Transfer Troubles Mean The Welly Nix Academy Is Ready For Its Close-Up
Say what you will about the ill-fated and short-lived tenure of Darije Kalezic as Wellington Phoenix manager... but the man undeniably did one thing right: he gave Liberato Cacace his Nix debut. Plucked him out of the reserves where he was playing as a defensive midfielder and converted him into a left fullback. Also while it wasn’t he who gave Sarpreet Singh his debut - that had come late in the previous season under the interim guidance of Des Buckingham - it was Kalezic who first began picking Singh on the regular.
Those two players then obviously went on to leave the club for transfer fees in the high six-figures, sparking a fresh belief not only in the financial viability of the team’s academy but also in the quality of players it was producing. Singh and Cacace carved out a path for others to follow, showing them that it’s possible to go from the Wellington Phoenix to Bayern Munich. Those two transfers were a boost to the club in pretty much all aspects.
Not coincidentally, the next two permanent managers that the Phoenix hired both came from strong youth coaching backgrounds (Mark Rudan & Ufuk Talay). The Nix have become a team that embraces young players, not only out of their own academy but a few cheeky Aussie players too. But it’s the internal academy grads that we’re gonna be talking about today, friends.
Mark Rudan offered debuts to Ben Waine, Callan Elliot, and Gianni Stensness (the latter two were signed rather than developed by the academy but still played WeeNix footy before A-League footy – we’ll work on the definition of an academy/homegrown player in a sec). The following season, Ufuk Talay gave Sam Sutton a debut and brought Zac Jones in as backup keeper down the stretch (although he didn’t play). Then last season it was Ben Old’s turn – all the while Waine and Sutton continued in bigger roles while long time backup Oli Sail, who’d been with the club since 2014, finally got a run of games as the number one and he held off the incumbent national team starter to keep those gloves. Plus academy grad James McGarry returned to the club to replace Cacace, while Alex Rufer and Louis Fenton also continued in prominent roles. Matt Ridenton only played eight games but he was there that term too.
Ridenton’s since been released, however the procession has not stopped. With the Nix hampered in the transfer market by the pandemic they’re now relying more than ever on academy dudes to make up the numbers. This offseason has seen Ben Old and Alex Paulsen given senior contracts while Kurtis Mogg and George Ott are part of the travelling squad on scholarship deals. Of the 21 players currently in that squad, 11 of them have come through the WeeNix academy in some way, shape, or form. More than half the damn team, mate!
Quick stopover at Pedantic Station now because, teeeechnically speaking, they’re not all considered academy grads. Louis Fenton actually predates the academy team in its current format and you can also quibble about where you draw the line with players who were recruited from kiwi amateur clubs. With those 11 players, I’m throwing up a loose definition of a homegrown product which is not necessarily the same as an academy grad. There are more definitive definitions out there though. The UEFA Champions League has homegrown player rules, for example, and UEFA’s idea of a homegrown player is as thus...
“UEFA defines locally-trained or 'homegrown' players as those who, regardless of their nationality, have been trained by their club or by another club in the same national association for at least three years between the age of 15 and 21”
Well, Alex Rufer signed for the Nix at age 17 and hasn’t played for another pro club. He played for the reserve team across several seasons, albeit after he’d already featured once or twice for the first team (because the WeeNix didn’t get National League status ‘til later). I’m counting that. You don’t have to but I am. For the record, Academy Technical Director Paul Temple tweeted the other day about something similar and didn’t include Sail or Rufer... there are different interpretations of what constitutes a homegrown player. That’s the point.
Also it gets tricky with the Nix because, yeah, the academy structures have been through some changes over the years. Originally it was the ‘School of Excellence’ where a handful of young players were brought in to develop on the fringes of the first team. This was in 2014 and the first wave were: Hamish Watson, James Musa, Louis Fenton, Justin Gulley, and Tom Doyle. Then in 2015 it changed into something much more like what we see today (albeit on a lesser scale as things continue to grow).
Going by the academy’s website, they’re claiming these fellas as first team grads: Andrew Blake, Joel Stevens, Logan Rogerson, James McGarry, Keegan Smith, Sarpreet Singh, Libby Cacace, Ben Waine, Sam Sutton... and obviously Ben Old will be added to the next update while Paulsen, Mogg, and Ott are all in line to join them. Under that line of thinking, Alex Rufer and Oli Sail are not academy players but they are homegrown players. Similar deal with Fenton. See how it gets slippery?
Whatever your definition, the Wellington Phoenix are gonna have to go hard with the youngsters this A-League season. It may have already been a trend to push those fellas through into the first team but right now it’s a necessity. Covid stuff and quarantines have made recruiting new players a bitch of a task lately and that’d be a problem under any circumstances. But for the Nix it’s compounded by the fact that they’ve lost several key players since last season and basically have no way of replacing them yet.
Ulises Davila is one of the best imports this club ever brought in. Not only has he gone but he’s gone to a rival club. Same deal goes for last term’s top scorer Tomer Hemed. Best player and top scorer both poached by rival A-League teams. Cameron Devlin’s gone too. Left for Hearts in Scotland via the Newcastle Jets. Oh and as if that wasn’t carnage enough captain Steven Taylor then retired all of a sudden.
