After reaching the last four of the Night Series competition earlier this month, the PGFC Academy First Team have been busy fine-tuning their preparations for the 2025 NPL WA campaign which will get underway this Saturday with a home game at the Sam Kerr Football Centre against Fremantle City (U18s at 11am, U20s at 1pm, First Team at 3pm – admission FREE).
Newly-appointed Academy First Team Head Coach Joe Heath is excited by what lies ahead and the opportunity to build upon the positives gleaned from the Night Series campaign.
“We’ve got a big group this year and we wanted to get as many minutes into players as possible,” he said.
“Looking at the performances from last year, in possession, there was never a problem.
“But out of possession, I felt like that needed improving, so we concentrated a lot on pressing from the front and being compact throughout our pre-season games and the Night Series.
“I wanted us playing more as a team than as individuals.
“The Night Series was very pleasing… in the last few months I’ve seen them grow a bit in terms of resilience.”
Heath previously worked extensively with a number of the club’s younger age groups and he believes that experience will prove beneficial with so many of those same players having now progressed into the Academy First Team.
“Those relationships definitely help and I like to think that the players trust me from working with me last year,” he said.
“They know that when I tell them something, I’m telling them for a reason.
“We’ve got a big group, as I mentioned and it’s about managing that group this year because not everybody will play every week.
“I try to be as honest as possible and have a chat with every one of them that’s not playing at the weekend and explain why.
“I’ll always have that chat with them and I like to think that they never feel they can’t pick the ‘phone up and ask me a question outright, like “why am I not playing this weekend?”.
“I feel that I owe it to those boys who work hard all week in training to explain where they’re going wrong, where they need to improve and how they can get themselves in the team.”
Striking the correct balance between player development and securing results is always a challenge within any Academy system, but Heath believes that there is a way to ensure both.
“The whole of our Under-20s have moved up [into the First Team],” he said, “but even now, a lot of them are still only 16 or 17.
“I don’t think anyone would argue with me in saying that I don’t think we were competitive at times last season.
“So if we can get the team to be more competitive throughout the season this year, that would be a step in the right direction for me.
“If we can accomplish that this year, a lot of the players will have another year or two at that level still to come, so it’ll stand the group in good stead for next year in terms of their development.
“In a winning culture, everyone is together and vying for the same vision and development just happens within that environment.
“The main goal is to feed our A-League team.
“Just look at the players that have stepped up and done well – we need to continue that and potentially, the older lads in that NPL group now are ready to do that towards the end of the season.”
In terms of the NPL competition itself and Saturday’s season-opener against Fremantle City, meanwhile, the Head Coach is expecting both to present a tough challenge.
“You could see from the two groups in the Night Series, how tight they were, that it’s going to be a very competitive league this year,” he said.
“I’m expecting the Fremantle game to be similar to when we played them in the Night Series,” he said.
“They work hard, they pressed us well and broke quickly on us.
“They looked organised in the way they played and it will be physical.
“Every game will be physical for us this year because the boys are playing against men and that’s something they’ll have to adapt to and get used to throughout the season.”
Saturday’s opponents will be playing their first NPL game under the guidance of Glory legend Scott Miller who took up the Head Coach role at Hilton Park in the off-season.
Ex-Glory A-League duo Riley Woodcock and Cameron Edwards are both expected to feature in City’s squad, along with livewire forward, Sam Cook.
Click HERE for the full 2025 NPL WA fixture list and do get along to support the lads if you can.
(photo courtesy of Football West)
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