Eight Signs Of Progress From The Wellington Phoenix Women In Year Two
The sporting cliche is that the second season is always deceptively tricky. First year you’re fresh on the scene, the unknown quantity, ready to catch folks by surprise. Second year they’ve all seen what you’re up to and scouting reports and tactics will be adjusted to fit. Not sure we really got that narrative from the Wellington Phoenix Wahine in year two though.
Instead it felt like steady progress. An awful start to the season had us pondering otherwise but once they came through that terrible month they were far more consistently competitive than they’d ever been in their first term of existence. Week on week, always tough to beat. Only problem was that they couldn’t put the ball in the back of the net often enough to reflect that progress, hence they fell achingly short of avoiding that wooden spoon. Too often that problem was a brick wall that they couldn’t climb over.
But they really weren’t that far off despite the back-to-back spoons. We saw that with their thrilling 5-0 win over Canberra when everything just clicked. We saw it in the way they ground out a 1-0 win away against the eventual premiers Sydney FC. Even in the last game of the season they rallied back from two goals down to draw 2-2 with a finals team in Melbourne Victory, Grace Wisnewski’s 99th minute equaliser representing a never-say-die spirit almost equalled by the fact that they didn’t really celebrate it, instead rushing the ball back to halfway in case there was still time to find a winner. Don’t forget that other time they came back from two goals down either: the 3-3 draw Brisbane Roar away in which they very nearly won despite having copped a first half red card.
Those kinds of results were scattered amongst way too many games where they lost 1-0 or had some similarly close outcome which could so easily have been different with a little more cutting edge up top. Six times they lost 1-0 across 18 games. That’s rough. Three wins and four draws still added up to a big improvement, their 13 points almost doubling last season’s tally of 7 (albeit with four extra games), but it could’ve/should’ve been more. Even just a draw in that Newcastle game, which they led 2-1 at the hour mark but went on to lose, would have at least allowed them to swap places with the Jets on the ladder as things worked out.
Next season the league is expanding to 12 teams with the addition of Central Coast Mariners. Hopefully that means a couple more kiwi players added to the league (considering how good CCM have been with James McGarry, Storm Roux, and Zac Zoricich in their men’s team... Vanuatu’s Brian Kaltack was also signed out of the NZ National League), though what it definitely means is a full home and away round robin with 22 games each. For a team that has started slow and finished strong both times, a longer campaign feels like a blessing... as well as expanding the finals moving to a top six thus lowering the bar to where a team like the Phoenix might just have aims of reaching if they can improve in a couple of main areas.
Not to mention that the longer season will keep the many NZers employed at ALW clubs involved for more months of the year. There were 29 New Zealanders to take the pitch this 2022-23 campaign. That’s seven more than last time – and nine of them were at Australian clubs which is also a new record. Might have even been more had two contracted players not missed the entire term with injury: Rebecca Burrows (Canberra Utd) and Lily Alfeld (Welly Nix).
That’s already having ramifications upon the national team with the Football Ferns now having to exclude established professionals with each squad. Clearly the A-League isn’t exactly the peak of global football. It’s arguably not as strong as it was a couple years ago thanks to the exodus of Matildas players to England/Europe. But it’s a proven stepping stone to the English WSL, American NWSL, and the various Scandi leagues in particular. A launching pad for the best Australasian players.
These are good areas. These are positive developments. They’re also a lot of big picture ideas surrounding a team whose past year was more about steady incremental improvements... so let’s get specific about the Wellington Phoenix ALW season that was, discussing the campaign through the lens of a few of the gleaming positives.
Year On Year Growth
Back to back wooden spoons has a rotten sound to it (unless you’re making a salad) but it doesn’t take much to see why one was not like the other. For starters there’s the improvement in the points tally which still holds up even when you consider the four extra games. Really, they should have dodged the spoon this time. They would have but for defeats against Perth and Newcastle in the last couple weeks when they had more than enough chances to win each of them. Despite finishing last, the Nix had a better goal difference than the three teams directly ahead of them.
Look a little deeper and it’s abundantly clear that this was an improved team with far more sustainable quality in their performances. They created more chances, they allowed fewer chances... and those defensive yarns would be better if it weren’t for a poor first month.
Check some simple numbers...
There’s a decent argument that they should have stepped it up more than they did, and that’s something that they’ll need to address next time. They definitely can’t be having such a rancid start to things if they’re serious about making a challenge for the top six. In fairness, it was a very messy preseason. A coaching change, heaps of injuries, no scheduled friendlies against other ALW teams, plus there was a Football Ferns camp a week before they kicked off (which Grace Wisnewski was injured at). It also took some time not only for new players to get settled and learn their roles but also for the coaching staff to figure out their best combinations.
