total he made four senior appearances at an A-League level before joining South on transfer deadline day last February, adding seven goals to his name in 29 league games.
The final player to agree terms for 2017 is forward Leigh Minopoulos who netted the club’s opener in September’s Grand Final success.
Often utilised as a back-up to Milos Lujic, the 27 year-old was a regular goalscorer for both Diamond Valley United and Werribee City in the third and second tier of Victorian football respectively.
Sandwiched in between these two stints was a short spell at boyhood club Hellas in 2011 before making his return in Blue ahead of the 2014 NPL campaign.
16 league goals in 68 games has followed for a striker who is seen as a fan favourite by the club’s faithful having rejected a number of offers to remain loyal to the South cause in previous years.
Meanwhile Championship-winning defender and Kiwi international Luke Adams is expected back at Albert Park having spent the summer plying his trade back in his homeland with Auckland-based Eastern Suburbs where his teammates included former Oakleigh striker Sean Lovemore and ex-Eastern Lions winger Sam Burfoot.
The five re-singed players join reigning four-time Golden Boot winner Lujic, Grand Final hero Marcus Schroen, the enigmatic Nick Epifano, five-time Championship winning goalkeeper Nikola Roganovic, Best and Fairest winner Matthew Foschini, uncompromising defender Konstantinidis and back-up goalkeeper Zaim Zeneli as returning names.
Jesse Daley (Brisbane Roar Youth), Ajdin Fetahagic (Lions FC), Joshua Hodes (promoted from 20s), Liam McCormick (Bentleigh Greens), Luke Pavlou (Olympic FC), Francesco Stella (Nest Sotra) and Stefan Zinni (Melbourne City Youth) are the new additions to the senior squad roster.
South will take on 1992 VPL Champions North Geelong in a friendly at Lakeside Stadium today with all proceeds going towards David Cervinski’s Cancer Fund with the Warriors legend and former Melbourne Knights NSL Championship currently battling Stage Four Melanoma.
Kick-off is scheduled at 11.30 this morning with the visitors yesterday announcing the promotion of talented teens Kreso Jurkovic and Darcy Rapa to their senior roster.
17 year-old Jurkovic is the younger brother of former Warriors and current Melbourne Knights midfielder enforcer Nikola Jurkovic who featured for the seniors between 2014 and 2015.
An Elcho Park youth product, Kreso began to train with the senior side mid-way through last season and made a total of 5 senior league appearances as Micky Colina’s side won promotion back to the top flight after a year-long absence following their 2015 relegation.
Geelong-raised Rapa returned to his home city last year and is a former South junior who has also featured in the youth set-up at Port Melbourne in previous seasons.
The duo become the 18th and 19th players in the senior squad with the Warriors signing Ivan Grgic (Melbourne Knights), Marko Stevanja and Bobby Vidanoski (both Werribee City) and former Perth Glory Youth midfielder Henry Durr so far this window.
The Warriors who celebrate their 50th anniversary this year have already re-secured the services of Michael Anderson, Anthony Banovac, Vito Cichello, Kene Eze, Juso Julardzija, Nicholas Jurcic, Darren Lewis, Nathan Long, Joshua Pugh, Rudi Saglam, Michael Simms, Matthew Thorne, captain Matthew Townley and vice-Captain and goalkeeper Daniel Zilic.
Both South and North Geelong began their respective 2017 campaigns with away ties to Bulleen and Pascoe Vale respectively.