A New Era For Glory On The Horizon?

Western Australia is often referred to as “the wild West” due to its isolation, and its often very parochial stances on issues.

When football became the first truly national sporting competition when Perth Glory was welcomed into the National Soccer League, the Western Australia side became a benchmark for the rest.

Perth Glory showed the potential that lay in Western Australia. It stood, under the stewardship of owners Nick Tana and Paul Afkos along with General Manager Roger Lefort for professionalism and innovation. Here was a club that connected with the community and offered entertainment. Perth Glory tickets were the hottest in town. To back up all the hard work off the pitch the team performed on it. They played entertaining football in front of large crowds, that were the envy of the nation. The club won the league three times; classified as a premiership or minor premiership. They won the Championship, or Grand Final twice and on two other occasions were the losing finalists.

When the National Soccer League closed down and the A-League was created in its place Nick Tana remained owner of the club before in May 2006 handing the ownership over to the then Football Federation of Australia. The game’s governing body installed Michelle Phillips as CEO and Ron Smith as coach and set about finding a new owner or owners.

On the 23rd of February 2007 it was announced that Perth Glory was to be handed over to a triumvirate of owners: Tony Sage, Brett McKeon and John Spence. The initial plan was to develop youth, and Smith having been the head of the very successful AIS development program set in place a plan to develop some of the best youth in Australia over the next few years. Unfortunately the fans and the owners were not so patient. They wanted immediate success. In addition to this pressure the former owners of the club, the FFA, were far from accommodating when they selected a large group of Glory’s developing players who were in the first team for youth international commitments. The club still had to play A-League matches but now with a greatly weakened side.

First to pull the pin as an owner was John Spence in 2008, who famously said at the time that the A-League was “a billionaires club for millionaires.” In February 2009 Brett McKeon walked away citing the cost of Perth Glory’s participation in the National Youth League as being one of the reasons. This cost had escalated to be far higher the FFA had advised; rumoured at the time to have been five times the forecast cost.

That left Tony Sage as the sole owner, and at the time he said “I believe we are on the cusp of achieving great things at the club and I’ll be here for the long haul.”

To be fair to Tony Sage he has hung in there for the long haul. Sadly great things have not been achieved.

He has stayed at the club in sole control for a further 14 years, but now it would appear that the end is very near, and likely to be announced in the next week or so with the Grand Final for the 2022/23 season done and dusted.

Last week Danny Townsend Chief Executive of the Australian Professional Leagues (APL) was in Perth and meeting with the powers that be at Perth Glory.

The Australian Professional Leagues has assisted the Perth Glory with player payments in season 2021/22 and it is alleged had to do the same in the season that has just ended. Not surprisingly they have been looking for some assurances as to when these loans are going to be paid back. The word around the grounds is that this is a sum in the millions, which the APL cannot afford to write-off.

In the event that the money is not paid back soon the APL would have to take the A-League licence back. If they do that the chances of them recovering the monies owed would diminish. The only way in which they could recover those funds would be to sell the club themselves, keep the amount owed, and give Mr Sage anything above and beyond that amount.

However, that is likely to be well below the price that Tony Sage believes the club is worth. Mr Sage has been trying to sell the club for a number years and there have been different prices quoted, the most recent believed to be around the $18million mark. Yet the issue here is what is a new owner buying? Perth Glory does not own its ground, it does not own any training facilities, it does not own the offices from which it operates. So any buyer is purchasing exisiting contracts, sponsorships and the goodwill attached to the club. They would also have to take on any current debt. Again it is alleged that this has been a stumbling block in the sale of the club previously. Some potential buyers were willing to take on those debts but not pay anywhere near the asking price.

The buzz within the game is that the APL have a potential buyer, a consortium prepared to take on the club, but allegedly they do not wish to come in to an ailing club and take on the debt.

So some would say that a Mexican stand-off has developed.

On Friday the club announced the shock resignation of polarising head coach Ruben Zadkovich. While the head coach left with dignity, there has been much speculation that he was actually asked to move on as the APL look to reduce costs and clear the decks for a new owner. Certainly few were mourning the announcement as some players and fans had never warmed to Zadkovich in the role.

His departure made him the eighth coaching casualty during Tony Sage’s tenure as owner. Eight coaches in 16 years, is not a great record and is always going to hamper a club supposedly building for the future. Two of those eight lasted three years in the job and only one, Kenny Lowe lasted five.

