Perth Glory coach Adam Griffiths has praised his players for accepting his challenge of stepping up in the absence of captain Tom Lawrence after their 2-1 win over reigning premiers Newcastle Jets.
Glory vaulted themselves into the top four off the back of their second consecutive win as live-wire forward Jaiden Kucharski struck two superb goals to further galvanise a Perth team full of vim and vigour from kick-off.
If Perth have looked too dependent at times on skipper and former Rangers attacker Lawrence since he arrived at the club last season, Saturday night’s win was proof others could cut the mustard.
Griffiths said the win started from defence, which has looked sturdy in recent weeks despite last year’s Most Glorious Player Brian Kaltak still sidelined.
Second-game goalkeeper Daniel Solsky made a string of strong stops and new-look centre-back duo Cher Deng and Lachlan Jackson repelled wave after wave of Jets raids, while full-backs Tadi Kuzamba and Sam Sutton were diligent defensively against Newcastle’s speedy wingers.
“The two centre-backs showed really good leadership, I thought the goalkeeper showed good leadership, and I thought (left-back) Sam Sutton also showed really good leadership this week,” Griffiths said.
“When you lose leaders, you expect someone to step up and take their place, and tonight they all showed that.
“What I saw tonight was a performance of a whole of group. The mentality was great. Every single player worked very hard, both defensively and in attack.”
Beyond his two excellent goals, Kucharski was threatening every time he touched the ball as his speed unnerved Newcastle’s defence, playing as a wide forward with licence to drift inside.
After breaking his foot in pre-season, Glory are still building up his minutes, which was why Griffiths removed Kucharski in the 57th minute with the forward on a hat-trick.
“We’ve been building him up for a few weeks or months now. He didn’t have much of a pre-season with a broken foot, but that’s why we were really cautious with him,” Griffiths said.
“I was adamant that I was taking him off in the 55th (minute), even though he could have got a hat-trick.
“He naturally is a striker. I try to make him think he’s a wide striker, which is what he is. He’s got an eye for goal. He’s got an exceptional strike — even when I was watching him in warm-up, he hits the target almost every time.”
Elsewhere, bullocking centre-forward Pieter Jacobsz enjoyed his best game since signing for Glory from NPL WA as he provided a dependable focal point and a physical foil for Kucharski.
“Jacobsz really brought the team in those transitional moments into play. He was very good tonight in terms of his hold-up play and his connection and his calmness,” Griffiths said.
“He’s showing a lot of qualities we knew he had and he just needed to step up to this physical level, and he’s doing that now.”
In midfield, Lucas Scicluna is slowly coming out of the shadow of his older brother and Western Sydney Wanderers star Dylan after another impressive performance where he teamed up with Will Freney to win turnovers and add a calmness in possession.
“What we identified with Lucas, he played more as an off-the-bench 10 for Newcastle last year, and I felt like he has really good qualities to be a six, but he also has good dribbling speed to transition,” Griffiths said.
“That’s what we wanted to to add to our team — that speed and power. He’s got a lot of improvement to get to where his brother is, but we see that he can get there.”
