Perth Glory prove once again that age matters in the A-League

For the third season in a row, the team with the most experienced players has taken out the A-League Premiers’ Plate. The key component is consistency.

Perth Glory players celebrate securing the Premiers’ Plate at the weekend. Picture: AAP

• Perth Glory ready to go out on a high
• Popa’s back, with Sydney in his sights

The former Liverpool captain Alan Hansen was once pilloried for declaring that “you can't win anything with kids”, at the start of the season where Manchester United won the EPL and the FA Cup with the second-youngest title-winning side of the EPL era.

But Hansen’s belief would have more currency in the A-League, where teams very rarely win anything with kids — as the statistics below show.

Crowned Premiers last weekend and facing Sydney FC on Thursday night, Tony Popovic’s Perth Glory side are continuing a trend that has been laced throughout the A-League’s history.

For the third year in a row, the competition’s oldest side has come top at the end of the regular season — and in eight of the 14 seasons, the oldest side has come first or second.

As if to prove this is no statistical anomaly, the converse is true: in six of the 14 seasons the youngest side has come last, and in nine has featured in the bottom two. Looked at another way, only twice has the youngest team finished in the top four.

Perth Glory players celebrate securing the Premiers’ Plate at the weekend. Picture: AAP

But according to these figures, compiled by FFA statistician Andrew Howe, the age factor doesn’t carry over in to the finals, with the A-League championship having been won six times by teams ranked from midpoint to youngest by age, and only four times by the oldest team in that season.

Inevitably there are some anomalies in some years, with no rule holding absolutely true. In 2006-07, Melbourne Victory were the youngest side in the league but won the double — however Adelaide, the oldest side that year, finished second on the ladder and reached the grand final.

Oldest teams each A-League season.

In 2009-10 Perth was the oldest side and finished fifth, but second-oldest Sydney came first. Similarly Glory came sixth in 2012-13 as the oldest side, but the Wanderers came first as the second-oldest.

Nor is this an A-League only phenomenon. In the NSL’s last four seasons, the oldest team finished first on the ladder three times (Perth in 2001-02 and 2003-04, South Melbourne in 2000-01) and second once (Perth 2002-03).

Socceroos boss Graham Arnold, veteran of more than 200 games coaching in the A-League, has no doubt why the older teams fare well in the regular season, but often fall away in the finals.

“Experience give you consistency,” he said. “Over 27 rounds, older players don’t get fazed by individual results, by the travel, the weather.

“Consistency is everything in the A-League, the team that plays to a certain level regularly usually wins the Premiers’ Plate.”

Sydney FC players celebrate their season 2016/17 title win. Picture: Getty Images

After that, though, Arnold believes, two factors come into play — one perhaps more obvious than the other.

“By the time the finals are underway, the Asian Champions League is in full swing, and teams trying to juggle both can suffer,” he said.

“The split rounds, to give the ACL teams more respite, are a new innovation, for many years it was hard for older players to manage both competitions.

“The other factor is the weekend off you get for finishing first (and second) — older players need games to keep their rhythm ticking over.

“I always found it was important not to use the time off just to recover. The year we won the Grand Final with Sydney, I played a full 11 v 11 game with no ‘outs’ to keep the players fully match fit.”