“You’re on you’re own. The governing bodies want the development to go through the A-League clubs yet our club and others here in Perth have produced top, top players.

“We just try to find professional footballers.

“History says anyone who’s played NPL first team at 15 has gone on and become a professional footballer.

“The pressure is to go to England and the quality in England has gone up ten-fold.

“And the quality in Australia has certainly dropped.

“I believe it’s dropped because of the increase in academies, increased clinics and more social football rather than the best playing against the best,” he says.

The continuity in philosophy is one reason why the club has maintained its success.

The club handpicks their coaches, and insist they follow the ECU way.

The respected former A-League star Steve McGarry has been part of the club in recent years.

“And now he’s putting a similar philosophy into Glory’s set up and making it stronger,” adds Amphlett, whose son Tommy was also part of the Glory set up but is back at ECU these days.

“ECU always play the best players up, that’s club policy. The club has a non-rotational policy. The best players play and everyone has to buy into that.

“The players have to be pushed all the time.

“With FFA they believe the way to success is through the A-League teams.

“But we’ve only got one A-League team in WA - Perth Glory. They have a massive turnover while we have continuity.”

ECU junior stars of the future Tyson Poule (L) and Onree De Silva

The ECU alumni are impressive.