Now, Im Not the Only One Who Spotted Mate Dugandžić, He Played For Victorian's Men's XI, and Melbourne Victory Spotted This Player. Accually, Melbourne Arent the Only Player Who are Looking to Have Mate Dugandžić. A.S. Roma, Sydney FC, Wellington Phoenix and the AIS. Also, Croatian Football Federation are Looking to Scure Mate Dugandžić, Its Hard to Realise Why He Is Not in the A-League yet, Or Even Getting Articles Written about this Player.

He Played at the Most Famous and Most Successful team In Croatia, Dinamo Zagreb (Which Currently Has a Aussie Playing Their, Daniel Visevic.)

He then Got a Loan to a Second Division Croatian Team Playing 14 Games Scoring 6.
He Definitly Has The Talent Spot By Other Teams, Now His Just Missing the Pen and Paper.
His Currently Playing For the Melbourne Knights in the Victorian Premier League.

Click Here To See His Profile On Wikipedia.

Refused to train with Victory? Merrick has never approached him. Is this a popular thing on this forum, making shit up?

Mm, Well You Haven't Seen Him Yet.

If he makes it big I pray he plays for Croatia. So what if he dosent want to go to the a league? Melbourne Croatia is his club.

Who are Melbourne Croatia?

a club with a history that one of those z-league teams could only dream of

a club with a history that one of those z-league teams could only dream of

a club with a history that one of those z-league teams could only dream of

Big noting yourself aren't you there buddy? I'm a Sydney Olympic supporter to the core, but i still manage to follow Sydney FC, and im sure Olympic has alot more history and respect then you and your club do. Considering people like yourself destroyed the former NSL due to your stupidities that you brought over with you is just appalling, so before you even say you don't give a fuck about the A-League, i'm going to say good, because the only thing you can do is wreck it... What has your club got? A half ass hooligan group called the Bad Blue Boys Melbourne, or shucks that's history for you.. I bet Wellington's Yellow Fever is more fierce then them... Your on an Australian Football Forum. Quit bagging out the game and what people in this form are trying to help promote, if you don't like it GO GET FUCKED for all I care.

3 Finger Salute to you sir! \:d/ [-(

Yeah history is great but your only as good as your last competitive game and for the life off me I could swear I have not seen Melbourne Croatia play a game for nearly 20 years.

Thats odd because they played in the NSL in 2004.
And dont try the "they were called Melbourne Knights not Melbourne Croatia" because to its fans its Melbourne Croatia, named after the country and people that made Australian "soccer" what it is today.

Thats odd because they played in the NSL in 2004.
And dont try the "they were called Melbourne Knights not Melbourne Croatia" because to its fans its Melbourne Croatia, named after the country and people that made Australian "soccer" what it is today.

What it is today? From my memory, they created a league that, while it may have been a tad higher quality, was going bankrupt and full of corruption. The people who made the league what it is today are those who completely destroyed and revamped a failing NSL, formed the A-league and those supporters who follow and support their respective A-league team.

so only croatia made 'soccer' in this country? what about sydney olympic(greek) marconi (italy),parramatte malita (maltese) and so on so on, your a goose who thinks everyone should hail them for 'inventing soccer' in this country, get lost fool.

so only croatia made 'soccer' in this country? what about sydney olympic(greek) marconi (italy),parramatte malita (maltese) and so on so on, your a goose who thinks everyone should hail them for 'inventing soccer' in this country, get lost fool.

Big noting yourself aren't you there buddy? I'm a Sydney Olympic supporter to the core, but i still manage to follow Sydney FC, and im sure Olympic has alot more history and respect then you and your club do. Considering people like yourself destroyed the former NSL due to your stupidities that you brought over with you is just appalling, so before you even say you don't give a fuck about the A-League, i'm going to say good, because the only thing you can do is wreck it... What has your club got? A half ass hooligan group called the Bad Blue Boys Melbourne, or shucks that's history for you.. I bet Wellington's Yellow Fever is more fierce then them... Your on an Australian Football Forum. Quit bagging out the game and what people in this form are trying to help promote, if you don't like it GO GET FUCKED for all I care.

3 Finger Salute to you sir! \:d/ [-(

What a pathetic post from a pathetic individual. Can't help yourself but make a racial dig, a man of great intellect.

