Perth Glory: A work in progress

The A-League has had so many great success stories in its first decade, and surely there’s many more to come in the next one and beyond.

The rise of the sport is still ongoing and this season, on the back of a World Cup and with an Asian Cup in January 2015, it’s star really can’t burn much brighter. The game is now definitely here to stay, after a few hiccups and issues in the A-League a few years back, which have since been sorted out. And the participating clubs have all played their part.

Melbourne Victory have taken the league by storm with their memberships and attendances, averaging over 20,000 per game in six out of the first nine seasons, and also having over 20k members for many of those seasons.

The Wanderers have come in and have been like a second Victory for the league if you like, with a massive fan-base, a very good team on the field, and they’ve re-energised the entire code in the ultra competitive Sydney sports market in just two seasons.

Brisbane Roar has lifted the entire league up a couple of notches over the last five years with their style and quality of play, their uncanny recruitment of quality players from overseas without the huge price tags, and as a result have won three grand finals and effectively got their coach promoted to the Socceroos job.

And the fact they’ve just cracked 10,000 members for the first time in their history this offseason, is no coincidence. They are heading in the right direction.

Sydney FC were massive early on, bringing in Dwight Yorke and having the ‘Bling FC’ tag. They really went through a lull there for a few years, but have been improving in the last couple of seasons, and will no doubt be contenders this year with Arnie at the helm. Not to mention they’ve spent massive amounts of cash, the most of any club, none more so than to bring Alessandro Del Piero to these shores and really put the A-League on the map all over the world.

Newcastle and the Mariners have both won the A-League, and both do pretty well considering their population sizes. The Jets have had their well publicised issues with Nathan Tinkler, but have had around 10,000 members for the last four seasons.

They haven’t performed well in the last few seasons, but the Newcastle area is rich in football history. The Mariners have also had their ownership issues, but they’ll always be the little club that can, and even though many are predicting doom and gloom for them, in both the short and long term, I think they’ll keep doing what they’ve been doing.

Melbourne City will be better this season, they have to be, and have just gone over 8500 members in the offseason, a good sign that they’re finally getting there as a club. And we all know their new owners have the means to keep them growing, especially with good and proper management.

There is certainly enough room and support for two teams in Melbourne.

Adelaide United have really turned things around from where they were during the Rini Coolen era, and are one of the favourites for this year’s toilet seat.

With Gombau now in his second season, and Hindmarsh getting a small facelift on the offseason, things are definitely looking up in SA. Not to mention Adelaide City doing really well in the new FFA Cup.

The Phoenix are still trying to get their act together across the ditch, both on and off the field. Unfortunately football as a code in NZ, still isn’t growing at the same speed as what it is and has in Oz. It needs time. But with this season’s roster the best they’ve ever assembled in Wellington, and with Ernie now settled in, they have the best chance of moving up the ladder and even making the finals.

Which brings me to the last club of the competition, the Perth Glory. And sadly, the word last is exactly how I view this once great club.

When I look back at the NSL, Glory was a Wanderer or a Victory-type club, a power club, with great fans, great home game atmospheres. It was an intimidating place to play at, with crowds constantly topping 15,000. What I see now is a club that’s a shadow of its former self. It just shows you how far they’ve gone backwards since those great days.

I can count on one hand how many times Perth Glory have had crowds in excess of 15k in the last decade. They’ve had no on-field success, barring one grand final appearance, and that’s translated in a reduction of crowds and a shrinkage of their fan-base.

It seems they’ve lost touch with the football community of WA, which is a real shame.

Now I’m not 100 per cent sure why this is, but I think there maybe a number of reasons. Their owner Tony Sage has poured millions into the club, year after year, and for that he should be commended.

But he needs to pull his head in and keep his comments to himself and out of the paper, as this is a bad look for himself and the club, giving it a negative perception to the outside world.

For whatever reason, the club has just never got going in the A-League era, both on or off the field.

They’ve had many CEO’s, and not all of those with a footballing background, which you’d think would be essential, particularly for this club which needs to reconnect with all their fans from the past, but also attract new blood through the gates.

And the figures don’t lie. They’ve never averaged over 10,000 crowds for any season, since the beginning of the A-League, and have never had a home gate larger than 20,000. Their best home crowd ever was 16,706 in the 2012-13 season.

Granted, their crowds have grown slightly in the last two seasons, but still nowhere near where they should be.

Adelaide United, who trade in a similar sized market in terms of population, have always been able to pull five-figure crowds to their home games. An update this week on the A-League website had Perth with 4500 memberships sold for the coming season.

This number should be more like 6000-7000 by now. Clearly still a lot of work to do. Hopefully one day they can get back to their Glory days, as the entire A-League needs a healthy Perth Glory and Football generally thriving again in Western Australia.