Sunday's A-League finals debut for Perth apparently gave the side a chance to show everything that has characterised the team for much of the last five years. Despite showing great character and determination to match it with- and at times dominate- the opposition, ultimately the team managed to lose and in truth never really looked like winners.
The defence was solid for large parts of the game, but a few slip-ups gifted Wellington some glorious (obvious pun intended) goal-scoring chances. Velaphi managed to save a couple well, but was already appealing desperately for off-side before the critical goal even hit the back of the net. The bad slip-up resulted in a goal that ultimately cost Glory a chance at success- sound familiar?
It was interesting to note too that the goal came from an attack from the creative Paul Ifill down the right flank. It couldn't be more obvious that Sekulovski has spent five seasons opposing Jamie Coyne at training because when match-day arrives he seems completely baffled when a right flanker tries anything other than to run in a straight line (Jamie Coyne's favourite move). In Naum's defence Velaphi could've done more to smother the cross, and the centre-halves could've done better than to play a good metre behind Greenacre but still let him receive the cross not only first but unopposed. It was a collection of small defensive blunders that gifted Wellington a goal they in truth scarcely deserved through their own play.
At the other end, familiar stories were again the order of the day. The number of attacks launched by Perth really was misleading as an almost unwavering preference for attacking width combined with a lack of players capable of genuine defence-breaking crosses meant lots of half-chances without ever really looking like scoring a goal. Admittedly we were gifted an equaliser when Neville was able to lead unmarked in the box to head home but it was a rare occasion for Liam Reddy to be genuinely troubled.
On the very rare occasions when Perth did choose to keep the ball in a central position and try and unlock the Wellington defence, it was all too clear that none of our midfielders have vision even close to the likes of Carlos Hernandez or even Steve Corica. Similarly, none of our strikers were able to make the damaging runs that you regularly see from Shane Smeltz or Archie Thompson. The likes of McBreen, McGarry, Srhoj, Burns, Pellegrino and even on this season's performances Sterjovski are all good enough A-League players, but none of them are going to deliver the side an A-League title. Of course, the last player capable of such efforts Glory have had was Bobby Despotovski, and how we have missed a player of his quality.
For all the negativity, though, Glory fans have a lot to celebrate and can certainly hope for an even more exciting future. All of the above problems might even be rectifiable without recruiting Lionel Messi (I hear Graham Arnold is cloning him for Central Coast Mariners in any case). If Mile Sterjovski can perform at his best, we have a creative force perhaps second only in the league to Hernandez. In Branko Jelic, we have a striker who may have resembled a carpenter this season with the amount of time he spent hitting the woodwork but who has certainly shown enough to indicate he could be a genuine 10-to-15-goal forward next season. And if Andy Todd and Chris Coyne are retained, the frailties of our wide backs will start to look more and more like a minor inconvenience rather than a season-ending disaster.
The question most Glory fans will be asking during the off-season (apart from whether the Socceroos might've won their semi final clash with Spain had Nikita Rukavytsya been picked in the squad) is whether David Mitchell is capable of producing an A-League winning side regardless of how much talent he has at his disposal. He did reach two NSL Grand Finals in the past, but it remains to be seen if he can deliver the goods in the modern Australian footballing landscape.
Mitch achieved received a pass mark this season based on Tony Sage's three year plan. But the bar was set low. The problem when you lower your ambitions is that when you just barely achieve them, it's hard to know whether to celebrate the success or lament the fact that you probably would've been a failure had you aimed to really meet your potential. Next season Sage expects a grand final appearance and that will definitely require Mitch to lift the team a good 20% to match it with Sydney, Melbourne and whichever other teams get their act together in 2010/2011. Whether David Mitchell is able to deliver that is a question we will only know the answer to this time next year.
Finals heartbreak for Perth this season was, if everyone is honest about it, inevitable this season. Even had Perth won the shootout and succeeded in the resulting home final against the Jets, we probably would've been smashed by the loser of Sydney and Melbourne- two far superior teams.
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And finally a question to Perth Glory fans who aren't sure whether this season is a success or a failure- would you rather be in our position where we were promised a small step on the road to a brighter future and we barely achieved our target, or would you rather be in the position of a Gold Coast fan who was promised an unbeaten season and has ultimately ended up no better than us?
