Why Lowry is Perth Glory’s unsung hero

Diego Castro, Andy Keogh and Neil Kilkenny have won most of the plaudits in Perth Glory’s ground-breaking season but spare a thought for one of their unfashionable defenders.

Shane Lowry

Shane Lowry Source: Getty Images

Shane Lowry has missed just three games in the Glory’s Premier’s Plate-winning 2018-19 campaign and has been a rock at the back in the best defence in the A-League.

Playing in a three-man backline, the sturdy centre back has helped Perth to a club-record 10 clean sheets.

The 29-year-old has thrived under the coaching of Tony Popovic, one of the best centre halves Australia has ever produced.

“Him and Hayden Foxe were centre backs so for me personally its been great,” Lowry told The World Game.

“A great learning curve and I’ve learnt so much under them. The boss is known with his teams for being very strong defensively and we’ve conceded the least amount of goals this season and that’s for a reason.

“It goes back to the amount of hard work we’ve done on the training pitch, we’ve been getting the rewards in games.

“It’s a record of number of clean sheets for the club as well. I think we should have had more clean sheets but you can’t be too greedy.

“From a personal point of view it’s been my most consistent season since I was at Millwall when I played 46 games one year. I think I’ve missed one training session all year so my body’s been good this year.

“When a new manager comes in it’s a clean slate for everyone. So it was just down to me to work hard and show what I can do.”

Popovic replaced Kenny Lowe at the helm at the Glory in May 2018 and the turnaround has been stark. The club only lost three games all season and won the Premier’s Plate by finishing eight points ahead of Sydney FC.

“It’s been brilliant. Obviously we won our first trophy in 14 years, it’s been great,” Lowry said.

“We’ve really lit up the league and we deserved to win the Premiers Plate. We’re looking forward to the finals now.

“Tony’s been brilliant. He’s got a great coaching pedigree. He came in and changed a lot of things.

“Everyone knows his attention to detail is second to none. There’s been a lot of hours on the training pitch and our recruitment this year has been great.

“When we got the boss in we attracted a high calibre of players as well because they wanted to come and play for him.”

Lowry explained Popovic has not only changed the way Perth trains and plays, but improved their fitness levels and their mental strength.

“Our physical fitness is very, very good,” he said.

“We put in a lot of hard work in pre-season. The same goes for our formation. We started our formation in June 18 and from the first day he came in and said this is the system we’re going to play this year.

“We had to put in a lot of hard work on the training ground because for a lot of players our system was quite new. I hadn’t played that system very much throughout my career.

“Our away form as well has very good this season. Over years when we’ve travelled from Perth we’ve struggled.

“That’s changed our mentality as well and I think our whole mental strength in games, we know if we’re a goal behind or 0-0 we’ll create a chance and go on to win the game. That coupled with our physical fitness has seen us score so many late goals this season.”

Lowry was born and raised in Perth but spent more than a decade playing in England with the likes of Aston Villa, Sheffield United, Plymouth Argyle, Millwall and Leyton Orient. He returned to Australia in 2016 to join the Glory.

The former Lions and Orient defender has experienced the ups and downs at HBF Park over the past few years.

“When I first signed for the club I said I wanted to win the league,” he admitted.

“That was a goal of mine and winning the Premier’s we’ve done that. So that’s a personal goal of mine ticked off. But last season was bitterly disappointing.

“The turnaround we’ve had this season has been unbelievable.

“When you’re winning games everything is a lot better and a lot easier – confidence breathes through the squad, you’re not overthinking mistakes.

“For us it’s been tremendous and I know that the fans supporting this season and our members have been delighted we were able to get trophy for the club because it is a huge club and our owner, Tony Sage, has put a hell of a lot of money into the club.

“I’m sure he was very happy as well.”

The Glory may have already won one trophy but now have their eyes on a grand final crown. They will host an elimination semi-final on May 10 and Lowry believes home advantage will be crucial.

“We want to go and get to the grand final and hopefully win it,” he said

“Not just for the club but for all of Perth and the state, it would be great if we got there with it being at Optus. We’ve shown over the years we can draw big crowds.

“We’re happy we’ve got a home semi-final because teams don’t like travelling to Perth to play games.”


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5 min read
Published 1 May 2019 4:24pm
By John Davidson

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