McMahon turns Perth Glory’s season around

Peter Simcox looks at Perth Glory with Steve McMahon at the helm, and how he has turned the clubs fortunes around.

After the coup of signing former Liverpool star Steve McMahon Perth Glory has endured the highs and lows of their first season in the Hyundai A-League.

McMahon, 43, played over 600 games as central midfielder in the English leagues for Liverpool, Everton, Aston Villa and Manchester City. After his playing career, McMahon became manager at Swindon Town for four seasons (1994-98) and then Blackpool for over four seasons (2000-2004).

"I saw the move to Australia as a tremendous challenge for me," McMahon said at the time.

"Australia is highly regarded around the world in so many different sports, and I have no doubt that this can also be achieved in football. The potential is limitless and I'm confident I can play a role in this."

Perth Glory Chairman Nick Tana said securing McMahon was a fantastic coup for Perth Glory and Australian football, "Steve will bring a wealth of international coaching exposure to the club from an illustrious and long playing career."

The former Anfield great put the Glory squad through their paces in the pre-season, and the rumour mills in Perth were saying that the players didn't believe he was the man for the job. It needed a press conference from the club to give support to McMahon who was away in the UK on a scouting mission.

Club captain Jamie Harnwell said while a meeting had been sought with the coaching staff, there was no talk of a player revolt.

"Contrary to media reports the meeting was never intended to be critical about Steve's management style at all, and it was merely to discuss issues in order to make improvements in the way we do things as players," Harnwell said.

"As a group of players we are all confident that Steve can lead us to success in the A-League this season."

Australian international and former Manchester City midfielder Simon Colosimo said the media reports were "misguided".

"There was never an issue with Steve as our coach," he said.

"We had a very positive meeting this morning and Steve, along with all the other staff, continues to be very supportive of us as a group of players. The players are fully behind Steve's leadership in achieving those goals."

On returning from overseas McMahon was very disappointed with the media reports, “I could not have been more disappointed to see the reports in the media in recent days. Some people have had a field day with accusations which are completely unfounded and there is no substance to them whatsoever," he said.

In his defence a great deal of the squad was brought before he had arrived at the club, but he rolled up his sleeves and got on with the job, showing the grit and determination he showed as a player in the English Football league and for his country. He was given a hard time by the media, and all experts in the game gave the Glory little chance of being in the title race and the SBS expert put the Glory finishing last.

It wasn't an inspired start from the side and the vultures were circling around McMahon but he kept faith with his players and the squad has jelled together. The big import signing Brian Deane struggled with form and injuries and McMahon brought in former club favourite Damian Mori on loan from Adelaide City for the injured David Tarka.

Deane, who has now left the club, was a well-liked squad member but struggled to fit in to the side. The long ball tactic used by the side in the opening games again gave McMahon's critic's ammunition, but he continued working with the squad and when Deane was left on the bench the side began to play some great football with youngster Billy Celeski, Nick Ward and Naum Sekolovski shining.

But the sides experienced players have stood up over the past few weeks with Bobby Despotovski, Simon Colosimo and Matt Horsley outstanding. The later player was on the outer at the club, and got his chance after an injury to Jamie Coyne, and performed well down the right flank. He was then thrown into the centre back role after the ever present Ante Kovacevic was injured. Horsley has been outstanding and along with Jamie Harnwell have given a great buffer for keeper Jason Petkovic.

The critic's still question the Glory side and have doubts about their squad's depth. Let's have a look at it, we currently sit in third place on the table with 21 points from thirteen games. We scored 21 goals the second best in the league and conceded 16 goals the 4th best in the league. We have the top goal scorer in the league with Bobby Despotovski scoring seven goals, and Damian Mori with five.

McMahon has turned the clubs fortunes around and it looks from a supporter looking in that the players have responded to his enthusiasm on and off the park. The man is passionate about the game, and if you ask him what he hates about football and he’ll tell you losing. But over the past month the supporters and media has seen a different side to the great man.

He has a regular spot on Channel 7 news once a week and looks more comfortable when talking to the media. It was great to see him and the whole team wearing the West Coast Eagles colours on the trip to New Zealand to play the Knights, on the AFL Grand Final weekend, and to see him after the home victory against Melbourne Victory when he went round every player and congratulated them all, a side we hadn’t seen in his time at Perth.

What’s next for the team, only time will tell, but I’ll tell you what, Steve McMahon will be giving his all for Perth Glory and in the end that’s all we can expect.

•  Have a view on this story? Send us your feedback!