More Premmy Files 2020-21 Season Reviews:

Auckland City & Hamilton Wanderers

Eastern Suburbs & Waitakere United

Canterbury United & Hawke’s Bay United

Wellington Phoenix Reserves

Final Standings: Second (26 pts) – Won 4-2 vs Auckland City in Grand Final

Top Scorer: Hamish Watson (15 goals)

Most Appearances: Rory McKeown (16 starts), Hamish Watson (15 starts), Scott Midgley (15 starts), Sam Mason-Smith (13 starts, 2 subs),

Premmy Files MVP: Hamish Watson

As with any year, Team Wellington came into what has since become the last ever ISPS Handa Premiership planning on ultimate glory. Eleven games into the regular season that wasn’t looking especially likely as the team had only won four of them and were coming off consecutive defeats including a fairly comfortable 3-1 loss to main rivals Auckland City up in the City of Sails. They’d been the last remaining undefeated team from week six until week ten, but far too many draws meant they only ever ended two (non-consecutive) rounds on top of the ladder.

Then suddenly it all clicked. And this was the game that did it...

Team Wellington vs Eastern Suburbs at David Farrington Park on 13 February. Round 12 of the competition. Two teams who’d both make the semi-finals a month later but this was anything but a close game. It was 2-0 at the half thanks to goals from Hamish Watson and Andy Bevin, both coming from high pressing situations against a Suburbs team that tends to try build up possession from deep. It then took a mere 28 seconds after the 2H kickoff before Watto had chested one down on the run and thumped in a volley, and it was four on 54’ as some hustle from Bevin down the right wing led to his second. Watson headed in for his hatty in the 69th off a Rory McKeown cross before SMS got through to make is six in the 72nd and Haris Zeb came off the bench to add another in stoppage time. SEVEN goals to nil.

The TeeDubs were perfect from that moment on. There was a 2-0 win over the Cantabs in Christchurch next up, followed by a 3-2 win over Hamilton Wanderers in the final regular season match before beating the same opposition 4-1 in the semi-final and then putting another four past Auckland City to clinch their third championship. 4-2 the score in that one. Add ‘em all together and that’s 20 goals in their final five games - four of those games against top four sides while the other one was away in Chch against a Dragons team whose home form, after an early slip, was pretty bloody good (they’d won three in a row at English Park before TW got them – with Auckland City amongst the defeated).

It was an immense run of form, perfectly timed for when it mattered most. Team Welly scored in every single game this season – Hamilton Wands the only other team who can say that – but a run of five draws in six games in the middle of things had them repeatedly coming up one goal short of victory. Yet there was no stopping them in the last quintet. A stunning series of games which earned them a brilliant title, culminating in a Grand Final performance in which you couldn’t possibly pick out a bad player. Andy Bevin, Ollie Whyte, Jack-Henry Sinclair, Hamish Watson, Mario Barcia, Taylor Schrijvers... any of them coulda justifiably won man of the match. Learning the lessons from earlier days, the TeeDubs scored crucial goals at crucial times and ultimately just had too much firepower. Too many in-form players. ‘Twas a beautiful thing to witness.

Team Wellington’s farewell campaign began auspiciously as a JH Sinclair 89th minute goal was the difference in a 1-0 win over the Wellington Phoenix. Definitely not the free-flowing team they’d be by the end of things. A week later it was Joao Moreira who supplied the 89th minute winner as they got past Hawke’s Bay 2-1. The TeeDubs then got a dose of their own medicine as Joshua Redfearn equalised for Waitakere in stoppage time for a 2-2 draw, after which they had to claw their way back from two goals down at home against a 10-man Auckland City team for a 2-2 draw. A third successive draw, 1-1 away vs Subs, came with some trickiness for both teams as each played the second half with ten as Moreira and Adam Thomas were sent off for phantom fisticuffs or something. Not really sure what happened there but Moreira was Team Welly’s top scorer at that point and was suspended for the next three games. Sam Mason-Smith, who’d barely been getting a look in, was thrust back in to start and he responded with a goal, alongside a Watto double, in a happy 3-1 win against Canterbury. But then they drew against Hamilton and HBU. Blowing a 2-0 lead in the latter.

Odd stuff for sure. Not helping was that Jack-Henry Sinclair had injured his shoulder in the second game and he’d miss the next six games (coming off the bench in the two subsequent ones as he worked back up to match fitness). Justin Gulley and then Haris Zeb filled his RWB boots during that absence, though Gulls himself also disappeared after the first Cantabs win – he’d only feature once off the bench in the next eight games before making a triumphant return to the starting crew in the playoffs. Maybe the toughest absence of all to deal with was Andy Bevin’s though. He missed four games early on including the three-game streak of draws and you just know he’s the kind of guy who might have been able to pick the locks for a winner. Mario Barcia’s central mid partner was also a revolving door at times. Alex Palezevic began there until the performances of youngster Wan Gatkek superseded him. Sam Dewar also made a couple appearances. Eventually Ollie Whyte unpacked his bags and made himself at home.

The end of January got particularly weird with Team Welly finding themselves 2-0 down at home after 15 minutes against the WeeNix. A blitzing second half turned that one into a 5-2 victory but amazingly they were again 2-0 down after 15 minutes at home against Waitakere the very next week and this time not even a Hamish Watson hat-trick could save them from a 4-3 defeat. Next they were outplayed at Kiwitea Street despite Hamish Watson doing this...

But then the rest was history. The wins, the goals, the football, the trophy. And also, randomly, Sam Mason-Smith doing his best Watto impersonation just a few weeks after HW scored from a similar area...

