BIO: Mirko Đerić (Anglicized: Mirko Djeric; Serbian Cyrillic: Мирко Ђерић; born 17 April 1995) was born in Canberra (ACT) then moved to Sydney where he played with the Bankstown Bruins in the Waratah State League. Djeric received a scholarship to attend the Australian Institute of Sport (Canberra) in 2011. He spent one year there and played for the program’s state league team.

NBL EXPERIENCE

Mirko Djeric made his NBL debut with the Wollongong Hawks at 17 years of age. He went scoreless in his first NBL game.

As a rookie, Djeric played eight games for Illawarra as a 17-year-old, averaging 3.1 points, 0.3 rebounds, and 0.8 assists. The Hawks would finish the season with a record of 13-15

TOWNSVILLE CROCODILES
2013/14
Prior to the 2013/14 season, Barrier Reef Basketball relinquished its ownership of Townsville’s NBL license, putting the Crocodile’s’ 2013/14 season in doubt. the Crocodiles would, however, manage to stay afloat with the team moving from a owner-operated model to a community-owned club. This resulted in head coach Paul Woolpert not being retained, and Perth Wildcats assistant Shawn Dennis signed as his replacement.

Dennis made the decision to focus on giving opportunities to the team’s younger talent, namely Todd Blanchfield and Mitchell Norton, whom he hoped to build a roster around over the next two or three seasons.

Veterans Peter Crawford, Jacob Holmes and team captain Russell Hinder all returned, and in a major signing for the club, added Steven Markovic, a Australian Boomers squad member who had spent the previous few seasons playing in Europe. Lastly, imports Joshua Pace and Brian Conklin were brought in to round out the roster.

Townsville had found quite a talent in Conklin, who scored 33 points in his second game, a win over the New Zealand Breakers (91–78). It was the second-highest score by a Crocs player since 40-minute games were introduced into the NBL in 2010. Despite being unanimously selected to finish in last place, Townsville recorded upset wins over top team’s Melbourne (90-75) and Adelaide (98-94) to start the season, defeated New Zealand twice and by round 10 they sat just outside the playoffs in fifth spot.

With Pace (14.9 points, 5 rebounds, and 1.7 assists) and Markovic (13.4 points, 1.9 rebounds, and 4.6 assists) both failing to deliver what Townsville had expected and with the team’s inexperienced beginning to show, the team lost their next eight games in a row.

Despite the losses, Conklin (16.3 points, 4.8 rebounds, and 1.3 assists) was a revelation for the club, using his strength and speed to overcome any height disadvantage and finishing in the top seven scorers in the league. His impact was clearly felt after the team lost him to a hamstring injury against the Melbourne Tigers, which kept him out of the team’s last four games of the season.

Townsville finished second last on the ladder with a record of 10-18, while Conklin’s efforts were rewarded with him being named part of the All-NBL Second Team.

Djeric would make 24 appearances and averaged 2.8 points, 0.7 rebounds, and 0.8 assists per game.

2014/15
Townsville were able to secure the services of star import Brian Conklin for another season, and together with the development of young players like Todd Blanchfield and Mitchell Norton looked to improve in Shawn Dennis’ second year as coach. Veterans Peter Crawford (Adelaide) and Russell Hinder (Retired) were not re-signed, and underperforming import Joshua Pace was replaced with former NBA shot blocker Mickell Gladness.

Dennis replaced the outgoing Crawford and Hinder with Mackay product Clint Steindl and New Zealand born Leon Henry.

While Townsville became quite a force at home, they were never able to win consistently on the road. Townsville’s home success saw the team finish with a winning home record (8-6) for the first time since 2012, but due to finishing with only three wins on the road all season (11-17 record).

High spots for the season included Blanchfield (14.6 points, 6 rebounds, and 1.7 assists) receiving high-profile recognition across the league and even appearing on a number of NBA radars after winning the NBL’s Most Improved Player and earning a spot on the All-NBL Second Team. Conklin (18.9 points, 6.4 rebounds, and 1.8 assists) delivered a even better second season with the Crocodile’s. He shot 50.7 percent shooting from the field and finished fourth in the league in scoring, including a 33 point and 11 rebound effort in a 79–75 loss to the Cairns Taipans. Conklin finished the season being named the NBL’s Most Valuable Player as well as earning a spot on the All-NBL First Team.

Djeric appeared in 28 games during the season to average 2.8 points, 1.3 rebounds, and 0.6 assists.

2015/16
Front office changes and financial limitations saw the Crocodiles struggling to gain clarity on their future in the competition, resulting in player recruitment becoming extremely challenging for Townsville. The first impact of this saw Todd Blanchfield, who earned the NBL Most Improved Player the season prior, relocate to Melbourne and sign with the re-branded Melbourne United. Coach Shawn Dennis would sign Nicholas Kay, who was returning home after four years at Metro State College of Denver and then rounded out the rest of the roster by signing players happy to play for near league minimum contracts, mostly young talent unable to latch on with other team’s or veteran players other team’s had given up on. Luke Schenscher (via Adelaide), Corey Maynard and Mitchell Young (both via Cairns) were clear examples of that.

