Glory ALM Head Coach Adam Griffiths is backing his charges to finish the season strongly ahead of Sunday’s penultimate home game of the campaign against Macarthur FC (kick-off at 5pm, tickets available HERE).
Click HERE to watch his full pre-match media conference.
Melbourne City’s midweek win over the Central Coast Mariners means that Glory now face the improbable task of overhauling an eight-point deficit to make the top six, with only three games remaining.
But while their Finals hopes may have faded, Griffiths believes the men in purple remain fully motivated and are capable of building on consecutive draws against Melbourne City and the Mariners.
“It’s a positive mood [in the playing group],” he said.
“The players were happy with the way they started the game [against Central Coast Mariners], we created a lot of good quality chances, we scored two very good goals and we want to look to build upon that type of mentality.
“Obviously managing the game better is something that we need to address, but the intent of the way we want to play for the remainder of the season has been clear in the last two games.
“The group would be disappointed [not to make Finals] naturally, as would I, but the reality of it is that we need to continue to build and grow.
“I think we’ve been quite competitive throughout the season and at our strongest availability, we’ve been more than that; we’ve been a team to beat.
“We’ve overcome some adversity in terms of losing key players and we’re starting to push towards how we want to continue to play for the rest of this season, so from my perspective, the mentality of the group is strong.
“We want to put in a really strong performance in front of our own fans that they can be proud of.”
The Head Coach went on to praise his side for the attacking improvements they have shown in recent weeks.
“In the last two games, I’ve seen a complete shift in our mentality,” he said.
“We are playing with more freedom in our actions, but we do need to touch on some of the areas we can improve.
“There are some defensive actions we need to improve because normally my teams are built on strong defensive foundations and that hasn’t been the case this year and we can improve in that area.”
Glory have already taken four points off Macarthur this season courtesy of a 2-0 win in Round 6 and a 2-2 draw in Round 16, but Griffiths is reluctant to read too much into those results ahead of Sunday’s third meeting.
“The Bulls have started to evolve a little bit more,” he said, “so we can’t go too deeply into previous games because they have changed.
“They’ve played a back five the last two games and have been quite effective with that, having two big wins.
“We will look at the weaknesses within their game, but also continue to focus on some of our positives.”
Griffiths went on to provide an update on Will Freney who picked up a quad strain against the Mariners, confirming that the young midfielder’s injury is not a serious one and that he has a 50/50 chance of being available this weekend.
None of the other injured members of the squad, including Trent Ostler, Tom Lawrence, Brandon O’Neill and Lachie Wales, however, will feature and Callum Timmins has also been ruled out by a quad issue.
The Bulls, meanwhile, will travel west searching for a third successive win having secured impressive victories over the current top two, Newcastle Jets and Auckland FC, in their two most recent outings.
Mile Sterjovski’s side have conceded the second-highest number of goals in the competition this term, but have also found the net with relative ease.
Veteran Socceroos forward Mitch Duke has made a strong impression since arriving in January, scoring four and adding three assists, while Harry Sawyer has netted six times and defender Callum Talbot has delivered the second-highest number of crosses in the competition (135), claiming five assists in the process.
Overall, Glory have faced the Bulls on 13 previous occasions, securing three wins, two of which have come here in the West.
This weekend will see Glory overhaul South Melbourne’s record of 791 national league games played (including Finals) which has stood since the end of the NSL era in 2004.
Match Details
Isuzu UTE A-League 2025/26 Season Round 24
Perth Glory v Macarthur FC
HBF Park
Sunday 12 April 2026
Kick-off: 5pm
#ONEGlory
ALM Match Preview: Griff praises strong mentality within squad ahead of Bulls test
