PART 2: THE MEN

There’s a strange feeling of continuity around the Wellington Phoenix at the moment. The Men’s team has been able to keep a solid core of their players around including four out of five imports. The Women’s team, preparing for year three of existence, feels like it’s now settled into the league and knows what’s gotta be done to get to the next level. Things feel consistent as we stroll on into the offseason... and yet both of those teams will have a new manager next season.

The Wellington Phoenix have prided themselves in recent years on developing players. Their academy has come to dominate national youth teams, provide solid talent at A-League level, and also hoard transfer revenue as a couple of the best and brightest have been sold overseas. More recently they’ve also made a very strong emphasis on developing coaches as well. It’s all part of the same overarching club mindset. The last three senior head coaches appointed have been promoted from within: Natalie Lawrence, Giancarlo Italiano, and Paul Temple. Perhaps that’s why things feel so steady despite the obvious changes.

There’s plenty of risk involved with that. If you’re promoting from within then you’re gambling on actually having the talent within – along with the atmosphere to nurture it. But there’s risk involved with any coaching appointment, especially in the position of the Wellington Phoenix as the only kiwi team in an Australian league (for now, at least). Just gotta do what feels right. A club’s got to have a code, to paraphrase a dead tv character, and these days the Wellington Phoenix certainly do.

Not only do the Nix have a clear vision of what they stand for, they’ll also back that up with their actions – as these coaching appointments show. The Code seems to have crystallised across Ufuk Talay’s four years, no doubt heavily influenced by the covid hurdles, with expansion into the A-League Women’s ensuring that this is now very much a club and not just a team. That vision is going to have to stand on its own two feet for the first time this offseason... but that should be reason for excitement, not trepidation. The Wellington Phoenix are in a good place. Long may that continue.

The ladies finished their season first, therefore they started their offseason first, therefore they get first billing in this double-banger article. Basically, there’s work to be done. In both seasons so far the WahiNix have had to settle for wooden spoons. There’s been clear progress throughout each of those campaigns but solid finishes haven’t overcome slow starts. A draw in their inaugural game was followed by nine straight losses before they ended up winning two of their last four games. Season two got rid of the thrashings (hence how they conceded fewer goals in year two than in year one despite four more games – 30 vs 36) but they weren’t able to convert their more balanced football into more balanced results. However that pattern of steady increases did continue in 2022-23...

• First Six Games – 0 W | 1 D | 5 L | 3 GF | 14 GA | -11 GD | 1 PT

• Middle Six Games – 1 W | 1 D | 4 L | 8 GF | 8 GA | 0 GD | 4 PTS

• Last Six Games – 2 W | 2 D | 2 L | 9 GF | 8 GA | +1 GD | 8 PTS

Seven of their defeats were by a single goal, along with four draws. Almost all of those games featured enough positive footy for losses to become draws and draws to become wins. They weren’t that far away... they just didn’t have anyone to bang the goals away. Milly Clegg was top scorer with four. Great return for a 17 year old yet not really what you want from the team’s top scorer.

Natalie Lawrence’s side struggled out of the gates with five straight defeats before drawing at home against a Western Sydney Wanderers team that’d made a similarly poor start (then found their form a lot quicker). The slow starts have been a feature of the ALM team too. Not sure what the go is but somehow this club is gonna have to find some solutions. It has been mentioned that the short preseason, a lack of friendlies against ALW rivals, and an international camp two weeks before the start were chunky hurdles for the squad to climb over.

It’s also still true that this was one of the youngest squads in the competition and even their experienced players hadn’t bagged much A-League experience. They appeared to be evolving out of that state with the signings of players like Betsy Hassett, Emma Rolston, and Paige Satchell. Except they didn’t get much more from the latter two than they did from the emerging youngsters so the expected growth was pretty minimal in reality – especially with captain Lily Alfeld missing the whole season through injury. They did at least get some solid production out of National League stalwarts like Michaela Foster and Michaela Robertson.

For the third time in three years, the Wellington Phoenix Women will be embarking upon a new season with a new coach. Natalie Lawrence backed out of reapplying due to personal reasons. Paul Temple, who had already been coaching the new Reserve/U20s women’s team at the club (along with being the overall Academy Director), has been raised up in her place. Temple has spent seven years at the club, most visibly as the former coach of the U20s team on the male side. He’s also previously coached the NZ U17 women at a World Cup.

It’s going to be a slippery gig to pull off though. The Welly Nix Women currently have two players under contract for next season: Alyssa Whinham and Chloe Knott. One of the major troubles of that early stage this past season was overcoming the loss of Grace Jale after her move to Canberra United and chances are they won’t be able to retain every key player they want to this time either – particularly not after a few of them get to show their faces at the World Cup.

