After 27 years in the wilderness, Newcastle Croatia rose from the ashes – and just won a premiership
Former footballing powerhouse Newcastle Croatia reformed this season after nearly three decades out of action. Now they’ve just won a grand final.
The Newcastle News
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It’s fair to say that Newcastle’s Zone League 3 competition, the modest sixth division of football in the city, doesn’t usually conjure up too much excitement among football aficionados.
But on Saturday the league played host to one of the most remarkable sporting comeback stories when Newcastle Croatia FC won the first grade grand final 5-0 against Cardiff City.
After 27 years in the footballing wilderness, this former powerhouse club only just reformed this season. And it’s clear to the people involved that this wasn’t just any old grand final win.
“It was probably the second-proudest moment of my life. The first was my son being born, but that was the second,” said coach Joshua Popescu.
The ground at Kurraka Oval in Fletcher, on the outskirts of Newcastle, was painted red, white and blue, with fences along the field draped in Croatian flags, jerseys and anything else with the famous red and white chequers on it.
There were also drums, horns and famous Croatian songs being belted out from the sidelines.
“We made a point of going out and making sure that the day was colourful,” said secretary Karl Zivkovic. “So as soon as anyone got there they would have seen most of the fence covered in Croatian flags, shirts and things like that. It is special, it gives it a bit of atmosphere – it gives it something extra.”
The celebrations started early, with the committee members and supporters breaking into song as they started to set up the decorations.
“Those of us who played in the first instalment of the club got a little bit excited and started singing,” says Zivkovic.
There was even a sprinkling of stardust at the game, with Sydney-based commentator Jack Bulic heading up the freeway to commentate and live stream the game, while Miro Vlastelica, the coach of Australia Cup finalists Sydney United, was also in attendance.
“He’s a mate of mine and we even had him cooking ćevapi in the club afterwards,” Zivkovic.
And while the club’s reserve grade team might have lost the curtain-raiser 2-0 to Hamilton Azzurri, nothing could have put a dampener on the day after the first grade game, with Croatia running out comfortable winners.
“The atmosphere was so amazing, having the Croatian fans backing us,” says Popescu. “We’ve basically just come from nothing. Everyone’s put in so much hard work for this club to get to where it is, and just to win the grand final really topped it off.”
A rollercoaster ride
To truly grasp the level of emotion and passion, one needs to have an understanding of Newcastle Croatia’s history – and it is one hell of a read.
Formed in 1984, the club rose to become a powerhouse of Newcastle football at breakneck speed, jumping five divisions in seven years to make it all the way to Northern NSW’s highest level of football by the early 1990s.
With a passionate supporter base, a tireless committee and a list of players that included names like former NSL stalwart Michael Boogaard (and guest appearances from future Socceroo Ante Milicic), they were one of the hottest tickets in town.
In a city where the round ball code has a long and rich history, where clubs established in the 1880s and 1890s ruled the roost, this young upstart was tearing up the script quicker than many could have ever believed possible.
This was no more evident than when Croatia lined up in the 1992 grand final against the West Wallsend Bluebells. Then just in its ninth season, Croatia faced off against a storied club formed in 1891 that is recognised as one of cradles of football in Australia.
While they lost to the Bluebells that day, two years later the club made the first division grand final again, narrowly going down again, this time to Highfields Azzurri 2-1.
However just as it appeared as though it was about to conquer all, the club spectacularly disbanded after the 1984, just months after competing in the first division grand final and only 10 years after the foundation stone was laid.
“The people who were there had done their 10 years’ intense work, they did their bit, and I think they were pretty much exhausted,” says Zivkovic.
But there were also other disagreements with the footballing bodies over issues such as stadia requirements, lights, junior affiliation and other factors that influenced the decision.
“It was an accumulation of events – financial, burnout – but I think the final nail in the coffin was the name. We had to change the name. It had to do with de-ethnicising clubs.”
Grand inspiration
So, for close to three decades Newcastle Croatia remained nothing but a wonderful memory for those who had been associated with it.
That was until a familiar form of inspiration came along.
During the 2018 FIFA World Cup Croatia went on a dream run, knocking off the likes of Denmark, Russia and England en route to the final.
Back in Newcastle, one of the hottest places for the big game was the Croatian Wickham Sports Club, the traditional hub of the local Croatian community. It held a massive world cup party that saw 400 people cram into the venue for a night of Croatian music, dancing, food, drink and football.
And although Croatia ultimately lost the final 4-2 to France, it was clear that the event had set the wheels in motion for something far bigger.
