DAVID DAVUTOVIĆ
The camaraderie between Melbourne Knights’ 1994/95 title-winning side is evident 30 years on, despite each going their separate ways in life and football.
Captain and goalscorer Andrew Marth quips that Steve Horvat nicked the Joe Marston Medal from him.
Second half sub Ante Kovačević and ‘Stabba’ Marth reflect on the epic afterparty and the Maltese warrior Joe “Spitfire” Spiteri cops it for ‘blatantly plugging his academy’.
Gathering at the place they turned into a fortress 30 years ago, Tompsett Stadium (then Knights Stadium), they all remain in decent nick.
Perhaps unsurprising considering it was such a young team, bookended by 21-year-old goalkeeper Frank Jurić and 19-year-old striker Mark Viduka.
But the fortress walls came down in the Major Semi-final second leg against Adelaide City.
Danny Tiatto’s early goal was cancelled out by Sergio Melta and Craig Foster), meaning Adelaide was the Grand Final destination.
Whilst an epic 3-2 Semi-final win against South Melbourne was a shot in the arm, Hindmarsh Stadium was a tough place for a young side to overcome the NSL’s worst Grand Final hoodoo.
“Adelaide City were a great team,” inspirational Captain Marth says.
Spiteri admits this was a big difference to the previous season at Parramatta Eagles, who finished 10th.
“There was big expectation on our shoulders and we came up against pretty much the Socceroos defence,” Spiteri says.
Players were still smarting from the previous season, when ex-Knight Damian Mori’s long-range bomb secured a 1-0 Grand Final win at Melbourne’s Olympic Park.
City won the title from fifth position, 12 points behind Minor Premiers Knights.
“It was revenge after losing to Adelaide City the year before,” says Buljubašić who came off injured after marking Mori.
It was a similar story two years earlier (1991/92), when fourth-place Adelaide City beat Knights – again Minor Premiers – in a penalty shoot-out.
And Knights were also Minor Premiers in 1990/91 (then Melbourne Croatia), losing in a Grand Final penalty shoot-out to South Melbourne.
“I was at every one of (those Grand Finals). The South Melbourne one, which went to penalties, we should have won that one no doubt,” Kovačević recalls.
“Adelaide City were the next two Grand Finals that we lost both at home.
“Being a player and a Knights fan my whole life, watching those first three grand finals from the terraces, it was a sweet memory to bring the first championship to the Knights.”
Horvat claimed the Marston Medal as man of the match, after a commanding display in central defence alongside the late David Cervinski.
Capped 32 times by the Socceroos and enjoying a stint at Hajduk Split after Knights, Horvat admitted the Knights stint held find memories.
“It’s interesting to look back now 30 years on, and in a footballing career there’s a lot of personal accolades and things like that that come with the territory if you’re successful,” Horvat says.
“But nothing beats winning something with a group of fellow players.
“Over the years we’ve had reunions and randomly caught up, at different events or places. And you immediately fall back into the (same conversations).”
For more features like this head to our archive or to Vjesnik TV.
*The Vjesnik is celebrating the Knights’ 30-year anniversary with a special feature in the first monthly magazine edition, which replaces the traditional weekly newspaper from May 2025. The first monthly magazine edition is available from May 9.