Welly Nix 2019-20 Season Awards
It didn’t end the way we’d envisaged it. Out in the first game of the finals after such a fantastic season. But we’ve still got a record third placing to fall back upon, still got a new coach in it for the long haul, still got a young and consistent squad that’ll be fired up for redemption next time around. The future is bright. This season was a weird one for so many reasons and the Wellington Phoenix never managed to recapture their pre-pandemic form once the league restarted but damn it was a great ride while it lasted. Better celebrate a bit of it, then.
Player of the Season
Liberato Cacace
Ulises Davila
Stefan Marinovic
Steven Taylor
Cameron Devlin
To be honest there are valid cases to be presented for all five of these dudes. Cam Devlin for example, after starting the season on the bench he was thrust into the starting line-up when Alex Rufer got injured and would start every subsequent game (except the one he was suspended for). Dude came in with immense energy and a physicality that belied his size and youth and that midfield hustle soon made him undroppable. This a bloke who’d only played a handful of A-League games beforehand. Would need to have gotten a little more from him in the attacking third to rise up the ranks there (0 goals, 1 assist) but Scrappy Cam always gave you at least 2-3 stand-and-applaud moments per game.
Steven Taylor missed only 45 minutes of action all season. He’s the captain of the club and a guy who leads by example with how he plays, absolutely throwing himself into everything. Would like to see the Nix find more ways to use him on attacking set pieces (aside from his cheeky antics), feels like he’s worth more than one goal in a full season, but yeah what a player. Anyone who’s watched him in that Phoenix backline can see how important he is to this team and how well he’s played.
Similarly Stefan Marinovic. Big Stef with the big hands, pulling off so many amazing saves along the way. That’s why they brought him back to Aotearoa, he’s a game-changing goalkeeper. Remember that this was a Nix team whose most common result was a 2-1 win. They very rarely blew teams away and thus the margins for error were kinda slim and there were way more squeaky finishes to games then there should have been. Marinovic literally saved points for this club. He played every single minute this season and it would have been a very different story without him.
Ulises Davila looked off the pace in his debut. He then immediately adjusted and for the next few months was one of a handful of contenders for the Johnny Warren Medal, he was that good. Utterly silky skills and the most incredible close ball control as well as a constant goal threat with that keen left foot of his. He’d have been top of the pops for this award except that he lost his mojo after the restart, missing a penalty that cost the team a win in one game and generally just not quite recapturing his previous tempo of play. That doesn’t take away from how great he was for the majority of the campaign though. And he’s coming back next season!
Which brings us to the main man and the departing legend (at a mere 19 years of age)... Liberato Cacace. He’s off to Belgium now having established himself as the best player in his position in this league. 58 A-League games, two of them in the Finals (including 25 of 27 this season, missing two for suspension and that was it). Only Louis Fenton and Alex Rufer have played more for this club from the current crop. Again, this guy doesn’t even turn twenty for another month. He’s closer to Sam Sutton’s age than he is to Cam Devlin and Cammy’s not exactly long in the tooth.
Cacace emerged ready-made two and a half seasons ago and has continually added to his game at a rapid rate since then... this season seeing him take that wise-beyond-his-years presence of mind and his excellent defensive reads and adding some genuinely thrilling attacking play to his scouting report. That deceptive burst of pace, the close control to take it past defenders, the way he can draw a foul or take it deep and whip in a cross. By the end of the season he was literally the Phoenix’s best attacking threat, you only wondered how he possibly had the energy to keep it up at both ends. But he did. Lad’s a marvel.
And he was also the only Nix player to make the A-League/Opta’s Team of the Season and he did so with the second highest individual rating of any player, here’s what they had to say...
“It’s hard to believe the left-back is still just 19 years of age considering his impact on the competition. Cacace (with 106) was one of only three players to make 100+ dribbles throughout the regular season. He also made 55 clearances, created 30 scoring chances and made 55 tackles - the second-most of any Phoenix player.”
This one slaps hard too…
Outstanding season from Cacace, and a crucial impact for the team from a position where you don’t often see that level of influence. He’s basically conquered this league now and bigger challenges await him overseas. Ufuk Talay summed it up when he reportedly told Libby: “You can walk out of here a legend and the door will always be open whenever you decide to come back”.
Golden Boot
Ulises Davila (12 goals)
Gary Hooper (8)
David Ball (6)
Jaushua Sotirio (4)
Liberato Cacace (3)
This is also where the problems exist because the goals were not voluminous enough to be so dominated by two fellas. To put it into context, last season Roy Krishna got 19 and David Williams 11, that’s 50% more between the top two scorers than the 20 Davila and Hooper supplied. Hoops woulda scored more had he been able to stay on the pitch more, going by FB-Ref’s maths he supplied 0.97 goals plus assists (not including penalties) per 90 mins... which was second only by a hair to A-League golden boot Jamie Maclaren, who scored 22 goals for Melbourne City, and miles ahead of third places Max Burgess (!) who had 0.76. Ulises Davila was the next best Phoenix player with a 0.49 mark... which is pretty useful given his 12 goals included five penalties although that still leaves him outside the top twenty.
