- Video
-
Club Roar
Captured a great grassroots sporting moment? We want to see it!Content Collections
The Roar Community
- Join
- Login
Does anyone like the Perth Glory? It’s a question worth asking after Glory reminded the east coast media, once again, that they are a force to be reckoned with.
Glory’s rollercoaster 2-2 draw with the Western Sydney Wanderers yesterday won’t go into the history books as one to remember.
After going behind to Nico Martinez’s first ever A-League goal barely 30 seconds in, the hosts did well to fight back through an Alex Grant header with only five minutes on the clock.
And when Andy Keogh drilled home on the rebound following Andrew Redmayne’s one-handed save, it looked like Perth would take all three points from their out-of-sorts visitors.
That they failed to do so would have disappointed not only suspended coach Kenny Lowe, but also the majority of the 13,000 fans in attendance.
Much of the credit for the resurgent crowds must go to chief executive Peter Filopoulos – the former South Melbourne CEO installed in the wake of the 2015 salary cap scandal.
The scandal threatened to tear the club apart, but despite Football Federation Australia labelling Perth’s behaviour “deliberate concealment,” they were eventually allowed to double down and go about the business of rebuilding their squad.
It might be hard for fans who’ve grown up in the A-League era to imagine, but there was a time when Perth were the biggest club in the land.
When they kicked off in 1996, the Glory set the wheels in motion for a revolution that would eventually lead to the complete overhaul of our national league.
Back-to-back National Soccer League titles were the crowning achievements of the pre-A-League era, although Glory’s most memorable match under then-owner Nick Tana was undoubtedly the 2000 NSL grand final.
Leading 3-0 at half-time in front of more than 43,000 delirious fans at Subiaco Oval, the hosts inexplicably conceded three second half goals, before going on to lose in a penalty shoot-out to the Wollongong Wolves.
Coming as it did before the first of Perth’s two NSL titles – they lost another decider to Sydney Olympic at a packed Subiaco in 2002 – the defeat seemed to harden Glory’s resolve.
By the time they were named as one of the eight inaugural members of the A-League, and with Tony Sage eventually stepping in as the club’s sole owner, the genesis of Glory’s “west versus the rest” mentality had formed.
The only problem was that while Glory had once been a big fish in a small pond, the Australian football landscape had moved on.
When they played established rivals Adelaide United in Round 4 of the first A-League campaign, barely 8,000 fans bothered to file through the gates.
Is any of this important? It is if you think the health of the A-League is predicated on the strength of its smallest clubs.
There’s no way Perth should even be considered a small club, but with the media spotlight trained firmly on the east coast, much of what they accomplish goes unnoticed across the Nullarbor.
That’s probably why so many opponents find the trip to nib Stadium such an uncomfortable one, just as the Wanderers did on a hot afternoon yesterday.
There were almost twice as many fans inside the ground as there were at the WACA to watch the cricket – maybe now we’ll see twice as much A-League coverage as a result? – and with Keogh once again leading the line, the Glory must fancy their chances of cracking the finals this time around.
There’s a whole season of football still to play, and the sternest test yet lies in the form of unbeaten Sydney FC.
But with the early favourites struggling – Melbourne City, Melbourne Victory and defending champions Adelaide all lost this weekend – Glory look as likely to play finals football as any team.
So does anyone like them? Fans in the west certainly seem to be falling back in love with their team.
And the rest of us? If the chant is anything to go by, they probably don’t care.