With the Premiership called off with two rounds remaining, Auckland City have been crowned champions and nobody can complain about that. The Navy Blues were the best side from start to finish and deserve the crown since we’ve had to call a halt to proceedings in such a unique manner. But while ACFC have the star signings and the ex-pros and they snatched up their closest rivals’ manager when they needed one... Team Wellington’s success this season has been a little easier to sleep on.

Team Welly were only three points behind ACFC at the end of it, having twice drawn with them head to head. They didn’t have the depth of ACFC nor the same professional pedigree and when they needed to replace Jose Figueira after he went to City they promoted Scott Hales from within. Rather humble rebuildings in comparison yet they were looking odds on to meet City in another blockbuster grand final. We won’t get that opportunity now but we’ve still gotta big it up for what they achieved.

It didn’t start off too flash. After a 5-1 opening round win over the Tron Wands they then went three games without a win as they drew with ACFC and the WeeNix before losing 1-0 away in Tasman. Four weeks in and Team Welly were sitting sixth. They then, naturally, went ahead and took 29 of a possible 39 remaining points to finish comfortably clear in second place. They did so playing the same flowing footy as we were used to under Figueira, keeping more or less the same formation and everything, continuity being a major factor... but that continuity only stretched so far and similar to last season’s runners’ up effort they were able to survive a couple key mid-season departures despite some rather slim depth at the best of times (pretty sure they didn’t use their full allotment of subs in any of their final five games).

Where to start? Probably at the back where that continuity was most powerful. Justin Gulley returned to the club that he left to take up a Phoenix contract last term and he started every single game – one of three Team Welly players to do so along with Rory McKeown and Jack-Henry Sinclair (plenty more on those two in a sec). Seventeen players did so altogether across the league: Myer Bevan, Danny Knight, George King, Danyon Drake, Reid Drake, Sho Goto, Ahinga Selemani, Matt Oliver, Derek Tieku, Liam Little, Stephen Last, Garbhan Coughlan, Justin Gulley, Rory McKeown, Jack-Henry Sinclair, Sam Burfoot and Ronan Wynne. Four of those lads are goalies, six of them are imports.

Anyway, Gulley was everpresent while keeper Scott Basalaj was rested only once to let backup Keegan Smith have a turn. Scott Midgley began the season in the back three but was injured for a chunk of it while Serbian defender Stevan Marković was also there to begin with but it was after he left and old favourite Taylor Schrijvers returned that the Team Welly defence really locked it down. Marković and Schrijvers basically played half a season each. With Marković they conceded 11 goals in 8 games with 0 clean sheets. With Schrijvers they conceded 4 goals in 8 games with 4 clean sheets. Shout out also to Aaron Spain who carried a bit of the load in the back three while Midgley was out. Spain’s normally a fullback and a very bloody good one, he did get to play there more as the season went on but he did a good job in central defence when called upon too.

The reason why Spain wasn’t getting minutes at wingback from day one though was because arguably Team Welly’s two top performing dudes were out there: McKeown and Sinclair. These two were absolutely superb, man. Not only on the defensive side of things, sure, but more than anything pushing forward and being key players for Team Welly in attack too. Certainly after Ollie Bassett and Hamish Watson departed. Sinclair scored seven goals, McKeown scored six, with plenty of assists to sprinkle on top of that desert as well. The majority of those coming from wide positions... although Sinclair’s excellence and the lack of other options meant he did play a bit as a forward towards the end of things. But yeah, those two were marvellous.

In midfield it was a case of Mario Barcia, who played 14 of 16 games, mixed with either Ollie Whyte, Marko Stamenic, or Alex Palezevic. Whyte played once or twice as a number ten but more often than not was the deep midfielder next to Barcia. Barcia’s top drawer quality is a known factor, although he didn’t score a goal this season and usually he’s got a banger or two to offer. Whyte’s younger, he’s just coming back from a year in Portugal on the books of Rio Ave and was at the WeeNix before that, and is one of the Premmy fellas this season nudging towards Olympic selection (Ollie Whyte for OlyWhites, how about it?). A very good technical player, good passer of the footy, and a dude with plenty of mobility.

