Glory striker Branko Jelic has shrugged off the cobwebs after arriving late into the club’s pre-season build-up and established himself as a potent weapon Perth’s attacking arsenal.
Glory striker Branko Jelic has shrugged off the cobwebs after arriving late into the club-s pre-season build-up and established himself as a potent weapon Perth-s attacking arsenal.
With three goals and plenty of attacking flair, the Serbian striker has shown why Coach Dave Mitchell was so keen to bring him to Perth this season.
“People have moved from the other side of the world, we-ve had four or five players that have done that and it takes a lot of adjustment, sometime six months for them to adjust,” said Mitchell.
“You can see that Branko is getting better and better with every game and is looking like a class player.
“He has scored goals in every competition he has played in and he has shown he can do the job here for us as well,” Mitchell said.
Jelic and Glory marquee Mile Sterjovski have established a strong connection in the front third with the ability to score themselves and also bring their team mates into the game.
“Mile and me understand each other very well so I hope that will give to us more results,” Jelic said at training during the week.
“We have only had six games but there will be good things to come even more as we keep playing.”
Arriving in Perth only a few weeks before the season started due to a lengthy visa application process, the experienced striker was behind the eight ball but has worked had to get himself up to speed over the first few rounds and has shown his hunger for goals.
A double against Melbourne in round four opened his Glory scoring account and that was followed up with another well taken strike against Gold Coast last weekend.
“It was nice in the first half, I scored a goal again and we were 2-0 but the end was a little bit disappointing because I think we deserved more than one point,” Jelic said.
“Generally in the first six games we deserve much more than seven points but we just need to keep going and I expect in the next games we-ll get those points.
“We spoke to each other and in my opinion and everyone-s opinion we have played well in all games, except maybe in the first one against Adelaide, and we didn-t have enough luck.
“I think the fans can see we play nice football, we create many chances in the game and just need a little bit more luck, especially in the games away.”
“We have to believe in ourselves, we have quality and the results will be better.”
