Perth Glory FC
Perth Glory Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Perth, Western Australia. It competes in the country's premier men's competition, A-League Men, under licence from Australian Professional Leagues.
Founded in 1995, Perth Glory is one of three A-League clubs to survive from the now-defunct National Soccer League, playing its debut match in this competition in October 1996 for the 1996–97 season. Perth established itself as a major side within Australian soccer in the final seasons of this league, with managers Bernd Stange and Mich d'Avray leading the club to three league Premierships and two Championships from four grand final appearances within a five-season period. Since entering the A-League as one of the eight original teams in 2004, the club has won a further Premiership and appeared in two more grand finals under the management of Tony Popovic and Ian Ferguson. The club has also appeared in the AFC Champions League once and appeared in two Australia Cup finals and two A-League Pre-Season Challenge Cup finals.
The club plays its home matches at Perth Rectangular Stadium, currently known as HBF Park for sponsorship purposes, a 20,500-seat stadium on Lord Street, Perth. Perth has used this stadium as its home ground since its inception.
Perth's main supporters' group is known as the "Glory Shed Supporters Club", named after "The Shed", a terrace at the club's home ground. The club has rivalries with Wellington Phoenix, Gold Coast United, and the Melbourne Knights. The club's all-time leading goalscorer is Bobby Despotovski, with 129 goals to his name in all competitions. Jamie Harnwell holds the record for most matches played, with 256 appearances for the Glory.
History
Background (1977–95)
Perth first showed interest in joining the National Soccer League prior to its inaugural year in 1977, but a series of logistical and financial problems meant that the league was reluctant to include a Western Australian team. While the state representative side continued to perform well in national and international cup competitions, WA continued to be unrepresented in a national club league until 1994, when a group of businessmen led by Joe Claudio formed the Perth Kangaroos IFC.The club competed in the 1994 Singapore Premier League along with the Darwin Cubs: at the time, there were visions of establishing an Asia-Pacific Super League which could become a sporting and financial empire in the east. The Kangaroos finished the league season undefeated, and easily won the Singapore league title. However, with dwindling support and resources, the experiment proved to be a financial disaster, and Perth Kangaroos IFC soon folded.
File:Performance Chart Aust Soccer PER.svg|thumb|Chart of yearly table positions for Perth Glory in NSL & A-League Men
Early seasons (1995–98)
In 1995, another consortium led by Nick Tana made a bid for entry into the National Soccer League. Perth Glory was subsequently licensed to join the 1996–97 NSL season and on 1 December 1995 the club was officially launched. From a relatively unheralded start, the club would develop beyond all expectations and help commercially re-establish soccer in the mainstream sports consciousness in a State where the AFL competition playing Australian Rules Football is given media dominance. Former Australian Socceroo international, Adelaide City and Perth Kangaroos coach Gary Marocchi was appointed coach for the first two seasons and won many fans with his bold, attacking style. Perth only just missed the cut for the finals; finishing 7th and 8th in 1996–97 and 1997–98 respectively.In the Glory's inaugural season, players such as NSL-title-winning sweeper Vinko Buljubašić, Perth-based striker Bobby Despotovski and young local star Vas Kalogeracos were brought into the team and achieved cult status. New Zealand international Gavin Wilkinson was also signed while local midfielder Gareth Naven was appointed captain. In its first match in the NSL, Perth Glory lost to Sydney Olympic 4–1, with veteran Scot Alan MacKenzie scoring the first goal for Glory and Doug Ithier winning the first Man-of-the-Match award. Large crowds and good results soon followed with an exciting win over defending champions, the Melbourne Knights, thrilling a huge crowd. Glory needed only a point in its final match of the season but were defeated by the Knights and fell just short of making the finals. Glory midfielder Paul Strudwick was sent off during the match in controversial circumstances while trouble in the crowd also marred the match.
In the 1997–98 season, despite again narrowly missing the top six and signing more high-profile players like Ernie Tapai, Danny Hay and Nigerians Samson Siasia and Peter Anosike, it was a disappointing season for the Glory.
Stange era (1998–2001)
Fan support was further consolidated in the era of Bernd Stange. The former East German national coach became a media star after replacing Gary Marocchi who was sacked. Mich d'Avray, a former England under-21 international was appointed as Stange's assistant coach.In his first season, Stange had taken Glory to its first-ever finals series and had fallen in the preliminary final against Sydney United. With new signings John Markovski and Con Boutsianis fitting straight into the side, local player Jamie Harnwell started to develop into a key defender and made the step to replace the injured Vinko Buljubašić. Unfortunately, a horror form slump at the height of summer denied the Glory a top-two place but massive crowds still attended its two home finals at the WACA Ground against Adelaide City and Marconi Stallions.
