After stunning results in the few past seasons RK Crikvenica was promoted to the newly created Croatian First League in 2001. With this new progress Žiljak signed his old RK Zamet players Alvaro Načinović and Mladen Prskalo to strengthen his team. Žiljak's first season with Crikvenica in the First league ended with 10 place avoiding the relegation play-offs. The 2002-03 season ended up with them finishing in 11 place avoiding relegation play-offs again and reaching the quarter-finals of the Croatian Cup where they lost to RK Zagreb.