And lol @ saying that Olympic has more history and respect than Knights? What exactly do you base that on? We've been around longer than Olympic and throughout our history have won more titles at state and national level. Both clubs have great histories, and contribued a hell of a lot to the sport in this country. But you are just an ignorant fool incapable of showing any respect to fellow ethnic clubs.

Another thing BBB Melbourne? There was a BBB Sydney for a while that had quite a reputation back in the day, but they haven't existed for a very long time. So who are BBB Melbourne? Never seen an organised group under that name at Knights. Making shit up, you are stooping even lower. And lets not forget Olympic fans caused just as much trouble as Knights or Sydney United fans, so don't even try to seperate Olympic and make Olympic supporters of the past look like angels.

Seriously pathetic. Dumbest person on the internet by far.

What a pathetic post from a pathetic individual. Can't help yourself but make a racial dig, a man of great intellect.

And lol @ saying that Olympic has more history and respect than Knights? What exactly do you base that on? We've been around longer than Olympic and throughout our history have won more titles at state and national level. Both clubs have great histories, and contribued a hell of a lot to the sport in this country. But you are just an ignorant fool incapable of showing any respect to fellow ethnic clubs.

Another thing BBB Melbourne? There was a BBB Sydney for a while that had quite a reputation back in the day, but they haven't existed for a very long time. So who are BBB Melbourne? Never seen an organised group under that name at Knights. Making shit up, you are stooping even lower. And lets not forget Olympic fans caused just as much trouble as Knights or Sydney United fans, so don't even try to seperate Olympic and make Olympic supporters of the past look like angels.

Seriously pathetic. Dumbest person on the internet by far.

sydneycroatia and melbournecroatia did you guys create your accounts just for this topic?
You're too right sydneycroatia, this z league is meant to accept everyone but lets be honest the "a-league" really means "Anglo-League". Anyways good luck to them, I cant wait to see the socceroos squad that is built around the a league.

And mltezr, if the Socceroos fans showed a bit more respect to the NSL, Croatian clubs and in fact all ethnic clubs for what they have done for Australian football we wouldnt be having this discussion.

Instead they try and point out a "corrupt" league and the violence which happened in the stands. The violence has nothing to do with the football, its just some hooligans turning up for a fight, so your obviously scraping the bottom of the barrel if you bring up violence.

You take away Greeks in Australian football, it wouldnt make a huge difference, you take away Italians in Australian football it wouldnt make a huge difference. You take away Croats, now that would make a huge difference. So yes, we can argue that our ethnic group made Australian football because as much as you guys hate to admit it we did.

As ‘new football’ was celebrating its fifth birthday last week, a manifestation of ‘old soccer’, Sydney United, was celebrating its 50th. I couldn’t help noticing the irony.
I was among the guests at the celebration dinner held at the old King Tomislav Club in Sydney’s west, adjacent to the football club’s stadium which its passionate supporters built with their own hands and resources and, of course, for no personal reward.

It was warming to be among such wonderful former players of Croatian heritage who were either part of the club or were produced by it. I bumped Wally Savor, Zlatko Arambasic, Ante Milicic and David Zdrilic, just some of the 14 senior Socceroos of Croatian parents the club had developed in the past 20 years.
The few who were not there on the night, like Zeljko Kalac and Jason Culina, were absent for obvious reasons.
Mile Jedinak’s father was at the table next to mine, reminding me that the conveyor belt of players yielded by this Croatian community club has not stopped.
And then there were the other former Sydney United greats who were not of Croatian extraction. At my table was Zarko Odzakov, a towering footballer of serious box office appeal the like of whom I am still waiting to see in the A-League.

In all, 58 senior Socceroos were either produced by or played at Sydney United, among them Atti Abonyi, Ron Corry, Graham Arnold, Jim Patikas, Mark Bosnich, Robbie Slater, Tim Cahill, Craig Foster, Joel Griffiths, Troy Halpin, Graham Jennings, Tony Popovic and Ned Zelic.
Add on a few who went on to play for other countries, like Manis Lamond (Papua New Guinea) and Ante Seric (Croatia).
All these numbers, the legacies and the memories, say an awful lot about how much we owe to the ethnic communities, and especially the Croatian community, whose role play in Australian football is thought by many to have passed and on whose grave many have been quick to dance.

