Since the turn of the decade and for the fifth season running, Perth Glory failed to enter a Round 1 fixture with anything resembling their desired starting line-up. Monetary issues and a global pandemic have bared the blame over much of this time. However, during this period, the club has been negligent and complacent regarding many elements of its football operations.
Perth Glory's 2024/25 A-League Men campaign got off to a terrible start in a 6-1 loss to Macarthur. (Image: Harley Appezzato)
Following last weekend's horror show against Macarthur, there is already opinionated discourse writing Perth Glory off from a much-awaited return to the A-League Men Finals Series in 2024/25.
Glory played all the hits of their worst mistakes in a match settled about 20 minutes in, and to be written off that quickly is an almost impressive feat in a closed and salary-capped league system designed to be an even playing field.
For an organisation that, over the last five years, has put its fans through constant disappointment, a myriad of leadership instability, and a failure to address sustained issues, this performance was a knife in the heart of the fanbase and one the club's community did not need.
There are underlying issues that need addressing. The club's lack of ambition in its football operations and total lack of accountability in critical areas on and off the field have made its repetitive losses less like Groundhog Day and more like Bill Murray awkwardly stuck in a real-life time loop.
Regarding on-pitch issues, the conversation around fitness and the club's approach to sports science is the obvious place to start. Many senior players signed under the stewardship of new Football Director Stan Lazaridis and Head Coach David Zdrilic failed to be match fit for Round 1, either being "underdone" as Zdrilic labelled it or outright injured, a theme that has stuck with Glory each season following their premiership-winning campaign.
Of course, when Tony Popovic was appointed in May 2018, a fundamental issue of players long struggling for match fitness and many signings joining, perhaps lacking consistent conditioning, was addressed. The starting line-up for the 2018/19 season would have been the strongest and fittest-looking side the club has had at any point in the direct years before or after the fact.
As someone known to impact all factors for his teams to achieve, Popovic's managerial nous demands such an improvement in fitness. However, looking at either side of the 2018/19 equation paints a frankly baffling picture, with Glory's many foreign signings outside of a competitive period in the mid-2010s long being considered failures.
When looking at local players who leave Perth for other clubs and appear to be performing at a level above, Brandon O'Neill's initial time away at Sydney FC from 2015, Rhys Williams' time with Melbourne Victory in 2017, and, for a more recent example, Jason Geria's emergence as a Socceroo after he played for Glory in the 2020/21 season.
Tactics and a more settled role can contribute to this, though a player's general condition, be it physical or mental, is just as crucial to that success, something the club has long struggled to grasp.
Looking at the players' mentality, especially those directly from the academy system, is another excellent example of Perth's lack of proven long-term success. For a team touted with immense potential in its younger ranks, there is the exception of players likely not good enough for the A-Leagues level being promoted within the system, or those who stick around only to be surrounded by systemic failure and regime changes that cause all lack of confidence to win over their minds.
Looking at two players from Sunday's horrific result, defender Kaelan Majekodunmi and defensive midfielder Luke Bodnar are prime examples of players the Glory system is defeating as professional prospects. While Majekodunmi is younger and can turn a difficult start around, his constant usage in teams displaying sub-par performances and conceding a heavy amount of goals actively hinders his development, and it has done so since his breakout mid-way through last season.
Kaelan Majekodunmi (left) defending Macarthur winger Marin Jakolis (right) last Sunday. (Image: Harley Appezzato)
On the other hand, Bodnar has the unique distinction of debuting for the club in the 2020 Asian Champions League campaign. He has been left to bide his time between the academy system and the senior squad, mainly being called up for absences due to injury and mismanagement of player conditioning. The 24-year-old has also been in squads that were unacceptable in performance levels.
Bodnar's chances of growing as a player have been diminished by the constant change of tactics from the many managers he has played under. He is also underdone in losing squads, attempting to make the most of his 50 or so matches throughout the last four years, a total baptism of fire.
Ultimately, the benefit of having a closed system and a unique transfer system like that of the A-Leagues, under its modern guise of diminished budgets, means those deeper issues regarding squad and talent retention can be changed. An overhaul of the academy system might be a bridge too far and a different can of worms to open, though it offers yet another area where the club knows it needs to step up its game.
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The path to building an organisation under a new regime has involved many leadership changes and includes plenty of people with the right intentions and experience. Perth Glory must be held accountable for its long-held issues as an entity and for something far more simplistic as a viable starting platform. Stability and action will be the key to any sign of progress for a club that needs things fixed in the right areas with the right people.
The message to those involved in the new set-up and anyone brought into it in the immediate future who harbours ambitions of such changes would be even more straightforward: no, Rome wasn’t built in a day, but the ancient Romans hardly spent half a decade actively failing to build up the city walls, and that, in a system designed for equality, is a deep worry that has plagued Perth Glory.
So, the objective is obvious: show the intent, take the required action, and give back to a community that is hurting far beyond what most sports fans should ever deal with in such a short time frame.
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