Image: Milan Ninovic
2003 was the last time the Springvale White Eagles began their league campaign with two wins from their opening two fixtures.
That was the year in which Invasion of Iraq dominated the global political arena, while the Black Eyed Peas’ politically charged hit ‘Where is the Love?’ topped music charts across the globe. At the box office, the Lord of the Rings trilogy concluded with the commercially successful Return of the King, while the Crawford Report was published leading to the widespread reform of the round ball game in this country.
Back then, most of the Springvale players that took to the field last Saturday against the Dandenong Thunder were in their first few years of primary school. The average age of the 14 players who played a part in the hard-fought 2-1 win was 21, with Bosnian midfielder Nebojsa Pejic the elder statesmen of the side at 29 – and the only player above 25 in the entire squad.
It is little wonder that the performance on the field was characterised by speed, energy and a youthful exuberance not seen around White Eagles Stadium in years.
While the team might be short of experience, the leadership and character on display showed maturity beyond many of their ages.
The man tasked with instilling those qualities in the side is one of the state’s most experienced and successful coaches in former Altona Magic manager Vlado Tortevski.
The 57-year-old led the Magic to a State League One Championship last year to go with his back-to-back VPL Championships in 2008 and 2009.
The latter success came at the expense of Dandenong Thunder, who lost a penalty shoot-out to the five-time state champions, whose stars that day were 24 year-old former Springvale goalkeeper Nikola Roganovic, 21-year-old goalscoring midfielder Nick Kalmar, and 18-year-old teenage sensation Kliment Taseski, whose man-of-the-match performance saw him crowned the Jimmy Rooney Medallist.
All three ultimately ended up at the Melbourne Heart, while future Young Socceroos Jake Barker-Daish and George Lambadaridis were also handed their forays into senior football by Tortevski during his second stint at Paisley Park Soccer Complex.
With that in mind, it is no wonder the White Eagles committee decided to entrust the former Footscray JUST midfielder with the head coaching role at the youthful and success-starved Springvale.
“When I came here I found myself coaching a very young, talented squad, which was the challenge I set myself coming here,” Tortevski said.
“Two wins from the opening two games, especially this second one against a very strong team like Dandenong Thunder was not something that even the biggest optimists in the club would have expected. But we did and I must congratulate my players, whose hard work over pre-season is paying off.”
A notable attribute in both of Springvale’s wins so far has been their peak fitness and endurance levels over the course of the 90 minutes.
A long, hard summer of intensive and physical fitness drills has seen much of the squad at their career fittest, with their perseverance seeing the White Eagles claw their way back from 3-2 down to defeat Goulburn 4-3 in injury time in their opening round fixture in Shepparton.
They backed it up against the more experienced Thunder in the Saturday afternoon heat, with the club’s youthful approach epitomising to many exactly what the NPL should be about.
Tortevski himself explained the differences he has encountered with coaching in the NPL as opposed to its precursor VPL competition and State Leagues, with the emphasis on youth a paramount point of difference.
“In previous years at clubs such as Altona Magic I worked with mainly experienced and established good players. Achievement was something which came about due to hard work and had to be done which involved a little bit of pressure.
“This time I came here to challenge myself to work with young players who have been outstanding and well disciplined. I have admired all these players right from day one and the transition from the middle of the park to the frontline is made up of only youngsters.
“It doesn’t matter who is going to play in the middle or out wide, they are all very quick like lighting and I’m not sure any other club in the league has the pace up front that we do.”
Their victory over the more fancied Thunder has been one of the shocks of the season thus far, especially considering the visitors’ opening-game 4-1 thrashing of a star-studded Dandenong City.
More impressive about their victory was that it came without the services of its most credentialed defender Marcus Holmes, with 21 year-old centre-back pairing Erdem Ozcagli and Slavisa Saric keeping the in-form Brandon Barnes goalless, while 19-year-old midfielder Milan Jovanovic deputised in an unfamiliar full-back role.
The biggest praise of the afternoon was reserved for 20-year-old goalkeeper Lajos Oliveira, who made a number of telling saves throughout the afternoon to deny Barnes and co from snatching a point or three away from their rivals.
“We’re missing a couple of players in the backline but our goalkeeper Lajos did an outstanding job and I’m very happy for him and the team,” Tortevski said.
“While we are missing a couple of players, I will say in this moment that if these boys in the backline perform like they did today, I don’t think it is going to be any problem in the future.”
While specific players were praised by the former Preston Lions manager, he stressed that the team deserved the plaudits as a collective, with the midfield trio of Pejic, Cody Martindale and captain Dejan Erakovic also putting in noteworthy performances over the course of the first two matches.
“I always like to praise the teamwork of the whole team rather than just talk about individual players. We as a group are improving and this is especially the case in the middle where the mixture is giving us a bit more confidence to play against any other club in the league.”
While both Dandenong sides were heralded as promotion favourites, some touted an improving Springvale as a dark horse in the East after the White Eagles managed to retain the services of some of their top performers from last year, including NPL2 Rising Star Damir Stoilovic, Jeremy Min Fa and Vojo Milojevic.
Two rounds in and the Keysborough-based side finds itself in an unfamiliar position at the top of the table, looking down on both rivals City and Thunder. Tortevski is not getting carried away by that and dismissed his side’s promotion chances for this year by instead looking further into the future.
“I think it is definitely too early for them. We have to enjoy every win and we are going to push as much as possible in all games to win. But I think this is the year when these young talented players will grow up.
“I believe that in the next year, and the year after, this team is going to be one which I call the champions team. No questions in mind that these boys will get this club promoted and get White Eagles back to the top like before.”
Older figures at the club know all too well about what is needed to become a top-flight mainstay. Founded in 1975, the White Eagles reached the highest level of Victorian football in 1996, enjoying a three-year stint in the VPL which saw a team spearheaded by distinguished forwards Zlatko Mihajlovic and Danny Gnjidic finish sixth in 1997.
Since the heydays of the late 1990s, Springvale has bounced to and from the first and third tiers, with VPL campaigns in 2007 and 2011 yielding just four wins from 50 league games. Yet there is hope that should the current generation of players stick together for the forthcoming few years, then Springvale could well become a regular top-flight fixture.
For now, though, the rejuvenated White Eagles will concentrate on getting as many wins as possible over the course of a long 28-round season under the guidance of a senior coaching figure in Tortevski.