After breaking records in Australia, this football coach is coming home

Ramon Falzon has spent the past decade winning titles on the other side of the world. In Perth, he built a reputation for high standards, record-breaking consistency and a professional culture that turned the club into a trophy machine. Now, he wants to return home to Malta.

“I want to spend more time with my parents,” he says simply. “But I also want to help here. I want to bring that international high-performance experience back and make good use of it in Malta.”

When Falzon first left Malta, he had no master plan. No club waiting. No contract signed. Just a decision to reset his life and start from scratch. He quickly secured a role outside the game as a chief financial officer at the Institute of Sport in Western Australia, but breaking into football proved harder. In a country with a deeper football ecosystem and a stronger international profile, he had to earn recognition from zero.

“It was tough because I didn’t know anyone. When you move to a new country, you have to build a reputation all over again,” he said. “And when you come from a smaller football nation, there’s a perception gap. Until I got my foot in, it wasn’t easy.”

What struck him immediately was the uncompromising professionalism of the Australian system. “In Malta there were things I would normally close an eye towards. In Australia, they leave no stone unturned until they get it right. I had to shift the mentality to one where mistakes are not allowed. You don’t get away with them there.”

His first football job was with Perth Azzurri SC coaching at youth level in the National Premier Leagues. The work soon caught the attention of A-League side Perth Glory, and he spent two years as assistant coach with their youth team, helping them to consecutive top-five finishes between 2011 and 2013.

He then stepped into senior management with Balcatta Etna FC, a club with Italian roots that suited the Italian-speaking coach. When Falzon arrived, the team had just endured a 10th-place season and had little history of success. Within a year, he delivered a dramatic turnaround, guiding Balcatta to a historic third-place finish. This was the second-highest finish in the club’s history.

Ramon Falzon receiving the Coach of the Year Award

That success paved the way for a return to Perth Azzurri, this time as first-team head coach in 2016. The proud club had not won a league title in 11 years. Under Falzon, the drought didn’t just end but exploded into a period of dominance.

“We won the league four times. We won the double four times. I won Coach of the Year three times,” he says. “We turned the club into a very well-oiled machine. We developed our own players, recruited smartly and built on it year after year.”

His tenure rewrote the record books. Falzon became the first head coach in Australian football to win four league titles and four doubles, and the first to lead a club to six consecutive Grand Finals between 2016 and 2021. Perth also went 13 months unbeaten in the NPL between May 2018 and June 2019.

“It was all about developing a professional mindset,” he explained. “Even though we all had full-time jobs, we squeezed in double sessions and set standards. No one’s out drinking till 4am. If you didn’t accept it, you were out. The players bought in, and everything fell into place.”

Younger players, particularly those aged 18 to 24, embraced the demands, he said, while recruitment among older players was more selective.

In 2024, Falzon took on a different challenge at Green Gully SC in Melbourne, another club with Maltese heritage. He arrived mid-season with the team in serious relegation trouble and a single instruction from the board: Keep them up.

“I just went in there to help the club avoid relegation,” he said. “And I’m glad we managed to keep them safe.”

Alongside his club work, his later years in Australia increasingly focused on development, coaching with Football Australia’s National Training Centre and contributing to elite player pathways preparing for World Cups. He also served as First Team Head Coach of the Western Australia State Team, the highest representative level behind the Australian National Team, and led the side to a victory over a nation ranked higher than Malta in the FIFA rankings.

For Falzon, coaching is a profession that demands constant evolution. “Having an open mind is crucial. You need to constantly learn, adapt and look for improvement,” he said. “You’re managing staff, players, tactics, training, preparation. It’s a multifaceted job. It never ends.”

He believes sustained success also depends on alignment between coach and club leadership. “At Perth Azzurri, after speaking with the president, I realised from day one we were going to achieve big things together. We raised standards and made it clear we were operating on a higher professional level.”

Australia also reshaped his thinking about athlete welfare and the balance between sport and career. At the Institute of Sport, he saw elite athletes encouraged to pursue parallel professions. Even an Olympic gold medal-winning pole vault athlete, maintained work outside sport while training twice daily.

“There was a massive study showing that athletes who focus only on sport can feel lost once they retire. So, they insist on you building a career alongside your sport. They support you to be professional in both.”

Now, he wants to apply those lessons in Malta. Despite the island’s obvious limitations in size and infrastructure, Falzon believes standards will define success, not geography.

“We’re limited in facilities, yes, but when it comes to processes and mentality, we’ve got room to grow. The first big change is a mental shift to become high-performing. That attitude of ‘no excuses’ costs nothing. You just need people with the right experience to implement it.”

He rejected the idea that small nations must think small. He saw a similar inferiority complex in Perth, a city of three million that often compared itself unfavourably to Sydney and Melbourne.

“I always disagreed with that mentality,” he said. “On game day, it’s not population size. It’s 11 men against 11 men. Once we removed that complex, we became competitive and started winning.”

His message for Malta carries the same belief. “Iceland has a population of around 400,000 and qualified for a World Cup. If others can do it, so can we.”