Marked for Noah Hamilton
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Market3 Jun 2030
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Squad3 Jun 2030
Matthew Sutton and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Transfer targets3 Jun 2030
Perth Glory asked and Melbourne City said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market3 Jun 2030
Add another name to the list: Newcastle Jets have asked the question everybody in the game has been asking about Arion Sulemani. The answer from Perth Glory has not changed — yet.
The dugout3 Jun 2030
It is never announced and it is entirely visible: the biggest afternoons of the season keep containing him. A press box works this out long before anybody at the club confirms a word of it.
Squad3 Jun 2030
Oscar Fryer 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.
Market3 Jun 2030
“They were honest with me, and I would rather know.” Charles-Emile Brunet has been informed he is not in the manager's thinking at Perth Glory.
The dugout3 Jun 2030
Theo Leeming knocks on the manager’s door
“Thirty minutes, door closed, everything said. We shook hands after.” Whatever was in the room stayed in the room, and Theo Leeming trained the next morning like a man with less to carry.
Boardroom3 Jun 2030
The window is open, and with it the only month of the year when a supporter’s hopes are limited by nothing but arithmetic. The board know the arithmetic; the supporters know the hopes.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad8 Apr 2030
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Clayton Taylor and Perth Glory agree another 4 years.
Squad8 Apr 2030
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.
Squad8 Apr 2030
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.
Squad8 Apr 2030
Noah Hamilton makes the team of the month
Four or five weekends of consistency, measured against everybody else in the division. A quieter compliment than an award and a more reliable one.
The dugout8 Apr 2030
Joshua Rawlins has become a man the manager trusts
Nobody at Perth Glory will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
The dugout8 Apr 2030
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Craig Morgan, and the manager let it.
Boardroom8 Apr 2030
Perth Glory sign a deal worth $193.0K a year
Commercial news is the news nobody sings about and everything else is paid for with. The board will call it a partnership; the accountants will call it the difference between this squad and a smaller one.
The dugout8 Apr 2030
Theo Leeming 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 dugout8 Apr 2030
Tommy Bell has been promised minutes
A conversation in the manager’s office, and a commitment that came out of it. Promises like that are cheap to make and expensive to break, and Tommy Bell has written the date down.
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Player ratings26 Nov 2029
What a way to start for Noah Hamilton — 7.84
1 on the scoresheet on his first appearance and a mark of 7.84 beside it. Most debuts are got through; this one was enjoyed, by him and by everybody watching it.
Player ratings26 Nov 2029
Two goals and a mark of 8.45 to go with them. Strikers are judged on afternoons like this one and remembered for far fewer of them than people imagine.
Squad26 Nov 2029
Matthew Sutton was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Match24 Nov 2029
Wellington Phoenix left with the points after a 1‑2 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.
The terraces26 Nov 2029
There is a particular warmth a ground reserves for a 23-year-old it feels ownership of. Joey Garuccio has it now, and everything he does for the rest of his time here will be measured against the goodwill he was handed for free.
Player ratings26 Nov 2029
Successful dribbles: 18. He went past people as if he had been told there was a prize for it, and by the end the full-back had stopped pretending to try.
Squad26 Nov 2029
Words at Perth Glory training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Oscar Fryer 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 dugout26 Nov 2029
The view from the dugout
“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 1‑2 defeat, delivered by Marc Martinez to a room that had heard them before.