Oli Sail sat down with Perth Glory’s media team for the first time since joining the club ahead of the beginning of their 2023/24 campaign.
New Perth Glory goalkeeper Oli Sail believes he and his teammates must aim high this season, setting a return to the Isuzu UTE A-League finals as the “minimum expectation” ahead of the upcoming campaign.
Sail officially joined the club after nine years at the Wellington Phoenix this week, ahead of Glory’s pre-season friendly against English Premier League outfit West Ham and their Australia Cup playoff a few days later with Macarthur FC in Darwin.
The All-Whites keeper is the first signing Perth have made this off-season thus far, as they march on with pre-season preparations despite being without a permanent senior head coach since the resignation of Ruben Zadkovich in early June.
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Perth were in the mix for a finals berth right until the final round of the season last year, but fell out of contention when Sail and his former teammates at Wellington beat Macarthur in the final round before Glory faced Western United that same night.
In the end, Glory finished in 9th, meaning they not only missed finals for a third straight season, but an automatic Australia Cup berth.
Sail, who has played a part in three of the last four finals series at the ‘Nix, was asked about his goals for the season and he believes a return to the finals should be the “minimum expectation”, with the added “aim” of securing a home tie.
“For me personally, first and foremost, Perth missed out on the six last year so that’s got to be the minimum expectation for the group of players that we have and the quality that we’ve got in that dressing room,” he told club media.
“Then it’s pushing higher. If you’re a team like Perth where you’re isolated and people have to travel, securing home playoff football is a massive advantage. That for me should be the aim for the team and the group.”
Sail arrives in Perth having established himself as one of the league’s top goalkeepers and becoming a regular in the New Zealand national team in the process.
The 27-year-old acknowledged his performances have certainly been to a solid standard, but aims to concede less goals this season and “minimise errors” of his own doing.
“On a personal level, obviously been a bit disappointed over the last couple of years with how many goals I’ve conceded,” he said.
“I felt like my performances were still there, but just statistically, it’s probably not matching up.
“I’d like to bring that down a long way and go from there. We’re also developing a playing style where we like to play out from the back so, minimising errors in that regard is going to be important for me this year.”
Sail took part in his first training sessions as part of Perth’s senior side this week, months after being announced as the club’s inaugural signing of the season during last campaign.
He said the transition has been “quite an easy” one, saying the move to Perth has helped him go out of his “comfort zone” after playing his entire senior career in New Zealand.
“It’s been really good… settling in slowly, didn’t know it was cold here to be fair. I thought it was 30 degrees all year round, so that was a bit of a shock.” he joked.
“But no, it’s been really nice. The boys are all really sound lads and obviously I know a couple of the staff as well from from previous years playing against Perth Glory like Andy (Keogh) and Kenny (Lowe) as well through the years. So it’s been quite an easy little transition.
“I needed a fresh start and a new challenge. In my conversations with the club, they were really ambitious and they had a vision for not only what we could achieve as a club, but how they could help me grow as a player and achieve what I want to achieve in my career.
“Just through those discussions, it became quite clear that it’d be a good environment for me to move into and also it’s obviously the furthest away as well (from home).
“So to throw myself out of my comfort zone a little bit, I’ve had some challenging times in football but never had to experience it abroad except for when I was really young.
“[It’s a] challenge and I’m hoping I land on my own two feet.”
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Sail also said he’s looking forward to playing in-front of the Glory fans, who last season gave him some stuck for his comments on The Players Pod with Robbie Cornthwaite in regards to the Distance Derby.
“I got a lot of stick actually when we came here last year,” he said.
“I did a podcast, The Players Podcast ran by the A-League and they asked me about the Distance Derby and I said it’s the one I least look forward to on the playing calendar purely because of the travel and the jet-lag and everything and yeah, I got a bit of s**t for that!
Listen below to The Players Pod episode with Robbie Cornthwaite from back in December.
“The Shed’s given me a fair bit in the past. When I played here, it was probably one of my first sort of seven or eight games and I was only a young fella so really enjoyed, enjoyed getting into it with them.
“I’m excited to be hopefully on the other end of it this time and hope they’re saying all nice things about me.”
