It wasn’t all relaxation for Perth Glory’s Jimmy Downey as he took a well earned break in his home town of Gympie in country Queensland, the speedy defender taking time out of his holiday to attend a training session at his former club.
It wasn-t all relaxation for Perth Glory-s Jimmy Downey as he took a well earned break in his home town of Gympie in country Queensland, the speedy defender taking time out of his holiday to attend a training session at his former club.
Downey was joined by good friend and Glory team mate Tando Velaphi at a Gympie Miners training session, the pair giving the lads a lift before their opening clash of the season.
“It-s always nice to go back home and see my family but it-s important as well to put back into the community here that helped me out so much when I was aspiring to be a professional player,” Downey said.
“Football has a strong following in Gympie and they were really appreciative of Tando and I going down to training and we enjoyed it as well.
“We didn-t do too much running around because we both know Glory pre-season just around the corner and there will be plenty of that then,” Downey laughed.
Downey played in the Sunshine Coast men-s competition at the tender age of just 14 and has never forgotten the encouragement he received from his team mates and coach, Jeff Manthey, who still directs the Miners from the sidelines.
The Glory players- attendance at the training session created plenty of excitement in the town and Manthey told local paper ‘The Gympie Times’ it was a great boost ahead of their season opener.
“They have trained the boys hard and the team quite enjoyed it,” said Manthey.
“It was great for the young kids.
“Jimmy will never change – it wouldn’t matter if he was playing for Liverpool because he always says hello,” he added.
Downey and Velaphi are back in Perth as their official break comes to an end and will start easing into a pre-season program over the next month with the main training regime to begin in the first week of May.
Glory players will be taking part in community programmes and visiting WA football clubs on their return from holiday so keep an eye on perthglory.com.au for all their appearance details.
