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Glory hunters need to get off Sage's back

Both Perth Glory and the Wanderers are looking to finish their season with a bit of pride. (AAP Image/Theron Kirkman)
Roar Guru
10th March, 2014
10

The clamour for heads to roll at Perth Glory is ridiculous.

Jacob Burns and Shane Smeltz will retire/resign/leave, but might be coaches somewhere. Others might be offered a one-way ticket, but not before a new manager casts his eye over the crew.

William Gallas could scarcely believe football could be played at 4pm in summer. He’s a living testimony to what a European human can withstand, in Albury or Perth.

The A-League would do well to set Glory’s home games at 7pm next season or they will have the fight of their lives on their hands – and it won’t be pretty.

They need to understand that the death of a footballer on the pitch is a very real dilemma. Not to mention a fan having heat stroke.

Now Gallas would be unlikely to subject himself to another desert nightmare when the beaches and the babes in the west are the finest in the world, nor would Tony Sage be reconsidering another large six-figure salary for him.

Unless his new Manager in 2015 – be it Kenny Lowe or another – desires him as much as Alistair Edwards did.

I think the public at nib Stadium are entitled to a better deal from the Glory and the FFA. They are made to sit in stifling heat to watch a winter game played, which costs a winning Glory team 5,000 seats a game at home minimum.

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And they need to get to 20,000 spectators just to break even.

I feel the media has made some good points about the Glory, but if anyone in Western Australian football or sport thinks they want to run a team in a the A-League they need to front up, not just gob off!

First of all, make sure you have close to $5 million in the bank to hand out every season, because the FFA won’t give you a license if you don’t.

Make sure you have business acumen at the top level. Make sure you have a ccouting regime and a relationship with a Premier League club.

Make sure you have access to a manager who has complete understanding of the A-League and can attract great imports – be they foreign or Australian – and knows that if he doesn’t fill the squad with young WA talent, his gonads are as good as gone.

Tony Sage ticks every box for consistency and attention to detail.

He employs CEOs and managers who are supposed to be mature enough and smart enough to run a winning program, and he gives them the opportunity to succeed.

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If they do not, they know what the result will be.

Kenny Lowe was under no illusions and has said so. Nor was Alistair Edwards. Nor is Jason Brewer.

Tony Sage doesn’t miss much about national sport, Mining, or the half-dozen other industries he’s tied up with.

He loves the game of Australian football, loves rugby league too, and could just as easy throw his hands in the air and tell everyone to “nick off”.

But he is more considered than that.

The media have been bleating about how poor the infrastructure at the Glory is, how bad the manager is, how rotten the atmosphere is, how people aren’t attending.

So a winning manager, a winning team, a winning admin structure and a winning culture are again required. Not easy, but essential.

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Tony Sage knows that, and he works every day to put it right.

The 1-1 draw in Wellington was not exactly a panacea, but it is a start.

There is no secret to the fact that Sidnei, Cernak, Smeltz, Harold, Sernas, Makeche and others have contributed next to zilch in goal scoring this season.

The manager is patently aware of it. If he fails to experiment over the last few matches, he knows what fate awaits him.

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