From the moment he was announced as the new Wellington Phoenix Men’s Manager, Giancarlo Italiano has made it clear that he backs the club’s academy system and the players coming through it. That makes sense given how it was the Phoenix’s development ethos which led to him getting this gig in the first place. But it’s one thing to say so and another thing entirely to do so and while there hasn’t been too much offseason action lately one thing that cannot be doubted is that Chiefy puts his money where his mouth is.

It’s been evident in every signing that they’ve made so far. Mo Al-Taay obviously isn’t an academy player but his addition is part of the same strategy for a manager willing to give young players a chance. He fits a need as a defensive midfielder, the Cam Devlin style ball-winner that they’ve lacked these past two years, but rather than look for an import or an experienced A-League option the coach opted for a 23-year old with 28 previous ALM appearances across two clubs who is still awaiting that breakthrough campaign.

Goalkeeper Jack Duncan does fall into that veteran category at this stage of his career having amassed a century of games in the A-League across a couple different clubs (as well as playing a bit in Saudi Arabia and Denmark). He’s 30 years old and signed a one-year contract. That doesn’t sound like a developmental kinda move, right? Except it was. Because if that signing seems underwhelming then that’s exactly why you ought to be excited by it.

Duncan is basically a league average goalie. He’s not the worst, he’s not the best. He’s smack-bang in the middle. The Welly Nix didn’t bring in a no-doubter number one to replace Oli Sail, instead they brought in a benchmark. That’s because they wanted someone to test previous backup Alex Paulsen. A local prospect who has only just turned 21, Paulsen was a bit of a phenom coming through the academy ranks but he sat on the bench for every single game last season as Oli Sail didn’t miss a minute of action. He did get a few games the year before whilst Sail was injured but suffice to say that for all his potential he’s still very unproven at this level.

Oli Sail gave his deputy a positive reference before he left for Perth Glory – gotta imagine that his own experiences waiting in the wings for several years before finally getting a proper first team chance will have played a role in that endorsement. One way or another the club had to sign another goalie, whether as the new starter or a backup. What they’ve done is they’ve signed someone in between those two states - and we shouldn’t be surprised by that since Italiano literally told us they were going to do so. Basically, Alex Paulsen is going to get the opportunity to earn the gloves. If he’s better than the median mark of Jack Duncan then he’ll play. If he’s not then he’ll continue to serve as backup... at least to begin with. Think of this Duncan signing as having more to do with Alex Paulsen than it does with Jack Duncan.

As for the other new signing... that’d be academy defender and recent U20 World Cup starter Lukas Kelly-Heald getting a four-year contract. The longest contract ever given to a Wellington Phoenix player. Doesn’t get much more committed to youth or the academy than that. LKH is a very tall left-footed defender who can play either as a centre-back or as a left fullback – he did both at the U20s.

Chiefy is an unproven underdog of a manager and he seems to want to offer opportunities to players of that same pedigree. That makes him an ideal figurehead at the Wellington Phoenix who, as a club, have made a conscious effort over the past few years to enhance those internal pathways. The last three coaching appointments between the men’s and women’s teams have all been in-house promotions. There’s a real emphasis on the academy too (which now has an equal resonance for the ALW squad), leading to an abundance of national youth team representatives, plenty of first team debuts, and even a cheeky few big money transfer fees from European clubs. This is how they want to operate. It’s all been documented before... now they have a manager who seems more willing to lean into that strategy than ever.

It’s also no fluke that this is happening after the Central Coast Mariners laid down a message to the rest of the competition by winning the championship in emphatic fashion with a squad built largely upon homegrown and developed players. Italiano has specifically referenced what they achieved when talking about what he’s plotting for the Welly Nix.

This goes beyond new signings: there are already several established academy grads in the first team squad who’ll be targeting much more prominent roles this term. They already have Finn Surman on the books who played a lot more than expected two seasons ago then a little less than expected last time (injuries vs fewer injuries, pretty much). There was talk about bringing in an import central defender to partner with Scott Wootton in order to shore up that area of the park, presumably also meaning that Tim Payne will slide out to the right side to replace the departed Callan Elliot. That hasn’t happened yet but even if it does Finn Surman is probably going to find himself at the top of the backup CB rankings and in line for a heftier presence in 2023-24. With Lukas Kelly-Heald stepping in where Surman stepped up from.

Kelly-Heald, whose twin brother Alby was also in that U20WC squad and is likely the third-choice keeper as things stand, isn’t necessarily the best available option in that academy. It was Isaac Hughes who played alongside Surman in the middle when the U20s used a back three, with Hughes regularly wearing the captain’s armband for the WeeNix as well. But a four-year deal for a bloke who is still only 18 years of age isn’t about where he’s at now... it’s about where he’s gonna be in four years. With LKH’s silky touch and notable size (standing at 1.98cm) he’s got buckets of potential and now he’s got a professional environment in which to develop it.

Let alone the whispers from a few months back that they were likely to bolster the squad with another academy midfielder. Fin Conchie’s performances at the U20 World Cup make him the premier candidate. Conchie’s currently on a wee suspension from the club after making homophobic remarks to an opponent in a Central League game. That’s not ideal, particularly not when Italiano has stressed ‘character’ as one of the key things he looks for in players, but it also did take character for Conchie to own up to his mistake and cop the punishment. He’s a teenager and he’ll learn from this. The club were appropriately firm in their response, no need for this to be anything more than that. Alternatively there are also quality midfielders around in the form of Dan McKay, Matt Sheridan, Charlie Beale, or Jackson Manuel who is away on loan with Western Springs at the moment. McKay and Manuel were also part of the U20 World Cup squad.