But once they did, they were a different beast. After three three-goal defeats in their first four matches, they didn’t lose by that margin again all season – actually only once more losing by multiple goals (a 2-0 loss to Perth which was followed immediately afterwards by the breakthrough 5-0 win against Canberra). Last season seven of their eleven defeats were by multiple goals. This year it was four out of eleven and we’ve just established that that those were mostly only at the very start.
Betsy Hassett as the Playmaker
The focus of the Welly Nix offseason mahi was, apart from the coaching change, the addition of three regular Footy Ferns internationals: Betsy Hassett, Paige Satchell, and Emma Rolston. Alas, they didn’t quite prove the home runs additions that it was hoped for – turns out signing attacking players from an international team that can’t score goals might not quite be the ideal.
For Emma Rolston, recurring back injuries and an untimely suspension limited her availability to just 245 minutes across the first ten games. She did start four of the last five as the centre-forward and began to show some fine signs... though it also wasn’t the instant impact that a couple other attacking players made during the term. Zero goals and zero assists for Rollo in 11 appearances (579 mins).
Paige Satchell was a much more common sight, bursting down the wings and seeking to create things. But channelling that raw pace and strength into an end product has been the eternal Paige Satchell dilemma. To her credit, she did get more effective as things went along, finally breaking her duck with a well-taken goal against Newcastle. But one goal and one assist from 15 games (1017 mins) was also not what the team had in mind when they acquired her.
Luckily Betsy Hassett offered a contrasting story. Her class on the ball in midfield was a rare positive through the first couple weeks however that idea slipped on a banana peel when Canberra pressed the hell out of her in game four on the way to a 3-0 win. Hassett then missed a couple games soon after, causing the dawn of the Wisnewski/Knott midfield combo, so that when Hassett returned from Ferns duty she was moved into the attacking midfield spot.
It was a masterstroke. That game was the 5-0 win over Canberra and Hassett was all over it with two goals and an assist. Her ability to hold the ball under pressure and link with teammates was just what they needed in that spot, especially when coupled with her tireless mobility and tactical mind. Hassett was a force on the high press. A facilitator and a creator. They’d scored two goals in eight games prior to banging five away in that one match. The SheNix were only kept scoreless in three of their remaining ten and one of those Hassett didn’t even play.
Along with Michaela Foster, Hassett had the most shot-creating actions (per fbref) in the entire team by a long way. Hassett had 43. Foster had 40. Next was Knott and Clegg at 27 each. Foster’s were mostly from set pieces whereas Hassett was easily the most creative player from open play.
Depth on the Bench
On that note, figuring out the other three attacking spots around Hassett was an ongoing quest. The formation never changed, that 4-2-3-1 shape, but it was usually a rotating cast in the front positions. Ava Pritchard started up front for three-quarters of the time until Emma Rolston edged ahead. Milly Clegg got some minutes later in games as a striker though mostly played on the wing. Paige Satchell started 13 of 18 games. Mickey Robertson was in and out of the starting team the whole way. Alyssa Whinham had a few cameos in a difficult second season for her. Occasional glimpses of Charlotte Lancaster. In the last week we also had a couple of memorable showings from Emma Main as an injury replacement player.
Finding the right balance proved tricky. However the glass-half-full version was that, unlike last year, it always felt like there was a weapon or three on the bench who could come in and add to the game. Not only as fresh legs but as different options to keep defenders on their toes. From Satchell’s direct sprints to Clegg slicing in and shooting, for example.
It didn’t always lead to the treats. This team’s finishing woes are well established. But it kept them competitive for the full ninety in most games. In the first half hour of games, the Nix had a -9 goal difference (3-12). In the last half hour it was a -1 GD (9-10) and, as with seemingly all these stats, that was influenced by the crap start (8 goals for and 4 against in the last half hour of games from the Canberra win onwards). Nat Lawrence talked up the quality throughout her squad at the start of the term and that proved to be a pretty astute idea. Particularly as it was some of the lesser hyped players who ended up being most important.
Huge Contributions From Some Sneakier Signings
Sixteen players had already been signed when Michaela Foster was confirmed to be one of the team’s four scholarship players. Mona Walker and Charlotte Lancaster were also amongst that quartet, both returning from last time (although Walker went from a full contract down to a schol deal). Georgia Candy was the other scholarshipper, a backup keeper. Those other three got minutes in alignment with their contracts but Foster... she may have been a scholarship player but she ended up starting every single game and led the team in total minutes. She’d have been completely ever-present had she not been subbed in the third-to-last game because of yellow card trouble.
