Steven Taylor’s Retirement Is The Latest In A String Of Dark Portents For The Welly Nix
The Wellington Phoenix’s task ahead was already tough enough. For the third straight season they’re going to have to spend a large chunk of it based in Australia away from home crowds, not to mention friends and family. They’ve had their best player and top scorer each poached by rival clubs. Preseason was a couple of weeks deep before half the squad, including the coach, were even able to get there... then about a day or two after their first full session the whole of Aotearoa went into lockdown. Filling out their import quota with travel restrictions in place is basically a no-go until things ease up and other than bringing back Gary Hooper and Callan Elliot, the only new signing they’ve made has been Nicholas Pennington who hasn’t even been able to link up with the squad yet thanks to the covid stuff.
In other words: the vibes are substandard. And that’s without getting into the ALW team which was first announced about three weeks ago and which still hasn’t named a coach or announced a single signing. Malia Steinmetz’s move to Western Sydney Wanderers which was announced a couple days back brings the number of kiwi women on Aussie teams up to six (at five different clubs) but there’s been not a word on the Wellington Phoenix team yet. Might wanna hurry up with that one as the season’s now locked in to start on December 3... against Malia Steinmetz and the Wanderers no less. The ALM Nix, meanwhile, get underway two weeks earlier so the clock is ticking there too. November 21 versus a Macarthur FC side which should include old mate Ulises Davila.
Those dates have already been delayed. Initially we were talking late October for the men and mid November for the women so they’ve each lucked into three extra weeks of preparation (which effectively covers for the lockdown). Both squads are expected to set up base in New South Wales within a month from now. A month is not that long away. Again: substandard vibes.
This is all just to lay the scene for the bombshell that landed earlier in the week when this pesky tweet sent from halfway around the world began doing the rounds...
Weird that it broke back in England first but it didn’t take long before the local folks confirmed the news. Mere days after Ufuk Talay had effectively confirmed that he would be naming Stevie T as his captain for the upcoming campaign, mere days after he featured for the Nix in a preseason game against Miramar Rangers... he announced his retirement.
There’s been a lot of back and forth about the scenario but honestly the man’s reasoning checks out. Between the last couple Phoenix seasons and his sabbatical in India in between the man has done more time in quarantine and under covid restrictions than most. It is what it is. For a player at the end of his career you’ve gotta imagine the ambition levels would gonna suffer from all that. It’s definitely not what he signed up for. Surely anyone can understand a bloke in his position not wanting to go through with another season of that. There doesn’t have to be anything more to his decision and despite hints to the contrary I suspect a multi-year contract might not have changed things (though they absolutely should have given him two if not three years, I never understood why they hesitated on that when his influence on the field was clear and his supposedly worrisome injury potential was never much of a factor – he missed eight games in two and a half years and at least one was just for rest, Reno Piscopo has missed 13 in half a season less but because he’s younger people don’t make the same assumptions).
As for the captaincy thing, well Uffie’s exact words to media were that he hadn’t named anybody captain. He’d basically decided it was gonna be Taylor but it didn’t sound like anything had been formalised. So it’s not like Taylor accepted the armband knowing that retirement was in his mind. He did apparently play that preseason game with his decision already made but it’s not like there are too many other defensive options in the squad right now. These calls aren’t made lightly. You’re a long time retired. If it weren’t for the coronavirus then he’d still be playing but it is and he’s not and that’s the reality that we’ve gotta deal with. These things happen.
How much of a blow is this to the Wellington Phoenix? Let us count the ways. When he played his first game after rejoining the Nix last season, the club was lingering comfortably outside the top six with 12 points from 12 games. His first game they pumped Melbourne Victory 4-1, then after a two-game stretch where he nursed an injury after being rushed in out of quarantine (the Nix losing both) they went on an 11-game unbeaten streak to close the season. A streak that’s still technically alive, come to think of it.
There were a few too many draws in those 11 games which is why they missed out on the finals by a single point but the contrast was stark with Taylor compared to without him. If we don’t count the game against Macarthur in which he went off injured after nine minutes then the team was undefeated when he played. Granted, that includes two wins where he came on as a stoppage time substitute closer but okay we’ll scratch those ones too. This is what the team did when Tayls played 10 or more mins...
9 GM | 5 W | 4 D | 0 L | 18 GF | 6 GA | +12 GD | 19 PTS
That’s literally half their total points in a shade under a third of the season. 2.11 points per game with Stevie T playing 10+ mins and 1.11 ppg when he didn’t. The Nix dropped a hefty chunk of points early in the season before he returned. They only won one of their first eight games, struggling through injuries and defensive personnel. Luke DeVere got hurt. Stefan Marinovic was dropped. Tim Payne moved into centre-back. Josh Laws slipped to the bench. Liam McGing got a run of games. It was all a bit messy. Silly errors were costing the team goals at one end and they didn’t have the clinical edge to make up for it at the other end. Steven Taylor helped immensely with the former while the latter was boosted first by a timely run of goals from Ben Waine and then blown out of the water by Tomer Hemed’s sizzling late season form.
It’s never a good thing when your (impending) captain leaves. Steven Taylor brought huge experience to the squad, he’s a mentor and a leader. But as much as they lose off the field, it’s even harder to replace what he does on it. That calming presence. Those defensive instincts. A senior player who’ll put his body on the line at any opportunity... often recklessly. They were a considerably worse team last season when he wasn’t there and now somehow they have to figure out a way where that’s not the case this time.
