Breaking Down The Wellington Phoenix’s Return To Actual Football
The end is nigh. The end of the A-League hiatus, that is. While a quick peek at the news channels might give you the impression that the apocalypse is upon us, the return of sports is picking up speed. For a long time there the A-League was hiding in the shadows of the chaotic planning of the NRL but the NRL has ended up doing a pretty decent job, all things considered, of getting rugby league up and running again and now football has a clear lane to run through. There’s still plenty of pandemic panic in parts of Australia but that’s workable with the majority of games to be played in New South Wales. There was some big drama with Fox Sports over the broadcast rights but they seem to have found some sort of compromise there. The Wellington Phoenix have hauled their way across the ditch and are doing their quarantine thing as we speak. And now we’ve even got a draw.
It’s all pretty much as expected. 27 games to be played across 28 days, not including all the finals and whatnot which will follow swiftly after. First game back is 16 July, the last regular season game will be on 12 August, the Grand Final will take place on 23 August. Some of it is still considered flexible because of the moving goalposts of the pandemic but it’s all as locked in as it can be at this moment in time. The A-League will be back in two weeks. The Wellington Phoenix will have their chance to play it out and maybe even compete for a championship. Hell, if Liverpool can do it after 30 years then the Welly Nix must be in with a crack, surely.
That’s the target. And now that we’ve got some permanent-ish plans in place we get to break it all down as far as the Welly Nix’s Title Quest goes. Proper details only. Here are our remaining fixtures...
Sydney FC vs Wellington Phoenix – Friday 17 July @9.30pm (Nestrata Jubilee Stadium)
Perth Glory vs Wellington Phoenix – Thursday 23 July @ 9.30pm (Nestrata Jubilee Stadium)
Wellington Phoenix vs Adelaide United – Sunday 26 July @ 5.30pm (Bankwest Stadium)
Western Sydney Wanderers vs Wellington Phoenix – Friday 31 July @ 9.30pm (Bankwest Stadium)
Wellington Phoenix vs Brisbane Roar – Wednesday 5 August @ 8pm (Bankwest Stadium)
Newcastle United vs Wellington Phoenix – Sunday 9 August @ 9.30pm (McDonalds Jones Stadium)
A couple main notes to make there. One is that, you may recall, the Nix had to go through this quarantine thing earlier in the season before things were eventually put on a league-wide hiatus and that meant that they already had a backlog of delayed games. Not to mention a game against Sydney FC that was delayed because the A-League decided they’d rather have a Sydney Derby on primetime telly instead of that lil ol’ team from Aotearoa.
No other team has more games still to play. Three others have also got six games left (all in the top six, curiously), Melbourne City only have three more games, the rest have four or five. Add that together and not only are the Nix doing this entirely on neutral or away grounds in a foreign nation but they’ve also got six games to play in the space of 24 days. Tough yakka... however with first place seemingly out of reach and the table in the state it currently is... win a few of them first games and they can afford to rotate a bit in the last couple with second place also crucially coming with an opening week finals bye.
The other interesting note there is that they have three games at Bankwest Stadium which just had an official complaint lodged about the surface by the Sydney Roosters in the NRL on Friday night after two of their players had season-ending knee injuries. The surface definitely looked rank... though injuries happen regardless. Seemed a bit of an overreaction, or at least just a symbolic show of support for those players more than anything. The Phoenix aren’t strangers to that strategy either having done the same thing over refereeing decisions in the past. Suspicion: the pitch will be fine by then (it’s already been cleared to host three more NRL games this weekend). But it’s one to keep in the back of the noggin. The injury risk is already higher due to the on-again, off-again nature of the season and the fixture congestion that’s resulted from that.
As far as the squad goes, every player should be available. Over lockdown they were spread out around the globe with a few overseas dudes returning home to be with family, same deal for Aussie fellas going back to Aussie, etc. A good chunk of them had already coalesced again in Wellington before the team flew over while others have met up with the club in Sydney (makes sense if you’re coming from overseas, no reason to do extra quarantines after all). Ulises Davila and Gary Hooper are yet to rejoin the squad as they put the finishing touches on their personal quarantines after coming back from Mexico and England respectively but other than that it’s all sweet. Complete buy in from the lads as they seek to make the most of what could yet prove to be a really special campaign.
However there is a bit of an issue with Tim Payne and Oli Sail both being slapped with four game suspensions for their tipsy golf cart joyride... which yeah obviously not the recommended course of actions. But at the same time, I dunno, four games seems a bit harsh. Lucky for them those four games will come and go in two weeks with the cramped fixtures. Tim Payne had established himself as the number one right back at the club after Louis Fenton got injured, Te Atawhai Hudson-Wihongi also started one game at RB when Payne was suspended while Brandon Wilson and Callan Elliot each have experience in that position too. But conveniently Louis Fenton is back to full fitness now and should get four games to kickstart an internal debate about the right back role in Ufuk Talay’s head before the finals.
As for Oli Sail, he’s not played a second this season but has been on the bench for every game. Stefan Marinovic is the man with the gloves, no panic there. Though that does leave that backup keeper role empty with the word being that Zac Jones, the main keeper for the reserve team over the last couple seasons, will get to feature in an A-League matchday squad for the very first time. Also Cam Devlin is suspended for the first game back due to yellow card accumulation but that only means vice-captain Alex Rufer will get to come back in alongside Matti Steinmann. More irreplaceably, Libby Cacace and Steven Taylor are one yellow card away from a suspension themselves although the amnesty is after 21 games and Taylor has played 20, Cacace 18. Bit of a tightrope.
But for the most part the Nix are coming back at more or less full strength and that’s a luxury compared to a lot of the rest of the league. There are four teams currently without a full-time manager. Melbourne Victory and Western Sydney Wanderers are in interim mode and have been for a while. Adelaide came to a mutual decision to break with Gertjan Verbeek during the lockdown due to the pandemic. And more recently Robbie Fowler’s contentious time at Brisbane Roar has come to an end. Most players around the league should be available but there’s also that switch to more of a winter season from next time on and it does feel like a transitional period for the A-League. For Aussie football in general since the Women’s World Cup is gonna put a big spotlight on things, particularly the W-League which seems more and more likely will have a Wellington Phoenix presence perhaps as soon as next season. And the Welly Nix fellas clearly have a golden opportunity to come out the other end of this is a quality way too.
By the way, remember when the Nix lost four straight games way back when this season started? Now here they are on the brink of the team’s best ever regular season placing.
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