David Ball took a while to get going, missing a penalty in the FFA Cup and it wasn’t until his seventh game that he finally hit the back of the net. That took a visible load of pressure off his shoulders and he scored some valuable strikes along the way. He also had 5 assists. Probably want a bit more from an import forward however it was the combined 3 goals from Piscopo and McCowatt and the combined zero goals from Rufer/Devlin/Steinmann that was more noticeable. Shout out to Uli for winning this one but the lack of goals was kinda the Achilles heel that ended their season so yeah, grain of salt and all when looking at the wider picture here.
Game of the Season
That 3-1 win over Western United was a thing of wonder. It was the seventh of that nine-game unbeaten streak though it came after back to back draws so the team would have wanted to bounce back with three points regardless but away to Mark Rudan and Western United it had even more significance. The Nix had lost 1-0 at home in a scrappy season opener to these guys but away in Melbourne they were absolutely scintillating. David Ball scored the first goal after Uli Davila had shown great strength and control to dribble into the box and set him up, that was five minutes before the break. Ten minutes after it, Reno Piscopo and Callum McCowatt combined for the latter’s only goal of the campaign and ten minutes from time Davila broke the offside trap and scored a third. Only drama was that they let in a late consolation from the penalty spot (Steven Taylor with a diving handball, lol) to spoil the clean sheet but oh well. Still one of their most complete performances of the campaign and a bit of a breakthrough in showing just how much this team was capable of after mostly grinding out their earlier wins. Plus it was a grudge match and we won, get in! (By the way, click the links on the games to read the contemporary match reports).
Second place was a summer’s evening at Eden Park with a very strong Melbourne City team in town and of the five clean sheets the Nix kept this season this was easily the hardest earned... made even sweeter by a David Ball winner in the 58th minute. City played really well but the Nix battled away to get the points, it was awesome. David Ball had a shot cleared almost off the line early on, Matti Steinmann thought he’d scored one later in the first half but VAR said no deal, and it felt like they might pay the cost for that as Marinovic had to make a few saves in the opening stages of the second half with City looking dangerous. But then Cam Devlin put Gary Hooper through down the line and his low cross found David Ball who tacked it home first time, great counter attacking goal. The Phoenix were able to muster the wisdom and control to close it out from there, Marinovic’s big gloves helping out too, and the Aucklanders all went home happy. This was the Nix’s only win from five games against the two teams that finished ahead of them (although two of those games, both losses, came in the first four matches).
And in third place comes a beautifully comprehensive win over the Victory in the last game before the pandemic hiatus. We pretty much knew at the time that one way or another this’d be the final chance they’d get to play at home for a while and the crowd were served up one of the Nix’s most commanding results. They took the lead in just the third minute of the game through an Uli Davila volley then were deservedly 2-0 up after 21 mins as Gary Hooper reverse-headed in a Libby Cacace cross. David Ball added a lovely solo effort in the second half and for once the Nix didn’t concede a silly one to make it frisky at the end. This was a fourth win in a row and probably the peak of the team’s season for both form and fortune. Slightly down the list though because the Victory were bang average.
Goal of the Season
6) Ulises Davila vs Sydney FC (21 December 2019)
This was gonna be a top three thing, then it became a top five thing, then it felt silly to cut it down any further once it got down to a top six – might as well bask in the glory of them all. This was such a nicely worked move, Davila laying it out wide to Reno Piscopo and his cross picks the Mexican out on the other end of his run and that finish is really tricky too.
5) Gary Hooper vs Perth Glory (22 July 2020)
This one started deep in the Nix’s half, Callum McCowatt and Libby Cacace with some sharp passing to secure possession then just as McCowatt was being swamped by three attackers he pumped a brilliant ball over the top for Hooper to run onto and once he got the inside track over his marker it was game over. This video doesn’t show the full context of it, most of these tweets don’t unfortunately but way it’s easier than pulling the clips individually so close enough.
4) Liberato Cacace vs Central Coast Mariners (8 March 2020)
Absolutely gorgeous move. Starts on the right hand side with a throw in, worked centrally to Davila, and then he puts in just an inch perfect ball to Cacace who’d made an inch perfect run and Libby put it where it needed to go from there.
3) David Ball vs Melbourne City (15 February 2020)
The winner at Eden Park against Melly City as mentioned in the games of the season award. Cam Devlin plays it down the line to Gary Hooper who hits that low, early cross and the first time finish from Ball is silky as it gets. Ruthless on the counter attack.