Nat Lawrence said this a few times and Paul Temple also alluded to it in his introductory presser as well: this team really needs an import calibre striker to take them forwards. Probably one of those off-season fringe NWSL American forwards like a few other teams have had success with. It’d mean one fewer spot for a kiwi player but it’d also allow the kiwis that are there to flex their footballing muscles to a higher degree. And who knows what the squad restrictions will be like? Now that they’ve earned some good faith the league may even drop the Aussie player quota which’d make signing imports more palatable.

Although it should be noted that the Wellington Phoenix men’s and women’s teams have both done a solid job of developing Australian players lately. It’s not only the NZ tane and wahine. Cam Devlin, Claudia Cicco, Izzy Gomez, Josh Laws, Reno Piscopo, Nico Pennington, Hannah Jones, Cushla Rue, Lucas Mauragis, etc. That’s a track record worthy of commendation.

The thing about bringing through younger players and nurturing their potential is that they’re probably going to leave before you see the best of them. That’s fine, the club is used to that already from guys like Sarpreet Singh, Libby Cacace, and Ben Waine. At some stage that’ll happen on the women’s side too with the likes of Kate Taylor, Mackenzie Barry, Milly Clegg, Grace Wisnewski, Marisa van der Meer, and others. It’s only a matter of when that happens.

Helpfully, each year the foundations beneath the first team have gotten stronger. There’s now a Reserves/U20s team competing throughout the winter season in the Central League Boy’s U17s development comp, with a place reserved for them in the Women’s National League too (there’s also an U17s team playing in the equivalent Boy’s U15s comp). And you know those reserves will get a fair shake with first team considerations because the coach has literally just been working with them.

The WahiNix also flexed a willingness to reach out to more established internationals last time... albeit with mixed results. It’s a lesson that the blokes figured out under Talay’s more meticulous method of recruitment: signing the right fit means more than signing the biggest name and the Wellington Phoenix can’t just be convenient landing place for kiwi pros overseas who fancy returning home. And maybe at this moment of Football Ferns existence the fringe NZ internationals aren’t actually much better than the up-and-comers. Milly Clegg was picked for the last Ferns squad ahead of Emma Rolston.

With all that in mind, the offseason is a simple one for the WahiNix. Only two players are contracted so see how many of the regulars from last time are willing to return, get them locked in as soon as possible, then the task becomes filling out the rest of the squad via slick recruitment. Looking to the academy team. Looking to the National League. Looking to NZ/Aussie free agents, particularly those with ALW experience. Looking to an import striker. Frankly there isn’t much else to be said without having the framework of a squad in place. The sooner that roster can start to take shape the better – particularly if a few important figures need replacing.

Two final curiosities: Will the club back Lily Alfeld to return as the number one goalkeeper or has Bri Edwards done enough to make that a genuine challenge? Will they even be able to bring them both back? To be honest, there’s a case that each should be ALW starters somewhere... and Georgia Candy was flawless in her one start last term so no dramas if GC becomes the full-time backup. She basically did those duties last time anyway.

The other curiosity is how loyal they’ll be to some of the fringe players who’ve been there from the start but have dipped back in the queue as the team has gotten more competitive. Zoe McMeeken has been popping up for the reserves lately. Te Reremoana Walker and Charlotte Lancaster could also be in similar territory, although they did fine when called upon last time. They were both scholarship players in year two. They’ve been loyal with players so far but there comes a time when professional ruthlessness may be required. A lot of this depends on which other players they can retain, of course.

There is something else to consider as well. It’s not directly Phoenix-related but it’ll have a massive roll-on effect and that’s A-League expansion. Central Coast Mariners are getting a team starting from next season. That’ll raise the ALW up to twelve teams and with that they’re going to implement a complete 22-game home and away fixture list. For a club that has finished much stronger than it started on both previous occasions, getting four more games at the end of things sounds like a very good idea for the Welly Nix.

It also means that the finals series will expand from four teams to six teams. This past term had a clear top six with Perth only one point off fourth while Canberra missed out on goal difference. There was then a nine-point drop from sixth to seventh. The Nix were last on 13 points. Western Sydney were seventh with 19 points. There really wasn’t that much of a gap between the teams outside the top six and we know that the SheNix left plenty of points on the table due to their crap conversion rate (although not nearly as bad as the HeNix in that regard). Actually it wasn’t strictly finishing with this team, they exceeded their xG expectations after all (20 goals from 17.8 xG), it was more the low calibre of chances they created. But a lot of that does stem from having players who lacked either game-breaking ability or finishing ability. There’s a reason a large portion of their goals came from set pieces.

Point being, they’re not that far from being in the mid-table mix and if they can make that jump then the top six is suddenly there within reach. Same as how it’s best to wait until the Football Ferns finally win a World Cup game before expecting them to make the knockouts, let’s not put any expectations on the Nix and the top six until they can finally dodge the wooden spoon. But, you know, it’s something to aim for. And it’s suddenly much more achievable with a top six than it was with a top four.

Before all that they’re gonna have to sign some players though.

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