A couple new imports will be signed eventually but it may not be not until January that they’re able to join the team what with quarantines and all that. As for other signings, well they replaced Tomer Hemed by bringing back Gary Hooper so that was nice (although they wanted both). And Nick Pennington, Luka Prso, and Matthew Bozinovski all fit the bill of recent Aussie signings: either overseas based dudes brought back for a better shot at the national team (Reno Piscopo, Josh Laws) or guys at other clubs who haven’t broken through yet and the Nix can offer them more game time (Cam Devlin, Liam McGing).
But that’s not enough. Those guys might all be great and maybe the imports will arrive sooner than expected but this is still a pretty small squad and if the Wellington Phoenix are gonna get up to much this season then they’re going to need some large contributions from their homegrown contingent.
The opportunities will be there. Looking strictly at the last few years of WeeNix dudes, Ben Waine is going to get plenty of minutes up front. At 20 years of age, he might be the second best goal scorer in the squad after Super Hooper - the seven he scored last time were as many as Davila got and Waino wasn’t taking penalties, let me tell ya. He signed a three year extension back in May, just like Sam Sutton did the previous October. James McGarry appears to have won the starting left back spot off Sutts (as he ought to have) but that’s all goods because Sutton was always more of a midfielder and he’ll pop up here and there when needed.
Those two were already in the first team picture so where we start to get this idea into perspective is with Ben Old and Alex Paulsen both being given three year deals two months ago. Old who has one substitute appearance for the first team, Paulsen who has never been involved in an A-League matchday squad. Yet both were given senior contracts ahead of preseason which is both a show of faith in the no-doubter two top prospects of the current crop of academy dudes but also an indication that those usually precious roster spots were gonna be too hard to fill externally.
That makes this a rare opportunity as someone like Alex Paulsen might have had to wait literal years for a chance, might easily have ended up leaving for overseas without ever getting to wear the gloves in the A-League. But through a twist of fate and fortuitous timing he’s almost certainly gonna be Oli Sail’s backup this season. Meanwhile Ben Old, as a versatile attacking weapon, is exactly the kind of player who might get chucked on at the end of games when the team’s chasing a goal. Someone who can mix it up. Last season’s National League was huge for him as he bulked up in strength and that allowed his skill and speed and vision to flourish too – you couldn’t just nudge him off the ball any longer. The A-League is another step up entirely but the trajectory is there. As it stands Ben Waine, Ben Old, and Alex Paulsen are the only three players contracted as far as the 2023-24 season.
And that’s not all. With the Nix being based in Wollongong for at least the first couple months of the new season, and outside call-ups difficult to manoeuvre, they’ve brought along Kurtis Mogg and George Ott on scholarship deals. Same scenario as Ben Waine started on before his deal became a full contract in year two (this was his first Nix contract, not the current one). Both are 20 years old, actually slightly older than Old and Paulsen, and are there to provide cover in areas where the team is light. Mogg has captained the WeeNix plenty. He’s a strong and sturdy defender who has also made genuine strides in the technical side of his game the last year or two.
For a while there the only CBs the team had were Tim Payne and Josh Laws, both converted options. The converted factor actually offers some optimism as a full preseason will give them more room to grow than most guys their age but beneath them... yeah not much. Hence Matthew Bozinovski is in on loan from the Melbourne Victory (after they failed to get him on a permanent, at least for the time being) and now Mogg offers some extra cover as well. Steven Taylor, Liam McGing, Luke DeVere, and Te Atawhai Hudson-Wihongi have all left the club so Mogg is a welcome extra body for sure.
As for Ott, he’s a big target man style striker hailing outta the Waikato so obviously there are young Chris Wood comparisons. Ott first came to focus for Hamilton Wanderers but moved to the WeeNix last season where he looked decent if raw. But his winter league efforts were immense and Paul Temple gave an enthusiastic testimony in the press release about his contract about how much he’s improved. Chris Wood was a late bloomer. He was in his mid-20s when he broke through with Leeds. Players of this mould often need a bit of time to grow into their frame.
Ott just scored 21 goals in the Central League for Lower Hutt City, good for the golden boot by a huge margin. Second was teammate Riley Bidois with 16 goals (who’s a bit unlucky not to also get a scholarship ticket but maybe there was a limit – they only signed two schols for the women’s team too – plus Bidois doesn’t offer as much of a point of difference compared to other first team options in his positions). If George Ott has made that jump over the winter then that’s a pretty bloody exciting thought and working with Gary Hooper in training should do wonders for the fella.
We’ve had a couple years of Uffie’s management now. We know he doesn’t hand these things out for free so it’s a big credit to the quality of the players that the Phoenix are developing that they’re able to fill the gaps. We also know that he’s a manager who will ride the hot hand. Oli Sail went the entirety of the 2019-20 season without getting off the bench but when he deputised for Stefan Marinovic last season amidst a backline shuffle he performed so well that he never lost the gig and now Sail’s preparing as the team’s number one while Stefan Marinovic is playing in Israel. Ben Waine’s goals took him from four unused subs appearances from the first six games last time to featuring in all twenty of the subsequent matches (starting 14 of them).
Play well and the gaffer will pick you. Make the most of your opportunities and you’ll be rewarded. It’s easy to look at the ins and outs for the Phoenix and get downright despondent but if they’re gonna overcome it all then it may well be the academy grads who make the difference and wouldn’t that be a yarn.
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