Star Perth defender Chris Coyne is a certain starter against Wellington on Sunday in the cut-throat Hyundai A-League final, but he has made it clear that anything but a win would leave the Glory as underachievers.
With fellow Qantas Socceroos Jacob Burns and Mile Sterjovski joining the club this season, and the recent signings of Daniel McBreen and Steve McGarry, who have had a massive impact, the Glory have a line-up that Coyne believes should be able to advance deep into the finals.
That is going to be hard from fifth position and with a trip to Wellington and a dangerous Phoenix team to overcome, but Coyne has been pleased with the Glory’s good form to close out the season and is confident of a win on Sunday.
“I’ve made it quite clear that we’ve underachieved this year with the squad we’ve got,” Coyne said.
“We’ve just come together at the right time and I think it took us the first few games to get together because there were so many new players. But in the last month or so I think we’ve been outstanding and I think the results are starting to show that.”
Travelling to New Zealand to play is the longest trip in the competition and while that isn’t ideal for the Glory, especially with Perth’s Super 14 team the Western Force and fans already having secured the only direct flight to Wellington from Perth ahead of the game.
That means the Glory will have to catch a connecting flight through either Sydney, Brisbane or Melbourne, but Coyne will make no excuses and once they get out on Westpac Stadium he expects a victory.
“We’re such a big club, being on the other side of the world to the rest of the league. We’re pleased with where we are but we’ve achieved nothing yet,” he said.
“We set high standards and getting into the finals isn’t enough – we want to win it and go all the way. We’ve got a professional bunch of guys that are good players and we’ll just go and approach it as we would any other game. We’re confident that we can beat anyone.”
Despite signing with Central Coast for next season already, McBreen has made a big impact for the Glory since being released from the North Queensland Fury.
He has now expressed a desire to remain in Perth next season with the two clubs set to have discussions at the end of the season, and Coyne would certainly love to have him at the club beyond the finals campaign.
“You always want to keep your good players and Daniel McBreen is certainly a good player,” Coyne said.
“If we can keep him here, that would be fantastic.”