Mickey Foster was one of the major success stories across the entire ALW. The set piece skill was the headline as her corner kicks, equally adept with both feet so as to always be inswingers, led to a large bulk of the team’s goals. She was credited with three assists but realistically she was also instrumental in several more. Plus Fozzy scored a long-range banger free kick against Brisbane. (Sneaky corner kick stat: as a team the Nix attempted 73 corners... 69 were inswingers, 4 went straight-on, and 0 were outswingers).
But it wasn’t only the dead ball situations. Foster proved a class one-on-one defender and was excellent moving that ball up the left edge in possession. This won’t have shocked regular readers of TNC’s National League yarns as Foz has been a standout at that level ever since returning from college in the USA... but it does go to prove that the best NZ National League players can make that step up if given the opportunity.
The best prospects too, in the case of Milly Clegg. The last player signed and she only joined on an amateur deal in order to keep her future options open (surely she’s too good to spend four years of her future development playing age-grade college stuff now though)... yet Clegg ended up as the team’s top scorer. Now, we’re only talking about four goals here. Relative to the rest of her squad and all that. But for a 17 year old to lead the way under any circumstances is massive. Then again, Clegg is a Unicorn.
Like Foster, Clegg is currently with the Footy Ferns squad trying to earn a spot in the World Cup squad in a few months’ time. Neither has exactly come from nowhere. Already mentioned Foster’s bossing of the Natty League fields while Clegg’s prodigious talent was clear to see at both the U17 and U20 World Cups in 2022. But they’re still enormously successful signings given that neither was even on a fully professional deal.
It does make you wonder how they may approach things next season. Clegg is an anomaly. Her addition wasn’t far from the potential-over-experience signings they made in year one (many of whom went on to be U20s teammates of Clegg). Some of those signings (Taylor, Wisnewski, Edwards... MVDM as well for this year) have really grown into being excellent A-League players. Others are still figuring things out at this level. It’s been a sink or swim kinda strategy.
Hence why Foster’s success might lead them into being more open about what they’re seeing across the domestic scene. Mickey Robertson and Emma Main had already committed to the wider Welly Nix academy when they joined but have strong National League pedigrees and both seemed to make that jump pretty smoothly (although Robertson’s finishing at times betrayed a few nerves). To be fair, Chloe Knott and Lily Alfeld also fitted that same bill in year one. We shall see. The addition of Wellington Phoenix Reserves team into the National League might just take care of that idea on its own (as long as they don’t become too insular and still keep an eye out for the next Foster/Knott/Alfeld from other regions).
Marisa van der Meer’s Aerial Ability
Well, MVDM’s overall ability, to be honest. But especially the aerial stuff. Because this isn’t a team with an excess of height or power. They’re the second-youngest team in the competition behind Sydney FC and their success in aerial duels is one of the few areas where this team got weaker from last season to this (Grace Jale is missed on multiple counts).
Having said that, those aerial duel numbers are a damn sight more agreeable if you split the attack and defence as most of the players who regularly got dominated in the air were in the forward areas. You’re not gonna expect Mickey Robertson to out-jump many centre-backs, right? Ava Pritchard was another who struggled with that aspect. Milly Clegg and Paige Satchell weren’t much better. So it goes.
But at the back it’s much improved. Kate Taylor and Mack Barry took hearty strides forward in that respect and the addition of Van der Meer was a game-changer. She’s the one who sets up where the ball is most likely to go from set pieces, no matter which penalty area she’s in. Copious defensive headers won and three goals scored up the other end.
MVDM’s also very tidy with the ball at her feet and it was that combination which led to her permanent stint into central defence later in the term. She’d played a lot there earlier while Taylor was absent but towards the end she was getting CB starts with Mack Barry out on the right side. It was a clever adjustment that doubled up on their ability to defend against tricky wingers – Barry being an unstoppable tackler (most tackles won in the entire competition) and MVDM heading away any crosses that made it through anyway. The way they handled Sydney FC’s wide players this season, having been torched by them last year, was so impressive.
Purposeful Build-Up Play
There have been times when it felt like this team was playing out from the back because they felt like they had to play out from the back. Like it was a chore to them, or a requirement. Which would get them into plenty of trouble when the ball reached the midfield and they were suddenly getting swamped by opponents because they hadn’t actually achieved anything through their build-ups. That pattern was clear last season and through the first few weeks of this season too... but then steadily faded away as the team began to figure things out.
