Superstar Dandenong Thunder striker Brandon Barnes has capped off the NPL2 season with back-to-back Best and Fairest awards at the FFV 2017 Gold Medal Night.
The 24-year-old, who scored an incredible 49 goals across 39 matches in 2017, also took out the Player’s Player of the Year and the Golden Boot for the second consecutive season, highlighting his dominance across the competition.
The Englishman scored 16 more goals than the next best striker in the NPL this season, with Shaun Filipovic next best for Dandenong City. Barnes – who is once again likely to be courted by A-League clubs, has now scored an astonishing 97 goals in just two seasons for the Thunder.
Thunder’s crosstown rivals – Dandenong City – have also been busy gearing up for another crack at promotion in 2018, signing Zeljko Kuzman, Steve Bebic and current Under-20s coach Semi Sivic as the club’s coaches.
After coming so close to gaining entry into the NPL’s top tier for 2018, the City finished second on the NPL2 East table.
Kuzman is Dandenong’s new head coach with Bebic the new assistant at Frank Holohan Reserve. The duo led Northcote City to promotion from NPL2 west into Victoria’s top tier this season.
Kuzman has established an impressive coaching CV in his young career, having grown up and played in Adelaide before relocating to Melbourne.
He has already won promotion from NPL2 while an assistant coach at Richmond and enjoyed a stint as assistant coach at Port Melbourne.
Kuzman also has head coaching experience at Dandenong’s sister-club St Albans Saints.
Dandenong City president Tony Dorotic said securing Kuzman and Bebic was a coup after their impressive campaign in the opposite NPL division last season.
“We are very excited with our new coaching staff for next season,” Dorotic said.
“We were so close to securing our stated ambition of promotion into the top NPL division, and we believe that we are now well placed to go a step further in 2018.”
