Perth Glory young gun Jaiden Kucharski might be the A-League’s best super-sub - but he wants to start

Jaiden Kucharski might be the A-League’s best super-sub given his remarkable record of scoring late winners off the bench — but the young forward has his eye on a spot in Perth Glory’s starting 11.

The 23 year-old has a flair for dramatic, late winners down the stretch and his superb showing off the bench in Glory’s win over Auckland last weekend cemented him as one of the competition’s best late-game closers.

After his introduction on the hour mark, Kucharski’s run onto a long ball and composed lob levelled the scores for Perth, before his 90th minute stunner from outside the box sealed all three points for Glory.

It was the fourth time in his young career the former Sydney striker has scored a winner in the shadows of full-time after coming off the bench.

Kucharski scored a 122nd-minute extra-time goal for his old side in an Australia Cup tie against Central Coast Mariners in 2023, famously won a Sydney Derby in 2024 with a 97th-minute strike and last season scored a sumptuous curler to defeat Brisbane Roar 3-2 with five seconds of regulation time left.

After Perth fans got a taste of his late-game heroics on Saturday, Kucharski said he was not too sure about why he he had such high strike-rate in such situations — but was eager to prove his worth earlier in the game.

“A lot of my career so far has been just coming off the bench, so I’m just aware defenses get tired and I’m just a little bit fresher to come on,” he said.

“I want to become more of a starter and to create chances earlier in games and score goals. I’m a goalscorer, so when I come off the bench, I want to make an impact, and luckily I could do that on the weekend.”

Kucharski left his hometown club Sydney in the off-season in search of more game-time, but injury has limited him to just eight games for Glory so far.

Coach Adam Griffiths has been cautious in his deployment of Kucharski following his most recent hamstring injury in December, but the forward said he felt ready for more minutes ahead of Friday’s trip to Macarthur FC.

“We held it back a few weeks just to make sure my body was right, and the hammy is feeling good. Last time I did it was sprinting, so to be able to sprint off the ball last week at nearly full pace was good,” he said.

“Obviously it’s down to the coaching staff and the medical team. I’ve been working hard in the gym, just making sure I do all my work,” he said.

“The physios and the rehab staff are quite good, they’ve been lenient with me — bringing me into sessions, taking me out of the few drills here and there.”

Kucharski is not the only Perth attacker returning to full fitness, with the likes of Stefan Colakovski, Sebastian Despotovski and Lachie Wales all back from injury in recent weeks.

“You can see on the weekend we were catching them quite a lot on the break, so to have everyone back, the competition is great,” Kucharski said.

“If there’s a main 11 and no one really pressing them for that, everyone maybe gets lax; but with everyone wanting spots to be a part of this good squad and we’re pushing on the table, everyone wants to be a part of that.”