104 days. That’s how long it’s been since Perth Glory announced that their manager, Ruben Zadkovich, would be leaving the club.
The statement cited that his resignation would leave him the opportunity to pursue other options. This came as a shock to most, although issues that had arisen throughout his tenure quickly came to the forefront as the reasons behind him leaving the club.
Despite enjoying success at home, Perth’s away form was abysmal, winning just one game in the 2022-23 season. The tactics appeared to be ‘rely on the home crowd,’ which, to his credit, worked with Glory only losing once at home, a cracker that ended 4-2 to Melbourne City.
Sixty-two days later, Alen Stajcic was unveiled as the new Glory boss, to much commendation from the fans. The appointment had come at a time of uncertainty for the club, with no owners and barely a starting 11.
Numerous players were jumping ship as their contracts were up in the air. Notable departures included star winger Ryan Williams, exciting youngster Keegan Jelacic, sold for a fee, and the ever-present Jack Clisby, with numerous other useful squad players leaving.
Since joining the club, Stajcic has taken the reins of the head of recruitment role from club legend Andy Keogh and has made five signings, with a few more potentially still to come.
(Photo by Hagen Hopkins – FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images)
Aleksandar Susnjar is an astute signing and will provide competition to the ageing duo of Mark Beevers and Darryl Lachman, both previous players of the year for the Western Australian outfit.
Bruce Kamau, another Australian with very good experience in the A-League is a dynamic, versatile attacking player who will no doubt be crucial to Perth’s top-six hopes.
Riley Warland returns after a good season in the NPL with Gwelup Croatia for his third stint at the club. Another versatile and talented player, Warland can play at centre-back and left-back, making him highly useful for Stajcic.
On the day after deadline day, Glory announced the loan signings of 34-year-old veteran and Socceroo Oliver Bozanic, as well as winger Jarrod Carluccio to bolster the squad.
Bozanic had some of his best years under Stajcic and whilst he is on the wrong side of 30, he and Perth’s current captain Mustafa Amini could form a solid partnership in midfield.
All the signings that Perth have made so far are one-year deals or loans, most likely due to the ownership situation, and contract extensions for some of these signings could be triggered as soon as the saga is over.
I have attended all three of Perth Glory’s friendlies so far this season and have each time been left satisfied with the level of quality displayed by the players. Stajcic has clearly implemented his style of play already and thirteen goals in three games, whilst admittedly being against tired NPL sides, is nothing to be sniffed at.
After so many false dawns and poor seasons, the sleeping giant of the A-League looks like it may be starting to wake.
Whilst we won’t know until the season starts, it looks like the Glory Days could well be back at HBF Park.
NickA
Roar Rookie
it's also telling the proportion of Socceroos/Olyroos/Tillies that are WA products. Seems like a fair few recently.
NickA
Roar Rookie
I’ve only just joined the Roar and have found this the most informed, active and respectful community covering Aus football anywhere. As a young person, there’s the CAFF group on Facebook (which is not bad but not what it used to be) & the A League Memes page (who, at one stage, were better advertisers for the league than the actual APL/FA); Instagram has various pages but they are overrun with bots and 16 year old kids who are mostly there to troll and bash the A leagues for not being the Premier League. I’m not on Twitter and while I know there is a good Aus football community on it, it’s not exactly thriving medium to encourage discussions. Not on Reddit but I’ve heard there’s a strong community there too. I reckon once I get the hang of the Roar a bit more I might have a crack at writing an article or two.
NickA
Roar Rookie
Who are you looking at? I know there's big raps on Daniel Bennie.
NickA
Roar Rookie
Bozanic is an excellent player and has played well wherever he has played. Similar to Kilkenny in that he seems to rub coaches the wrong way. I am also really interested to see Zimarino, Colli and Colakovski get some gametime. All have big potential and Staj should get them all firing. Daniel Bennie too.
TheSecretScout
Roar Guru
im not entirely sold on perth making the finals this season, especially with the ownership dramas still not resolved and the recruitment hasnt been great either. the one thing that perth have going for them, is the youth coming through the under 16s at the moment. in terms of youth with potential to 'make it' i rank perth second, only behind adelaide when it comes to talented kids. they could have some generational talent through that club in the next 3-5 years but they need to really get their development coaching right (i'd be looking at removing kenny lowe for anything academy related as an example)
Brendan
Roar Pro
It’s a good question. I’m not privy either, especially about the financial gains as a regular Roar author or sub-editor. Although, in the past, I was aware about the possibilities of complimentary tickets to games. This wasn’t guaranteed, either. This was long before the pandemic. As a guess, a “successful” article would gain 1,000+ views, plus, the author would need to regularly converse with readers via posts. Again, these are only my assumptions, & not concrete. I would utterly love if more people wrote football articles. People such as The Secret Scout (A/A) always give juicy coverage, & great insights into the game. Even No Mates took a stab & carved up a couple of articles, which were appreciated.
