When Perth Glory first came into existence, there was The Shed. Before HBF Park, ME Bank and nib Stadium, The Shed end was the hill on which Glory dreams were made and heroes etched into folklore at Perth Oval. For almost 30 years, The Shed has housed the Glory’s most passionate and loudest fans, a home away from home for those who don purple come the sunny months.
If you grew up a Glory fan in the good ol’ days, you counted down the days until you turned 18 so you could watch games from The Shed. A somewhat pioneering concept for ‘Aussie sokkah’, its safe standing facilities brought a taste of European football to WA and enabled the club’s vocal fans to create an active supporters group which cultivated one of the old NSL’s best atmospheres. The combination of noise from The Shed and the club’s on-field success helped turn Perth Oval into a place which was both a fortress and a festival ground, laying the platform for the club’s steady growth in the 90s and early 2000s.
It is Glory’s answer to The Kop at Anfield, The Stretford End at Old Trafford and Borussia Dortmund’s Yellow Wall, albeit smaller. When the Glory are kicking towards the Shed End in the second-half and needing a goal, there is a feeling the ruckus generated at that end of the ground has some almost-supernatural influence of proceedings, as if the atmosphere helps guide the ball into the net. Reports have emerged recently over the possibility of the redevelopment of HBF Park with a Perth-ba.