No More Uncle Tony: Reflecting on the Anthony Hudson All Whites Era
The only surprising thing about Anthony Hudson leaving the All Whites is the talk outta NZF HQ that they were confident he’d stay. Like, at what stage did they think he was leaning towards another swing in the kiwi ring? Was it when the rumours of an impending deal with the Colorado Rapids became public? Was it when rumours of a frisky relationship with Andy Martin got whipped up again? Or maybe it was when we lost 2-0 to Peru and missed out on the World Cup?
Andy Martin even went as far as saying he thought they were gonna be able to announce Huddo’s new contract before the Peru clash. Sounds a lot like Mr Martin is trying to make it look like they showed the necessary ambition, doing all they could to keep a relatively successful manager in Aotearoa. Which hopefully isn’t a precursor to a boring, unimaginative Darren Bazeley appointment… but that’s a matter for another time. There isn’t another FIFA window until March so there’s really no hurry to rush to an impatient replacement in.
No harsh feelings towards Uncle Tony for leaving. It is what it is, he took this job because it was well poised for a young manager trying to make a name for himself. Almost guaranteed success in Oceania, minimal expectations for anything else, a likely open shop window at the Confederations Cup… someone like Anthony Hudson had a lot to gain from a few years in New Zealand but it was never not a stepping stone.
All goods, that was why we were able to get someone like him in the first place. If he was looking for a long-term home then he wasn’t ever going to boss the All Whites. Going back to Andy Martin’s comments again (at least he’s available…), the CEO said that Hudson was “one of the finest coaches New Zealand Football has ever had” (umm, yeah… okay). He said that “for the first time in history this year we were able to name a fully professional squad” (we were… but we didn’t - what up, Moses?). He said that Hudson “has turned our team into a side which is capable of beating the world’s best” (bitch, please…) and that he’s “implemented structures within our High Performance pathway which will ensure this All Whites team will continue to develop and enjoy further success”.
Hard to recall any evidence of us being able to beat the world’s best – that 4-0 loss vs Portugal, perhaps? But that last bit is a fair call. Hudson came in and brought structure to a previously sloppy organisation. He brought alignment between the youth systems and the senior team. Initially that was meant to go all the way down to formation and game plan but those tactical parallels seemed to disappear rather quickly… though there was always that intention to develop new players. Getting age group players involved in wider local training squads and that kinda thing.
Most of all Hudson helped turn this team into a professional looking outfit. He took himself too seriously at times, not a trait that endears you to kiwi sports fans, but in doing so he brought a… dignity?... to the role. He brought a level of accountability for players, he tried to bring some accountability for his employers too. Those things leave a legacy.
Of course, there were inconsistencies. You can argue that his career-building PR stuff – the Wikipedia editing and the interviews with British tabloids and the constant NZ Football selective positivity strategy – suggests that he didn’t hold himself as accountable as he did his players. The professionalising of the team was offset by his tendency to keep picking players below the required level. With Clayton Lewis, Deklan Wynne and Stefan Marinovic we eventually saw the rewards of that early faith but the jury’s still out on guys like Moses Dyer and Dane Ingham – both good young players but neither seem ready for this stage yet. As for Luka Prelevic, Liam Higgins and Harshae Raniga… well, Hudson did a lot of weird things in his first year and a half.
Say, look at that pretty frame!
The three dudes dropped for lack of fitness (Lewis, Tuiloma and Ingham) all got the required kick up the arse. Tommy Smith’s in and out, hokey tokey routine was stupid, though it’s hard to say what went down behind closed doors and which side was more at fault for that. Hudson’s dealings with Winston Reid always suggested he at least sympathised with what those pro players deal with, even if others didn’t get the same flexibility.
Which is why it was strange there wasn’t more of a reach out to Jake Gleeson. Yeah, he might have declined an invitation at a time but his career was in a complicated place there, trying to hold down an MLS starting spot that he’d worked five years to win and has since lost again. Reserve goalie problems. Tyler Boyd seems like he could care less (going by hearsay, no offence to you, Ty) but Jeremy Brockie was never less than 100% in on the national team and his form at SuperSport United was undeniable. Yet there wasn’t a place for him?