2) Ulises Davila vs Western Sydney Wanderers (7 December 2019)
Ball comes in to Hooper, ball is laid off to Davila, he takes one touch to set himself and a second touch to basically teleport that sucker into the bottom corner from distance. That, friends, is how you do it.
1) David Ball vs Melbourne Victory (15 March 2020)
David Ball once got nominated for a Puskas Award so you already know he scores great goals. This one was the icing on the cake of a 3-0 win over Melbourne Victory. Ball’s part was great enough, he runs hard at his defender and shakes him off and cuts past another then finishes convincingly. But you also don’t see in this clip how Gary Hooper drops really deep to collect the ball from the defence and turns out of trouble to lift it over the top to Ball who had isolated the last defender... and the rest was history.
Breakthrough Player of the Season
Cam Devlin
Tim Payne
Te Atawhai Hudson-Wihongi
Cammy’s already had the write-up earlier, goes without saying. Or at least without repeating. Tim Payne signed from Eastern Suburbs where he’d turned himself into a strong centre-back with supreme passing range but for the Phoenix he always seemed more of a utility, getting some preseason minutes in midfield. After the injury to Louis Fenton he stepped up as a right back and it was like a fish to water. A naturally combative player so the defensive stuff was solid from the start plus he’s arguably the best crosser in the team. Payne was solid as solid gets for a guy who’d never even really played in this position before and the stats with him in the starting team compared to when he wasn’t are stark (2.2 points per game when he started, 0.7 ppg when he didn’t – which doesn’t even include the finals game they lost without him). A silly lockdown decision and an untimely injury meant he missed the post-restart and despite the emergence of Callan Elliot, who improved with every start in the final month, you can’t help but feel they missed Payne’s presence.
Elliot’s also in contention here but he only played five games, gotta keep it in perspective. Te Atawhai Hudson-Wihongi had a similar emergence late in the season and he also scattered some substitute apps in along the rest of the way so he gets the nod. TAHW was really excellent in the couple games he started at CB. He’s level-headed and makes good decisions, wins the ball well in the air, reads the game nicely. For the longest time it was a worry that this squad had very little CB depth behind Taylor/DeVere but when that depth was finally tested TAHW stepped up to ensure it was a false alarm. Commendable effort in the elimination final starting at short-ish notice too.
Good Chat of the Season
Louis Fenton
Ufuk Talay
Steven Taylor
Not a lot of nominations for this one, young players don’t tend to have a lot to say for the cameras. Steven Taylor’s good for a soundbite if you can work out his Geordie accent, some of the stuff he’s said about Libby Cacace’s potential has been great. And Uffie Talay gets a runner up nod for his refreshing press conferences where he doesn’t say a whole lot but there’s plenty of yarn value there as what he does say tends to be pretty pertinent. Unlike his predecessor, he’s not a blustering Shakespearean soliloquy kinda dude. Uffie doesn’t seem to be bothered with all that yet in his own way he does offer up plenty of nuggets if you listen closely. One thing that sticks in the brain was his point about the crucial nature of recruitment when building a strong squad, pretty sure he said that in his introductory presser... and his recruitment has been absolutely spot on with almost zero exceptions so safe to say that’s been a relevant one all campaign.
But of course there can only be one winner...
Louis Ferenc Puskas Fenton, ladies and gents.
Trademarked Move of the Season
Steven Taylor’s Set Piece Pestilence
Libby Cacace’s Kick & Chase
Ulises Davila’s Penalty Kicks
It never fails to get a giggle when Stevie T just randomly goes up and stands in front of the keeper as they try to set their walls for free kicks as if he’s about to ask how his day’s going or ask directions to the pub or something. Not sure how much of an effect it actually has but I hope he never stops.
Moving on and there were few more edge-of-the-seat moments than whenever Cacace would kick the ball ahead of himself and a defender and put on a burst of speed to collect it behind him. Usually after some sharp quick-touch dribbling. Belgium right backs don’t even know what’s about to hit them.
And then Uli from the spot, so good. He did miss that late one against Adelaide which cost the Nix a win but up until then he was five outta five and some of them were thunderously comprehensive spotties.
Quality Fits of the Season
The All-Yellow Highlighter Kit
Uffie’s Black Suits
Shirts Off At 80 Mins
Full disclosure, I think the highlighter kit is ugly. Gotta get those black shorts in there, mate. But you can’t deny that there was for a very long time a strange and almost eerie coincidence between wearing the all-yellow and the Nix’s results so fair play to the yellow threads. Elsewhere Uffie was always looking sharp in his pressed black suit, sometimes with a black shirt Rudan-style, sometimes white shirt with black tie. Always looking suave and successful. And since the Nix’s home form was so bloody good there was all sorts of opportunities for shirts off at 80 mins, one of the iconic fan traditions of the A-League. Right on.
Villain of the Season
Mark Rudan
The VAR
Golf Carts
Pretty self-explanatory, really.
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