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2014 Knights Player’s Player of the Year Milan Batur believes the Club can build on last season’s Dockerty Cup winning season and push for National Premier Leagues success in the upcoming campaign.
Speaking to melbourneknights.com.au, the central defender also spoke of his personal ambition to continue to feature in Andrew Marth’s starting XI after playing in almost all competitive fixtures during the previous year.
“I hope to play every game that I did last year, that’d be good,” Batur said.
“Hopefully we can do a bit of the same of last year but get a bit closer to the top of the league – that’s our goal.
“If we can achieve the two things that we did last year, which was making the FFA Cup and Dockerty Cup, then our first thing is getting a bit closer to the first spot.
“That’s what we want; that’s what every club wants; that’s why you play football – to win things.”
Batur, who enjoyed a makeshift striker role during the 2014 competition due to significant injuries, also expressed his joy in re-committing to the Knights for the 2015 PS4 NPL Victoria season.
“It’s always good that they want me to play on for another season,” Batur said.
“I’m pretty happy signing on and I’m happy to play for a Club that I grew up with as a junior.”
When asked to evaluate his Player’s Player of the Year winning season, the former Knights youngster was intitally more concerned with the Club’s collective efforts during the season, and highlighted the production of youth as being a good achievement.
“To be honest, I evaluate every season – I look back and see what I could have done better and what I thought I did okay with.
“I think on the Club’s behalf that we got a few juniors coming through which is a good thing and a lot of those boys have moved on to bigger and better things which is pretty good.
“On a personal note, I think it’s good achievement that I did get through how many games – I think I only missed one cup game, off the top of my head. As long as you don’t get injured, that’s the main thing – not getting injured through the year and playing your best that you can throughout the year.”
Although Batur remained largely injury-free for the 2014 season, many first XI players picked up season-ending knocks at various stages in the year. With most of those players returning to full fitness, Batur believes that the Club will go from strength-to-strength in 2015 with their additions.
“Look, I think the proof is in the pudding,” Batur stated.
“I mean, we had them two years ago and we finished in finals and finished in the top two which was good.
“Last year we had a few injuries but like I said, we had the young boys come up and we still finished in fifth position and we won the Dockerty Cup and we got into the FFA Cup which was good.
“With these boys coming back, hopefully they can all get back to full fitness and I think it’ll be a big, big improvement to our team. If we can keep the majority of the team throughout the year I think we’ll be okay.”
