When Milos Trifunovic rose highest to meet David Carney’s curling in-swinging cross into the box at AAMI Park against Melbourne City in Round 4 of the A-League season, vivid comparisons could be drawn between the tall Serbian striker’s finish and another Milos regularly scoring similar goals in Melbourne.
Milos Lujic has proven to be one of the state’s top players in recent years, but despite his goalscoring feats, has been largely ignored by A-League clubs.
Given the fact that the NPL is designed to be the breeding ground of the A-League stars of tomorrow, Lujic’s omission from Australia’s top flight is somewhat of a mystery. And having recently turned 26, time is not on the side of the South Melbourne marksman to grace the Fox Sports cameras and become a household name on the Australian domestic football scene.
Lujic’s career trajectory took off as part of the AIS’s 2007 Football Program alongside future Socceroos James Holland and Luke Devere. Representative honours followed, as the Springvale White Eagles junior was capped by the Young Socceroos and was selected for Melbourne Victory’s inaugural Youth Team squad.
However, in an era where many coaches – including Victory supremo Ernie Merrick – opted for experience over youth, Lujic’s A-League career failed to take off.
Injuries, European trials and a stint at Richmond followed, where Lujic played second fiddle to the in-form strike duo of Jesse Krncevic and Daniel Visevic in Michael Chatzitrifonas side’s 2010 championship winning season. A tumultuous spell at the Springvale White Eagles followed, before a mid-season move to second-tier Altona Magic brought back some much needed confidence.
Then came the career revival, as new Northcote City manager Goran Lozanovski took a punt on the enigmatic striker. Despite a modest return of eight goals in 18 games in his first season, Lujic’s career finally took off as the striker claimed three successive Golden Boots, league honours twice in addition to the 2014 NPL Player of the Year Medal.
To put into perspective, Lujic has scored 66 league goals in 80 outings since 2013, figures that are almost unrivaled anywhere in Australian football.
If his job as a striker is to score goals, then the South Melbourne marksman delivers with aplomb. While adversaries point out a lack of off-the ball movement as his downfall, the number nine has time and again showed his ability to read the game and appear at the right place at the right time, menacing opposition defenders with his poaching instincts in the penalty box.
Furthermore, while Besart Berisha’s constant energy and pressure is often seen as the prototype of an ideal A-League striker, other strikers in the league similar in mould to Lujic have succeeded before him. Take former Sydney FC marquee man and reigning Golden Boot winner Marc Janko as an example, who last year claimed 16 goals in 24 matches and contributed to many more. Early signs this season indicate that his attacking presence has been missed, with Sydney FC scoring only five goals in as many matches.
Others may point to the fact that Lujic has already had his chance at an A-League level, following an unsuccessful trial with Sydney FC in 2013 and an uneventful short-term stint with Wellington Phoenix months later in early 2014. However, context is needed in order to highlight that in both instances, circumstances went against the NPL goal-machine.
With Frank Farina’s Sydney FC in desperate need of a goalscorer to complement Alessandro Del Piero following the unsuccessful signing of Croatian import Krunoslav Lovrek the year before, Lujic – despite an impressive trial – was rejected in favour of experienced Serbian marksman Ranko Despotovic. Months later at South Melbourne he was loaned to Wellington Phoenix on a four-week contract to help a side that was lacking firepower up front. Lujic came into the Nix at a disadvantage having only just commenced his pre-season, whereas his teammates were halfway through their campaign.
Due to this, he sat in the stands while the Phoenix hit a purple patch of form. In the first week of his contract, Wellington humiliated Kevin Muscat’s men with a 5-0 demolition at Westpac Stadium, as forwards Stein Huysegems, Jeremy Brockie and Kenny Cunningham all impressed. In addition to this, Ernie Merrick’s men had at that period also taken a punt on an unheralded Fijian Roy Krishna, who had been scoring regularly in New Zealand’s domestic competition. His emergence, coupled with the good form of the other three, meant Merrick had no need to tinker with the forward line and Lujic was never given a start during his short stint across the Tasman.
Back in Melbourne, the striker has matured and shown he is not a one-season wonder. Nationally, he has also featured on the scoresheet in successive NPL Finals games against the likes of Metro Stars and Hobart Olympic, and scored in the FFA Cup against Palm Beach Sharks.
The chance given not only to former Heidelberg United forward Dan Heffernan at the Central Coast Mariners, but also of Blake Powell at the Wellington Phoenix, highlights that all hope is not lost for Lujic. While the former’s rise to the top is a tale Victorian audiences know plenty about, the latter’s elevation to the top tier highlights the importance of giving players a second chance.
24-year-old Powell showed some glimpses of his goalscoring attributes in his debut season in the A-League with Sydney FC in 2012/13, however a second season restricted by injury ended his time at the Sky Blues. Powell then went back into the NSW NPL and netted 28 goals in 31 league games for APIA Leichhardt, subsequently sealing a move to Wellington Phoenix and scoring the winning goal in Round 3 against Brisbane. While Powell’s supreme goalscoring form during the 2015 NPL season earned him another A-League contract, Lujic has not been afforded such a luxury despite winning three consecutive Golden Boots since the 2013 VPL campaign.
As the goals continue to flow from South’s number nine, time is beginning to run out for the 26-year-old to emulate the national league feats of his father Zdravko, who made over 200 appearances in the NSL for Footscray JUST. While Australia has suffered a lack of genuine goalscorers in the post-Mark Viduka era, it only has to look to Lakeside Stadium for a striker with an unrivaled goalscoring ratio in NPL leagues around the country, but who has seemingly been ignored by the nation’s top clubs.