NBL MVP Brian Conklin was re-signed and appointed team captain and paired with incoming import Jordair Jett.

The season began with two consecutive losses to Melbourne United (84-99) at home and New Zealand (81-89) in New Zealand. But then, in surprising fashion, Townsville, who had won a total of three away games the previous season, defeated Sydney (80-77) and Perth (66-63) on their home floor in back-to-back rounds.

Townsville’s season quickly turned sour after that, highlighted by their 31-point defeat at the hands of Melbourne in late October and having the worst record in the league (2-9) after the first few months of the season. Then, when the team faced the Perth Wildcats at home, Conklin was involved in a ugly on-court incident involving Perth Wildcats guard Damian Martin Martin. During the fourth quarter of the Crocodiles win over the Wildcat’s (89–77), Conklin’s errant elbow collided with and broke Martin’s jaw. Despite a call from Australian basketball legend Andrew Gaze for Conklin to be suspended for at least six weeks, the NBL cleared Conklin of any wrongdoing. A similar situation arose during a brutal loss to Adelaide (65-89) less than two weeks after the Martin encounter, where Conklin (21 points and 12 rebounds) was in the spotlight again for another elbow incident, this time for striking 36ers forward Mitch Creek in a similar manner. He subsequently received a three-match suspension, with two of those games suspended for the rest of the season.

By the end of November, sitting at the bottom of the ladder (4–10), Townsville terminated Conklin’s contract due to what the club claimed was a number of ‘sub-par performances’. Conklin (13.5 points, 6.6 rebounds, and 1.6 assists per game) later took to social media to share his version of the truth, which pointed the finger at Townsville wanting to reduce costs as the reason for his release. The Crocs would bring in a former college teammate of Patty Mills, Omar Samhan (13 points, 8.9 rebounds, 1.6 assists, and 1.1 blocks), as Conklin’s replacement a week later.

Schenscher (4.1 points and 3.1 rebounds) also struggled with injuries and with nine games remaining, Townsville chose to add Harry Froling (1.6 points and 0.8 rebounds), a member of Townsville’s junior program, as an injury replacement player for him.

While Jett (15.3 points, 3.4 rebounds, 3.3 assists, and 1.1 steals) struggled in the team’s early games, he would explode during the second half of the season, leading the team in scoring with Mirko Djeric (5.3 points, 1.3 rebounds, and 0.9 assists) delivering his best season to date. With Townsville now firmly focused as a team, their work was rewarded in the second half of the season, winning half of their remaining games (7-7).

Despite again finishing with a winning record at home (8-6) but only three road wins for the season, Townsville would finish second last on the ladder (11-17) with Jett being awarded the Kevin Sugars Medal (club MVP).

Despite the hardships Townsville was viewed as overachievers for the most part and coach Shawn Dennis was rewarded by the league with the NBL’s coach of the year trophy. The Croc’s cleaned up on awards night with Nicholas Kay (10.8 points, 6.7 rebounds, and 1.3 assists) also winning Rookie of the Year and Clint Steindl (12.8 points, 3.5 rebounds, and 1.1 assists) earning Most Improved Player.

Although Townsville had a verbal commitment from the league they would be able to continue playing with their support, the inability to raise enough money from the community saw their eventual demise. Kay and Norton both signed deals with Illawarra and while Young found a spot with Brisbane. Unable to find deals in Australia, Steindl and Djeric both ventured overseas, Luke Schenscher retired and coach Shawn Dennis would end up coaching in the Japanese national league.

Without a NBL team he decided to play in Serbia for the next three seasons before a opportunity arose to play for the Cairns Taipans in 2019.

CAIRNS TAIPANS
2019/20
Djeric returned to the NBL and averaged 7.3 points and 3 rebounds, and 2 assists during a lacklustre season where the Taipans limped home to a third place finish with a 16-12 record.

2020/21
In 2020/21, Djeric averaged a career best 8.6 points while making a career best 66 three-pointers, he also added 2.2 rebounds, and 2.1 assists per game. The Taipans finished in ninth place this season, with a record of 8-28.

2021/22
In 2021/22, Djeric averaged 3.7 points, 1.2 rebounds, and 1.3 assists off the bench and was a part of a Taipans squad that finished second last with a 9-19 record.

2022/23
Adam Forde’s first season as head coach didn’t yield much on-court success, with the Taipans finishing in last place, but it did build a solid foundation that resulted in Cairns having one of their most successful seasons ever in NBL23. The club brought back leading scorer Tahjere McCall, Majok Deng, Bul Kuol, Mirko Djeric, as well as the league’s Most Improved Player Keanu Pinder.

