Perth Glory Owner Mr Tony Sage and Gold Coast counterpart Professor Clive Palmer showed there is as much passion in the boardroom as there will be on the pitch when their two sides meet at ME Bank Stadium on Sunday.
Perth Glory Owner Mr Tony Sage and Gold Coast counterpart Professor Clive Palmer showed there is as much passion in the boardroom as there will be on the pitch when their two sides meet at ME Bank Stadium on Sunday.
A huge media contingent turned out to see the mining magnates go head to head and they didn-t disappoint, talking up the chances of their respective squads who will battle it out in a match dubbed the “Iron Ore Cup’.
While there was plenty of friendly banter, neither businessman let an opportunity pass to have a shot at their opponent.
“The players are a bit pampered on the Gold Coast, flying on a private jet,” Sage said.
“We just hope that their first class meals don’t affect their performance on the park.
“We (Glory) are very confident, the boys are really fired up… we-ve hit the crossbar five times so I hope that luck changes on Sunday against Clive’s team.”
Palmer quick to respond by pointing to his side-s league leading 12 goals, eight of which have come from in-form striker Shane Smeltz.
“Well we haven’t hit the cross bar so much, we’ve actually hit the net, so we’re pretty happy with that.
“They’re the toughest, meanest, roughest looking team in the whole competition,” Palmer said of Perth.
“We think we can beat them, though Tony thinks otherwise. If Perth really lifts their game, we might be in for a really tough fight and might lose top position, but we are here to make sure it doesn’t happen.
“Perth should be a lot higher in the table than they are and hopefully it won’t be at our expense.”
Sage believed he was 3-0 ahead on the recruiting front after beating Gold Coast to the punch by securing Socceroos trio Jacob Burns, Mile Sterjovski and Chris Coyne and remained confident his side would continue to improve as the season progressed.
“It will be a very, very big rivalry all the way through this season,” Sage said.
“It’s only early (in the season) and I am always reminded of the hare and the tortoise.
“I’m hoping Clive is the hare, and I am the tortoise this time.”
Not surprisingly neither Sage nor Palmer was willing to take a backward step when it came to predicting the outcome of the highly anticipated clash, although both agree that this will be a key test for both sides.
“Tony hopes to win on Sunday, we know we’re going to win,” Palmer said.
“We played a great game last Saturday against Sydney and we reasserted our ascendancy, we have still got the best team – I know Tony disagrees with me – and we will find out on Sunday how it all goes.
“It’s the most difficult game I think for us in the season.”
