And so ends the finest regular season in the history of Wellington Phoenix football. Records fell across the board as Giancarlo Italiano and his cohorts defied the odds to forge a squad of title-contenders. It began with a sneaky 0-0 draw away to Western Sydney Wanderers, followed swiftly by a pair of home victories. It ended with a 3-0 triumph over Macarthur in front of 15,428 very loud supporters at Sky Stadium on Saturday night.

At the same time as that was happening, Central Coast Mariners were playing Newcastle Jets in a cheeky wee derby game that just so happened to have major ramifications on the Premiers’ Plate. The Nix did their bit by taking a nice, early lead... up 2-0 after half an hour. The Jets tried to do their part by reciprocating but struggled to break down a strong CCM defensive line before conceding a silly goal to be trailing at the break. They did cause a mighty roar amongst the phone-checkers at Sky Stadium when they equalised early in the second half. But ‘twas not to last. The Mariners shrugged off their hectic recent schedule to finish stronger for a 3-1 victory that put them on the brink of first place.

That left the Nix sweating on an Adelaide win in the catch-up match against Central Coast on Wednesday night, Nestory Irankunda’s final game for the Reds coincidentally, yet in horrid wet conditions the defending champions ground out another victory. This time 2-0. To be honest, as soon as Jacob Farrell scored the opener after 36 minutes it felt like the task was pretty much accomplished. Michael Ballard made sure of that with quarter of an hour remaining. Some top saves from Danny Vukovic ensured another clean sheet and a toss up for ALM Goalkeeper of the Year between him and Alex Paulsen. Wellington Phoenix finish second. It is what it is.

But forget about that because there’s no reason to dwell on what could have been when what actually was is so spectacular. What this team has been able to achieve has put the Wellington Phoenix at heights never previously scaled and what’s more is that they’ve done so by embracing the possibilities of their own homegrown players. As a result, finals footy is coming back to Wellington after a decade away. Rejoice.

A Nightcap For A Brilliant Season

Despite the result in Gosford, there remained a celebratory mood at Sky Stadium as fans were invited onto the pitch after the final whistle to partake in a massive team photo. A great initiative that ensured the regular season ended on the bright note that it deserved to, putting the spotlight back on an excellent 3-0 victory and the magnificent campaign that it summed up beautifully.

It’s hard to find many fresh ideas from that game, to be honest. It so perfectly seemed to sum up what this team has been up to from day one. Kosta Barbarouses scored the first goal to highlight his goal-scoring resurgence. There was yet another clean sheet for the A-League’s best defensive unit. Ben Old bagged another assist for his breakthrough season. There was the curious aspect of Oskar Zawada taking (and scoring) the late penalty which seems to suggest that he’s now got the jump on Alex Rufer after the latter missed one last week. But mostly it was just the Welly Nix doing what they’ve done all season. A culmination of the team that they have become. A confidence booster ahead of finals footy. Can’t ask more than that.

Since this game summed up what came before it, let’s sum up what it sums up:

• A club record league position (2nd)

• A club record win tally (15)

• A club record points tally (53)

• A club record for fewest goals conceded (26)

• A club record for goal difference (+16)

• A fifth finals appearance in six seasons

• Fourth-most goals scored in a campaign (42)

• A first home finals game since 2014-15

And we’re still hoping for that first finals victory since 2011-12... but even, knock wood, in the bummer-est of situations where that doesn’t happen... we’ve still just experienced a pivotal campaign in which the Wellington Phoenix discovered the formula that’s hopefully going to keep them competitive near the top of the table for years to come (just in time for an Auckland-based rival to emerge). It won’t always be as successful as this but the blueprint is there. This club won’t lack for direction.

By the way, nine players across this competition played every single minute for their clubs, through 27 matches each. Three of those were Phoenix players: Alex Paulsen, Finn Surman, and Scott Wootton. Incredible in its own right but even more for the fact that Paulsen and Surman had only played 23 career games between them prior to this season, while Wootton has his own injury history. Six of those ever[resent players were goalkeepers. Paulsen is joined by Paul Izzo (Victory), Filip Kurto (Macarthur), Ryan Scott (Newcastle), Jamie Young (Melbourne City), and of course Danny Vukovic (Central Coast). The only other outfielder, along with the two Nix CBs, was CCM’s Joshua Nisbet, who also led the league in assists. Nisbet is the only other everpresent player under the age of 28, aside from Paulsen and Surman.

