Franjic and Neville notch 200 appearances, Captain Castro reaches a century and a couple of young guns make their debuts in this week’s Milestone Monday.

Defenders Scott Neville and Ivan Franjic both passed 200 A-League appearances over the weekend while Spanish maestro Diego Castro played his 100th game since joining the A-League in 2015.

Neville passed the milestone in Friday’s night loss to Melbourne Victory playing with his fifth club in the A-League after first appearing for Perth Glory in 2008.

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Meanwhile Neville’s former teammates Franjic and Castro toasted their milestones with an away win in the A-League’s longest road trip against Wellington Phoenix. Franjic now has the second-best win percentage after 200 games (51%), behind goalkeeper Michael Theo (52.5%). 37-year-old Castro dazzled in his 100th game, pulling the strings in midfield once again as Perth’s captain.

In the same game, 23-year-old midfielder Alex Rufer made his 50th A-League appearance after debuting in 2014. Rufer firmly established himself as a key player for the Phoenix last season playing 25 games after playing just 22 in his first five seasons with the club.

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Wellington also unveiled their latest signing, experienced English forward Gary Hooper, who made his first appearance as a substitute in the A-League after joining the Nix earlier in October from Sheffield Wednesday. Hooper brings significant experience to Wellington having previously played in the Premier League with Norwich City and for Celtic in the Scottish Premier League.

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Also debuting this week were young guns Makis Petratos and Ben Carrigan who both played their first A-League minutes off the bench. Makis becomes the fourth Petratos sibling to debut for Newcastle after Dimitri and Kosta in the A-League and Pana in the W-League.

Lastly, Panamanian footballer Abdiel Arroyo, scored his maiden A-League goal with a brilliant twisting volley for the Newcastle Jets in their defeat against Adelaide United. The Panama international, who played at the 2018 FIFA World Cup, was playing his second game for the Jets after joining on loan ahead of the season from Árabe Unido.