Jordan Courtney-Perkins has described his season at Sydney FC as one of the most frustrating of his career as he looks to go from bench warmer to grand-final winner.
The 23-year-old centreback - once touted as a rising star of Australian football when he netted a move to Poland as a teenager - was barely picked by former Sydney boss Ufuk Talay.
Courtney-Perkins played just 83 minutes across the opening 22 rounds of Sydney's spluttering season before Talay's exit.
But the arrival of Patrick Kisnorbo as manager six weeks ago has given the Queenslander a new lease of life.
Courtney-Perkins has started and seen out full matches at centreback in each of Kisnorbo's six games in charge of the Sky Blues on their run to Saturday's grand final against Auckland.
"It's been a relatively frustrating year for me with playing time so for 'PK' to come in and back me in this important part of the season means a lot to me," Courtney-Perkins told AAP.
"It's been a confusing year for me because I never got the vibe I was on the outer.
"The two years before that (Talay and I) were close and he had a lot of trust in me.
"I suppose that's a coaching decision which is part of football and I tried to push through that the best I could and remain as professional as I could.
"I think that's only benefited me coming into the back end of the season now."
Courtney-Perkins says the hardest part to digest was that he received little feedback as to where he needed to improve to get more playing time.
"That was probably the most frustrating part … but that's just football," Courtney-Perkins said.
"I'm not the first player that it's happened to and I certainly won't be the last."
The defender is off contract at the end of this season and has yet to determine what his future holds.
A breakthrough win over Auckland, who have yet to lose to the Sky Blues, would be a fitting way to cap a turbulent season for the Australian youth international.
But Courtney-Perkins will have a job to do to contain Auckland striker Sam Cosgrove, who finished the regular season with a league-high 11 goals.
"He's played in England his whole life, and the sheer size of the bloke, he's a handful," Courtney-Perkins added.
"It's a big challenge, but it's one that you look forward to - especially as a defender - in trying to get one over on a big fella like that."