You also can’t give Huddo all the credit for the depth in this squad because that’d be dismissive to the work that the likes of Ryan Thomas, Chris Wood, Marco Rojas, Stefan Marinovic (and others to a lesser degree) have done with their clubs on the daily to get to where they are. There are still a couple Wellington Phoenix/A-League lads holding down the ship in that team as well. In fact there are more misses than hits in the list of players he debuted, although again that mostly came in the early days. Myer Bevan is the only debutant from the final ten games of Hudson’s reign.
PLAYERS WHO GOT THEIR ALL WHITES DEBUTS UNDER ANTHONY HUDSON:
- Tommy Doyle & Joel Stevens (vs Uzbekistan / Sep 14)
- Deklan Wynne (vs China / Nov 14)
- Kayne Vincent (vs Thailand / Nov 14)
- Stefan Marinovic, Themi Tzimopoulos, Clayton Lewis, Ryan De Vries, Moses Dyer & Ben van den Broek (vs South Korea / Mar 15)
- Alex Rufer, Harshae Raniga & Liam Higgins (vs Myanmar / Sep 15)
- Sam Brotherton, Henry Cameron, Logan Rogerson & Te Atawhai Hudson-Wihongi (vs Oman / Nov 15)
- Kip Colvey, Luke Adams, Monty Patterson & Luka Prelevic (vs Fiji / May 16)
- Liam Graham (vs Mexico / Oct 16)
- Dane Ingham & Jai Ingham (vs Fiji / Mar 17)
- Myer Bevan (vs Solomon Islands / Sep 17)
That’s 21 new players in the first seven games and only four in the next twenty. For the record there were seven of those debutants in the squad that played Peru: Wynne, Marinovic, Thimopoulos, Lewis, Colvey, Patterson and D.Ingham. Just quietly, The Great Eligibility Scandal of 2015 didn't help things.
It all depends on your life philosophies (stay mindful, yo). Some people made up their mind about Uncle Tony in those early days and haven’t budged since while others have recently been won over by a more consistent playing squad and the brief brush with glory that we had at the end there. It’s not like he inherited a particularly settled team or anything. While it’s fair to say that he pissed around with players too much at the start, it’s also fair to say that once he got used to his players he improved greatly. Coaches don’t always get the same allowance for self-improvement as players get.
Which didn’t stop the odd curveball in his starting line-ups. The 5-3-2 formation became the standard at the Nations Cup, the tournament which, despite the victory, was probably the lowest point of Hudsonery. Injuries and unavailabilities meant there were guys in that squad playing club footy in Australia. They started well with a 3-1 win over Fiji and a 5-0 over Vanuatu but the style of play was like fingernails on a chalkboard (as written at the time on TNC). Long balls proliferated and possession was a dirty word. God, that tournament sucked.
And they got worse as it went on too, naturally. The threadbare squad didn’t get massive rotation along the way and after Chris Wood left the team they were toothless, needing penalties to beat Papua New Guinea in the final despite the Confederations Cup spot on the line.
Master & Apprentice (but which is which?)
Not that they were all that much more expansive at those Confeds either. The preparation games were abysmal, defeats to Northern Ireland and Belarus (neither made the World Cup) before they played one great half against Mexico in the second game of the tournament but still lost all three games, scoring once and conceding eight.
Obviously the All Whites can’t expect to go play Portugal and take them man for man in a contest of skill and technique. They have to be conservative to give themselves a chance, then hope they force a mistake at the back or something. But Hudson’s All Whites rarely looked like they had an alternative. We should’ve smashed Belarus if we thought we had a chance of qualifying past Peru six months later. But no. We didn’t even try.
That’s a major criticism of Hudson right there: he was always so… cautious. Against the Island teams that came across as dismissive. As if all we had to do was play careful and we’d squeeze out the results that we needed. That happened, sure. Means to an end and all that, they told us Hudson was The Young Mourinho from the start so no shocks at his pragmatism. But that doesn’t mean we had to accept it. It took a brilliant Chris Wood hat-trick at home to finally see this All Whites team playing with confidence in their own abilities. Hudson would never consider the way he played against OFC teams as condescending, however it kind of was. One might even use the term: colonial.
