Frustrated Perth Glory coach Alex Epakis has teed off at A-League Women administrators over a scheduling call which leaves his players facing three weeks on ice.
Glory won’t play again until February 4 after a decision last week to reschedule next weekend’s game against Sydney FC.
The postponement was attributed to ongoing pitch remediation at Leichhardt Oval, with the game instead set to be played at Jubilee Stadium in Kogarah on March 29.
Sydney FC chief executive Adam Santo said administrators had sought to relocate the game to next weekend but couldn’t find an alternative venue, “with many grounds already in use or undergoing similar renovations”.
Epakis said it wasn’t good enough on the part of the Australian Professional Leagues (APL).
“I’m not happy about it,” he told reporters after Sunday’s 2-0 win over Wellington Phoenix at Macedonia Park.
“The APL made a decision to postpone our game against Sydney that was due to be this coming weekend. They’ve made that postponement due to Sydney FC not being able to source a venue in the largest state of venues.
“So now we’ve been punished. We’re going to play three games in six days at the end of the season across three different states, which isn’t fair.
“It compromises the run that we need to have and most importantly, it’s a wellbeing and a safety issue.”
Epakis claimed he had voiced his concerns in an email to the APL but had not received a response.
“We offered to host them here and cover the cost and they still said no,” he added.
The APL denied this, saying commissioner Greg O’Rourke had been in contact with the club and Perth were unable to fund switching the game to WA.
“We have been trying for a number of weeks to solve with alternate grass-field grounds in NSW, but unfortunately this is a very rare occurrence where an alternative couldn’t be found for the original date,” O’Rourke said.
Glory will continue training and play internal games against their boys academy teams in a bid to keep fresh during their extended break.
“We certainly have to do something to maintain that intense load,” Epakis said.
“You can’t go three weeks of not playing a game and then just expect to perform when you get back.”
Eighth-placed Glory’s return to action on February 4 comes against ladder leaders Western United in Ballarat.
