Blog: The Emperor's New Clothes

TO DATE, this pre-season has been a very eventful one for fans of Perth Glory Football Club.

Whereas recent off-seasons have been full of crickets chirping and carrots gathering mould, the veritable cacophony of noise coming from the club this time must be a shock to the system of many a loyal supporter in the West. So far, the club has been threatened with legal action thanks to "Phillipsgate", criticised the WA state government over the state of local stadia, and managed to organise the biggest week of football Western Australia has ever seen.

On the whole, it represents an entirely new approach to running the club, leaving the "softly, softly" attitude of the past year or two dead in the water. This approach is reflected in the club's new logo - a clever piece of rebranding which, along with the new attitude, is seemingly designed to distance the club from its poor recent years and recapture some of the glory days of old.

All in all, it seems to be working - this author honestly can't remember an A-League pre-season generating this much anticipation among the Perth fanbase. The club's new look has now flowed through into the new team kit, released earlier this week.

A Nod to the Past
Ladies and gentlemen, you're not dreaming. It appears that at their fifth attempt, the men and women of Reebok have finally put their creative genius to use and come up with... stripes. Oh my freakin' god, stripes! First Central Coast, now Glory - it's like Reebok have finally discovered fire or something, and they're now proudly waving a flaming brand above their shaggy little caveman heads.

However, it wasn't all plain sailing for newly-attired Glory. Club chairman Tony Sage, looking more and more at home in his role as sole owner, revealed at Monday's press conference that the game's governing body had tried to change Glory's famous purple colour scheme.

Sage, himself well aware of the "purple passion" residing in the Perth fanbase after former player Stan Lazaridis once claimed the club would have to change its colours to black and gold, said that "...The FFA, it's their way or the highway. They didn't think our shirt was good enough to sell... so they wanted to revamp it... Purple sells for the Melbourne Storm, it sells down the road for the Dockers, so it's not the colour... I think our fans have every right, just as the owner did, to reject it. I made that point very clear to them".

A good thing he did; apparently the new designs proposed by the FFA were, in his own words, "horrendous". Strangely enough though, it has been reported that this is the first time Glory have had a kit with stripes on it - does no-one remember the black and white away kit complete with stripes and sunburst? Was it really that bad?

Ah, those were the days. In a way, this new kit harkens back to those days - even if the sunburst is reduced to the new club logo - and that can only be a good thing. Glory have a rich history, and they should be deservedly proud of it.

An interesting quirk that a few people have picked up on is the concept that this year every A-League team doesn't have an "away" kit as such, but a clash kit to wear when their primary kit won't differentiate the two teams enough. But who will Glory's new kit clash with?

I suppose predominantly dark shirts like those of Melbourne or Wellington could be an issue, but purple and white stripes don't exactly cause a problem when combined with red, blue, green, or yellow shirts.

Perhaps Glory are planning on holding friendlies with Newcastle United (the soon-to-be Coca-Cola Championship one), Mandurah City, or Floreat Athena sometime soon?

New Places, New Faces
During the week, I was able to have a quick word with Glory about the club's pre-season plans. So far, the schedule is:

            Adelaide United v Perth - June 26, Adelaide.

            Perth v Wolverhampton Wanderers - July 10, MES.

            Perth v Fulham FC - July 15, MES (part of double-header with Wolves, Fury)

            Perth v North Queensland Fury - July 18, Regional centre TBA.

            Perth v Gold Coast United - TBC, Regional centre TBA.

It should be noted that the Gold Coast match isn't yet 100% confirmed, as the newly-created club have to finalise their own schedules as well. The regional locations are also unannounced at this stage, but it is rumoured that sites like Bunbury, Rockingham, Mandurah, and even Carnarvon are all in the frame.

The next fortnight will also see coach David Mitchell and football team manager Ante Kovacevic hammer out a fixture list with local state league sides to help in Perth's preparations for the new season (maybe that clash kit will be needed after all).

