The first thing he remembers is the scent.
“I don’t know if it’s the mix of the beer and the food getting cooked,” says a reflective Adam Taggart. “But it’s got this very distinct smell – not the training ground, but the stadium.
“If you talk about Perth Glory, it’s always the smell. It’s funny, because Macedonia Park also has it.
“I remember the first time going to Macedonia Park, I was like: ‘f****** hell, it’s the exact same as HBF Park! It just gives you that feeling of home.”
When Taggart talks about Perth Glory, his words come from a place of familiarity. When a football club is rooted in your DNA from childhood, these things tend to stick with you.
And it’s no surprise the smell of beer comes straight to mind when the Glory spearhead thinks of his boyhood club; just minutes into his return, under the lights of Macedonia Park, Taggart was showered in it by the rapturous Glory fans:
Two goals off the bench to help Glory beat Melbourne Victory. Two goals to remind the Glory fans what they’ve been missing.
As it turns out, through five years away from the club, Taggart missed the club as much as the club missed him.
“When I used to go to the Glory games with my dad, or my mate’s dad, whoever it was, I would always go in there and think: ‘This is the f*****g smell of a football game’,” Taggart adds.
“I had that same thing the first time I went to Macedonia Park. It’s all these little factors that contribute to this feeling of belonging, and home.
“I’m sure if you ask most of the supporters, they’d probably feel the same thing.”
Taggart is one game into his third Glory stint, re-joining the club in December after a successful near-four-year spell abroad spent at Korean K League 1 club Suwon Bluewings and Japanese J1 League outfit Cerezo Osaka.
It was an overseas sojourn decorated by the K League 1 Golden Boot and Korean FA Cup in 2019, but hampered by injuries after a move to Japan.
At 29 years of age Taggart returns home, committed to a three-and-a-half year deal in Perth.
It says a lot about his determination to make this Glory comeback a success in the way he frames his time abroad: “It was almost like a long pre-season to get ready for the best period of my playing career for Perth Glory.”
“I’m 29,” he adds. “I’m at that age where if I spent a couple more years in Japan or wherever it was, then came back when I was on my way down, I don’t think that would have sat right with me. So I think to have three-and-a-half years at 29, which arguably should be some of your best football you play in your career, it made it feel right.
If I am going to have the best period of my life, I want it to be at Perth Glory.
It’s where I’m from, doing it in front of family and friends, doing it for a club that I care about, that I want to have a long-lasting relationship with. Those sort of things fit in to what I wanted mentally, and what I needed for myself.
“I left because I felt I needed to see how far I could go, and doing that was to get overseas, and see what level I could get to… but I definitely missed that feeling of playing for Perth Glory, playing for a club I grew up supporting.
“Especially the last couple of years, I was really craving that sense of belonging.
“For me, anyway, this is where I feel I belong. It’s where I’ve always felt I belong. So coming back, it was always on the cards. It was just a matter of time.
“To be honest, you can look at (my four years abroad) in all different ways… for me that’s just what it was: a long, hard graft in Korea and Japan that helped me so much. I want to bring that to Perth Glory.”
Taggart speaks to KEEPUP from Glory’s headquarters in Fremantle. It’s a typically vibrant summer afternoon in the west – the cloudless, blue sky is a refreshing change for Taggart, who became accustomed to grey looming overhead throughout his years in Korea and Japan (‘F*** me, how good is the air here?’ Was one of the first things that came to mind when landing in his home city).
On his left thigh is a compression bandage – a reminder that, although managing to score two quickfire goals in his club return, Glory fans must be patient as he continues to build his fitness after a quad injury.
On his right thigh is a tattoo of the number 553: Taggart’s Socceroos cap number.
His return to the west came in the wake of the 2022 FIFA Men’s World Cup, in which the Socceroos excelled.
The 26-man squad might have had room for Taggart, who played a key role for head coach Graham Arnold through an arduous qualification schedule, if not for a knee injury which kept him out of national team action from October of 2021 to April of 2022.
Taggart did make it back into the selection frame in time to make Arnold’s squad which went to Qatar in June of 2022 for do-or-die qualifiers against United Arab Emirates and Peru.
But the word “setback” proved to be thematic for Taggart on the road to this particular World Cup.
“I had a couple of injuries at extremely bad times,” he said. “One was two days before the first playoff game in Qatar, before we played Peru.
“It looked like I was going to be playing in that game, but I strained my adductor in a training session. Those sort of things hurt me a lot more than actually not being selected to go to the World Cup. Those small setbacks have always been something that hits deep.
“I was looking forward to that game, I love playing football in those big moments, and you want to be involved in those big ones. Things like that definitely hurt me a lot more, and are a lot more frustrating.
“Leading up to the World Cup, yeah, I probably did start to have my doubts (about selection)… not based on anything externally, I was just getting that feeling. I’m normally pretty spot on with that sort of stuff.
Arnie called me just before the squad was announced, and told me I wasn’t in the squad. I said, ‘no worries and all the best’.
I appreciated the call; I know it’s difficult for people to do that. But that’s that, I didn’t get selected, so you move on and support the boys from afar.
“Being involved in the majority of that qualifying campaign leading into this World Cup and not going right at the last minute, I think it probably made it easier to accept because I’ve always been someone a bit like that, where I’m never going to come out and smash people for not taking me. It’s just not really the person I am.
“People can think what they want, they can say what they want. But at the end of the day, it’s not really the way I want to go about my business, and I think I never really have done.
“I’ve got the best job in the world, and I’ve already had so many amazing experiences. If I got to go to the World Cup, I would have been buzzing. I didn’t get to go, and that’s it. I was buzzing to see how well they did, because at the end of the day a lot of the boys are my good mates. It was nice to experience it on the other side, to support them and watch how well they did.”
Taggart’s perspective on his World Cup omission comes from a simple yet poignant way of thinking:
“I think in football, you win some, you lose some.
“I was lucky enough when I was 20 to go to a World Cup in Brazil, after not playing any of the qualifying games, you know? So I won one there. I got to see an experience something unbelievable in football that not many people get to do… I’ve always been really appreciative of that chance.
“My decision to come to Perth Glory had absolutely nothing to do with the Socceroos,” he added. “I think going overseas had a lot more to do with it, to try and see how far I could progress.
“Coming back to Perth Glory was purely about playing for Perth Glory, because I love this club. This is where I want to play week in, week out.
“The national team stuff will follow good performances, and I think especially coming back here, I haven’t thought about it at all because I have so much love for this place as it is, that I don’t need any more motivation, I don’t need anymore satisfaction, I don’t need any more boxes ticked to come back here. It’s purely for Perth Glory.”
Taggart missed Perth’s trip to New Zealand to take on Wellington Phoenix in Round 14, but will push to contend to return to the Glory squad for this weekend’s home clash with Newcastle Jets at Macedonia Park.
Will Taggart add to his two-goal tally, as Glory look to extend their unbeaten run at Macedonia Park to seven games? Tune in on Saturday night (10.30pm kick-off AEDT) on Paramount+.
MATCH DETAILS
Perth Glory v Newcastle Jets
Saturday, January 4
Macedonia Park
Kick-off: 10.30pm AEDT
Broadcast: Paramount+
