FourFourTwo Australia: What was your worst memory of the Melbourne Derby?

Mate Dugandzic: I had a season ending foot injury before the Christmas Derby in 2012. It was the game Archie Thompson scored in the last minute and he managed to lob it over Clint Bolton, it hit the crossbar, it just went over the line and that really hurt.

I remember it like it was yesterday, I was sitting in the stands with my leg up and I threw the crutches on the ground, it bounced, almost hit someone and I apologised. That was probably the most passionate I had ever been.

I was f***ing burning, people wouldn’t understand how much I was burning at the time.

Out of all the games I played and watched, that hurt the most. Being helpless on the sidelines, that was the worst I’d felt during my career.

FFT: What was your favourite memory?

MD: The one that really sticks out to me is the 1-0 City win when Erik Paartalu scored a goal in the 90th minute in 2014, the intensity that night was pretty high.

I tried to whip one in from a corner and it was a bit of a shank to be fair, I don’t think I beat the first man, but it magically dropped to Paddy Kisnorbo who passed it back to me and I just hit it to a dangerous area and thankfully with Erik’s height, he rose and knocked it in.

FFT: Do you remember the celebration when Paartalu scored?

MD: I do. It was right in front of the Victory fans actually, it was right behind their goal, I was pretty excited to put it honestly. It was a tough game, everyone was up and about after.

FFT: How do you prepare for derbies?

MD: Some years I was very superstitious and some I didn’t care at all. It was a mixed bag. Whenever the derby came around, I was very superstitious about it, so I tried to be super organised in that week leading up to it all. I was always low-key and quiet about it.

FFT: You were at Victory in Heart’s inaugural season, what was the Big V’s attitude towards their new rivals?

MD: Victory wanted to be known as the club of Melbourne which is understandable, they’d been around for quite a while and had a lot of success, I remember the first game we played, I came on for Victory in the second half. Heart beat us 2-1 and Aziz Behich was sent off. It was a pretty intense affair and entertaining for the neutral, but it was very disappointing to lose that first derby.

FFT: What were your memories of the atmosphere?

MD: At Victory, by all means I wasn’t friendly with the Heart supporters. I was Victory and I wanted to win. I remember going up to the fans after the Christmas Derby in 2010 where we won 3-1 and feeling the emotion and joy from them was fantastic at the time.

The fans did a great job of pumping the game up as much as they could because it was the first inter-city Derby you could find in the A-League.

I suppose I’ve been a bit lucky because I’ve been on both sides, but to see the passion of both sets of fans was fantastic.

FFT: Who were your toughest opponents in the Derby?

MD: Adama Traore. When I was at Heart/City, Adama was a fantastic defender. He was quick, he ventured forward and now he’s off playing back in Europe.

Aziz was also a difficult task because after playing with him initially at Victory, I always knew it’d be a tough game coming up against him.