Image: Drazen Jurina
Sitting pretty at the top of the NPL2 East standings, Dandenong City are living up to their tag as pre-season promotion favourites. While big-name signings Mate Dugandzic, Nick Kalmar and Ljubo Milicevic have all played their part in Hajduk’s rise to the top, one player has emerged as the surprising star of their promotion push.
Shaun Filipovic was an effective box-to-box midfielder up until this season, who faced stiff competition to retain his starting role given the pedigree of some of City’s summer signings. However the 23-year-old has reinvented himself and is playing a starring role as Stuart Munro’s number nine, netting 13 goals in 15 league games to sit second behind the prolific Brandon Barnes on the goal charts.
Having spent his entire junior and senior career to date with Hajduk, Filipovic revealed that he spent his formative years playing in that position.
“I played as a striker throughout my entire junior career and only changed into a midfielder because I didn’t have the required pace to play as a forward at a senior level,” he admitted. “But it is good to be back up there scoring goals and this is made easy when you have so much quality around you on the pitch and can learn from so many experienced players.”
Having been handed his senior Hajduk debut aged 18 by Kruni Razov in 2012, Filipovic progressed and became a first-team regular under subsequent coaches Harry Bingham, Ivan Duzel and Aaron Healey.
Since 2014, he has made a total of 94 league appearances for the club, netting 24 times and will be looking to mark a quarter of a century of goals for his childhood club tonight when City travel to Kevin Bartlett Reserve to take on Richmond.
That encounter will be their first since suffering that heartbreaking 5-4 defeat against South Melbourne in the FFA Cup nine days ago, but Filipovic believes there are plenty of positives to take out from that loss.
“All the boys were extremely disappointed and in complete shock as to what had happened. We were so good for 80-odd minutes and to lose it like that was hard to take, however we also took the positives out of it and managed to outplay one of the best, if not the best teams in Victoria for 80 or so minutes and therefore it’s not all negative.”
With their crunch clash against promotion and city rivals Dandenong Thunder postponed until August, Filipovic was happy to have last weekend off as the Hajduk players and staff re-energised themselves and set their sights on the job at hand in the following three months.
“With a few boys carrying injuries and niggles, it was good to have a few days off and recharge. Obviously the result on Wednesday plays on your mind but with the strong group of players we have it was back to business as usual on Monday, concentrating on Friday’s game and continuing our league form.”
With a host of big names calling Frank Holohan Soccer Complex home this term, Filipovic heaped praise on many of the club’s summer signings for their transition into the first team and overall good attitude around the club.
“Many people would think players who have played at such a high level would just walk into the team thinking they’re better than everyone else, but that’s not the case. Ljubo, Mate, Nick and the other boys who have played at a higher level are such experienced players and so down to earth that they’re like the rest of us.
“In saying that, there is no doubt in the fact that they’ve brought a certain professionalism to the squad and almost demanded the rest of the squad plays up to their level, which is only going to make us stronger as a team,” Filipovic noted.
Having commenced his foray into football at Hajduk during their Chelsea days at the turn of the millennium, Filipovic spoke what it would mean to him to see his club promoted into the top flight for the first time in their history while also placing caution on such talk with 39 points still to be won in the following months and Thunder hot on their trails.
“I can’t even put into words what that would mean to me. Having spent my life at Chelsea/Dandy Hajduk, this is all I have wanted to achieve with the club.
“To win the title that we deserve would be a major achievement not just for us players and staff but for all the supporters and volunteers who have given their all to Dandy over the years. However, there is still a long way to go and we’ll take it one week at a time and hopefully get over the line in the end.”
With some of the world’s best centre-forwards such as Gonzalo Higuain and Edin Dzeko beginning their senior careers in midfield roles, there is nothing stopping Filipovic from becoming one of the state’s most distinguished strikers in the years to come.
For both him and City. the sky seemingly is the limit for what could be achieved in the following seasons as Hajduk look to become one of the state’s biggest clubs.