Perth Glory Legend Jamie Harnwell returned to State League football this season and the club from where Perth Glory plucked him, Sorrento, and has already picked up a medal as the club won the Donate Blood State League Cup for the first time. Following their victory over the Western Knights in extra time he could be headed for a second in the final series.
However the word is that the former Glory defender come striker will be taking over the coaching reigns of the Perth Glory Women’s team providing he passes his coaching exam that he sat last week.
Despite Perth Glory promising Harnwell, a thirteen-year servant of the club a community and development role with the club, the position never eventuated and after a break from the game Harnwell took up a similar role with the games governing body Football West.
Football West runs the W League side, which carries the Perth Glory name, and so to appoint Harnwell is a perfect fit. There is no doubt he will instill a never-say-die attitude into the side, which has skirted with yet never managed to make the finals.
The one question his appointment does raise is the role of John Gibson who was installed as coach following his appointment as the Head Coach of the Women’s Football program at the Western Australian Institute of Sport.
Gibson is now overseeing a program with just six athletes under his guidance, two who are recovering from serious knee injuries. At the time of his appointment it was believed that the dual role of Head Coach at WAIS and Perth Glory Women’s coach were the perfect fit. However with the team failing to snatch a place in the top four it looks as if that is no longer the case.
One has to hope that such a move does not impact on the WAIS program as the previous administration at Football West worked very hard to get Football once again into the WAIS program.
We must aplologise if the above piece was misleading. John Gibson and WAIS have involvement with talent identification of young girls and training and coaching them to reach the elite level. When we stated he was overseeing a program with six athletes we were referring to the six scholarship holders. Not the Footy show apologises if this was misleading.