Tara Murray
New Melbourne Knights coach Ivan Franjic knows his side has its work cut out if they’re to turn their National Premier League season around.
Having started the season as skipper, Franjic stepped into the interim coaching role after the club parted ways with Ben Surey, before being appointed permanently.
Franjic said coaching the side wasn’t something he had seen happening this year.
“It’s been good and I’ve been setting the foundation and going from there,” he said. “Obviously I’m still playing this year but you never know what is around the corner.
“I took the challenge on with open arms.
“I’m still playing. It’s been a little bit of a challenge, but I’ve got good support staff around to make it easier.”
Franjic brings plenty of experience to the role.
A Melbourne Knights junior, Franjic spent two seasons with the Knights in 2007 and 2008 before making the move to A-League Brisbane Roar in 2009.
From there, Franjic secured a spot with Russian side Torpedo Moscow in 2014, and Korean side Daegu FC in 2017, before returning home and having stints with various A-League clubs coming back to the Knights in 2023 under Ben Cahn.
Franjic has made 20 appearances for Australia and played in the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil.
Franjic also holds a coaching A-Licence
Franjic, who remains the club’s junior technical director as well, said for a big club like the Knights the season had been below part and unacceptable to some degree.
After 15 rounds the Knights were in 10th spot with four wins and three draws among their results.
Franjic said he had looked to change things to try and turn their season around.
“There’s some hard work to be done,” he said.
“We’re setting the foundations and working our way up. We’ve changed a few things every coach has their own philosophy.
“It’ll take some time and week by week there’s positive signs getting stronger as the season goes on.”
Franjic said they would assess where they’re at before deciding to make moves in the transfer window, which falls later this year.
He said they could start looking at players for the future in that period as well.
The Knights were in action on Saturday against Avondale, after deadline.
The Knights came away with a 1-1 draw.
“There’s no easy game,” Franjic said. We respect every opponent and focus on ourselves.
“We’re improving every week and we’re at the stage we want to hopefully we picking up lots of results.”