Major departures included Kouat Noi (to Sydney) and Nathan Jawai, who, despite wanting to play another season, was not by the team or any other NBL team. Forde then replenished his roster, first signing promising big man Sam Waardenburg (3 Year Deal), who was hotly pursued by most NBL team’s yet chose to sign in Cairns after being offered a starting role. Fellow college grad Lat Mayen (Nebraska) and Jonah Antonio (Czech League) signed multi-year deals, and Ben Ayre, following a memorable stint as an injury replacement player last season, was elevated to the main roster. Imports Scott Machado and Stephen Zimmerman were replaced with DJ Hogg and Shannon Scott, and Cairns, with the youngest roster in the league, surprised everyone with some upset wins to start the season.

Picked by most to finish bottom of the ladder, Cairns opened the season by defeating grand finalists Tasmania (106-84), South East Melbourne (85-76) and the reigning champions Sydney (83-78) to start the season on a 5-1 run, their only loss being to Perth (76-105).

Other notable games for the season included defeating Melbourne United twice. The first encounter saw Cairns outscore Melbourne 11-1 in the final four minutes to take home a 81-77 win that propelled them into second place on the ladder and saw Forde call Pinder (26 points and 10 rebounds) the best centre in the league after the game. The second was a 25-point belting where the Taipans led by as much as 40 points in the final quarter.

A common Taipans’ trait this season was snapping opposition win streaks. This included snapping Brisbane’s three-game win streak in November (90-82) and ending the Kings’ record 17-game road winning streak (94-88) in a overtime thriller.

The Taipans, who had spent the majority of the season sitting in second or third position on the ladder, then lost star Keanu Pinder to a ankle injury in December. Many in the media expected the team to drop down the ladder without Pinder, where they were originally predicted to finish, but instead, Cairns went on a five-game winning streak. This included wins over Adelaide 36ers (86-83), Illawarra (96-89), Brisbane (107-81), South East Melbourne (94-85), a second win over Illawarra (89-84) and New Zealand (85-83).

During the final month of the season, Cairns lost Pinder again, this time to a eye injury which resulted in him being unable to play any postseason games. Cairns and Zealand bounced back and forth in a battle for second place across the final fortnight of the games, finishing the season off by defeating Perth (84-71). The win momentarily saw Cairns jump to second place before New Zealand responded with wins over both Brisbane and Illawarra (the competition’s bottom two), resulting in both team’s finishing with a equal record (18-10). Due to the Breakers having a higher percentage, Cairns then dropped to third place and would have to go through the NBL’s inaugural play-in tournament to reach the semi finals. Next, Cairns would face Perth with Pinder still on the sidelines. Despite this, a history making effort from DJ Hogg (32 points, 9 rebounds and 4 assist), where he score the most points ever by a Taipan in a playoff game, delivered a 91-78 victory and the chance to face Sydney as the fourth seed in the semifinals.

McCall suffered a partially dislocated shoulder in the Taipans’ Seeding Qualifier against Tasmania and, as a result, was absent from game one of his side’s Playoff Series against Sydney. Without McCall available, Xavier Cooks (27 points and 14 rebounds) was able to power the Kings home to a 95-87 win over the Taipans in the opening game before a drama-filled game two saw Kings’ coach Buford being ejected. The emotions tipped over after Noi and Waardenburg both went down after hits to the head, Cooks suffered yet another ankle injury, and Tim Soares was charged with striking. Amidst the chaos, DJ Hogg (25 points and 8 rebounds) and Tahjere McCall (20 points and 7 assists) caught fire, and Cairns took down Sydney (93-82) to force a do-or-die game three.

In the deciding game, Vasiljevic, who had been almost a non-factor in the first two games, delivered when it mattered most for the Kings landing three crucial three-pointers on his way to 15 points and five rebounds to lead Sydney in scoring. Cooks shook off his rolled ankle from game two with 11 points and 11 rebounds as the Kings locked the Taipans down on defence, holding them to their lowest team score of the season, Sydney beating Cairns 79-64 to advance to the Championship Series. Ben Ayre finished top scorer for the Taipans with 20 points (4-8 from downtown) and 4 assists.

Hogg (18.1 points, 5.6 rebounds, and 2.8 assists 1.2 steals, 1.2 blocks) would led the Taipans in scoring and alongside Pinder (16.9 points, 9.3 rebounds, 2.4 assists, and 1.3 steals) was named to the All-NBL Second Team. Pinder also made history by winning the Most Improved Player award, becoming the first player ever to win the award twice. Rookie Sam Waardenburg (11.3 points, 5.6 rebounds, and 1.1 assists) collected the league’s Next Generation Award, which replaced the Rookie of the Year award that season.

Djeric would appear in 15 games over the course of the season, averaging 1.7 points, 1.3 rebounds, and 0.7 assists per game.

Mirko Djeric played eight seasons across three NBL teams. This included the Wollongong Hawks, Townsville Crocodiles and Cairns Taipans. He averaged 5 points, 1.6 rebounds, and 1.3 assists in 170 NBL games.

HIGHLIGHTS:

Dan Boyce (815 Posts)

Dan Boyce is a die-hard Sydney Kings fan who grew up in Melbourne during the roaring 90's of Australian Basketball and spent far too much time collecting Futera NBL Basketball cards.