Remember the Wellington Phoenix? Remember how well they were going? Old mate Uli Davila pulling strings, Cammy Devlin working his arse off in the midfield, David Ball hustling up top, Libby Cacace tearing down that left flank, Big Stef saving anything that came near him, Stevie T holding it all together at the back... so good. Here’s a thing written at the time about exactly how good. It’s worth the reminder.

The good news is that the A-League, in keeping with the trend around the world, will complete its season. The specifics are still being figured out but the remaining games will get played and the Wellington Phoenix will get to come out the other end of all this with the chance to make the most of what had been three quarters of a brilliant season. Whether they can recapture that previous level, that’s another matter altogether. The Nix will be doing a Warriors and setting themselves up in Australia the rest of the way and, crucially, they expect to have all their squad available.

A recap on the deets: 32 games need to be played to complete the season, including a full playoffs, and all those 32 games will all happen. They’ll take place in empty stadiums in a singular location, probably in New South Wales but Queensland are making a late run for hosting rights... and the matches between Melbourne clubs could possibly be played in Victoria before those teams travel to the centralised NSW/QLD hub. The clubs, the FFA, and the players’ association have all agreed on this plan so it’s just a matter of waiting for the buggers at Fox Sports to get onboard. It’ll happen eventually, but things are tense at the financial level these days and generous spirits are hard enough to come by in those areas at the best of times.

An excerpt from last Friday’s El Niche Cache email dispatch (sign up here!):

“Fox Sports is owned by Foxtel. Like many kiwi media companies, Foxtel is hemorrhaging money and are firing staff left, right, and centre. They want to save some cash, they aren’t happy with dropping viewership figures in recent seasons anyway, now they’re threatening to hold up the restart process. The FFA, the A-League clubs, and most importantly the players association, have all agreed on the plan. Only the broadcasters are holding things up and unsurprisingly the A-League’s press release had plenty of nice things to say about the commercial opportunities of this restart campaign once you’ve got games on telly most nights of the week, leading into playoffs, all at a singular location blah blah blah.

Fox Sports are villains here. They’re being greedy and extorting a sports league which is obviously in an awkward situation already. But the A-League/FFA are also villains because their long-term inability to capture the majority of a massive footy culture in Australia has led to these dramas, creating tension with the broadcaster and leading to cobwebs in the coffers. It’s such a bloody stupid thing.”

The plan will see those 32 games played across 36 days. Teams will begin training in a week or two, then the games themselves will begin in mid-July and be completed a little over a month later. The rumoured dates are 18 July to 22 August. Fox Sports may still have a say in that though. The fact that the A-League have announced these plans suggests the rest of it is mostly just formalities.

So that’s all nice enough, what about the Wellington Phoenix? David Dome is on record as saying all 23 contracted players will be there, as well as ten staff members. Expiring contracts have been automatically extended thanks to a FIFA nudge until whenever it is that the season is completed. Not sure exactly what the 23 contracted players thing means because there are 23 dudes who’ve featured in matchday squads this season but Ben Waine and Sam Sutton are only on academy deals at the moment, while Louis Fenton was gonna be out for the season but after having surgery in early December with the target of being ready to rock for preseason one wonders if he’s the tiniest outside chance to be a part of this? Or third-string keeper Zac Jones, who hasn’t featured in an A-League matchday squad... any of the youth teamers for that matter. Also Ulises Davila and Gary Hooper are still overseas and will presumably meet up with the team in Sydney or wherever the base is so as to only do one quarantine. They’re keen, they’re all in... but until they’re literally there with their feet on Aussie soil there’ll be a hint of worry with international travel being what it is right now.

The squad will have to quarantine for two weeks beforehand but they will be able to train during that period so that’s no real drama. It all adds up to about seven weeks away from home. Remember they already did the two week quarantine thing once before (in vain, as it turned out) so it’s not exactly unfamiliar for them. This is the table as it stands...

The Nix were on a four game winning streak when the postponement happened, having beaten Melbourne City (1-0 at Eden Park), Western United (2-0 in Welly), Central Coast (3-1 away), and Melbourne Victory (3-0 win Welly). Brilliant run of results even if it did include three home games, a slumping Western United, the two bottom teams, etc. With six games remaining they have the equal most matches to play but they do have three games in hand over Melbourne City with four points separating them and second place would get them a first round finals bye. Not gonna lie, with the potential of those games in hand it’s a pretty sexy looking table.

Of course, all those games in a row and those games in hand could be more of a curse than anything, especially if a few injuries hit the squad. Remember the two centrebacks are both 30+ with injury histories and have started every game this season. You’d hope everyone’s been working out through the lockdowns and fitness isn’t a factor but you never know. The six remaining games: Sydney FC, Newcastle Jets, Adelaide United, Perth Glory, Brisbane Roar, and Western Sydney Wanderers. Four of them were meant to be away games. Now all of them will be away games but three of them were going to be in New South Wales anyway, neither of the two home games they’ll miss out on (Brisbane and Adelaide) were going to be in NSW, and the other away game would have been in Perth so that’s automatically an improvement.

There’s a little inkling of not wanting to spoil things here. The Nix are in such a good spot, a spot which would be their best ever regular season finish if the season had ended here, and restarting things comes with the risk of turning that beautiful potential into disappointment. But that risk exists in harmony with the possible reward. The Nix won’t get a home semi-final even though they deserve one. That’s not an option. They will, however, get the opportunity to play for a championship and that’s the one that matters. Who’s to say the Phoenix won’t be boosted by the experience either? The Warriors looked pretty bloody outstanding in their first NRL game back. No fans in the stands doesn’t mean so much when all your games are going to be neutral/away games... and we already know this club has a rock solid connection with the fans back home to spur them on. It would have been a bloody shame if they didn’t get the chance to push this thing to it’s eventual conclusion, whatever that may be. Now they will. Watch this space.

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