Righto. We’ve been delaying this inevitability for too long, it’s time to talk about that man Hamish Watson. The Golden Boot winner of the competition, scoring 12 times in the regular season and then adding a hatty in the semi-final to end with 15 from 15 games all up, and the MVP of the season as far as Premmy Files is concerned. Not only for Team Welly but for everyone. Alex Paulsen won the actual award because it’s decided by a silly Dally M style 3-2-1 points formula which favours players in weaker teams – the last three seasons the MVP has come from a team that didn’t even make the semis, surely there’s more value on offer than that? Paulsen’s gotten plenty of Premmy Files love, y’all know what a legend that lad is gonna be if you’ve been reading, but Hamish Watson was The Real MVP.

Watto’s been through some ups and downs in his career. The Phoenix thing didn’t work out for him but he’s been excellent at NPL level in Oz in recent years. And we should have known something had changed in his soul when he rocked up early in the season with a full-on greasy mullet. That was all the evidence we needed that he wasn’t playing for outsider vindication any longer. This was Hamish Watson unlocked, looking super fit and strong, absolutely loving his football, and scoring heaps of goals. Great finishes and simple ones, he didn’t care so long as the goals kept coming... which they did. He bagged three separate hat-tricks including one in a semi-final. His hold-up play has never been better, several assists to go with all the bangers, and just to add a little more spice to the curry he also embraced his final form as a bully and a pest, thus making him surely the most frustrating dude in the league for opposition players. Breaking spirits like he broke defences...

Watto was fantastic, even if the mullet didn’t last. And in Sam Mason-Smith he found a more than fitting partner in crime. SMS had that quiet start (where at one point he had to take to twitter to point out that, no, he wasn’t injured, just not playing) but the goal against the Cantabs got him going and he subsequently hauled in 9 goals in the last 11 games (including one in the semi). Then you obviously have to highlight the continuing influence of a number of those Team Welly veterans. Andy Bevin and his creative prowess, always teleporting into dangerous areas. Taylor Schrijvers locking it down at the back, matching himself to the game whether it was a physical warfare of tactical precision required. Mario Barcia in the midfield, smooth passing mixed with combative defending and the odd screamer of a goal. No player was booked more this season than Mario Barcia.

Jack-Henry Sinclair of course, he took a few weeks to get his legs back after the injury but was in prime form by the end of it. Northern Irishman Rory McKeown can’t go unmentioned either as his delicious crossing was one of Hamish Watson’s most immediate sources of goals. The only bloke to start every game for the champs. And although Ben Mata was injured for the playoffs, his size at the back led to plenty of dominant afternoons while his skill on the ball proved he’s far more than just at bruiser defender. One of the breakout players of the entire season, meanwhile Scott Midgely was surely one of the most underrated as he started every game at the back for TW except the first one.

Ben Mata only actually started once across the ferocious final five games. He wasn’t the only previously-key player to miss that time either. Wan Gatkek only started one of those games after an impressive run in the team before that. And, by far the most notable, Scott Basalaj’s reliable gloves were relegated to the bench. That’s Zac Jones was called up out of the blue for the Eastern Subs game after Scott Basalaj and Keegan Smith were both ruled out with injury and two clean sheets later Scotty Hales basically said he couldn’t bring himself to drop Jonesy. Not while he was playing so well. So Jonesy it was the rest of the way, quite the spotlight for the former Phoenix gloveman-in-waiting who spent the end of the last A-League season on the bench for the top side (ahead of Oli Sail, no less) but was released without a contract when that term ended. Despite the clean sheets disappearing after those first two games, his performances if anything got better. More confident, more assured. Love to see it.

Yet it was the mid-season acquisition of Ollie Whyte which moved the needle the most. Back from a year as a pro in the Turkish second tier he was nothing short of spectacular in his five games back at Team Welly. Such a good passer, he barely gave ever the ball away. OW made three of the four Premmy Files Team of the Weeks that he was eligible for. Plus the guy scored a ripper goal in the Grand Final. Magical work from Mr Whyte.

And magical stuff from Team Wellington. The fairytale ending. Because unlike a lot of these other clubs, particularly the recently successful ones, there’s no easy blending into the winter season for the TeeDubs. That was it. They’re done now. Deceased. Kaput. Floating in the ether. Pining for the fjords. They might play at Miramar Rangers’ ground with Miramar’s head coach but the lads themselves have been pretty evenly dispersed between the two powerhouse Wellington clubs (excluding the academy-linked ones). Here are all the players who got minutes for TW this season and their winter affiliations...

Miramar Rangers: Owen Barnett, Andy Bevin, Sam Dewar, Zac Jones, Sam Mason-Smith, Scott Midgley, Joao Moreira, Taylor Schrijvers, Keegan Smith, Ollie Whyte, Jake Williams, Liam Wood & Haris Zeb

Wellington Olympic: Mario Barcia, Scott Basalaj, Justin Gulley, Nati Hailemariam, Ben Mata, Rory McKeown, Alex Palezevic, Jack-Henry Sinclair & Hamish Watson

North Wellington: Max Batchelor

Western Suburbs: Wan Gatkek

Napier City Rovers: Kailan Gould

Aaron Spain also made one lone subs appearance but he isn’t on any of the initial Central League squad lists (guessing either injured or he’s gone back to Canterbury) and he wasn’t enough of a factor to bother going into Sherlock Holmes mode to follow up on. Point being that the Team Welly squad has been split almost perfectly down the middle by the Miramar vs Olympic divide. But hey even as these guys become permanent club rivals they’ll still always have that lovely day in Albany. Nobody’s taking those memories away. Not ever.

Now here’s a screenshot of the time that Ben Mata’s boot flew off and Hamish Watson (with full moo-lay) scooped it up while the game carried on...

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