If you’ve been working for Perth Glory in the past few months, you’d be forgiven for thinking that you were stuck on a boat with Steven Seagal. It hasn’t been the easiest of times for the club, with results not going their way on-field and a fair amount of controversy popping up off it. With this in mind, I had a talk to board member and Deputy Chairman Lui Giuliani about how bumpy he’d found the ride of late.
In the interests of being open and accountable, and preserving my ‘journalistic integrity’ (cue laughter) I should point out that I have previously worked with Lui in a fan liaison capacity along with some other Glory supporters. However as I hope you’ll see, that was a while back and this has had no bearing on the questions I’ve asked...
Thanks for giving us some of your time today Lui. The last few months, it hasn’t really been a great time, has it?
LG: Not really, no. It’s been a very poor time for the club, and we’re all definitely disappointed with the way the season has gone.
Obviously, twelve months ago the club has heading towards finals football, you could argue we significantly strengthened the team with the acquisition of Robbie Fowler in the off-season, and now Perth seem to be propping up the ladder. What’s happened?
Well that’s the million dollar question. I don’t think you can necessarily pinpoint it to one thing. But obviously we put together a good squad; and you’d have to say that all parts of the club haven’t performed to expectations - from players, to coaching staff, to admin... we probably haven’t met our own expectations let alone that of the fans.
It’s been noticed that at various points during the season Tony Sage has come out and has been critical of the players’ efforts. Is it fair to say that they’ve underperformed?
It’s a team thing. As a whole you’d have to say that we’ve underperformed. And if you look at it, well, we’re second last. So no-one is happy with that.
Touching back on something you mentioned just before - obviously Tony pays the wages of the staff whose job it is to recruit and motivate these players. Is it fair to say that they’ve been performing below expectations, too?
Yes, but I think it’s across the board. When you look at results like this you have to question the team, the way they’ve been coached, you’ve got to question all of it. You’ve also got to get more focussed, and that’s why Tony has brought in an external party to give us an independent view on what’s going on around the place. Which of course is where the Charlesworth report comes in. You’ve got Ric Charlesworth, who is one of the most successful coaches in Australia, you’ve got David Hatt who is also an experienced administrator in sport, and those two will hopefully give us an outsider’s view of what’s going on inside the club.
With the Charlesworth report, some people might ask what a former hockey coach - as good as he is - can tell you about a football club? Was there any reason Charlesworth in particular was chosen for this job?
It’s Charlesworth because of his record - he’s one of the most successful coaches in Australian history - and also his availability. You have to look at who is available, and their knowledge and success. And he’s got such a variety of strengths on his portfolio; he has a doctorate, he’s run for parliament, and he’s one of the most outstanding people in the country in his field. Of the reports that we’ve got on Ric he’s also one of the most highly-demanding people in this country in the field of sport. It’s also surprising after speaking to him just how similar some of the mindsets and strategies are when you look at hockey and football side-by-side.
When that report does come back what sort of action, if any, can we expect to see?
Well, it’s up to us to follow the recommendations and actions, and we’ll see what they are.
If it’s the case that individuals, be they in playing or non-playing roles, have been adjudged to be not performing, is it possible we’ll see the replacement of those staff?
Definitely a possibility. We can’t keep on doing what we’ve been doing and expect different results. The report’s been asked for, it’s been required, and it would be an absolute waste if we didn’t act on it.
That report is something that’s internal of the club at the moment. Is it something that will be made public at a later date? Do you see it being of use to other football bodies, such as Football West, or is it much more a Glory-specific thing?
I think the intention is that it’s kept as an internal report. To what extent what some of the document becomes public, I must admit I haven’t had that discussion with Tony. At the moment it’s just for our internal purposes. Where we go from there, I’m not sure.
One question a lot of people would love answering - back in January Tony Sage was pretty much quoted in The West as saying that if the Charlesworth report came back negative, he’d leave the club. Is there any further clarification on that from the club or Tony himself?
To be honest, I haven’t spoken to Tony about those comments. He’s a very passionate man, and out of his passion he is known to say things on the spot at times. I know his preference is to keep the club and be with it for the long term. I’ve had no indication from him that he wants to go anywhere.
So, no chance at all of him up and selling the club then?
Oh look, I don’t think you can ever say ‘no chance’. As you can appreciate things can happen - he certainly doesn’t want to go, and I think he’ll do everything in his power to stay at the helm. But if you have personal or family things that come up, you can’t say what would happen in the future. Nobody has a crystal ball.
Now it’s been a bugbear of some of the fans for quite a while now, and it’s been noted by various media outlets too, that the club seems to ‘pass the buck’ on a number of issues, at least in public anyway. A good example might be referees... They seem to be used by the coaching staff and Tony as a bit of a scapegoat. Isn’t discipline something the club should be managing?
With regards to referees, comments made on referees in a press conference are quite often made in the heat of the moment. The reality is the public don’t see the coach and the players looking critically at themselves away from the camera. You can never really blame the referees for performances.
Another example could be the fact that the club seem pretty strong in their view that swearing is keeping the crowds away. Now I was at Perth Oval as a kid and remember a few naughty words thrown about... but I don’t think it’s warped me, and the other 10,000 plus people there obviously didn’t care about it too much. Is it really that much of an issue?
Look, the swearing issue is one where I know I personally get complaints from other supporters and people at the ground - and we have to try and respond to that. We have to try and appease them whilst still keeping hold of the passion of our supporters. We’re really just dealing with the concerns of letters, emails, and correspondence we receive. Now ideally if the swearing can be minimised a bit, or really if we could just get rid of that [C-] word, we can appease these supporters who complain whilst not reducing the passion that other people bring to the game; even if they use a little bit of swearing along the way.
I’ve seen it mentioned on a few national forums that Newcastle, for example, were adopting a zero-tolerance approach to swearing full stop. Is there any sort of plan to enact something similar at NIB?
I’m not aware of any discussions that we’ve had about that, no.
Moving on from that; I think it was Inside Cover that had a little piece on Paul Kelly at one point, dubbing him “the quietest CEO in Australia”, just due to the amount of work that Tony and yourself seem to do with the media. What does Paul’s role within the club involve?
Well, Paul’s the CEO - so his role is to run the club. His role is not to be the media personality, though he has done a few appearances, and neither is it mine or Tony’s. I think Tony will just naturally be that, though, the type of guy he is. But Paul is a CEO, pure and simple - and the club is his business.
And would it be fair to say the club has made a few mistakes this year?
Definitely, given the results. Yes, we’ve made mistakes - we’ve just got to prioritise and identify where the weaknesses are, and we’ve got to fix them. Again, this is where the external report comes in, helping us to do that.
Here ends part one of the interview then. If you’re familiar with my blogs you’ll know they can be quite lengthy. Well, that normally equates to three pages in my word processor. This transcript was eight pages long; I think I would have broken FourFourTwo if it had gone up as it originally stood.
So please keep on the lookout for part two, where I will probe the club about player relations, the role of the club board, and a greater interaction with fans and the community.