Grem
Roar Rookie
Just take it from them - it wouldn’t be a problem. The AFL would simply demand a new 800 billion dollar stadium paid for by taxpayers, chip in a few dollars, claim ownership and let cricket use it during summer.
Grem
Roar Rookie
I had never really thought about the money making side of these articles. So Mike is a money maker with his controversial articles and rugby articles always seem to have 200 or more comments.
Brendan
Roar Pro
I suspect most online articles would have a wide, mainstream appeal. However, there are also boutique stories, similar to Stu’s Lego account, about a boy who builds German stadiums, which I enjoy too. Commercially, the best story for The Roar is the one with the most advertising hits. I know the ABC openly pays for unsolicited articles specifically on women’s sport. That’s very cool, Grem. Full respect on your work with those students. Sincerely, I’m sure the experience was rewarding for everyone.
Grem
Roar Rookie
Do all articles need to be commercial? I had three years of my career, after completing additional studies, working with blind and visually impaired students. I used to love working with sport adaptations to do a form of table tennis, ten pin bowling, ice skating, dodge ball, etc. It’s amazing what can be done to enable people.
Brendan
Roar Pro
Indeed. Ours is the universal game. It’s a code that doesn’t sleep. A perfect sport to watch, I agree. A year ago, I wrote an unpublished article about vision-impaired football players (& fans). I was proud of the write-up, but in hindsight, it probably wasn’t commercial enough. The crux was that football had evolved to cater for most people. EG: Celtic FC have a unique spectator room to assist special needs fans at Paradise. And, AFL team, Essendon, were assisting blind soccer players by allowing them to compete in The Hanger (enclosed stadium).
Grem
Roar Rookie
I am envious too - imagine how our football comp would be with that sort of money and spectator support behind us. We already have the most participants and we’re already producing great players - the mind boggles! And our game is much better to watch.
mrl
Roar Rookie
Adelaide Oval will always be a cricket ground…which of course the AFL use. Except for Marvel stadium, every AFL ground is a cricket ground. There was talk years ago in Adelaide of building a rectangular football/rugby 30,000 seater near the West side of the city. They ended up building a hospital…the fools.
Brendan
Roar Pro
Too true. Memberships are vital too. I sometimes look at the AFL in awe & think: how on earth does Collingwood break six figures? It’s incredible. I hardly watch AFL, but I deeply respect their code & authority (power) over mainstream media.
Grem
Roar Rookie
All football supporters, regardless of whatever team we follow, need to send emails/letters/whatever of thanks to every owner. Without the Scott Barlows, Richard Piels, Paul Lederers, Tony Sage, etc - even the Bakry family. Without them our whole competition is gone!
Brendan
Roar Pro
Glory will go far, No Mates, but don’t write Sydney off just yet. FC are currently 2-0 up on WU in the Australia Cup (half time). More silverware for Corica? Another trophy & he’ll be at the Sky Blues for life.
Brendan
Roar Pro
I should ad, I have a soft-spot for Glory, especially after the Western Australian government’s hard boarder policy during COVID. It completely put Glory under the pump & drained Tony Sage’s funds. Sage fought tooth & nail for Glory, who were given limited concessions, even from Football Australia. Honestly, who in their right mind would want to own a professional sport’s team?
Brendan
Roar Pro
Very close. Although there was friction between Bozanic & Monty, which resulted in time spent on the CCM sidelines. A similar thing happened with WSW’s Rudan, who blamed “injury” for Bozanic being overlooked a few times. Still, I rate Bozanic highly. I’m super happy Staj’s handling Glory. I can see Perth easily playing final’s football.
Grem
Roar Rookie
He was close to a Socceroos recall at The Mariners.
Grem
Roar Rookie
Adelaide v Sydney at a full Adelaide Oval. I’d definitely be there for that. I recently had 10 days at Victor Harbor and visited Glenelg, Handorph, Adelaide, etc. They’re all nice places. The Oval looks great from the outside. Such a shame it is wasted on AFL! It should be reconfigured into a rectangular stadium and made into a home for The Socceroos.