Image: Smile for Peter
These days, Zoran Markovski parades around the coaching dugouts of various venues across the NPL, where he forms one half of a formidable coaching duo with good friend and Hume City manager Lou Acevski.
Two decades ago, he was part of one of the most formidable club sides to have ever graced Australian domestic football in the all-conquering Melbourne Knights team of the mid-90s. After impressing in the VPL with Albion, the then 20-year-old defender secured a move to the club known back then as Croatia ahead of the 1993/94 NSL campaign. At the time, the men from Somers Street were known as the nearly men of Australian soccer, having lost multiple Grand Finals in the early 90s in heartbreaking fashion.
The no-nonsense defender spent the next five years at the club where he played 80 league games in what is considered to be the most successful era in the club’s proud 63-year history. Two successive championships in 1994/95 and 1995/96 saw the club put to bed the ghosts of past Grand Finals to register their names in club folklore.
“We had a very good culture there as we had a winning mentality and never say die attitude that was unbelievable. It was a family-like atmosphere where we had 20 players who just worked hard for each other and we didn’t know how to lose, as we’d win a lot of games after going behind,” Markovski said.
The team was led by inspirational skipper Andrew Marth, who captained the club to both triumphs and featured many Socceroos spearheaded by the V-bomber up front in Mark Viduka.
“In that team we had eight national team players such as the likes of Danny Tiatto, Joe Spiteri, Frank Juric, Steve Horvat, the Cervinski brothers, Tom Pondeljak and many other great players of that period,” he said.
“Oliver Pondeljak never played for Australia, but on his day could tear any opposition apart, and also Mark Silic never gets the credit he deserves because he went overseas and got injured so he came back to the Knights and did very well.”
However, one member from the second Grand Final winning side stands out to Markovski, who formed part of the Knights defence in 1996 decider against Marconi at the old Olympic Park. Canberra-born Josip Simunic arrived at the club in 1995 from the AIS and is currently the assistant coach of the Croatian national team after a successful European career.
“That’s a credit to the club for getting him over from the AIS as he was a great talent when he came, and he went onto bigger and better things as he played in three World Cups for Croatia as well a decade or so in the Bundesliga.”
Markovski also spoke of the contrasting coaching styles of Mirko Bazic and Ian Dobson, with the former returning back home to Croatia after the 1995 triumph, leaving the respected Englishman to take charge of the Knights and lead them to a successive title.
“Bazic was a very hard, old-school European coach who had a very good team at the time. He didn’t have the best grasp of English, so the communication barrier was a problem, but credit to him as some of his sessions were very good and he organised the team very well on match day,” he said.
“Dobbo on the other hand is one of the best coaches I ever worked with as I played under him for 10 years where I won five Championships and could definitely coach in the A-League.”
Following on from his time at the Knights, Markovski returned to the VPL where he spent eight seasons marshalling the backline at Green Gully, winning four Championships. He retired in 2006 after featuring 173 times for the Cavaliers, scoring 13 goals, which included a 2005 Grand Final victory over Heidelberg United – who had a certain Lou Acevski in goals.
That team was led by Dobson and featured Markovski and Marth, along with Lupo Lapsansky and Dragi Nastevski, who also won the 1996 NSL Grand Final under the Englishman. The 43-year-old paid tribute to his former captain and teammate who has been in charge of his beloved Knights since 2012.
“Stabba is also a good coach and has done very well for himself at the Knights in recent years with a very young team,” he said.
Going back to the Knights team of the mid-90s, Markovski is firm in his belief that the side was better than the South Melbourne team of 1997-2000, which some believe is the greatest Australian club side of all time.
“I’m sick of hearing South Melbourne being the Oceania Club of the Century because the only reason they are that is because they went to the Club World Championships in 2000, which wasn’t around when we won the two titles,” he said.
“They’re getting all these accolades, but our team was probably one of the best teams Australian football has ever seen as that was a great generation of footballers. Not taking anything away from South Melbourne, who also had some great players in that side, but when you go toe-to-toe, player-to-player in that decade, I believe we’d come out on top.
“We had players like Joe Biskic who is a club legend at Croatia because he gave the club everything and even now at 57 has still probably got it. That generation could match it with any A-League team going around, with the only limitation on us being the fact that we were not professionals.
“People had everyday jobs and were coming to training two or three times a week whereas now it’s full-time. But credit to the A-League as it’s moving the game forward here in terms of professionalism.”
The former Whittlesea Ranges manager is now doing his best to implement the winning mentality he harnessed at the Knights and Gully under Dobson to the dressing room at ABD Stadium.
Hume will once more feature on the national stage after qualifying for the FFA Cup Round of 32 stage, and on their touchline will have one of the most accomplished defenders of his day aiming to experience similar success at Broadmeadows.