30 defining Perth Glory moments, Part III: Their A-League highs and off-field woes

In the final of a three-part series, soccer writer Ben Smith looks at the weird and wonderful events, triumphs and scandals which have defined the first 30 years of Perth Glory. You can find part one here and part two here. Simply Kerr-ific (February 2019) It was already obvious, this was when Glory truly knew they had a world-class talent in their midst. The club had already made two W-League grand finals, but a Sam Kerr-inspired upset win in the 2019 semifinal over Melbourne Victory will go down as one of their greatest ever wins. After falling behind early, Kerr’s equaliser and a Rachel Hill goal put Perth ahead and even though the table-topping Victory sent the game to extra-time, it only succeeded in giving Kerr more time in the spotlight. Her composed lob gave Glory a 3-2 lead, before she completed her hat-trick and celebrated with a trademark backflip. Although Perth went on to lose their third women’s grand final, Kerr’s semifinal performance rubber stamped her as one the club’s greats — and her old team have not played in the finals since her departure. Popa’s Perth pounce on Premier’s Plate (April 2019) Fifteen years on from their last NSL championship, the wait was finally over. Spearheaded by future Socceroos coach Tony Popovic in his first season at the club, Glory secured their first trophy in a decade and a half. A defensively-stout Perth made themselves tough to beat, while their three-pronged attack of Diego Castro, Andy Keogh and Chris Ikonomidis proved a handful up the other end. Their march to the top was complete late in the season and fittingly came in front of their success-starved supporters, as wing-back Ivan Franjic netted to deliver a 1-0 win against Newcastle Jets, sealing top spot on the ladder and with it, the Premier’s Plate. Reddy, set, grand final (May 2019) Rarely has HBF Park felt like the Perth Oval of old more than an epic, see-sawing semifinal penalty shoot-out win over Adelaide United which delivered them a first home grand final since 2003. Two Diego Castro goals had the 17,868 fans in attendance signing up for the big dance pre-sale, only for Baba Diawara to pull one back for the visitors, before Ryan Kitto’s 94th minute daisy-cutter sent a game Glory never looked like losing into extra-time. Scott Neville put Perth back ahead in extra-time, but Michael Marrone’s header ensured penalties ensued. Step forward, goalkeeper Liam Reddy. His save from Isaias got Perth back into the shoot-out, before he turned penalty-taker and converted emphatically. More drama was to come as it went to sudden death, where Reddy saved Adelaide’s last three attempts, allowing Joel Chianese to end a wild shoot-out. Record crowd...but more grand final pain (May 2019) Not for the first time, it felt like Glory’s time had come. With a record crowd of 56,371 at Optus Stadium behind them, Glory were favourites to win their first grand final of the A-League era against Sydney FC. Neither team were exactly inspiring across 90 minutes, and neither were they across the following 30 minutes of extra-time as a deadlock sent the game to penalties. But a week after penalties proved just the tonic for Perth, spot kicks turned to poison in the last knockings of the season. Midfielder Juande was the only one of three Glory players to convert his attempt, as Brendon Santalab’s failed ‘panenka’ paved the way for Sydney to seal a 4-1 win on penalties and inflict more heartache on Glory. “Utility to the token” (Feb 2020) Perth Glory has witnessed more than their fair share of crazy sagas, but nothing came close to this. Owner Tony Sage announced he was selling a significant stake to bitcoin investment group London Football Exchange. The man at the centre of the bid, Jim Aylward, then gave a bizarre interview from the back of a taxi which included the phrases “tokenised ecosystem” and “utility for the token”. Days later, it was revealed LFE had twice failed takeovers at European clubs as Sage began to distance himself from signing off on the deal. There was more still: reports surfaced the company was being sued in London and New York and an investigation uncovered Aylward was actually convicted fraudster James Abbass Biniaz. All this within the space of two weeks. A perfect storm (April 2022) The Murphy’s Law of a season was more unfortunate for Perth than of the club’s own doing. Sure, the signing of injury-hit, former Liverpool star Daniel Sturridge turned out to be a bust as he failed to score. As COVID and WA’s hard border continued to impact the A-League, Perth faced a wait of more than a month between their fourth and fifth games of the season, then were forced to stay over east for 43 days as they played eight straight away matches. Glory then played their next 11 games in the stretch of just 42 days, during which time coach Richard Garcia was relieved of his duties. En route to their first-ever A-League Men wooden spoon, arguably the nadir came when a slew of injuries to their senior players saw Perth forced to field 10 players under the age of 23 in a 6-1 loss to Newcastle. Sage walks away (July 2023) Sage was a polarising figure throughout his time as chairman — detractors pointed to the lack of silverware, club-owned facilities and overarching plan to grow the club, but his backers argued his sustained funding and evident passion for the club kept Glory alive. But COVID tore a hole through the club’s wallet and Sage could not handle any more. After months of trying to find a new partner turned into years, speculation about the club’s future grew and eventually Sage tearfully handed back the club’s licence to the league. Perth were immediately placed in receivership, where they would stay for most of the following season as the league were forced to prop them up financially. Pelligra buys club for $1 (February 2024) The life was draining from Glory — to quote former chief executive Anthony Radich, the club was on its knees. After months of speculation, Melbourne-based property developer Ross Pelligra — who had bought Italian Serie C side Catania and installed Socceroos great Vince Grella as its chief executive — was announced as the new chairman and owner. Pelligra paid just $1 up front for the struggling club and promised a change of fortunes. But on pitch and off it, the improvements are yet to be anywhere close to fully realised, with finals droughts continuing for both teams. Back-to-back thrashings end Staj’s tenure (June 2024) When Alen Stajcic’s side beat Brisbane Roar 3-2 at HBF Park in the first match of the Pelligra regime, it felt like the only way was up. But what followed next was a 10-game winless run to end the season, capped by four consecutive defeats to finish the campaign which saw them concede an astonishing 23 goals, including 8-0 and 7-1 losses to Melbourne City and Sydney FC. After a season which saw an undermanned Perth come through receivership to survive as an entity, the dramatic fade-out was one final rub of salt into the wound and prompted the club’s new ownership to let Stajcic walk to bring in David Zdrilic. Zdrilic sacked two games into second season (November 2025) Zdrilic’s first season in charge was disastrous as the acclaimed former assistant coach ended the first year with the wooden spoon. Perth had the choice to stick or twist in the off-season. They stuck, backed him into the second year, only to change their mind and pull the plug after a horror 4-0 defeat away to Melbourne City in just their second match of the 2025/26 season. While the nature of Perth’s record under Zdrilic made it hard to disagree with the decision, the timing of it — having let him have an entire off-season and brought in players to specifically fit his tactical system — put the club behind the eight-ball.

30 defining Perth Glory moments, Part III: Their A-League highs and off-field woes

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