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.
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.
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.
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.
SageAdvice
Guest
"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." "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”." "So a winning manager, a winning team, a winning admin structure and a winning culture are again required. Not easy, but essential. Tony Sage knows that, and he works every day to put it right." I don't think the person writing this article has followed Perth Glory at all these past 5 seasons since Sage has come to the club, otherwise he wouldn't be making such statements. And who is their right minds thinks that an owner of a sporting team can just tell all the fans to "nick off" and be justified?
fadida
Guest
"20k crowds to break even"? Care to provide the evidence?
pete4
Guest
I always thought getting Bernd Stange (Singapore coach these days) back for a 2nd stint would be a very good thing for the Glory The Glory squad is a strong as anyone's and certainly one that should be sitting rock bottom of the ladder
j binnie
Guest
Art - A strange article covering about 20 different issues in one page,quite an accomplishment in a blog site like this.Lets take it step by step Summer Soccer as it used to be called- No one has died of heat exposure in the game to the best of my knowledge even when TV demanded that ties be played in the world cup in Mexico at high noon.Now your suggested cure is right on the ball but I hasten to add when the original proposal was put to the then ASF it was a basic foundation of the idea that games be played under floodlight in early evening time slots.That was ignored by the powers and since then TV contracts and scheduling influences have put that idea on the back burner. You then examine the credentials of the owner but in fact rather than tick all the boxes on what he is good at,(no argument there) you should probably be trying to help by relating the decisions that have been made over the Glory years that point to a weakness in the comprehension of how a sporting club should be run.Decision after decision and the logic behind it does not stand up to deep examination.Mistakes have been made all along the line and not only that but they have repeated over and over. So what to do? Glory are an essential part of the HAL,but any success they achieve both on and off the field will continue to be examined and probably criticised by a knowledgeable public until as you say,the backroom is brought up to scratch with what should be going on in the front room.Not that it helps Art but they are not alone. jb
Midfielder
Guest
Tis a pity that JON and Mark Coral in Hal 1 & 2 and they lost Nick Tanna and a stadium ... I feel for Tony Saga he has done the best he can... PG need latter games and sometimes the health of a club is more important than the Fox broadcast...
bill boomer
Guest
As a Perth resident i won't be attending their matches while they continue to play park and hoof. The are simply awful to watch.
Ben of Phnom Penh
Roar Guru
Tony Sage certainly bleeds purple, none can doubt that. I thought the Edwards project was proceeding fairly well until it all blew up, not least due to a disgruntled senior player. Perth need a Gombau.
Passionate_Aussie
Roar Rookie
Under Sage, there will be no Glory.
Batou
Guest
An article about Perth on The Roar? Wow, someone will be writing about Wellington next! On topic though, Perth have been a bit of a basket case since the A-league began. Kudos to the fans, it will be all the sweeter when it all finally comes together for you (possibly wont be anytime soon though). It does look a little from the outside as though Sage probably needs to step back a bit and give some breathing space to the manager and the team. I do feel for the poor guy though, it looked like Edwards was the right appointment but the issue with his sons was just too big to ignore. What ended up happening with that review they had last year?
whiskeymac
Guest
He needs lyall Gorman