Palezevic only got a few games towards the end which is a bit of a bummer for another versatile and dependable young kiwi midfielder (assuming there were injuries involved, not sure), while we also got to see some Marko Stamenic. One of the next class of Ole Academy fellas and therefore a midfielder of some immense pedigree. He was at the U17 World Cup last year and would get five games (three starts) this season before apparently disappearing to have a peek at some overseas options. Team Welly regained the Ole Academy link this season by the way, filling their youth team with such fellas and even giving Matty Garbett a sneaky debut off the bench before he left to play pro in the top flight of Sweden (another U17 WC alumni). Tor Davenport-Peterson was the other prominent yoof to get a minutes for Team Welly this season... maybe chuck in Ben Mata (21) and Max Batchelor (19) too. One aspect where you can be critical of Auckland City is that they didn’t have anyone in that age range getting a shot but then who are you gonna drop in a team that deep? There were clubs which did a lot more in this area than Team Welly did but at least there was a pipeline here. Nice to see.

For the first ten weeks of the season it was the Ollie Bassett and Hamish Watson show. Bassett was quite possibly the form attacker of the entire comp while Watto was banging them in left, right, and centre. Each scored in each of the first three games... but each also left in early 2020 to take up opportunities overseas. Bassett scored 6 goals in 10 games while Watson scored 8 goals in 11 games and there were a fair few of those combined efforts where they assisted each other too. Losing both of them meant Nati Hailemariam and Sam Mason-Smith got more game time, two handy replacements to have albeit neither probably feels they had the campaign they could have... SMS only scored one goal and he’s normally knocking them in for fun. Team Welly did at least have the dependable luminescence of Andy Bevin (who celebrated 100 games for the club a few weeks back) but regardless you’ve gotta admire how this team lost its two most potent attackers midway through and still ended the season on a five-game winning streak. Signing former ACFC striker Joao Moreira for the last month certainly helped.

It’s that core of players like Basalaj, Bevin, Gulley, Sinclair, Barcia, and Schrijvers which keeps this team at such a consistent high level and so long as they can retain most of them again next time then there’ll be there or thereabouts in the top couple spots yet again. What’s most pleasing for Team Welly though is that they hardly even stumbled under Scott Hales and with that Ole Academy connection hopefully nice and secured for a few years they’ll have plenty of dudes coming through around them all – that whole Ole generation that won the title with Eastern Suburbs all left so Team Welly will perhaps see more of the first team benefits of that link next time and beyond.

Speaking of Eastern Suburbs, the defending champs had a few stutters in there unsuccessful attempt to regain that title. Losing almost their entire first team didn’t help and while they were far from alone in having to hire a new head coach (the only HC still remaining from last season is Paul Temple) they had less time than most to do so after Danny Hay was hired for the All Whites gig. Tony Readings has plenty of qualifications though. No dramas there. And as for replacing the squad well they did still have a number of solid Suburbs lads from the last couple years such as Campbell Strong, Kelvin Kalua, Michael Built, etc. Ain’t like they were building from scratch. As for the rest of the team, easy, just snatch them up from other clubs.

Martin Bueno scored goals galore for Hamilton Wanderers and he scored goals galore for Eastern Suburbs. Particularly in the second half of the campaign where he at one point scored seven goals in three matches including a hatty versus Southern United (not to mention 6 goals in 3 OCL games too). It was when Bueno really clicked that this team clicked too. Up until those three matches they’d only won two of nine games. Too many sloppy draws were costing them big time... but then a big splurge of goals led by Bueno (there was also a 6-1 win over the Cantabs) put them into a top four position that they’d maintain – just – the rest of the way. There’s no guarantee they would have clung on to that spot over the last two weeks with a few others still in the hunt and a crucial game against Tasman United coming up in the final round but they had the points on the board when the league came to a close which is what matters.

