FC Melbourne aiming high as it steps up to VPL2 in 2024

After two premierships in three seasons, FC Melbourne has big ambition and is looking to continue its climb as it steps up to VPL2 in 2024.

FC Melbourne celebrates its 2023 State League 1 South-East premiership.

An old power of Victorian football is rising again.

After playing in the top flight Victorian Premier League in 2002, FC Melbourne fell as far as the fifth tier of the pyramid.

However, after more than 20 years, the club formerly known as Fitzroy City is on the up again.

Having won the State League 1 South-East premiership last season, Melbourne will step up to the Victorian Premier League 2 in 2024.

Srbija, which harks back to its immigrant roots in the 1960s, has won two titles in three seasons, having also claimed the State League 2 North-West flag in 2019.

President Dragan Jovic said the club has ambitions to climb further this season.

“The club was struggling a little bit and a number of former players came back to try and resurrect its standing,” Jovic said.

“There was a push from old players and old personnel, hence myself and Neb got involved, and we’ve expanded the committee to about 18 now.

“The aim is to get promoted again and grow the club, we’re trying to find that balance of not forgetting our background but also engaging to the wider community.

“A club with an influential name like FC Melbourne, if we can grow it into the higher leagues it opens up a world of opportunities for us.”

The journey to premiership and promotion last season is extraordinary.

Coach Zeljko Popovic only came on board two weeks before the season kicked off after his predecessor re-signed.

Melbourne started 1-3-1 in the opening month before exploding, winning nine games on the trot and going 17 games undefeated to claim the crown – five points clear of Malvern City.

Maksim Ilic was the club’ leading goalscorer with nine in an attack that ranked third, while the club boasted the best defence in the competition, conceding just 15 times in 22 matches.

Club treasurer Neb Velis said securing Popvic’s services could become a turning point in club history.

“We lumped this poor guy into the job and said ‘by the way we want to win promotion and half-a-dozen players have just left’,” Velis said.

“We wanted to change the culture of the club … Zeljko is a very strong, I wouldn’t say disciplinarian, he doesn’t scream and shout but he doesn’t compromise standards.

“His level of coaching, we’re lucky to have him at this level because he could be higher, and we just hope to go with him on his journey.

“After assessing (the team) for a week or two he said to us ‘I’ll have them ready by Round 4’.

“We lost our third game and we didn’t lose another game from that point, a nine-game winning streak, it was amazing.”

FC Melbourne off-season recruiting has certainly backed up that ambition.

The club has brought in NPL championship-winning striker Luka Ninkovic from powerhouse South Melbourne as well as Englishman Louis Danquah from Stalybridge Celtic.

Ryan Brown (Beaumaris), Max Minuzzo (Sydenham Park) and former Australian schoolboys representative Cameron Davies (Caroline Springs George Cross) have also joined.

Sadly, Argentine signing Gianluca Ferrario suffered a knee injury in pre-season.

Jovic said the club was keen to keep growing to give talented young players from the Serbian and wider community a pathway to the top.

“We’ve got a lot of rich soccer history in the Serbian community, my father-in-law Jimmy Milisavljevic played in the 1974 World Cup for the Socceroos,” he said.

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“I think the community craves for a club to be at the highest level, which would be NPL at the moment, and that’s what we’re striving for.

“There’s a lot of talent that goes elsewhere for NPL pathways, so that’s one of our driving factors to be a NPL pathway so we can nurture this talent and represent us at the highest level.”

Srbija kicks off its VPL2 campaign on the road against relegated Brunswick Juventus on March 8 at CB Smith Reserve.

The club will have to wait until Round 3, March 23, to return to its home at Kevin Bartlett Reserve when it hosts Boroondara-Carey Eagles.