St Albans sign three new players ahead of 2011 AVPL season
Tuesday, 11 January 2011
Newly promoted Alanic Victorian Premier League Club (AVPL), St Albans Saints, have announced three new player signings in the lead up to the 2011 season.
Daniel Visevic, Tom Milardovic and Liam Cannell have all recently signed for St Albans, as the club looks to make an impression in their first season in the AVPL since 2005.
Visevic and Milardovic have both moved over from 2010 minor Premiers, the Richmond Eagles, whilst Cannell joins St Albans after two seasons with the Melbourne Knights.
Visevic began his career at the Saints as a junior player before being picked up by the Victorian Institute of Sport. He burst onto the Premier League scene at the age of 17 with Richmond, where he picked up the Under 21 Player of the Year in his first season.
Visevic said it wasn’t easy to leave Richmond, but he’s excited about the new challenges ahead.
“It was a tough decision to leave Richmond as I’ve spent over six years at the club, but as former junior player of the Saints I just had to come back home and start a new challenge with them,” Visevic said.
“They approached me several weeks ago and I was really impressed with the direction that the club is heading in so there wasn’t much doubt in my mind where I wanted to play next season. Although I really enjoyed my time at Richmond there was no chance that I'd turn this chance down.”
Tom Milardovic has signed on for three years with St Albans.
28-year-old Milardovic began his career at the Saints as a junior player, moving up the ranks before breaking into the senior squad in 2002. In 2005 he joined sister club the Melbourne Knights in their first year in the AVPL. Milardovic excelled at the Knights, quickly becoming the club captain and helping the team make the Grand Final in 2007. In the same year Milardovic signed a short term deal with Adelaide United as an injury replacement. After four seasons with the Knights, Milardovic joined the Richmond Eagles in 2009.
Milardovic said he was looking forward to the 2011 AVPL season with St Albans.
“I’m absolutely thrilled to be returning back to Churchill Reserve where I started my career,” Milardovic said.
“I love the club and it’s a real honour to be able to be a part of the revolution that’s happening down here at the moment. My family has been around the club for decades now and I try to get down whenever I can to watch the boys play, so to be able to pull on the Dinamo shirt again is a great feeling."
After two seasons with the Melbourne Knights, Liam Cannell rejoins the Saints after a successful stint with the club from 2007 to 2009.
Cannell said he was looking forward to a successful season with his new club.
“I thoroughly enjoyed my time at the Knights where I was really looked after by the whole club and supporters but I felt that it was the right time to come back to the Saints and take on a new challenge.
“I can’t wait to get out there with the rest of the squad and begin our preparations for what I believe will be a successful season.”
St Albans Saints Football Operations Manager, Mark Ivkovic, told stalbanssaints.com that he has been working on the club’s preparations for the 2011 AVPL since last year.
“The day we sealed the State One Championship we quickly began working on what areas we needed to improve on if we are going to be successful in the AVPL,” Ivkovic said.
“Kruni Razov and myself wrote up a short list of players that we wanted to bring to the club in 2011 and to achieve all of those objectives we set for ourselves is a great thrill.”
St Albans have also re-signed 14 players from their 2010 State League One championship winning squad.
www.therealgame.com.au/news/state-league/126/st-albans-sign-three-new-players-ahead-of-2011-avpl-season