In the old NSL Perth Glory employed three coaches in nine years.

One line the club has become famous for during Tony Sage’s stewardship when appointing coaches is that they ‘conducted a worldwide search.’ Yet interestingly 50% of those who ended up as head coach had previously been an assistant coach at the club.

It is one thing to have a revolving door on the coach’s office but it is never good if the same applies to the role of CEO. Again during the time Tony Sage has been an owner of the club there have been eight individuals take on that role. Which means an average tenure of just over two years.

During the nine years the club played in the NSL there were two.

Whether it is the APL or a new owner that steps in to run the club there is a great deal of work to be done to lift Perth Glory to where it was. If the APL takeover the running of the club fans should not hold their breath for a sudden improvement on the way things have been, as they will be looking to limit expenditure to make the accounts look more appealing to a potential buyer.

Hopefully a potential buyer is going to do their homework, or they may find themselves watching money drain away faster than they anticipated.

The A-League itself is struggling. The move to Channel 10 and Paramount would appear not to have been a good one. A poor product, and one that is out of sight out of mind. Which is sad as there are still some teams playing good football.

Equally challenging is the lack of coverage in the WA. In a state where there is no longer a newspaper you would even eat your chips out of let alone buy, there is a complete lack of interest in Perth Glory or the oldest form of football. It is hard to believe that the sport used to have an eight page lift out on a Monday, now that same paper does not even have a dedicated football writer.

So the owners are going to have to generate their own coverage and media. They will need to find an innovative way to share official information with the wider Western Australian public.

Unfortunately one of the legacies of Tony Sage’s ownership will be the disconnect between the Perth Glory and local football. (What do Poll Results Reveal About Non-Attendance?) This is going to take a long time to repair. It has not all been the owner’s fault. Some of that disconnect has been the fault of the coaches he has employed who have failed to even attend local games. While most will concede that the standard in Western Australia is the poorest it has been for decades, it does not do to dismiss all who play publicly, which has sadly happened.

While it may have benefitted A- League clubs in other states having Youth development sides competing in the NPL it has had a negative affect in Western Australia on a number of levels. First up the A-League side poaches the best of the up and coming youth selling them the dream of professional football. They have at times had squads that have been twice the size of those at the clubs they compete against, which has meant that some of these talented young players are missing out on valuable game time when they most need it.

This poaching of players has caused a great deal of resentment between local clubs and the A-League club. Most clubs would be happy to see a young player they have helped develop go on and succeed, but there is a way to go about this. Whoever takes over the club needs to review this section of their operations if they want to woo the local clubs back to supporting the Perth Glory. (Actions Speak Louder than Words)

Many will argue that these young players would in fact be better off remaining at their clubs, and developing the old fashioned way, learning from experienced older players, but having extra specialist training to improve their talents. After all clubs are the lifeblood of all sports, and offer most young players an excellent grounding into what it means to be a part of a club. (Don’t Be Fooled By Marketing Spin) As has been witnessed with the Perth Glory youth team there is a lack of understanding on this level, with parents whisking away their children the minute the game is over, rather than telling the child that they should go into the opponent’s club house for at least one drink and at least half an hour.

The other sad fact is many who have been part of the “Glory Pathway” do not return to club football once their journey comes to an end. Obviously the long term hope when this set-up was devised was that those who were not going to make it would drop back to the local leagues, and thanks to their experience with a professional set=up would raise the bar of the local competition. That hasn’t happened in Western Australia. Some realise the dream is over and simply walk away from the game. Others have become jaded with football. The fun has gone, so they too walk away.

Then there are those who opt to stay in the game. Rather than play in an inferior league, which ironically has been weakened due to them leaving their original club some have headed to Melbourne or Sydney to try and earn more money but also to put themselves in front of more coaches on the East coast and hopefully revive the dream. Some do return to the local league but regrettably with an inflated idea of their worth, and some clubs foolishly agree to pay what is being asked.

The Perth Glory has some incredibly loyal fans, who have stuck by the club during these lean and at times heart-breaking years. These individuals are truly outstanding supporters. Is it time therefore that they be given a voice.

