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Perth Glory puts faith in local players in bid to challenge for A-League honours

Perth Glory captain Rostyn Griffiths hopes a little home cooking will spur the team to a maiden A-League title in the 2016-17 season.

Griffiths will be one of 14 local products to pull on the purple shirt when he makes his official homecoming in Saturday's season opener against the Central Coast Mariners.

The 28-year-old admitted the Western Australian flavour was a big factor in his decision to return to Australia after a year with Roda JC in Netherlands' top flight league.

In a month where the AFL's Western Bulldogs and NRL's Cronulla Sharks broke long droughts to claim their respective titles, Griffiths is keen on a similar fairytale.

The Glory have yet to raise the A-League trophy, however Griffiths joins local stars Rhys Williams, Adam Taggart and Shane Lowry in arguably the strongest squad in the club's history.

"Some of those boys I grew up with and played with," said Griffiths.

"And to be honest it's probably what pushed me over the line to want to come back because just to get the chance to play with those boys and try and win something as well, was too hard to turn down."

A year after leaving the Glory for the Netherlands, Griffiths said the club had erred in holding onto their home-grown talent.

But this year, they've got the formula just right.

"Having that close relationship as a group is always good. One thing that Perth lacked in the past is they've let quality WA players slip away," he said.

"Hopefully it makes people want to stay more and have Perth as an option before they jump overseas or go to the east and be a viable option.

"That's up to Perth Glory to do the right thing on their behalf as well. In a salary cap league, it's important that you use players wisely. But obviously players want to be in Perth."

Perth loom as a dark horse in this competition after adding dangerous midfielders in Griffiths and Williams to a squad that netted 49 goals last season -- second only to Melbourne City.

"We've got options all around the park which is one thing I'm really positive about. People like Rhys can play in the middle and at the back," he said.

"Then you've got [Diego] Castro that can play wide, middle, top. There's quality all around the park."