Perth Glory must have run over a black cat, as luck continues to go against them, and last night they suffered yet another defeat, and had two players sent off. Both the players sent off, Mitchell and Neville being defenders and that now leaves them very short at the back for the upcoming match against the North Queensland Fury, with Todd, Sekulovski and Harnwell all out injured and Jamie Coyne also under and injury cloud.
Is it therefore any surprise that they will make any grab for Glory they possibly can? That opportunity presented itself when Perth Glory W League and Matildas’ striker Katie Gill was crowned Asian Football Confederation’s Women’s Footballer of the year.
On the face of it you may wonder what we are talking about. You see the Perth Glory Women’s team is run and financed by Football West the State’s football administration body. Perth Glory has not sent out a press release relating to the Women’s arm since the inauguration of the team. So why would they suddenly pre-empt a release from Football West?
With the first team on the road and suffered a 3-2 defeat last night against the Brisbane Roar, the media manager being with the team would have received the news two hours ahead of the people of Perth who were still in bed, so it was an opportunity too good to be missed. By stealing Football West’s thunder it deflects the attention from another defeat and gives the club the chance to promote something positive.
It is sad however that Katie’s outstanding achievement has been used in such a way. Congratulations to her, and hopefully this will spur her on this weekend against Brisbane Roar.
Congratulations also to the Matildas winning AFC National Team of the Year, and Sasa Ognenovski was named AFC player of the year, for his performances with his AFC Champions League winning club Seongnam Ilhwa.
Finally Australia also won the AFC Dream Asia Award, recognizing Australia’s commitment to social development through football. One hopes that this is not going to be the AFC’s compensation for not backing their World Cup bid next week.
