The Wellington Phoenix are currently hanging out in Queensland, doing preseason stuff. They’ve got a 22-man travelling squad with six of those players being trialists and all five of the new signings are there along with one lucky academy inclusion. The Nix just played a closed-door friendly against Brisbane Roar in which the trialists all got a second half of action, with the Nix losing 2-1 having been up 1-0 at HT thanks to a Nathan Burns goal from a corner. We’re less than a week out from their FFA Cup clash with Bentleigh Greens. It’s all starting to take a little shape now.

Here’s your travelling squad…

A couple things on this straight away. Ben Waine is the academy dude to get the nod. 17 year old striker who got a bunch of games in the Premmy last season (don’t know if that’s where he’ll play on camp though, they’ve given him number 3 after all). Obviously it’s great anytime we get to see that pathway being trodden, the new season’s bringing some significant changes to the youth team and a guy like Waine getting promoted shows there’s still water in the well. Note a few selections in the U19 team that’s going to the Oceania champs too. Then there’s Sarpreet Singh and Libby Cacace continuing their upwards trajectories by consolidating their presence in the senior squad. Sweet as.

However one lad who ain’t there, you may notice, is Keegan Smith. Signed a three year contract a year ago but was released from that deal before it kicked in so that he could play club footy over the winter. Now it’s understood that he’ll re-sign but not as a full professional, dropping him back to a more normal career arc after his stunning promotion at the start of last season. Smithy’s a great prospect but he’s not ready for A-League scraps yet. Certainly not for the Nix in their current state with the defence that’ll be protecting him. It’s only fair to save him until he’s older, wiser and, most importantly, bigger. The raw skills are there. Filip Kurto is the numero uno and Ollie Sail presumably gets to sit on the bench.

Can confirm the Phoenix are on the hunt for a third under-20 player as Keegan Smith remains on a youth scholarship and his contract doesn’t count towards the 23. Only trial player (so far anyway) in that age bracket is Callan Elliot.
— Phillip Rollo (@ByPhillipRollo) July 24, 2018

The rest of the contracted squad are there and plugging away on the Gold Coast. Hitting the gym and slugging away with beep tests and all that jazz. They’re also complimented by six fellas looking to earn a contract. Andre De Jong has been there for a while now, his supreme efforts for Eastern Suburbs in the Premmy bookended by strong seasons in the NSW league (where Mark Rudan is coming from) made him an easy transfer prediction and it’s cool to see he’s still hanging in. ADJ is good enough to play A-League. It’d be bloody lovely if he got signed up, nodding at you now Rudes.

Then there’s Alex Rufer, whose expired contract and relative lack of opportunities over the years made him a suspect to follow similar fringe blokes like Logan Rogerson and James McGarry and get the hell outta town. Instead he’s back and trialling for a club he’d previously been getting paid to be a part of for nearly five years. Shout out to him for leaving his ego at the door.

Jacob Tratt you’re familiar with. The rumour was that he’d already signed or was about to sign yet turns out it’s only a trial for now. See how it goes. Tratty’s done his bit for the Nix before and had personal circumstances not arisen then there’s a good chance he’d still be there. Considering that Scott Galloway, Tratt’s direct replacement, is currently trialling with Adelaide United... seems a better chance than not that Tratt is signed up. That’s just a guess, though.

The other three trialists are Peter Skapetis, Josh Wallen and Liam Wooding. All three are Aussies. All three are aged 25 or under (same as the first three trial players). Wallen was definitely training with the team in Wellington, he’s a midfielder who captained the Queens Park Rangers U23s but got released before breaking into the top team. Skapetis also spent time in a few English club academies (Stoke, most notably) and has appeared in the A-League a handful of times with both Brisbane and Central Coast. He’s a striker. Lastly, Liam Wooding is a deeper forward who came up with Adelaide United but never really played and has spent the last five years establishing himself at club level in Oz.

No doubt that Rudan is rounding up some very interesting prospects here but only two of the six are New Zealanders. Not sure what that means for the likes of Callan Elliot, Justin Gulley, Jack-Henry Sinclair, Joe Harris or Te Atawhai Hudson-Wihongi. It could be that circumstances didn’t facilitate a trip to the Gold Coast, it could be that Rudan has seen enough and let ‘em all walk, it could be that he’s seen enough of them but wants room to see some more players too before deciding on anything. Rudan’s already on record saying he wants to keep a kiwi flavour in the squad. Guys have gotta be good enough though and that’s up to Rudan and his team’s scouting ability to decide.

Ah but tell you what, fifteen players are under contract and that means a maximum of eight more spots to be filled, a minimum of five. There needs to be two goalies and that’s already sorted. There cannot be more than five imports and they currently have four – three if Roy Krishna’s domesticised before the season starts, which is very possible. So one maybe two more imports to come. Last thing is there needs to be at least three Aus/NZ players aged 20 or younger. Singh and Cacace cover that but Keegan Smith no longer does. Need another one of them and none of the current trialists can offer that youth, unless you count Waine. Only Callan Elliot of the others is that young. Which is great news for those of us desperate to see Elliot get that gig.

The fifteen contracted players right now are made up of 6 New Zealanders, 5 Australians, 2 Poles, 1 Fijian and 1 Englishman. Andrew Durante is a domesticated kiwi so that’s one to stay aware of but the other five have all come up through the academy: Ollie Sail, Tom Doyle, Libby Cacace, Sarpreet Singh and Louis Fenton.

And that’s where we’re at. There are eight more squad spots available and there needs to be a local youngster and probably two imports amongst them. The squad’s especially short on midfielders and wide forwards. The players they’ve been trialling mostly fit that bill - especially Elliot, ADJ and the three Aussie mids/forwards with the team at the moment. Let’s say those five and Tratt get signed and then you’ve got two more spots for imports, probably a striker and a defensive midfielder.

But Mark Rudan can figure that all out for himself. Meanwhile you can smash an ad if you enjoy the Phoenix yarns on TNC and it’d be pretty bloody awesome if you made a pledge to us on Patreon too so that we can, you know, afford to pay for all this.