Such matches are always important to the development of a squad, bringing match fitness to players and pitting the team against fully-fit sides in the middle of their own Premier League competition. Of course, while these local matches are an integral part of any pre-season, the general public will be far more interested in the games against Wolverhampton and Fulham.

Glory membership applications have opened in the past week, and it will be members who get first dibs on Wolves and Fulham tickets. The club has already indicated that (initially at least) all three games will be sold on the one ticket - and with members able to order up to six of these tickets at once, you would hope this would encourage a new wave of Glory fans to become members.

This year's packages seem to be good value- there's been no increase of the membership price per-game, a smart move given the price hikes seen at Brisbane Roar and the reaction to that. With any luck, a high-profile signing or two in the coming weeks will encourage even more fans to join up.

As for the signings announced during the week, they appear to be of a pretty good quality. Andy Todd has come straight from the Championship and Derby County, his recent record including a man-of-the-match performance against Glory's pre-season opponents Wolverhampton Wanderers.

At 34, the centre-back is no spring chicken, but he should add some steel to what was a rather brittle defence last year.

While striker Branko Jelic has had less of the limelight, it's possible that he is an even more impressive signing. It is not often that a player from the top tier of one of Europe's biggest leagues transfers to an A-League side.

Jelic is coming straight from Energie Cottbus in the Bundesliga, and while he wasn't the first-choice striker for the German club, he still managed to slot two goals past powerhouses Bayern Munich- based on that, and providing he gets decent service from Perth's midfield, one would back him to score against any A-League side.

That said, anything could happen and he could just as easily be another Mate Dragicevic - but at least Dave Mitchell has seen the man play this time around.

Both Todd and Jelic have also got another important attribute - recent game time. Neither have suffered crippling injuries on a regular basis (touch wood) and both have featured in their club's first team this season.

Gone it seems are the days where Perth would sign players like Nicky Rizzo or Hayden Foxe for just as much money as what is being spent on Jelic and Todd.

Finally, Aleks Vrteski appears to be returning to his hometown A-League club, two years after leaving for Macedonian side FK Pobeda.

Exile's Return
To give some background to those who may not be aware of him, Vrteski came to Perth's first team in 2006, having progressed through their Future Glory youth program back in the old NSL- a National Youth League team before there was a NYL, if you will.

He appeared during the coaching reign of Ron Smith, and battled for the number one jersey with established keeper Jason Petkovic. Vrteski's motivation and fitness would soon be called into question however, as it was obvious that the talented young keeper was carrying excess weight that affected his performances.

Petkovic would replace him in the first team until he suffered a nasty injury, bringing Vrteski back to the starting lineup once more. This didn't last long however, as state league signing Tommi Tomich replaced him between the sticks.

Now second-string to an injury-replacement signing, Vrteski eventually parted ways with the Glory in 2007 to join Macedonian team FK Podeba. Once there, the former Young Socceroos keeper shed his excess weight and was soon impressing for his new club.

In a somewhat unexpected development though, the club was embroiled in a match fixing scandal originating in the UEFA Champions League and banned from all UEFA competitions until 2017. Now with current reserve keeper Frank Juric rumoured to be accepting a coaching role with the Glory, a slimmer, fitter, and more experienced Vrteski has seen fit to return home.

So, it hasn't been a bad fortnight in the West. Some decent buys, a proper kit, some glamour friendlies, and a fresh attitude around the club is generating good vibes amongst the supporter base.

There's none of the exaggerated hype that has accompanied names like Fowler or Kisel, just a quiet confidence that the club is on the up once more.

Granted, it could all go to hell in a hand-basket just yet; but with any luck it will prompt a slew of new memberships and the return of some old faces to Members Equity Stadium (which, by the way, has had no money set aside for an upgrade by the state government in the latest budget- big surprise).

If you're reading this and you're still undecided about whether to get a membership - buy up, put your Rudd money to something worthwhile. A team is nothing without its supporters, and Perth have always had some of the best in the land. Join us.

If nothing else, you can share in jokes about Sydney's new kit...