But as he prepares for the visit of Queensland’s traditional southern rivals, he admits that facing family on the football pitch is set to be something of an unusual experience.

“It’s a bit strange," he admitted. "Earlier on in my career we played together and there’s a lot of history between us family wise.

"We’re very close but we’re both professionals. He’s the captain of Sydney FC and he has a job to do on Saturday night just like I do.”

He added: “I’m sure after the game we can have a laugh and a drink, but during the match we’ll both be doing what we can for our respective teams.

“But we’ve always been close and even when he was overseas we always stayed in regular contact.

"Poppa is a little bit older than me and he’s had a great career. I’ve always looked up to him and sought advice from him; he’s a really good friend to have and I’m sure we’ll have a good tussle on Saturday.

“We speak regularly and at the moment my wife and kids are staying at his place; maybe they can find out a few things for us...”

The last time Popovic graced the Suncorp Stadium turf was during his farewell Socceroos game against Paraguay last October when Australia were held to a 1-1 draw.

The game was memorable for Popovic though, particularly as he opened the scoring for the Socceroos with an 87th minute header.

“I remember visiting him the next day at the hotel and he really enjoyed playing at Suncorp Stadium,” said Milicic.

“It was a fairytale ending to his international career. The stadium holds good memories for him but hopefully he won’t be repeating them this weekend.”

Roar will be looking for back-to-back wins after breaking their duck against Perth Glory last Sunday and Milicic believes there will be no better time to start a run of good results.

“We were always confident that a win was just around the corner because we knew we were playing well and creating chances," he said.

"Perhaps we just needed a bit of luck but it was nice to put in a good performance and come back with the points after such a long trip to Perth.

“That’s the way we play; we create a lot of chances and get people forward as much as we can."

He added: "We probably should be scoring more than we are but I’d rather we keep creating the amount of opportunities that we are because sooner or later they’ll start going in.

"We’ve only failed to score in one game and there are plenty of teams that have bigger problems than us at this stage.

“We’re looking to string some results together now. We’re coming off a good away win but it won’t mean as much if we can’t win our home games. There’d no better time than this weekend to start that trend.”

With Sydney FC under the microscope in the wake of their defeat at home to Wellington Phoenix, Milicic says his side has to be wary of feeling the backlash from Branko Culina’s outfit as they seek their first win of the campaign.

“They’ve got so many good players in their side that it’s foolish to underestimate them in any way," he said.

"They might be a little down on confidence at the moment but you only have to look at their first eleven; it’s incredibly strong.

"Sydney have more than enough experience and talent to get out of their current situation and we will have to produce a top performance to beat them.”