For this week’s Midweek Dub interview, Alex Epakis, head coach of league leaders Perth Glory speaks exclusively to Impetus’ Ben Gilby about his team’s start to the season, recruitment, and and how the club has evolved during his four-year tenure (2/11/23).
Above: Perth Glory head coach Alex Epakis. Photo: Getty Images, supplied to Impetus by: Perth Glory FC.
Perth Glory head coach Alex Epakis has praised his side’s “good start” to the season but believes passionately that the Western Australians are nowhere near their potential yet.
The Glory have won both their opening A-League Women matches without conceding a goal, and sit proudly top of the table. This great start has come as the result of a lot of hard work during the close season.
“We’ve had a good start,” Epakis recognised, “and we want to acknowledge that. There is a lot more happening on the training pitch that we want to bring to the games. We have a lot more in the tank.”
At the end of last season, where, for the second campaign in a row Perth narrowly missed out on Finals football, Epakis and his staff conducted an extensive review of everything they did in a bid to identify the extras they could do to ensure the club make it this time. Recruitment was a part of that.
“I wanted our group to have a different X-Factor. I don’t just mean from a playing style perspective, but also from a character profile. Sometimes you need to look for players that can bring personality that can bring teammates along, and add some steel along the spine. It doesn’t have to be in terms of caps, number of games, or even age. Just a different profile and characters among the pressures of competing – you need a balance of players that can lift a group.
“I had to see a level of resilience and something in their character – if we’re on the pitch under pressure, are you someone who is going to help win and do you have the character to drive others around you and make them accountable?”
That recruitment has included an influx of players from the NPLW WA – both young talent with huge potential to more experienced local stars. I asked Epakis whether this was down to the fact that the NPLW WA has increased in quality, or whether it is down to the fact that last season had a particularly talented crop of players.
“It’s a mixture of both. Every few years there is an emergence of a crop of young players. You look at the Hana Lowry, Bella Wallhead, Abbey Green, cohort three or four years ago. Now we have another crop who have come through not just at the NTC but other local NPLW clubs.
“I’m really impressed with the impact that they have had already. Those who haven’t had a chance yet – they are still performing very well and I’m really excited about what they are capable of and giving them an opportunity to play for their hometown club. It’s improving, there is no doubt about that. A lot of the local clubs and local coaches should feel good about that – there are good games, good competition and good quality.”
Epakis went into detail about some of the local players that he brought in ahead of this season, starting with the teenage duo of Grace Johnston and Georgia Cassidy from Hyundai NTC.
Johnston is a hard-working player, who often gets through so much of the tough, unseen jobs that can make the difference between winning and losing. Cassidy is a cultured youngster who can play centimetre-perfect through balls, hit a stunning long-range shot or set-piece, and put in some crunching tackles. The pair have played both Perth’s opening games, and have looked like they have been professional footballers for years rather than weeks.
“It’s quite incredible,” Epakis said of the duo. “Both of them have spent a bit of time with us in the past. They really absorbed and took to the challenge of what this was about from day one of pre-season. There was a focus and competitiveness and were buying into what it means to be in the group.
“They have shown moments where they look like 30 or 40 gamers, but they are only two gamers. It’s credit to them and to the older players who have created an environment to support them. They are doing great things, but there are a lot of people who have contributed to that – the senior players in particular.”
A more experienced local player who was offered a contract in the close season was Tia Stonehill. A prolific goalscorer around the NPLW WA for a number of years, Stonehill came back from a serious injury that left her needing extensive care and having to learn to walk again. The striker came back to action this year with Balcatta Etna and produced a succession of spectacular all-action displays and score another bucket full of goals.
“Tia is someone who had a standout season in the local competition,” Epakis said. “Her goalscoring has always been something that caught my eye, but more this year than anything was her movement and effort off the ball. Tracking back and pressing. She developed more elements to her game.
“She showed me that she should be in this mix and given an opportunity. She’s coming in at a good time in her career when she’s had to overcome a lot of things. Just because she doesn’t have A-League experience doesn’t mean she’s not going to be a fantastic player for us. I believe she will add to our attacking quality.”
“She came into pre-season a few weeks late because she had some commitments with work (Stonehill is a prison officer) – now we are trying to fast-track her and catch her up. She’s understanding the tactical approach, she’s understanding the physical approach and she has a really exciting story behind her – returning from setbacks, but she is going to have a positive impact on the season.”
A major arrival from overseas has been striker Millie Farrow. The English attacker has been a standout player in the opening weeks of the season with an incredible work rate, popping up all over the front third, and going the extra yard to link up with her teammates as well as getting efforts in on goal herself. Farrow is the epitome of the “X-Factor character” that the Glory identified at the start of our conversation.
“Millie is like a character I’ve never worked with before. She is a real fantastic human. She has a great aura and vibe about her. Then you look at what she does on the pitch. She’s such a competitor, she’s fierce, she’s on the edge. She finds solutions to moments that, as a coach, you can’t coach. It’s just instinct. She is helping the team a lot.”
“I had come across the name Millie Farrow four or five months ago. It just so happened that Izzy Dalton, who we had signed in the off-season indicated that Millie was looking to leave her USA club and was looking for a new opportunity. From her first chat, I knew she was a person I wanted to bring in and help lead the attack.”
Apart from the opening wins and clean sheets, one of the aspects about Perth’s play that has impacted most on me so far this season is the real focus on game management. This allowed the Western Australians to close out a 2-0 win over last season’s beaten Grand Finalists Western United on the opening day, and then in round two, produce a real professional effort in closing down a threatening Newcastle Jets who were pressing for an equaliser in the last 15 minutes.
“It’s absolutely something we’ve been working on,” the Glory head coach explained. “It goes back to how you manage the game when you don’t have momentum. When you are defending a 1-0 lead against a forward-playing team and direct team (such as Newcastle Jets), you need characters who will step up and win key duels. We got hurt in those last year and the year before.
“It was a good challenge for the group to face early on in the season. We took a lot away from that last 15 minutes against the Jets. It wasn’t pretty, but it was a powerful moment for this group and where we want to be as we’ll be in that situation again as the season goes on.”
Epakis is now into his fourth season as head coach of Perth Glory. During that time he’s had to deal with putting together an incredibly young team just weeks before the start of his first-ever season as an A-League coach, and a very young one himself at that, and then be forced to play home games 3,300 km away for a year due to COVID. Despite this, the team have grown and only missed out on Finals football narrowly. To conclude our conversation, I asked the Glory boss what he had learned about himself over those four years.
“I have really valued each season at the club and the opportunity to build towards creating a competitive and successful A-League Women team. The club has had to deal with and work through some very difficult times in particular during COVID. But we are now past this and the club is entering a really exciting phase. It is a club with rich history and I’m focused everyday to contribute to that history and help the team create winning moments.
“I have certainly had to evolve and develop all my leadership and coaching facets across the four years and learn to be very agile in my decisions and planning during some of the unforeseen events we have navigated. There have been challenges no doubt, but all the experiences have culminated to give me the mindset and skill set to really lead with clarity and focus.”
That clarity and focus, along with a strong depth to this season’s squad are coming together to create something very special in the West.
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