Blayne Treadgold: We need offseason recruits

Blayne Treadgold is a contributor and the co-founder of The Far Post Podcast and is a diehard Perth Glory fan. Since 1997, Blayne has been an active face on the terraces of Perth Glory and is also an active Socceroos supporter. Leading into yet another A-League season that is terribly difficult to predict for Perth Glory, as ever, we get the opinions of Blayne and where he thinks Glory will find themselves next season.

It’s a pleasure to feature you on Perth Underground. Before we talk about Perth Glory, I’m interested in yourself and your views on football in WA as a whole. When did you start supporting Perth Glory? Do you remember your first game? 

First Glory match was in 1997,  Perth v Marconi in the old National Soccer League which was later reformed to become the A-league.…. Although I can’t remember the score from that first game, I remember the atmosphere was like nothing I’d ever heard or seen before, coming from an “Aussie Rules” background where it’s a lot more subdued.

Living in Perth and being so actively involved in football over AFL may seem odd to many WA locals. What attracted you to football over the AFL?

I actually grew up in a real Aussie rules area and grew up with an interest in many sports. I built more of a passionate interest in football through my high school years and as I got more connected to other lovers of the world game I guess the passion just grew further.

We know how quickly football is growing around the country, especially at Grassroots level. What do you feel is the driving factor behind this growth?

Football is now the most widely played sport in Australia. Being a country of migrants, football was always going to have its place in Australia and it was always going to be a matter of time before participation rates soared despite a certain section actively trying to keep the game down. Football is a game that doesn’t discriminate, it can be played by anyone at any time and is enjoyed by both males and females of every creed and background, all over the world.

Onto Perth Glory, we seem to have fairly contrasting views on how Perth Glory will go this season. Put simply, where do Glory stand with the rest of the competition in this upcoming season? 

It’s certainly going to be interesting, while still early days in the offseason and still a couple of months to go before the A-league season begins, a lot will depend on the off-season recruitment. It was disappointing to get eliminated from the FFA Cup competition at such an early stage as it would have ensured more competitive matches as we get closer to the A-league season. The fans are certainly craving some silverware.

Obviously the Heidelberg FFA Cup loss was heavy, giving us little pre-season to get prepared. How damaging is this blow? 

Yeah it was a big blow, as we are so far removed over here it’s difficult to get some decent hit-outs against top opposition heading into the A-league, essentially the longer our cup run, the better our pre-season… We certainly underestimated Heidelberg and they were up for it, it was a good old fashioned cup upset, but that’s football I guess.

Glory have made some, what I would perceive as, great signings this season, including Mitch Nichols, Scott Neville and the youngster Jake Brimmer. What do you make of these signings? 

While they have plugged the gaps that some players left and brought in some decent A-league talent, It’s imperative that Perth are able to attract players that have the ability to win the side to silverware. Let’s hope there’s some more recruits on the way.

On the flip side of the coin, they’ve also lost some key players. Losing Risdon is a big blow, and captain Rostyn Griffiths has headed to Uzbekistan. The club also released Marinkovic. What do you make of these losses? 

Risdon and Griffiths are decent losses to the side. Marinkovic was unfortunate to lose but in my opinion wasn’t worth using a foreigner spot as he was quite injury prone.

Often opinions on the man in charge, Kenny Lowe, are contentious among Glory fans. I’m a fan, and I feel he’s always got the best out of what he has at his disposal. I think he provides excellent stability and keeping him in charge is a great decision. What are your views on Kenny?

As mentioned above, it’s imperative that Kenny and the coaching staff does it’s best to recruit the highest quality players he can. He’s been in charge for three years now and while we’ve had relative success in where we have finished on the table and in the cup, we are yet to win any silverware.

The start of the season looks tough, with only 3 of the first 9 games at home. We also face Wellington away twice, but we have 5 of the last 7 fixtures at home. I think, as long as we get through those first 9 games on the right side of the table, we’ll be in with a good shot when the finals come round. What do you make of the fixtures and how it will play on Glory’s season?

 While not ideal, its swings and roundabouts, as most clubs gets their tough runs at some period….. Let’s hope we can be in decent position as we head into the run to the finals.

To close up, give us an ‘out of 10’ on the chances of Glory, at last, winning an A-League title this season?

 6/10…. But I’ll bump it up to 8/10 if we can pick up another couple of quality midfielders and keep the squad fully fit.

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