In the following season, Glory recruited young players Ivan Ergić, Jason Petković and Olyroo Kasey Wehrman. The club finished first in the regular season and were crowned minor premiers for the first time, allowing them to enter the final series at the major semifinal. In the finals series, the Glory lost to Wollongong Wolves 1–0 at Brandon Park, the Wolves' home ground, in the first leg of the major semifinal. The second leg of the major semifinal was held at Subiaco Oval, rather than its regular venue Perth Oval, to accommodate an expected larger crowd. In the match, Perth Glory won 2–0 over the Wolves, 2–1 on aggregate, to qualify for the grand final. The crowd of 42,764 was an Australian record for a club soccer match. In the wake of the record crowd, the Western Australian government announced a purpose-built stadium for the Glory in central Perth. The 1999–2000 grand final is remembered as one of the most thrilling matches in NSL history. Perth again faced the Wolves and led 3–0 at half time against a miserable Wolves outfit; thinking the game was won, Stange substituted key Glory players Scott Miller, Bobby Despotovski and Ivan Ergić. Yet, the Wolves rallied superbly and Perth experienced a series of defensive blunders to be pegged back to 3–3 at full-time. Perth subsequently lost on penalties, but this defining moment galvanised the team and would be a motivating force for years to come. James Afkos, a young defender and son of Glory co-owner Paul Afkos saw his penalty saved, which gave the win to the Wolves. The Wolves side also featured players such as Scott Chipperfield, Sašo Petrovski as well as Matt Horsley and Stuart Young who would go on to play with the Glory in later years. The loss was a crushing blow to Glory but the team had done well despite problems Stange had with stars such as Vas Kalogeracos and Con Boutsianis who had both left the club. Stange had also been told midway through the season that his contract would not be renewed—but well-organised supporter protest and media pressure forced Tana to change his mind and publicly announce the U-turn before a home match against the Canberra Cosmos.
In spite of the loss, Stange was popular with the public but his time had come by the end of the 2000–01 season. Glory was too inconsistent during the season, suffering from more player disharmony involving Stange's tactics, and falling just short of a top-two spot. Glory had at times played good attacking football but proved unable to do so consistently. In the finals series, the Glory once again came up against the Melbourne Knights and drew 0–0 in Melbourne despite having Jamie Harnwell sent off. Following the match Melbourne Knights fans attacked the team and their bus as they tried to leave Sunshine Stadium. It is believed that the fans were angered by a Serbian salute made by Bobby Despotovski towards Melbourne Knights fans, a club who traditionally has a large Croatian support base. In the return leg Glory were eliminated following a 2–2 draw. The Knights had gone into an early lead with goals in slippery conditions before two late goals to the Glory but it wasn't enough with the Knights winning through the away goal rule. Despite signing high-profile recruits such as Damian Mori and Brad Maloney while also holding onto young star Ljubo Miličević the Glory had underachieved and Stange was sacked by Nick Tana.
D'Avray era and end of NSL (2001–04)
Despite the flair of Stange's reign, it would take the more tactical approach of Mich d'Avray to finally win the NSL Championship. While less flamboyant than his predecessor, d'Avray successfully transformed the team with a different strategy to the previous coaches. The attacking 5–3–2, which saw almost as many goals conceded as scored, was replaced with a 4–4–2. Some may argue that the team began to play a less attractive form of the game, but nobody could argue with the results. In 2001–2, the team nearly went the entire season undefeated with a side that only had former Adelaide City midfielder Brad Hassell as a major addition. After scraping through in the second leg of the major semi-final against Newcastle, Glory faced Sydney Olympic in the grand final at a sold-out Subiaco Oval. While the 2000 Final was one of the great games of domestic Australian association football, the 2002 final was a tight and tense affair with Glory hardly getting a shot on target due to the fact that they lacked any bite in the midfield and had its two strikers marked out of the game. Ante Milicic was on target for Olympic though and his goal early in the second half was enough for Olympic to win 1–0 and break the hearts of Glory fans once again.Maloney left the club at the end of the 2002 season but his replacement proved to be a key in Glory finally getting that elusive title. German midfielder Andre Gumprecht was brought into the club thanks to Stange and made an instant impact. With the NSL disintegrating around them, Glory and Olympic were the only two semi-decent teams still left in the league to galvanise its midfield and fought it out for top spot all season. Glory missed out on the league title, finishing one point behind Olympic. In March 2003, the NSL stripped the club of three points after ruling that Gumprecht had been played before he had been registered. Glory picked up Socceroo Simon Colosimo halfway through the season and eventually won the right to host the 2003 Grand Final after coming out on top of a new, confusing and convoluted league table finals format that had dragged a poor season out. In the Grand Final Glory took the game to Olympic and following a headed goal from in the first half from Harnwell it was all over late in the match when Mori saw his shot dribble over the line in dramatic fashion. 2–0 was the result and d'Avray had delivered the Grand Final victory Glory had yearned for.
In the final NSL season in 2003–04, Glory only had Parramatta Power as a huge threat with the Western Sydney club buying up big for the season. Players like Fernando Rech, Michael Beauchamp and Ante Miličić were brought in along with Glory midfielders Gumprecht and Colosimo in what seemed to be a huge blow to the champions. In response to the plundering of its engine room d'Avray signed up Sydney Olympic title winners Tom Pondeljak, Wayne Srhoj and Jade North while also getting former Socceroo defender and West Australian Shaun Murphy back from the United Kingdom. In a season where Glory again went head to head with a team from Sydney, Parramatta beat the Glory at home 4–2 and then away 2–0 to host the final ever NSL Grand Final. Glory thrashed Adelaide United in the preliminary final and faced Parramatta at Parramatta Stadium to try and go for back to back victories. In the pouring rain, Parramatta were brought down to the level of their opponents and scrapped for every ball in a match devoid of many chances. Mori wasted two sitters before young striker Nick Mrđa nailed a shot past Clint Bolton to claim the golden goal and win the match for Glory and its second NSL title. It was around 2001 that the league showed signs of significant deterioration. A combination of central mismanagement, conflicts of interest and poor sponsorship would eventually lead to a government inquiry and the removal of the leadership of Soccer Australia. Eventually, the relaunched and renamed Football Federation Australia announced the creation of the A-League in 2005. The financial backing and business nous of chairman Nick Tana had ensured the viability and success of the club during the earlier dire times – and ensured it a place in the future of the game in Australia.