Ever since he can remember the Clisby clan has been heading off to Glory games with father, Frank, pointing out the finer details of the match.

Side by side – and with his brother in tow – they’d marvel at the likes of club legends Bobby Despotovski and John Markovski.

So when coach Ian Ferguson eventually offered the 20-year-old centre-back his first professional contract his next phone call was a no-brainer.

“As soon I got out of the meeting with the gaffer I went straight to my car and called my dad to let him know the news,” Clisby said of the one-and-a-half year deal.

“He was ecstatic for me. He thought I was joking at first and I said – nah, I’ve actually got one Dad.

“He was over the moon for me. All my family have been very supportive of me since the first day I wanted to be a footballer, especially my dad.

“He comes to most of my games whenever he can and always looks to give me advice as well. He tells me how happy he is for me, just tries to help me out and gives me great confidence.”

Clisby’s promotion last month from youth league hopeful to A-League pro caps off a stellar period for the Perth native who recently picked up the prestigious 2012 McInerney Ford Gold Medal – plus a brand new Fiesta – as the best player in the Football West Premier League.

Valued for his game intelligence, speed and passing ability, the former Sorrento junior is a potent mix of fanatical supporter and rising star. It’s not just that he was destined to wear the colours – he was reared on them.

Only last year he rocked up to the great Despotovski, who is assistant manager at his state league club Inglewood United, and showed off a photo taken of them, years before, at a zoo promo when Clisby was just a kid.

Even tying his big break to a club struggling at the bottom of the league ladder fails to dampen his enthusiasm.

Glory are mired in a four-game losing streak and are winless in seven but, as the young defender sees it, there’s never been a better opportunity to help his hometown team out of a fix.

“It’s not a hard thing coming into the team now,” he said. “I’m blessed with the chance to come in and try and prove my case to stay in the team.

“We’ve been playing well we’ve just haven’t been getting the results but I feel that they will come.

“We’ve been training well and working on things to improve on and I’m sure we can dig ourselves out of this and make the top six.”

All going well the fleet-footed player will line up for the senior team for the third time in Saturday’s crucial away match against Melbourne Heart at AAMI Park. He’s full of optimism and says the dressing room is a positive place despite the challenge ahead. They are, after all, just two points shy of the play-offs.

“Heart have a pretty solid attacking line-up,” he said. “They’ve obviously got (Richard) Garcia – he’s one to watch and has been scoring a few goals – and (David) Williams on the wing looks as though he’s in good form and he can also be a threat.

“But we’ve all been working hard and there’s still good morale around the club. We’re focused on the task at hand which is Melbourne Heart and we’re going to go there with a lot of confidence that we can pick up the three points.”