Perth Glory women's coach Alex Epakis says having Alen Stajcic as his sounding board will be a "priceless advantage" during the upcoming A-League Women's season.
Stajcic coached the Matildas from 2014-2019 before guiding the Philippines to their maiden Women's World Cup win earlier this year.
Epakis assisted Stajcic at the World Cup with the Philippines posting an upset 1-0 victory over NZ in their opening game before falling to Norway and Switzerland.
After that campaign ended Stajcic was announced as the new Glory men's head coach, while Epakis recruited Philippines stars Quinley Quezada and Jessika Cowart.
The ability to pick Stajcic's brain will be a vital asset for Epakis this season, which kicks off for Perth at home to Western United on Saturday night.
"Alen is one of the benchmark coaches in the country, if not the world," Epakis said during the club's season launch on Wednesday.
"To have a sounding board with so much experience in the room next door is a pretty priceless advantage for me.
"We have some really great conversations. I'm growing every day because of that."
Glory have fallen just short of making the ALW finals over the past two years, but there's high hopes they can compete for the title this season.
Epakis wants to instil a winning mindset into the talented squad, saying he learned valuable lessons at the women's World Cup.
"The reality is that winning is important to me and I knew coming into this season that winning was everything," he said.
"We had to live and breathe that idea.
"Seeing that in the World Cup and how we were able to see the Philippines team be motivated and have the belief they could beat teams, that really resonated with me.
"So it's one thing that's on the forefront of my mind coming into this season - creating the belief to win and really pushing the players to have that belief as well."
Natasha Rigby has been named skipper for a fifth straight season and she has big expectations about what the team can achieve.
"We've had a lot of new players come in that have brought a whole new level of intensity and drive to the team," Rigby said.
"We really feel like this is our season and we've been building over the last few years to something special.
"It feels like it's all coming together at the right time."