The fact is that the role play of the ‘ethnics’ is still alive, still vibrant and pulsates through almost every facet of ‘new football’.
The A-League tribunes are full of them, the player rosters of the clubs crawl with them and our representative teams, Socceroos, Young Socceroos and Joeys, are still riddled with them.
But most importantly it is the milling throng of ‘ethnic’ clubs in the lower tiers of our football that continues to be the bread basket of our player development.
For example, there are still 32 functioning football clubs in Australia backed by the Croatian community. Clubs like HNK O’Connor Knights in Canberra, Rocklea United in Queensland, Prospect Knights FC in Tasmania and Fremantle Croatia in WA.

What these clubs continue to do is maintain a lifeline to their cultural heritage through football. These days only a few hundred attend their games on weekends but they remain alive and solvent through the many more members they have, families who share a common bond through language and custom.
They usher their kids to play football, drilling into them a need to wear the shirt colour of the old country and propagate, through the game, the values of their heritage. And they do this in their own image, coaching their kids according to the technical values of their own football heritage, which is more often than not a good thing.
Some might think this stuff to be passé and from whence we should move on.

But that’s a mistake. Move on where? On the contrary, the ethnic communities and their lingering passion for football, ‘old soccer’, are prized assets ‘new football’ cannot afford to ignore and squander. They remain as much a future of the game as they are of its past.
They have real estate, memberships, junior development schemes and academies, passion and football knowledge. Their affection for football burns and continues to burn. It would be extremely bad business to ignore it.
Frank Lowy, himself an ‘ethnic’, was astutely aware of this when, in 2005 at the launch of the A-League, he begged the supporters of the old NSL to patronise its ‘new football’ replacement.
They did and do.

All the so called ethnic clubs, and their communities, made a rich contribution to Australia’s football development. But in terms of the numbers of quality players they developed, ultimately for the honour of being clad in green and gold, the Croatian community is the undoubted champion.
Forty of their number went on to play for Australia at senior level, from Vojtek to Spiranovic, from Arambasic to Zdrilic. Fifteen of the 40 came through Sydney United: Zlatko Arambasic, Mark Babic, Zeljko Babic, Paul Bilokapic, Mark Bosnich, Jason Culina, Mile Jedinek, Zeljko Kalac, Tony Krslovic, Ante Milicic, Ante Moric, Tony Popovic, Wally Savor, David Zdrilic and Ned Zelic.

The Socceroos squad of Germany 2006 contained seven players of Croatian heritage: Bresciano (who has a Croatian mother), Covic, Culina, Kalac, Popovic, Skoko and Viduka.
Three of those were former Sydney United players. And you can add to them Mile Sterjovski, of Macedonian stock, but who also got his break at Edensor Park.
No singular migrant community, in a sport that continues to rely on the migrant communities, has made such a telling contribution to our player development.
Who is Mark Viduka if not the son of first generation Croatian immigrants, whose father instructed him to choose football and to play it in the way his Croatian heritage programmed him to play it? That is why Dukes, ‘for such a big man’, has such delicate skill. It was his father, not the AIS, that made him.

Sure, in some instances in the past the migrant heritage factor over-powered some young minds and the kids ended up playing for another country. So what? If for every Simunic there are five or six sons of immigrants who end up playing for Australia in a World Cup, that will do me.
This reality in our football make-up, thankfully, remains strong.

The migrant-backed clubs around the country, even though they have slipped from the elite, by and large still exist and are still functioning. Remarkably, in my travels I have found none who whinges and whines about being sidelined and none expects, in all reality, to be part of the A-League in some future.
All, to the contrary, are just trying to find their place in the new landscape which, for the most part, is producing young footballers for the new elite.
And they are doing it. The ‘wogs’ are still delivering. See Kantarovski, Patafta, Gojec, Zullo, Jesic, Tsattalios etc.
Far from forgotten, demonised and humiliated (as David Hill did to them when, despicably, he forced Sydney United to change its emblem and its home venue), they should be left alone and their contribution recognised, embraced, encouraged and treasured.

And let’s not lose a sight of this with memories of flares and pocket riots beaten up by the tabloids. For every one of those there will be six Vidukas banging in goals for Australia.
Those with a tendency to tremble in horror at the thought of some kind of revisionism need not get nervous. ‘Wogball’ is not about to make a comeback.
Yet the ‘wogs’ remain very much part of our football future, if now on a different level. Indeed it’s probable that there wouldn’t be much of a future without them.
Happy birthday Sydney United. May you go on doing what you’ve been doing for another 50 years.