Milicevic reunites with Kuzman at Northcote

by Damir Kulas 0

Northcote City have made former Port Melbourne Sharks midfielder Andrew Milicevic their ninth signing of the off-season as Hercules intensify their preparations for the upcoming season.

The 22-year-old is reunited at John Cain Memorial Reserve with his former St Albans boss Zeljko Kuzman, who recruited the former Hajduk Split youth player to Churchill Reserve 12 months ago.

A former Melbourne Knights and Richmond junior, Milicevic moved to Croatia and spent the next few years of his development with the club known as the Pride of Dalmatia.

A move up north to the Croatian capital Zagreb followed, where the technically-gifted midfielder featured for NK Radnik, a feeder club for Dinamo Zagreb.

However, a desire to complete his secondary education at home brought Milicevic back to Melbourne as he progressed and made his senior debut with Port Melbourne in 2013.

He spent two and a half years with the Sharks, where he made a total of 45 league appearances, which also included three league goals under the stewardship of Eric Vassiliadis.

A move to Dinamo this year followed, however the mid-season departure of Kuzman from the managerial hotseat prompted Milicevic to join the Whittlesea Ranges.

He made a further 10 appearances for Vinko Buljubasic’s side to go along with the 10 he made for the Saints in the first-half of the season, which ultimately saw his former side earn promotion to the NPL.

Milicevic joins Griffin McMaster, Nathan Cook, Baggio Yousif, former St Albans teammate Josh Knight, Milos Ilic, ex-Port teammates Trent Manicas and Alex Goodwin as well as former Richmond skipper Peter Sawan as new arrivals for a side expected to be one of the promotion challengers in a fiercely competitive NPL2 West conference.