Still only 30, Perth Glory’s head coach has taken the ‘homeless’ side to the brink of the Liberty A-League finals after being winless last season, writes Tom Smithies.
Maybe it’s not such a surprise that Alex Epakis has instigated a resurgence of Perth Glory in the most testing circumstances imaginable.
Since the then 22-year-old took a cold-eyed decision eight years ago that playing NPL was the highest he would achieve on the field, he has set about ensuring that a coaching role would take him much higher in the game – at the fastest possible pace.
Former colleagues say it has all been done to a plan, from the Masters of Coaching he undertook in his early 20s up to and including the whistlestop recruitment drive he underwent up and down the Eastern Seaboard at the end of last season, to rebuild Glory’s squad after a winless first season where he was only appointed almost as it began.
Now the fruits of that are flowering, with Epakis’s side still very much in the hunt for a finals spot with two games of the regular season remaining – an outcome that many would have thought beyond a side that has been exiled from its home state since the start of the season thanks to WA’s border restrictions.
So remarkable has been the turnaround that from accruing just a single point last year, Epakis’s side goes into its last two clashes with leaders Sydney FC (Sunday) and last-placed Wellington (March 6) quietly confident of snatching a place in the top four once the regular-season music stops. Six wins and three draws from 12 games underlines how far they’ve come.
Not much is left to chance in Epakis’s orbit – enabling him to build on moments of happenstance, such as enrolling on what turned out to be the last B Licence course put on by FA’s then head of coach education, Kelly Cross. Moving across to Sydney FC as youth technical director, Cross got Epakis involved in the club’s academy, which became a springboard to roles at Sydney University’s NPL side and then Canberra United under former Matilda Heather Garriock.
“He’s still very young, has always been very ambitious – he’s impatient to succeed but he’s also been very open to learning from coaches around him,” Garriock told KeepUp.
“The key to understanding him is his ambition – for himself but also the teams he coaches – and his level of detail. Personally I love that ambition and passion. He was basically prepared to do whatever he needed, and go wherever, to get an A-Leagues job, and then to make it work.
“It’s credit to the club too, for backing him and giving the players he wanted long-term deals, to give him the chance to build something.”
Epakis has been quick himself to echo that praise for Glory, in building a squad for the long term. “As soon as that final whistle went in the last game (of last season), my mind was already thinking about players: who we could bring in, how we could attract the best,” he told this website last year. “I was flying to Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney; I was meeting parents, players, agents. It was a really busy [period], but I knew I had to get the jump on other clubs.”
Nonetheless, the fact that this season has unfolded so promisingly might be surprising, given that his side hasn’t played a game in WA – leaving initially for four weeks on a road trip that now looks certain to encompass the whole season.
But the day to day changes, and need to manage a whole squad away from home, could actually prove to be as pivotal in his development as many of the courses that marked out his early progression. Having spent periods working in coach education for Football Australia, the dirty, complicated reality of professional coaching is a long way from the theories and tactical focus of licences and training courses.
“What he’s doing with Perth is what needed to happen to him to develop as a coach,” said Garriock. “He’s always been very detailed and very structured, but I think he’s changed a lot in the last year.
“He’s learnt that there are different ways to get the best out of players, and that systems sometimes have to be adapted. This is what all aspiring players, coaches, even executives, need – following the journey and adapting is key.
“The proof of the pudding is in his results, and the way he has managed his squad. For instance he got the best out of Lisa de Vanna, working with a player of that experience is great for his development.
“I still think he’s maturing as a coach, but he’s done very well so far.”
