Melbourne Knights’ Technical Director Josip Lončarić has spent the last week on a football study tour of Zagreb’s two biggest clubs, armed with valuable newfound knowledge he intends to use when he returns back home.
Lončarić is currently in Croatia to coach the Australian Croatian U14s Select team at the annual U14s ‘Tournament of Croatian Defenders’ international invitational event in Vukovar.
The seasoned youth coach from Melbourne accepted a gilt edged opportunity to spend several days at both Lokomotiva Zagreb and Dinamo Zagreb, acquiring key insights into top youth football coaching methodology, which he says will prove invaluable upon his return Down Under.
“I had spoken to Croatian Football Federation (HNS) Technical Director Petar Krpan back in Australia in January when I was appointed coach of the Australian Croatian Select team,” Lončarić revealed.
“In conjunction with tournament organisers, I was then able to arrive in Zagreb a week earlier and embark on a study tour of the two biggest Zagreb based clubs,” he continued.
From Kajzerica to the Maksimir
Lončarić met up with Krpan in the Croatian capital and the former Croatian international and NK Osijek club legend chaperoned him from Lokomotiva’s headquarters in the outer suburb of Kajzerica, to the famous Maksimir Stadium that is Dinamo Zagreb’s home base.
“Prior to that, we went to the HNS headquarters, where he showed me all around his office, where he has quite an elaborate scouting system on the most talented up and coming young Croatian footballers – both locally and in the diaspora – that they are currently monitoring,” explained Lončarić.
“The magnitude of their operations and the sheer professionalism is quite mind boggling,” he added.
Lončarić went on to explain that they had gone to Lokomotiva for a day and observed all the Junior/Youth teams (U15s, 17s and 19s) in training.
“I also managed to watch the big U19s Junior league match between Lokomotiva and Noa Skoko’s Hajduk Split,” he said.
“That was an experience in itself. It was a top of the table clash, with so much at stake. There must have been over 500 spectators present and a huge number of them were player scouts and agents. These guys are all looking for the next big thing, their next big project.”
In esteemed coaching company
Lončarić was watching the entire game in the company of ex-Lokomotiva senior head coach Silvijo Čabraja, Krpan, and the legendary Ilija Lončarević, who is Lokomotiva’s main coaching advisor.
Just listening to them and observing them how they studied the football on display was eye opening, said Lončarić.
“Just from that interaction with them, alone, I was able to gain a fantastic insight into how these legends of Croatian football analyse, see and look at footballers and what key details they are looking for,” he revealed.
“Scanning, being creative and going forward are all the characteristics they seem to be looking for in the players they observe,” continued Lončarić.
“I know now the formation that the teams in the tournament will be utilising, largely a 4-2-3-1 out of possession setup, similar to what the Croatian national team employs.”
Lončarić also spent two days at Dinamo Zagreb for two days, in the company of former Melbourne Victory goalkeeper and current Dinamo U19s coach, Ivan Kelava.
Kelava is one of five Dinamo Zagreb coaches who will be travelling to Melbourne for the Dinamo Zagreb Youth Camp to be held at St Albans Dinamo in July.
“I managed to take in two full days of the U19s train, leading up to their league encounter with NK Varaždin,” revealed Lončarić.
Training drills into match practice
“It was interesting to see the whole cycle of training leading up to the actual match and then watch them putting the drills into practice in the actual game.
“While there, Kelava really took me under his wing and showed me the entire setup at Dinamo. I felt I was treated like a colleague and not so much a visitor, which just goes to show their incredible level of professionalism.”
According to the Knights’ technical director, he cannot stress the importance of Australian Croatian kids back home learning the Croatian language.
“There is a lot more respect shown by the coaches to both players and colleague coaches such as myself, when you can speak Croatian and not just English,” Lončarić explained.
“It cannot be underestimated how vital it is for the young kids back home in Australia, of Croatian descent, to be able to at least converse in basic Croatian,” he added.
Lončarić was also able to visit three junior feeder clubs to Dinamo, in the close proximity of the Maksimir Stadium.
“I visited NK Ravnice, NK Maksimir and the Ćiro Blažević Football Academy, clubs that are all within 400 metres of each other and literally just across the Maksimirska Road from Dinamo,” explained Lončarić.
“I wandered into the clubs, introduced myself and they were more than welcoming when I said I was a Croatian coach from Australia, keen to learn from their methodologies. Without any hesitation, they allowed me to fully observe their training sessions.
All three are feeder clubs and are ‘much less territorial’ than clubs in Australia, admitted Lončarić.
“In effect they see their roles as passing on their better players off to the better clubs,” he explained his observations.
“Their philosophy is, if a certain junior footballer has outgrown their environment, that player needs to be put into a better club, with better coaching available to them.”
During his time in Zagreb, Lončarić also managed to catch up with Luka Milanović (pictured above), a highly renowned professor at the University of Kinesiology in Zagreb.
Milanović is also the head of Strength and Conditioning for the Croatian National team, and has held that role ever since head coach Zlatko Dalić was appointed back in 2018.
“He invited me to the University where I attended an insightful lecture on long term elite athlete development.”
Catching up with Viduka and Adžić
At NK Ravnice, meanwhile, Lončarić met up with the club’s president who happens to be none other than the legendary former Melbourne Knights superstar from the early 1990s, Željko Adžić!
Another former Melbourne Knights legend, Mark Viduka joined Lončarić and Adžić at Ravnice’s clubrooms to reminisce about the old days of the Knights’ NSL era.
Adžić revealed the time he scored a goal against the Knight’s biggest rivals, the Yugoslav community backed Footscray JUST – with his hand!
“Željko scored the goal against JUST with his hand, but both the ref and the TV camera angles didn’t pick it up,” said Lončarić.
“Luckily there was no VAR back in those days. We dubbed it the ‘Hand of Željko’ goal!”
Viduka, who just so happens to be Lončarić’s first cousin, meanwhile recounted his own experiences of watching in awe the remarkable skills of Adžić close up.
“I loved being around the club as a kid. I remember being a ball boy and watching Adžić tear up the old NSL league from the sidelines. Those were some of my favourite moments at the Knight, back in the day,” said the V-Bomber, who these days lives in Zagreb and runs his own café business.