Already mentioned that Finn Surman is likely to see a boost in minutes this upcoming term and that Alex Paulsen is suddenly challenging for the number one jersey. Safe to say we can expect increased statures for Sam Sutton, Ben Old, and Oskar van Hattum too. Sutton and Old are both coming off injury plagued seasons that saw them play far less footy than they had the seasons prior. OVH is a little different as he’s not had his A-League breakthrough yet. Last season he began to tally up reliable cameos from the bench – including 20-odd minutes in the elimination final. This time around, with the likelihood of one fewer attacking import, the challenge is to begin demanding more than mere cameos.

Can the Phoenix, who haven’t won a playoff game for over a decade, get closer to that sorta success by leaning even more upon youth/academy players? Well... they don’t really have a choice. They have the same number of import spaces as everyone else but tend not to have access to the best Australian players who’d generally prefer to stay in Oz, whereas there simply aren’t that many established NZers in the competition. No doubt there are heaps of National League dudes who could be worth a crack (including some non-NZers in the Brian Kaltack mould)… but at that level they usually prefer to keep it in the family with their own academy guys who are mostly younger and play in the same competition.

Piecing some of the earlier mentions together, you’ve surely noticed that last season was a downer for academy minutes. Strange how that worked out because Ufuk Talay certainly wasn’t shy with his youth players during the pandemic. Perhaps there was more of a single-minded focus on trying to win stuff in what turned out to be his last season at the club, although not having to cope with an injury crisis at any stage meant that the young lads simply weren’t needed as often. Add in the sale of Ben Waine and pesky knocks for Ben Old and Sam Sutton and that’s how it goes.

To be fair, the season prior had been an anomaly in which more academy debuts were given out than in the previous three seasons combined. A bunch of injuries combined with pandemic restrictions meant Ufuk Talay dipped deep into the fringes of his squad. There was no other way. Last season wasn’t actually much different from previous campaigns – albeit with less of an academy presence in starting line-ups than usual. However that was largely down to the retirement of Louis Fenton and release of James McGarry, older academy grads rather than fresh lads busting through. Here’s a graphic for ya...

WELLY NIX ACADEMY PLAYER CONTRIBUTIONS (A-LEAGUE)

Had to compile a few different statistical angles there because it’s all skewed by various contextual yarns. The goals and assists in Rudan’s year? More than half of those were from Sarpreet Singh alone. He then left for Bayern prior to Ufuk Talay coming in which is why the goal contributions dropped off. Ben Waine’s the only attacking player to push first eleven status from the academy since Singh left. Other regular starters in this time have mostly been used as defenders (Callan Elliot, James McGarry, Louis Fenton, Sam Sutton).

Also the ‘Players’ column there refers only to the number of academy players who got A-League minutes. Not counting the Aussie Cup. Not counting unused substitute duty... hence Paulsen isn’t part of that 6 although he was part of the 11 the campaign prior. Additionally, Rudan’s season includes Gianni Stensness and Justin Gulley who were technically academy players but it’s a little frisky there for different reasons (one a recruit from Australia, the other an ex-player re-signed as veteran cover).

WELLY NIX ACADEMY PLAYERS BY SEASON

Ranked By Minutes Played (Unused Subs in Brackets)

• 2022-23: Callan Elliot, Sam Sutton, Ben Old, Ben Waine, Finn Surman, Oskar van Hattum (Alex Paulsen, Noah Karunaratne, Riley Bidois)

• 2021-22: Sam Sutton, Ben Waine, Ben Old, Finn Surman, Louis Fenton, James McGarry, Callan Elliot, Alex Paulsen, Oskar van Hattum, Jackson Manuel, Riley Bidois, George Ott (Kurtis Mogg, Henry Gray, Luis Toomey)

• 2020-21: Louis Fenton, James McGarry, Ben Waine, Sam Sutton, Ben Old

• 2019-20: Liberato Cacace, Louis Fenton, Callan Elliot, Ben Waine, Sam Sutton (Zac Jones)

• 2018-19: Liberato Cacace, Sarpreet Singh, Louis Fenton, Gianni Stensness, Ben Waine, Justin Gulley, Callan Elliot

Talay’s first season saw Libby Cacace take up nearly two-thirds of all academy player minutes. That was easily the worst of these past five years in that regard... though you can put that down to a new coach getting to know the club because the next two years saw significant boosts despite Cacace’s departure. It’s notable that with Talay around, they had the WeeNix playing the same formation as the first team. Youth team players regularly trained with the senior blokes. The pathways were always there... now Italiano is taking over in a smooth transition from the mate with whom he would regularly be spotted on the sidelines of National and Central League fixtures.

Hey and guess what’s happening on Friday 4 August? If you guessed anything Women’s World Cup related then you’d be wrong because that Friday is the rest day between group stages and knockouts. Nah instead that’s when the Wellington Phoenix take on Queensland NPL club Peninsula Power in the Australia Cup round of 32. The annual soft-open for the club’s preseason which always tends to feature a bunch of youth player debuts. Keeping very much with the theme of this offseason, there you go.

The Phoenix went six years without winning an FFA Cup tie. Then they rebranded it to the Australia Cup and now they’re good at it – making the semis and then the quarters in the last two attempts. Peninsula Power actually made the quarters last time too - and they were far from the last NPL team standing. Sydney United 58 knocked them out and went on to make the final while Oakleigh Cannons went as far as the semis.

That 2022 cup run saw Uffie stick with pretty strong starting elevens but he was still able to find minutes for Jackson Manuel, Noah Karunaratne, Riley Bidois, and Marco Lorenz – none of whom played A-League in the season that followed (although Manuel and Bidois had featured in the one before that). The semi-final run in 2021 was similar in that Kurtis Mogg played his only senior game for the club. Who’ll make their first team bows in the 2023 edition? Lukas Kelly-Heald seems like a safe bet but aside from him... we’re just gonna have to wait and find out.

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