Glory ALM Head Coach Adam Griffiths has called upon his side to seize the initiative in Sunday’s Round 3 showdown with Adelaide United at HBF Park (kick-off at 4pm, followed by Glory Women v Wellington Phoenix Women at 6:45pm – tickets available HERE).
Click HERE to watch his full pre-match media conference.
The hosts will be looking to get on the board for the season having suffered consecutive 2-1 defeats to Macarthur FC and Brisbane Roar respectively in the opening two rounds.
And Griffiths believes that a front foot approach is they key to getting the better of an Adelaide side who lost 2-1 to Sydney FC in their only ALM outing so far this term.
“We have to be very focused and make sure we do our jobs,” he said, “but we’re also at home and we want to take the game to Adelaide and put on a very, very good performance in front of our own fans.
“I think the boys are really looking forward to performing in front of our Members and fans.
“It’s been a while and we’re excited about it.”
The Head Coach went on to stress that while the points return from the opening two rounds was disappointing, there were plus points to be found in each of the games.
“What we need to focus on, especially with this young group, is the performance,” he said.
“I thought in the first game against Macarthur, the performance was good but we didn’t get the points and then it was 50% in terms of performance in the Brisbane game.
“So what the boys have been focusing on is being ready for this game and making sure we’re sticking to our processes.
“We look at all the positives and the things they’re doing well and get at the game that way.
“That’s the key message this week.”
Adelaide will be a familiar opponent for Glory after the sides met twice in last month’s pre-season Regional Roadie and Griffiths is keenly aware of the threat Airton Andrioli’s men will pose.
“Adelaide will provide different problems [to Macarthur and Brisbane],” he said.
“They’re a very good team, a very dangerous team and they change [formations] a lot.
“Against Sydney, I felt that they had some success playing through, but probably lacked a bit of final product.
“But they had their chances to hurt them.”
In terms of squad news, meanwhile, Griffiths reported that Trent Ostler (hamstring) and Brian Kaltak (knee) are on track to return to training next week, joining Charbel Shamoon who is closing in on a making a full recovery from his foot injury.
He also confirmed that Jaiden Kucharski and Will Freney are in contention to start on Sunday afternoon, with Giovanni De Abreu another putting his hand up for selection.
“It’ll be great to potentially have JK back in the starting team,” he said
“The whole group is fitter than what it was in the previous two weeks and we have quality players coming back into the squad who’ve had another week in training.
“That’s a real positive; the strength of the squad is slowly getting there.
“JK and Gio are both training really well now and putting in good training performances, so we’re expecting to see them out there on Sunday.
“Will was great against Macarthur and we really missed him in the game against Brisbane.
“He’s one of those players that people don’t notice, but he has a huge effect on the team.
“We’re really excited to have him back and with Gio looking to get more minutes as well, our midfield is starting to strengthen.”
As for Adelaide, they followed their defeat at the hands of Sydney FC by losing 2-0 to Singaporean side Lions City Sailors in the AFC Champions League Two on Thursday evening.
Highly-rated young striker Brody Burkitt scored their goal against the Sky Blues and he is likely to start against Glory, as are experienced duo Craig Goodwin and Ryan Kitto, plus Dutch import Joshua Smits who is widely regarded as one of the best goalkeepers in the competition.
Smits’ compatriot Bart Vriends, however, remains sidelined by injury, as does Dylan Pierias who has scored four times in his 15 appearances against Glory.
Sunday will mark the 60th overall meeting between the two sides and the 30th in WA, of which Glory have won 11 to the Reds’ nine.
This fixture has provided plenty of excitement in recent years, with the last 10 clashes yielding a combined aggregate of 41 goals.
Match Details
A-League 2026/27 Season Round 3
Perth Glory v Adelaide United
HBF Park
Sunday 1 November 2026
Kick-off: 4pm
Perth Glory: 1.Matt SUTTON (GK), 3.Sam SUTTON, 5.Lachie JACKSON, 7.Stefan COLAKOVSKI, 8.Jay O’SHEA, 9.Jaiden KUCHARSKI, 10.Tom LAWRENCE (C), 11.Sebastian KUKUCKA, 16.Lucas SCICLUNA, 17.Pieter JACOBSZ, 18.Cher DENG, 21.Matt ELLIS, 24.Andriano LEBIB, 25.Sebastian DESPOTOVSKI, 27.Will FRENEY, 29.Daniel SOLSKY (GK), 30.Tadi KUZAMBA, 39.Giovanni DE ABREU, 44.Riley FOXE
(One to be omitted)
Ins: 27. Will FRENEY
Outs: None
Unavailable: 2.Charbel SHAMOON, 12.Matt DENCH, 13.Henry HORE, 20.Trent OSTLER, 28.Calem NIEUWENHOF, 45.Brian KALTAK
Adelaide United: 4.Panagiotis KIKIANIS, 7.Ryan KITTO, 10.Juan MUÑIZ, 11.Craig GOODWIN, 12.Jonny YULL, 14.Jay BARNETT, 17.Ben FOLAMI, 19.Amlani TATU, 22.Joshua SMITS, 23.Luke DUZEL, 35.Brody BURKITT, 40.Ethan COX, 52.SOTIRIOS Phillis, 55.Ethan Alagich, 58.Harry CRAWFORD, 62.Fabian TALLADIRA, 65.Joey GARUCCIO, 79.Feyzo KASUMOVIC, 87.Anselmo, 99.Ajak RIAK
In: N/A
Out: N/A
Unavailable: 2.Bart VRIENDS, 18.Jake NAJDOVSKI, 20.Dylan PIERIAS, 21.Jacob BRAZETE, 44.Ryan WHITE, 27.Mitchell SMITH
#ONEGlory
ALM Match Preview: Griff calls for front foot performance in home clash with Reds