We are frequently told how many “members” the club has, but these ‘members’ are in fact simply people who buy ticketing packages and get given a few freebies. (Is Membership the Key Issue?) They are not members at all. This is one of the biggest myths surrounding the A-League. In most cases, and certainly at Perth Glory the fans have no say whatsoever in the club. These loyal fans deserve it.

This is one of the reasons why there is little or no community buy-in to the club as it stands.

The potential is there, as was witnessed when the A-League Grand Final was played at Optus Stadium. An official crowd of 56.371 turned up to that game, only to see Sydney FC win in a penalty shoot-out. The opening game of the following season took place on the 13th of October at home against Brisbane Roar, yet only 9, 829 fans came through the turnstiles. With a club official stating previously that the Glory give away 3000 free tickets every home game, one is left wondering how many of those fans actually paid for a ticket. More of a concern is the fact that only 17.5% of the crowd that attended the Grand Final came to the opening game of the following season four months, or 156 days later.

Where was the marketing to follow up the Grand Final, where was the hype to pull fans in? This would have to be one of the biggest administrative fails in the club’s history.

However, as anyone who has made the trip from the Eastern seaboard to work for Perth Glory will tell you Perth is a strange place, very parochial. Which means you have to tap into that parochialism in order to be successful. Many who attended the Grand Final had not been to a Perth Glory game for years, and many had no intention of going again. They were at the Grand Final because this was ‘an event.’ It was something to boast about. It gave some in Perth some form of status to say that they were there. That aside, to have not been able to attract 83% of those who paid to watch that game to the opening match of the following season is a sad indictment on the club and the game in Western Australia.

There is a very strong disconnect between Perth Glory and the Western Australian community. Some of that it has to be said is down to the owner himself. Fans have tired of the same lines being trotted out year after year, the global search for a coach, how much the club is costing him, and how he is going to walk away. The dud signings from overseas have also become tiresome. Diego Castro, who was far from a big name when he signed for the club has been one of the few shining lights in recent years, but as has been clear one player does not make a team.

There are many who feel that the Perth Glory name in terms of what it used to stand for and reflect compared to its place in society now has fallen too far. That the cost to win back the public is one that will require a huge investment, and a massive shift in the culture of the club as it stands.

Others will tell you that the name is part of Australian football, part of Western Australian sporting history, and like clubs in Europe that have survived for over 100 years it too can weather the storm of the past decade. Australian football is far removed from European clubs which are built around communities. Franchise clubs are very different, and always will be, and that is another challenge in itself.

A new club, a new name and a new brand maybe just what the APL needs? They could sell the licence to an owner who can start afresh, who does not have to take on any of the existing baggage associated with the club at the present time. That would enable the APL to pursue repayment of the money they loaned the current club via legal or whatever means they deem appropriate.

That is unlikely to happen.

So, if Tony Sage is to step aside, Western Australians should thank him for keeping the club alive, irrespective of their views on him or the job he has done. Perth Glory is still the only team that represents Western Australia in the A-League. History will show he was the owner for 16 years. There were highs and there were lows, but they are all a part of the club’s history. The focus has to be on the future, the next generation and the new ownership.

As stated there will need to be a great deal of investment in winning the public back. There should also be a serious review into the Youth development pathway and while this may work in other states the big question that has to be asked is whether the current set-up is really benefitting football as a whole in Western Australia? The game has to be united for both the NPL and the Perth Glory to succeed.

While the Perth Glory may be the pinnacle of the game in Western Australia the club is not best served by a substandard semi-professional competition underpinning it. Fans say they want to see local players playing for the club, but if those players are not ready to make that step up who can blame coaches for looking elsewhere? For Perth Glory to succeed there has to be some changes in local football, or it will be groundhog day. The new owners may not hang around as long as Tony Sage, and then where will that leave the future of the club?

There can be no doubting that with Perth Glory, because of its history and what it stood for, expectations are high. Those standards have slipped, but that bar still remains high. This was after all a leading club on which others modelled their own. So for that reason many are indeed wild in the West, wild to have seen the club fall so far from what it stood for in the community and promoted Australia-wide.

All sporting clubs are a reflection of the community they serve, they are part of the identity of that city or town. Therefore that community connection is essential to its success. For too long that has been ignored, hopefully a new regime will recognise that, and there will be a clear shift in the seasons ahead.