“The whole energy and inspiration for this basically came from the World Cup final,” says Zivkovic.
“There were people there that night who I honestly hadn’t seen for 20 years. And with everyone I spoke to, they all said the same thing: ‘we should do this more often!’”
This led to conversations about forming a six-a-side team, which morphed into chat about setting up a full-pitch side, and ultimately ended in Zivkovic and his crew reforming their beloved Newcastle Croatia.
And while there has been plenty of hard work, countless meetings and 40-page applications to re-register as a club, Newcastle Croatia 2.0 has developed an almost cult following since announcing last year that it was reforming, which has certainly helped on the player recruitment front.
“It’s been absolutely crazy,” says Popescu. “All year I was getting phone calls from people at higher clubs wanting to come over.”
These included the likes of former NPL players Jake McGuinness, Beau McDonald, Ricky Franks and Luke Lawless – and it appears they might not be the only big names to don the famous red and white chequers in 2023.
“I’ve already had a heap of calls this week from players who want to come and play with us next year,” says Popescu.
And as an aside, the club possibly holds the some kind of record for the longest time between consecutive grand finals, with Croatia making the big dance in its final season of 1994 as well as in its return in 2022.
Rebuilding ties
In fact, if you just glance at the team list, you could almost be mistaken for thinking it was still 1994.
In addition to the likes of secretary Zivkovic, who laced the boots for the club back in the 1980s and 1990s, the 2022 version of the club featured some familiar names like Jake Kunovec, the grandson of club president and Croatia original Stan Kunovec; James Poslan, whose father Karlo played in the first instalment of the club; and David Hecimovic, the son of former player Ivan.
But it doesn’t end there. Michael Gudelj, the brother of head coach Popescu, also played for the club in the 1990s and joined the club as an assistant coach this year, while current committee member Denis Marinčić is the son of original clubman Josip ‘Joe’ Marinčić.
“You couldn’t ask for any more,” says Zivkovic. “The response has been fantastic. There were people at the game who were there from day dot back in 1984 supporting the club.”
Among those at the grand final was Darrel Charlesworth, a former player in the club’s early years.
“For me, today is the culmination of seeing another generation of great young Croatian lads come through,” he said in an interview on grand final day. “The men that are running the club now were the 18-year-old boys that were here when I started playing for Croatia back in ‘84.”
While the club plays football, Zivkovic says that the idea behind reviving Newcastle Croatia went far beyond whatever happens on the pitch.
“At the beginning we just wanted to try and rebuild some ties in the Croatian community.”
Asked if he thinks they’ve been successful in doing that, Zivkovic is emphatic.
“100%. There are Croatian people who I’ve never met in my life – and I’ve grown up in the Croatian community here – turning up.
“To the Croatians, football is that thing that gets the people together.”
Indeed, in demonstrating the power of football to unite people, Zivkovic points to his own family as a prime example.
“My brother and I had an estrangement at one stage,” he said. “My father passed away four years ago, and my brother and I were in tears on the weekend – I’m choking up just thinking about it now – because this has brought us back together.
“That’s what it does: it brings family together.”
Emotions were also running high for Popescu, who relished being able to celebrate with his brother and assistant coach Gudelj.
“It was the best. Just to give him that hug after the game was such a good feeling,” he said.
“He sent me a message in the morning saying: ‘How good is this, two brothers coaching in a grand final together!’ Especially because we lost our other brother 11 years ago, it has just made us closer. Mum was really proud to have two of her sons in the grand final. It was amazing.”
And while 2022 has no doubt been an unmitigated success, those at the helm are hoping to ensure that the reincarnation of Newcastle Croatia has far more longevity than the original.
“We now realise that there were things we missed back in the old days,” says Zivkovic. “For example, we had high-class players, we had some representatives of Australia, but we didn’t have any juniors.”
The club hopes to rectify that by setting up junior teams next year, while Croatia officials are also in discussions with football authorities about a potential promotion for 2023.
On a more strategic level, while the club is currently playing out of Pasadena Oval in Beresfield, on the western outskirts of Newcastle, the committee has plans to bring Croatia back to its spiritual home in the inner-city suburb of Wickham, where it hopes to capitalise on a population boom in Newcastle’s harbourside suburbs.
“We’ve got long-term goals. We want to improve facilities and we want to start with juniors,” says Zivkovic.
“What we’re going to do is take it slower. But it’s hard to take it slow when everyone wants to come on board.”
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