Midweek Glory Training

By: Ben | August 19th, 2009

Gday folks. As I’ve just arrived back in Perth and haven’t got too many commitments at the moment, I thought this morning I’d take up invitation from Glory media manager Mark White and head down to training.

I noted a couple of things which were of interest. The captain situation is something which interests me and whilst watching on I noted Chris Coyne is a loud lad in defence, while Jacob Burns (the skipper) is much quieter but a thorough professional. Nevertheless, I pondered too myself ‘who is the best captain for Glory?’ Andy Todd maybe could be, but he seems to still be settling in. But I think maybe Chris Coyne would’ve been a better choice than Burns.

Another thought which crossed my mind is why on Earth didn’t Eugene Dadi play last week. I know the lads where just training and having a kick-around, but Eugene pops away alot of chances. He’s quality at A-League level and I think looks a far better player than Branko Jelic (although I’ll give the Serb some more time to impress, but preferably off the bench).

Also some other things which I thought were interesting, was how impressed I was with Tando Velaphi in goals. Looks a good lad. And the lad on the short-term deal, Matthew Mayora, looks to have a powerful shot on him, but not much else.

After the training there was a bit of a media chat with Chris Coyne and Dave Mitchell. There were a few more interesting points made, one which surprised me was Coyne was eager to point out Glory’s poor draw with 2 away matches first up whilst Adelaide have something like 6 of their first 9-10 games at home. Seems an issue out of his control, and I thought he’d be more professional than to worry bout that.

Mitchell spoke next and mentioned Victor Sikora was a 50-50 chance to play against Newcastle on Sunday. Although, I think that was a journo putting words in Mitch’s mouth, and I’d say Sikora won’t play as he didn’t train, although I did see him wandering around.

The gaffer also explained ex-Brazil international Amaral (who’s still training with the side) won’t play this weekend. In fact, the club will make a decision on his future after the weekend (probably early next week) but he definitely won’t be available for the Newcastle game.

Anyway nor will I be available for the Jets game. Other work commitments, means I’ll have to attend another sport altogether, watching the Freo Dockers take on Essendon on Sunday at Subi Oval. Not that I’m complaining about it, but it would be nice if Glory had’ve tried to fixture their matches at different time slots to the other local codes. But the AFL season (in WA at least) is over soon, so shouldn’t be a big issue in the future.

Anyway, hopefully we can get up and going this Sunday. I’ll try and do the old trick of not finding out the result and watching a replay, but in this day-and-age, I think I’ll struggle. But still, hopefully the Glory can get their wins tally off and running this weekend.

-Ben Somerford http://euroos.blogspot.com