The way he shaped his team against better sides was condescending too… but towards his own team. Chris Wood scores goals against Premier League defences, we should have been playing towards his strengths all the way and backing him to do the same against international defences. We don’t have much of a midfield? Okay, not ideal, yet there are ways around that. This All Whites team had a very good defence but they couldn’t keep clean sheets against better teams and they never scored enough goals. That adds up to a team that’ll lose with dignity every time. A little too consistent with the way Hudson protected his personal image for comfort.
It’s another philosophical crossroads. Nobody enjoys Mourinho-Ball but it supposedly gives you a chance, especially for a manager who likes to feel in control of things (which is common among those who weren’t top players, as an aside). On the other hand, we weren’t qualifying without scoring a goal or two so why not go for it? Winston Reid is a marvel, it’s not a matter of one or the other. We could’ve competed without leaving the floodgates open at the back. Instead it was zero shots on target in the two playoff legs with Peru, waiting until it was too late to finally go for it…
The overall record is fine. An All Whites manager isn’t likely to win a majority of their games. The better they do, the better oppositions they’ll come up against therefore the more games they’ll lose, ironically. However Hudson’s record is really two records, two very distinct types of results...
UNCLE TONY'S ALL WHITES RECORD:
Four home games, by the way. Out of 27. Hudson’s All Whites never conceded a goal from open play against Oceania, all four goals came from the penalty spot. They also never scored more than once in a game against a non-OFC team.
Speaking of goals, Chris Wood scored 12 of the 32 and nobody else managed more than Marco Rojas’ four. Ryan Thomas had three and there were ten other goal scorers. Then looking at players, there were 49 different players who took the field for Hudson across his 27 games. 12 of those players only even played off the bench. (21 players out of 49 were not senior internationals before Hudson, that’s part Huddo’s annoying early selections and part evidence of a dawning new era).
MOST APPEARANCES UNDER ANTHONY HUDSON:
Themi Tzimopoulos also played 14 times, with 12 starts. Clayton Lewis had 13 games (12 starts). Moses Dyer player 10 times (3 starts). Then we have these poor suckers who only played a single time for Anthony Hudson. The One-And-Done crew: Chris James, Cam Howieson, Kayne Vincent, Ben van den Broek, Ryan De Vries, Liam Higgins, Harshae Raniga, Glen Moss & Jai Ingham. A few names in there, alright.
Meanwhile Myer Bevan, Matt Ridenton, Henry Cameron, Dan Keat and Jake Gleeson all got two games in there for Huddo, shout out to them.
One player who came in the middle somewhere was Winston Reid. He played seven times for Hudson and, although he never won a game under him, those were most of the best performances that the kiwis played. No stunner that they were at their best when their best player was available, though that blatant difference does cloud Hudson’s influence on results a bit and it’s also worth mentioning that he wasn’t there at that Confederations Cup run.
He was, however, there captaining them when they drew 1-1 with USA. When they drew with Peru in Wellington. When they drew against Myanmar and narrowly lost friendlies to Mexico and Japan. He didn’t play a game against Oceania teams, as indeed he shouldn’t have. If Winston’s the difference at the next Nations Cup then the next manager won’t be the next manager for long. Does sorta suggest that Huddo could do whatever he wanted but we’re still massively reliant on a few main players. Hopefully after the last three years we’re closer to that not being the case… not that we’ll know for a few more years to come.
Dammit, there’s no simple summation here. There’s no easy ‘success/not success’ box to tick, the Hudson Era was a complicated beast, full of worthy moves and missed opportunities. All of that added up to a two-legged playoff with Peru which should have defined Hudson’s achievements in bold, black & white font but a good result in the first probably needed to be a victory instead of a draw and the expected 2-0 defeat over there could have easily been more. What the hell can you make of that?
Not much, to be honest, because if Hudson’s approach was always about the ends justifying the means then the end result was that we didn’t make the World Cup. Just like we didn’t make the last one. But it sure was a ride along the way, aye?
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