Marked for Connor Simpson
From our football correspondent
Steady
Market17 Sep 2029
The bid was some way short and Perth Glory did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Market17 Sep 2029
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Squad17 Sep 2029
Clayton Taylor falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad17 Sep 2029
Connor Simpson and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad17 Sep 2029
“The easiest signature of my career.” Jesse Wallace and Perth Glory agree another 3 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Market17 Sep 2029
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Arion Sulemani has his answer from Perth Glory; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
The dugout17 Sep 2029
Alex Badolato asks for a word with the manager
“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.
The dugout17 Sep 2029
Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Arion Sulemani is on it.
Match17 Sep 2029
Continental football is in reach for Perth Glory
34 points from position 4. The title is somebody else’s business and the drop is somebody else’s problem; what is left is the argument about passports.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad16 Apr 2029
Brandon O'Neill damages knee ligaments — 45 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 45 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad16 Apr 2029
71 days, the medical staff say, and medical staff are optimists by profession. The team sheet will look wrong without him.
The dugout16 Apr 2029
“I was told what my role would be, and I signed on that basis. It has not happened.” A grievance with a date attached is the hardest kind to settle.
Squad16 Apr 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Perth Glory this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad16 Apr 2029
Words at Perth Glory training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Clayton Taylor is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
The dugout16 Apr 2029
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad26 Feb 2029
Brandon O'Neill damages knee ligaments — 96 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 96 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Squad26 Feb 2029
8 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.
The dugout26 Feb 2029
Trent Ostler: that is not what I was promised
“Things were said to me before I signed. I am not going to repeat them, but I remember all of them.” Perth Glory have not answered, which is an answer of sorts.
Squad26 Feb 2029
Matthew Sutton and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad26 Feb 2029
100 games in these colours. Service of that kind gets rarer every season, and the crowd knows it.
The dugout26 Feb 2029
He found out with everybody else, an hour before kick-off, from a sheet of paper on a wall. Nobody at Perth Glory pretended it was anything other than a decision about him.
The dugout26 Feb 2029
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
The dugout26 Feb 2029
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Connor Simpson, and the manager let it.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
The dugout19 Feb 2029
“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Perth Glory may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.
Player ratings19 Feb 2029
Henry Hore beats them one at a time
Successful dribbles: 23. There was always a defender in front of him and there was never a defender in front of him for long.
Squad19 Feb 2029
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Perth Glory this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad19 Feb 2029
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Clayton Taylor was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad19 Feb 2029
“I never wanted to be anywhere else. There is unfinished business here.” Connor Simpson commits to Perth Glory for another 3 years.
Player ratings19 Feb 2029
The afternoon belonged to Luka Smyth
A mark of 7.90, and nobody in the ground would argue with it. He was involved in everything that mattered and most of what did not.
The dugout19 Feb 2029
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Marc Martinez could afford to be generous.
The dugout19 Feb 2029
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.