Also playing a huge factor in that form down the back half of the season was Adam Thurston, in fact his arrival coincided exactly with that 6-1 win over his old mates in Canterbury. Up until then Suburbs had perhaps lacked that linking man from midfield to attack but Thurston was brilliant from the get go, scoring twice in his first game. He helped unlock Bueno’s abilities with his distribution and he also eased the workload on Reid Drake too which helped that bloke close the season in some really sizzling form himself. The three of them were the standouts in the OCL group stage too. Bueno’s 11 goals were tied second for Premmy Golden Boot.

Suburbs evolved quite a bit over the season as they sought their best combinations. Dylan De Jong was an impressive one at left back but he left to sign pro in Israel. Dan Bowkett started things in midfield but only played five games before Campbell Strong took his spot, while Mohamed Awad was their standout player for the first seven games but then he left for some NPL stuff in Oz (I think). Kelvin Kalua started at CB and ended up playing really bloody well as a fullback, they were at their best with him on one side and Mike Built on the other. Then by the end of it guys like Stafford Dowling and Josh Margetts were getting games in the backline. Christian Gray was the dude holding it together in defence, sometimes with Kalua, sometimes with Alec Solomons, sometimes with Tyler Lissette (including two games in which he was dropped for Lissette). There was a lot of thinking on the feet here from Gaffer Readings and the midseason signings of guys like Thurston, Lissette, Dowling, etc. were a crucial aspect of getting them into that fourth place. This was a team that kept on improving and would have backed themselves to peak for the semis.

Also throw ‘em up for Adam Thomas in the midfield. He did what Harry Edge did for them last time, patrolling in front of the back three which allows the fullbacks to commit forward with cover and also getting plenty of touches as a perennial option in possession. Thomas getting this many games (14) after all his injuries is a reason to celebrate in itself, for him to play as well as he did... better crack out the expensive stuff, mate. Likewise Danyon Drake is a dude who has spent a lot of time sitting on benches in this competition but he relished the chance to play every game here, signing with his brother. Drakey’s a keeper who’ll keep you on edge but only Conor Tracey kept more clean sheets.

Which brings us to the young fellas and one thing Suburbs have always done in the national league is looked to offer paths into the first team for their local youth teamers. Campbell Strong is one such dude. At 17 years old he’s already in his third Premiership campaign, playing twice in 2017-18, 11 times in 2018-19, and now 13 times in 2019-20... the difference being that he started 11 of those games this time. By the end he’d settled into a solid midfield role next to Reid Drake. Kelvin Kalua also counts in that convo, starting 14 games here. He’s the lone starter from the grand final still in town and at 20 years old will reach 50 Premiership games next season if he’s still there. Those are the two most notable but throughout the season there was always a spot in the front three for someone like Kingsley Sinclair, Leon van den Hoven, Jake Mechell, or Ryan Verney. Matt Palmer played a lot off the bench in the second half of things too.

Suburbs came into this season in a uniquely odd situation and ultimately made a decent go of it. A run of six games without a win could have left them in a real mess but they responded with a couple nice signings and three big wins in a row. The obvious worry for them was that they never once beat a top three team: in six games against ACFC, TW & WU they drew two and lost four, scoring 4 goals and conceding 11 – with their final game being a 2-0 defeat to City in the Charity Cup where they did really well to carve out the better chances in the first half, failed to take any of them, then got rolled in the second.

But then they were a little like that last time too and went on to lift the trophy so you never know. Doubt they’d have done the same here but they wouldn’t have been a fun team for anyone to face in a semi-final. Although they lacked the ability to maintain their levels week on week they were certainly getting close to figuring that out when the end times came to pass... albeit hampered by an exhausting Champions League campaign (which they won’t get the chance to repeat next year, wonder if that’ll affect their recruitment). Of all the teams, it’s Suburbs who have the best case to offer that they never quite got to show what they were capable of, definitely not consistently anyway. Plenty of other teams had big highs and big lows and it was an untamed season for many reasons but Suburbs only really had that one three-week stretch where it all aligned for them. Ah well, so it goes. There’s always next time.

Other 2019-20 Premiership Team Reviews:

Auckland City

Waitakere United, Hamilton Wanderers & Hawke’s Bay United

Tasman United, Canterbury United & Southern United

Wellington Phoenix Reserves

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