by Ben Gilby (16/4/25)
Above: Stephen Peters talking to the media at Perth Glory’s Fremantle HQ today. Image: Perth Glory.
Perth Glory’s season can be summed up in one word – frustrating. A never-ending injury list, a number of results not matching the performance, and not quite managing to pick up an away win.
However, that frustration reached a whole new level last weekend in the team’s last gasp defeat at Sydney FC, a result that ended the Western Australian side’s Finals hopes.
Head coach Stephen Peters reflected on those issues today, and it both looked and sounded like it’s still as raw for him as it is for anyone who describes themself as a fan of his team.
“We felt like we had four key refereeing decisions go against us – a red card, two penalties, and a rugby tackle before a goal, which the player who should have been sent off scored…on a rugby pitch by the way!
“I would describe (the pitch) as completely horrendous, and I would probably say that if I was in charge of that football club, the groundskeeper would have probably lost his job.”
Those sources of frustration are clear because the final result and the way it happened cover up what had been a strong showing on the road to the reigning champions.
“We were quite pleased with the way we played, and we know we had a couple of chances to win it late ourselves, so to not do that and then cop the goal was a little bit frustrating, and it hurt us on the day…but with a little bit of reflection, everyone can see we probably deserved a little bit more from that game – and by a little bit, I mean a lot more, and we’re quite pleased with the style of football we played and the approach we had.”
Perth felt strongly that the scorer of Sydney FC’s winning goal in the depths of second-half stoppage time, Princess Ibini should never have been on the pitch to do so, having gone in studs-first into Glory captain Izzy Dalton’s leg. Ibini was shown a yellow card. Fortuntately, Dalton is OK to play this week in the club’s final game of the season.
“Luckily. On another day, I think that could have been pretty bad – and by bad, I mean a broken leg. It’s hard to justify how it goes unpunished, but she’s got some pretty bad grazes on her leg and some bruising. She’ll probably wear a bit of padding and get on with it, I’d say.”
Peters also revealed that goalkeeper Casey Dumont trained today, which brings her back into contention to play against Melbourne City on Friday.
The upcoming final game of the season at the Sam Kerr Football Centre has a lot riding on it still, with the Sky Blues looking to complete an unbeaten campaign and clinch the Premiership. The Perth boss wants his side to channel the frustrations of last week into ending the season by doing something no-one else has managed in the league.
“Melbourne City is a team that everyone has a lot of respect for, the quality that they possess. We want to try and spoil the party. They won the Premiership in Perth last year, so we want to not let history repeat itself…
“They are definitely going to want to put it to bed early because they want to control the game…we’ve got to be really ready for that. Holly McNamara is a brilliant player – we have to be ready for her, Speckmaier, Pollicina, McKenna, Bosch – good side! They’ve rotated two starting elevens all season, so a nice position to be in!
“We’re going to try to take the game to them and do what we’ve done at Sam Kerr (Football Centre) in every game, which is try to bring the crowd into it and make an entertaining game, and hopefully, we can put a couple of goals in and take the three points and keep the fans happy.”
With Peters coming to the end of his first season in charge at the club, he reflected on what’s happened and sees a lot of reasons to be positive for next year.
“We’ve all learned a lot…the more we look at it, the more we see there’s some incredibly missed opportunities there where we feel that six or eight points better off would have got us in the top six.
“If you look at all the tight games we’ve had, the tight losses, the draws and stuff, there’s a lot of opportunities there we left out on the park…there’s a lot of reflection required, but I don’t think we’re a long way from being a top six, even higher side.”
Young Perth Glory star Ella Abdul-Massih is determined to build on the positives of last week’s trip to Sydney when they face Melbourne City on Friday night.
“We looked at the positives from the game. We thought, collectively, it was a very good game. We were happy with our performance in that game. There were some controversial calls in the game, but all round, we were happy with that performance, and we want to bring that into this weekend, our last game of the season against City.
“They obviously haven’t lost a game all season, so that brings us a bit more fire to be the only team in the league that can hopefully beat City.
“City are a great team…first game of the season we played them, and we were in the lead, so going into this game, it would be great to beat City…we’re aiming for that.”
The 18-year-old from New South Wales admitted to me earlier this season in an interview for the club website (https://perthglory.com.au/news/alw-in-focus-ella-abdul-massih/) how hard at times she found the move 3,800+km west away from her family, and it’s been a situation made harder by injuries as well. However, she’s definitely in a much happier place now and credits her teammates and coaching staff for ensuring she has fully settled into life in WA.
“It’s been difficult. It’s a mental game as well. I’ve played three seasons and I’ve never had as many injuries as I’ve had this one season, so it’s definitely been hard, and it hasn’t been little injuries; it’s been a few weeks out, a month out, a month and a half out, so it’s been difficult building connections and consistency in games, so when you haven’t played for a month and a bit and then play, it makes it difficult.
“I’ve learned a lot on the field and off the field. Off the field, living by myself without my family – there’s seven of us at home – and now it’s just me and my cousin, so that’s a big difference.
“On the field, I’ve learned so much having Stephen (Peters, head coach) and (Tiana) Gauci (assistant coach)…I’ve found we try to play more football. Where I’ve been previously, we’ve been a bit more direct…but I do like the football style that we’ve been trying to incorporate into our game (in Perth).”
In terms of her personal high point of the season – there’s no contest – that 93rd-minute free-kick to clinch three points at home to Brisbane Roar at the end of January. It’s an achievement that still makes her smile.
“Definitely the top! It’s taken me so long to score! It felt great. It also felt great to do it with that team as they obviously backed me to take that free kick, and I definitely want to be able to do it again this week!
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