Problem is he’s not the only guy they’re missing. If he was then Talay could maybe finagle things to make up for Stevie T’s absence but Ulises Davila and Tomer Hemed have also left. At least Gary Hooper is back to replace Hemed but without Taylor now that leaves the Nix with only two of their five import spots filled. And unfortunately Uffie’s on the record as saying that they don’t expect to be able to sign any more imports until January. At least a month and a half into the season, plus whatever time it takes on top of that to travel and get acclimatised, before reinforcements might arrive. Don’t forget Cameron Devlin’s gone too. Sorry to say it but this is pretty bleak.
Seventeen players are under contract at the moment. The senior contracts given to academy standouts Alex Paulsen and Ben Old fulfil their youth and goalie roster requirements so that’s cool but they still need at least three more players to hit the minimum squad size (and potentially up to three more above that). When they played Miramar, the team that started was:
Sail | Fenton, Taylor, Payne, McGarry | Rufer, Lewis | Old, Ball | Hooper, Sotirio
Keep in mind that Nick Pennington and Reno Piscopo aren’t with the group yet and they’re both a good bet to start. Piscopo surely will be. Pennington’s still an unknown quantity but he scripts as a quality signing. You’ve also got Callan Elliot pushing for a fullback spot. Josh Laws will come in for Taylor as things stand – there’s actually nobody else can play centre-back so that’s something that’s gotta be fixed before too long. Ben Waine, Sam Sutton, and Alex Paulsen fill out the crew.
There are options out there. Talay has plenty of connections with Aussie up-and-comers so that’s always an avenue to peruse. Of course, we’d rather see more kiwi players elevated to that level but it depends how much Talay wants to lean into that course of action because it will take some time for amateur players to adjust to a professional environment. Although maybe this season is perfect for that. Maybe this season, with all its problems, oughta come with that thought in the back of the mind about consolidation. No tanking... just an awareness of what might be done to set the club up for success in the next couple years when it’s a more level playing field for them. This might be the ideal year to sign a few amateur/semi-pro prospects.
As it happens, centre-back is a position where there are heaps of National League players with A-League potential. The one with the most upside is Brian Kaltak, a Vanuatu international currently playing for Auckland City, who honest-to-God has all the attributes required. He’s good on the ball, strong in the challenge, solid in the air, has a rocket of a shot on him. Raw, perhaps. And he’d need an import spot. But if ever there’s a time to invest in someone like that then it’s now. Elsewhere Adam Mitchell and Sam Brotherton both have pro experience. Taylor Schrijvers is out there. Justin Gulley. Te Atawhai Hudson-Wihongi. How about Scott Hilliar or Fox Slotemaker who have both played a decent amount of state league stuff in Oz? Plenty more where they came from.
The good news is that Ufuk Talay has a fine record when it comes to transfers. He seems to know what qualities to look for in a new signing and he’s generally pretty patient about finding the right guys. He won’t panic and make a heap of snap decisions all of a sudden because Steven Taylor retired.
The other thing about Uffie is that he trusts in his systems and backs young players to be able to do a job. He gave Sam Sutton and Ben Old their debuts and then signed both on pro terms. Didn’t give Ben Waine his debut but he did wrangle seven goals out of him last term. He’s signed up Alex Paulsen as his backup keeper. He had Zac Jones sitting on the bench as backup for a spell late in the season before last. Every one of them came through the Welly Nix academy and while senior players have been short on numbers in preseason so far there’s been an abundance of academy fellas to ensure there’s still a crowd.
Lower Hutt City had an excellent Central League by the way. LHC is where all the Wellington Phoenix academy lads play their winter footy and despite being, for all intents and purposes, an under-20s team they finished third on the ladder. Only one point off Miramar Rangers in second and six behind champs Wellington Olympic. George Ott was the top scorer in the conference with 21 goals while Riley Bidois was second with 16. Luis Toomey also snuck into sixth-equal with 11 goals largely from midfield. Kurtis Mogg is a guy who may come into contention at CB. Finn Surman’s still pretty young but he’s got a lot of potential in defence too. Oskar van Hattum on the wing. Henry Hamilton in midfield. Lots of good young players. None who you’d say are quite ready for the A-League spotlight yet but you never know. Point being that Talay is very clearly taking a good long look at who might be that next academy debutant for his first team.
The vibes are still substandard though. Your import players are supposed to be starting calibre guys so to be going into the a season with only two of them on the books (David Ball & Gary Hooper) is basically like having three key players out injured from day one. And in the case of Gary Hooper, injuries are a very real possibility. He’s been known to have ‘em.
The starting XI that they could put out right now isn’t all that bad to be fair, it’s definitely a competitive one at A-League level. There are guys like Reno Piscopo, Alex Rufer, and James McGarry who will be planning on playing a whole lot more and being a whole lore more influential this time around which is sweet as... but depth is a capital-p Problem. One injury could change everything in a hurry and over the course of a full league season you never get away without a few of those setbacks. Not to mention all the yarns from the very first paragraph of this article again.
But then again we’re Phoenix fans. If there’s one thing we’re used to it’s trying to compete with the deck stacked against us.
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