This was one of the reasons why Hassett was initially tried as a deeper midfielder, although she soon proved to be of way more value higher up the park. Chloe Knott’s passing decisions got massively better around that same time while Grace Wisnewski’s return from injury was important in all aspects. Kate Taylor’s revival after a hobblesome first two months was also key - KT might not always be the most accurate with her passes but she’s always confident and ambitious and it’s easy to see that distribution (and her ability step up into the midfield on the dribble) becoming the defining strength of her game once she irons out the creases. Van der Meer and Foster were first eleven defensive additions who are confident on the ball.
Chuck that all together what we eventually got was a team that still knocked the ball around at the back. Bri Edwards always looks short for her first option, for example. But now they did so whilst: a) understanding how they planned to progress the ball forward, b) looking for those options when they arose, and c) trusting their teammates to know what to do with the ball in a tricky area. It’s a small evolution within their game but a crucial one, showing that their young defensive unit is figuring things out. Only Melbourne City and Sydney FC played more switch passes than the Welly Nix (aka passes more than 40 yards across the pitch).
Brianna Edwards On The Rise
If we’d realised before the season that Lily Alfeld’s knee injury was going to be serious enough to keep her out for the entire season (thanks to a setback in her recovery) it would have been a crisis. Alfeld’s sturdy leadership from the back, as well as her excellent shot-stopping, was huge in season one. We got none of that in year two... but young backup Bri Edwards rose to the occasion in her absence.
Initially it was a bit sketchy but after allowing 12 goals in the first four games, it took 11 games before she’d concede another 12 times. In those first four games she had a save percentage of 53.8% yet she finished the season at a respectable 71%. Edwards became far more decisive getting off her line and with the ball at her feet as things went on. Only the two clean sheets which was an issue but nobody’s claiming she’s the finished article. However Bri Edwards at the end of the term compared to Bri Edwards at the start was night and day.
It’s been noticed too. A couple of national team call-ups ensued (as an injury replacement both times) and the boost in BE’s confidence was there for all to see. She now looks like a genuine A-League starter. Plus, while she only played one game in a rotated team near the end, Georgia Candy was pretty much flawless in that win over Adelaide too. Perfect handling, commanded her area, only beaten once from eight shots on target. Got a tricky few decisions to make ahead of next season within that goalkeeping department.
The Wiz
You’re about to read something very bold but hopefully the more you think about it the more sense it will make: Grace Wisnewski was the WahiNix’s Player of the Season.
There are several candidates for the honour. Gotta think that Michaela Foster is among the favourites. Mackenzie Barry and Marisa van der Meer should be up there too. Betsy Hassett’s impact was probably limited by the wastefulness of those around her but her class was always on show. Chloe Knott’s tireless engine and increasingly accurate ball-playing has many fans. Probably can’t justify any of the wingers or strikers because of the lack of goals (and also the split game-time) but a couple of them did put forward their cases as well.
But consider the nomination of Wisnewski. First of all, she missed the opening four games when the team was at their worst. Her return immediately made them much more balanced and competitive. Wiz’s defensive mahi always shines, she’s super fit and she doesn’t shy away from a challenge. However don’t forget she was more of an attacker coming up the grades and still possesses that threat too. In fact with two goals and three assists, only Milly Clegg can match Wisnewski’s total goal contributions (asterisk there being that the definition of an assist varies from place to place – these are TNC’s own numbers rather than the official ones).
Wisnewski started every game after she got fit. Those fourteen games include all 13 points that the team acquired. All up she was on the pitch for 73.3% of the team’s overall minutes. While she was out there, the team had a -2 goal difference. When she wasn’t on the pitch that dropped to -8. 80% of the team’s goals were scored in those 73.3% of minutes compared to 60% of the total goals allowed. In plain English, that means they both scored more and conceded fewer with The Wiz involved. Nobody who played as many minutes as she did had a better goal difference per ninety minutes for the Nix (shout out to Mickey Robertson though, the Nix were +2 in her 948 mins – the only starter level player with a positive GD).
Basically, Wisnewski’s return was a catalyst for the team’s best footy, in which she contributed in both halves of the field. That effort also helped others thrive around her. And to top it all off she scored the 99th minute equaliser that finished their season on a high note. Fair play if you’re still leaning elsewhere with your hypothetical vote but The Wiz gets this nomination.
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