A-League Men: Perth Glory captain Adam Taggart reveals heartfelt desire to win silverware with hometown club

Perth Glory captain Adam Taggart says he has a visceral need to win silverware with the club to properly feel fulfilled in his career before he retires. The 31 year-old cemented his place as a Perth great on Monday night as he won the men’s Most Glorious Player award, becoming the fifth player in history to win the club’s highest individual honour in successive seasons. After going scoreless through the first five games of the season, the Socceroos striker scored 10 goals in the remaining 20 games, including a brace in Glory’s 2-0 win over Wellington on Sunday. But while Taggart expressed his pride at winning the prestigious honour, he did not hide his frustration over Perth’s second successive wooden spoon. The Glory tallied their lowest ever total of points (17) in an A-League Men’s season and scored just 22 goals across 26 games. As a proud, lifelong Glory fan who idolised Bobby Despotovski growing up, Taggart said he needed to win a trophy with his hometown club to feel a sense of contentment in his career. “Personally, it would be an absolute disaster if I ended up retiring without winning something as a team for Perth Glory,” he said. “That’s something that obviously brings out a lot of frustration and things like that, which you can see sometimes, because I feel like I need to win something with this club. “Otherwise I’ll never be satisfied. It’ll be something that plays on my mind for the rest my life.” While Taggart admitted he was a hard taskmaster on his teammates at times, it came from a desire to see the club reach the heady heights he knew it was capable of. And after back-to-back wooden spoons, Taggart said every single player needed to raise the bar next season. “We all need to create higher standards for this place, because I believe in it so much; in the potential, in the support, in the grassroots, in terms of the players coming through in our academy. “But we all need to hold higher standards, create an elite environment to make this place reach the potential that it could reach. “It’s important to start off having the drive and determination and belief that this place needs higher standards and can definitely be a lot better than what it is. Taggart said having fellow West Australians at the club like Josh Risdon and Brandon O’Neill was important to drive the club forward, because they understood the connection between the team and its fans. “I think sometimes, you know, people can get lost in the fact that this club is a little bit more than just a football team. There’s people who genuinely care about about it,” he said. “There’s people who have grown up their whole life supporting it, seeing it at the best time, seeing it at its worst time and they’re still here today, supporting it week in, week out. “There’s something so much more to this place that everyone who’s supporting it for a long time can see. “Those people around the club who understand that are so important in relaying those messages to people who come from the other side of the country or overseas, or who don’t understand the full potential of this club.”