There are times when being a football fan is an emotionally confusing occupation. For Perth Glory fans, right now is one of those times. Watching a group of players who clearly don’t like their job or their employers go through the motions against motivated opposition whilst being under the tutelage Perth’s worst ever manager is somewhat akin to the “like a car crash” metaphor banded around where one cannot but help watch something incredibly horrifying unfold before their eyes. But on top of that there is almost a masochistic sense of pleasure from watching the seeds sown by what is now a very unpopular club administration bloom into some sort of hideous Triffid-type creature.
There has long been a feeling that the rank-and-file staff employed by the club are simply not up to the task of working within a footballing environment. The coaches too have long been derided as not of a high enough quality to make an impact on the A-League landscape. The CEO, Paul Kelly, has remained largely anonymous and appears to have presided over a quick downturn in the club’s fortunes since finals football last year. But now some supporters are also lining up owner Tony Sage in their sights; a murmur of discontent at his off-field flamboyance now giving way to a real sense of anger and betrayal in a man who originally pulled the club off the FFA scrapheap but now appears content to let it be a handy tax write-off and builder of business connections.
Recent events have done little to change the mood of supporters; when Sage initially commissioned a Dr Ric Charlesworth-led investigation into the club on and off the field, fans rejoiced at a sense of urgency about the club’s plight. This has since evaporated as the mining magnate released a series of confusing press releases and interviews in which he appeared to state that if the report showed up the running of the club in a negative light, he would pack his bags and throw his lot in. His chummy relationship with many of the board members, admin staff, and coaches who have shown to make serious errors leave indelible stains on the armour of a man once considered to be a white knight for the club.
Conclusive proof of some of these errors has recently come to light in the form of the Jamie Coyne contract saga. Coyne junior had a clause in his contract stating that, should he make a certain number of appearances for the team, he would be rewarded with another year’s contract on a higher wage. In itself, this is nothing out of the ordinary - a very common clause in many sporting contracts. However, over the course of season 2010-2011, the administrative staff and coaches at Glory appeared to forget such a clause existed as Coyne was played in practically every game he was available for. Then, as he neared the magic number the club evidently realised what was about to occur and he found himself out of the team. Coyne has since vented his disgust with the club and walked away from the camp, claiming he would wash his hands of the entire organisation. In subsequent interviews Ian Ferguson hid behind the old chestnut, “I’m the coach and I pick the team - and Jamie is not in the team this week”, but this is not something which washes with the Players Federation, who have been rattling their sabres in the direction of the West Australian club since this day.
I suppose I should put forth my own views on this situation - whilst I feel that the player has obviously been screwed around by the club due to their own mistakes in tracking his contract clauses, in a way I can’t help but agree with the end result. For years Glory fans have been crying out that a player of Coyne’s calibre is not first-team material (many would say not even A-League material) and now, through somewhat undesirable means, we may finally see somebody else given a chance to shine on the periphery of the Glory defence. Personally, I would like to have seen Coyne stick around as a squad player and injury cover, however there is no way in hell I would approve a wage rise on top of his already substantial salary. I’m angry at the club for being so completely inept in their footballing operations, but I can’t help but be happy that we won’t be seeing another pointless run up the wing or pass to an opposition player any time soon.
To this author, the treatment given out to former MGP Andy Todd is a much tougher task to swallow. A fan favourite, albeit one on ageing, injury-susceptible legs, you would at least ask that the club thank the man dubbed “Sir Andy” by fans for his services and ask him to play out the rest of the season with the team so that supporters - and Todd himself - get a good send-off. Instead, it’s “thanks and here’s the door, you’re not wanted anymore”; greatly annoying not just the good man Todd but a great deal of the fanbase as well. Now Glory must see out the rest of the season without a cult hero, a solid defender, and a teacher with a wealth of experience for our young players.
One must also consider the numerous errors made by the football department this year with regards to player transfers - Chris Coyne, Michael Baird, and Josh Mitchell all experienced significant delays in transfers because of one reason or another. One mishap could be put down to bad luck - several just smells of bad management. Then there is the continually poor service experienced by club members; for several years running now, Glory membership packages have arrived significantly later than promised, in many cases missing pieces of included memorabilia. There are only so many excuses you can use, especially given the fact that every year the club apologises and promises to “review its membership operations and our choice of suppliers”. Evidently, the outcome of these reviews must be “Golly, it’s such good fun to annoy our customers - let’s keep doing it!”
A bastion of fan support and service they are not, then. Nor do they appear to be competent or even understanding of football practices, operations, or culture. Nor, it seems, do they care - considering their performance has degraded so far over time. Fans may have thought that they’d moved on from the dark days of the past when a club employee made an impromptu appearance on the fan forum Gloryboys.net to abuse all and sundry for their criticism of the club’s performance and management, but the absence of any such reoccurrence now seems to speak more to the club’s ability to hide problems and generate spin rather than signal any true positive progress.
It has been banded about by various commentators that Glory are simply in the process of performing the same sort of painful cleanout that preceded Brisbane Roar’s rise to the summit of the Australian game. That the pain will be worth it in the end as Ferguson defies the critics to build a team that will become a real force next year. Indeed, it seems like the signs are there - useless players like Baird are gone, along with youngsters who never matured in Jukic and Vrteski, and ageing and injury-prone warhorses like Todd. But to mistake this for a Roar-like Revival is to make a grave error.
Roar’s problem lay with a cancerous playing culture perpetuated by huge egos with friends in high places and down FOXholes. It was solved by a player cull and a coach with a distinct footballing vision, as well as some shrewd recruitment. Perth meanwhile can’t claim to have Robbie Slater constantly buzzing in Naum Sekulovski’s ear, and have David Mitchell and Ian Ferguson in charge of recruiting, coaching, and motivating their players - a combination whose results this year suggest Perth are on a hiding to nothing. When Ferguson gets the inevitable “more time to rebuild” from Mr Sage, there may be signs that things could improve. But at the end of the day, this isn’t the point. The cancer is not the playing squad - and really, it never has been. The root cause is far higher up the chain than that.
If Tony Sage really wants a cleanout of the club, he needs to start with the dogs that lie at his feet; and he needs to take a good hard look in the mirror himself. There’s a difference between being a flamboyant owner and directly affecting the football operation that you’re supplying with the moolah. By all means, have the photos taken with the players, wave to the fans, get in the papers once in a while - but lay some sort of barrier between yourself and the people that run your club. If your businesses were bleeding money, you would hire the proper people required to get things right again. If your PR firm took a massive hit in customer satisfaction, you would replace the staff currently manning the phones and desks. But apparently if your football club continues to stagnate and breed a culture of incompetence and mediocrity off the field, that’s perfectly okay.
The problems start right at the core of the club’s administration - and that, not in the change rooms, is where the fix needs to be applied. Because when some parts of your fanbase have gone from remembering the despair of the days of FFA ownership to thinking that that is now a preferable option, something is terminally wrong.