Kosta Barbarouses in 2022-23:

1382 mins | 2 goals | 0 assists | 5.27 xG (-3.27)

Kosta Barbarrouses in 2023-24:

2245 mins | 13 goals | 4 assists | 11.33 xG (+1.67)

Massive improvements in finishing, sparked by having a team that plays more to his counter-attacking style and which seeks to create a handful a clear-cut chances per game rather than an abundance of half-chances. Those two ideas are further hinted at by Kosta rising from 0.65 successful dribbles per ninety minutes to 1.32 successful dribbles. Twice as much running at defenders, probably most of that from broken play. Also his touches in the opponent’s penalty area rose from 4.82 per ninety mins to 5.65 per90 so he was operating closer to goal as well. Leading to better shots. Thus our mate Konstantinos went from a goal contribution every 691 minutes last season to a goal contribution every 132 minutes in this one.

Finn Surman made 5.8 clearances per ninety for the best mark in the ALM. Scott Wootton was eighth at 5.0. The pair were also first and second for total blocks (43 for FS, 33 for SW), although Matthew Jurman did slightly nudge Surman in the blocks per ninety stat.

Alex Paulsen conceded 26 goals in 27 games (0.96 per ninety) with 10 clean sheets and an ALM-best 81.1% save rate. That’s easily clear of Vukovic’s 76.6% in second place, though Vuks did pip him with 11 cleanies. In contrast, the bloke he replaced, Oli Sail, took out a wooden spoon with Perth Glory after conceding 45 goals in 17 matches (2.65 per ninety), with a save percentage of 64% (worst in the comp).

Preseason Expectations

Giancarlo Italiano mentioned in his pre-Macarthur press conference that there’s a printed screenshot tacked up in club HQ of a youtuber who predicted the Nix to finish last. Just for a bit of extra motivation. Chiefy promised all along that this was going to be a very good team, citing proven imports and a strong academy base, hardened by extended pre-season activities, and that’s exactly what you want to hear out of a head coach. To be honest, if your coach doesn’t have that belief then they probably should not be your head coach.

But let’s be honest here, you had to be loony to have predicted this. No cause to go through all the old posts looking for poorly-aged takes so you can say: gotcha! Not unless you’re trying to incriminate the whole human race. We’re talking about a team with a first year head coach who had no professional playing background. A team that lost half of its starting line-up from last season and signed just two outside players, both of whom were backups at rival clubs (Duncan and Al-Taay). The rest of their depth was going to be covered by the academy system. It was openly admitted that they were cutting the budget. Unproven players all over the place. Several of the more experienced lads were coming off poor campaigns. They still had an empty import spot (which they wouldn’t fill until midseason). And it’s not like they had championship pedigree to fall back upon... they’d just finished sixth and been one-and-done in the finals series. Didn’t look so flash in the Aussie Cup either, needing extra time to beat Peninsula Power before losing 3-0 to Melbourne City.

Sorry but what logical conclusion could you possibly have taken from that evidence other than that this team was bound for struggles? We didn’t have access to whatever was going on at the training grounds. We didn’t know that Kosta Barbarouses and Scott Wootton would bounce back this brilliantly. That Alex Rufer was ready to become one of the A-League’s best midfielders. That Finn Surman, Ben Old, and Alex Paulsen were already this good. That Giancarlo Italiano and his staff are this clever and astute. The only major thing in their favour was the presence of Proven Goalscorer Oskar Zawada... and guess what? That guy’s only played 539 minutes all season. He hasn’t started a game since week four. Their only assurance turned out to be mostly irrelevant... yet they’ve still laid down a record season’s mahi.

Fair enough if the team finds motivation in proving the haters wrong but you didn’t have to be a hater to pick them to finish near the bottom of the table. You only had to be a person with a functioning brain. You don’t usually win that often in professional sports when you’re dealing with unproven factors and the Wellington Phoenix entered this season with unprovenness tumbling out of their ears. That they’ve defied expectations so drastically doesn’t make this a tour of vindictiveness. It makes this one of those rarefied times of perfect sporting alignment. A special season that’ll be talked about for generations amongst the faithful.

Quick Word For The Defending Champs

Let’s take a minute to be gracious here because you know who else also had a new manager following an offseason full of key departures? The Central Coast Mariners. Admittedly they were rebuilding as defending champs and not as a mid-table team that hadn’t won a playoff game for a decade. Also Mark Jackson isn’t a first-time head coach having previously bossed Milton Keynes Dons for half a season (getting them relegated from League One). But still. That’s no simple task.

Especially since those player departures were significant. They lost top scorer Jason Cummings as the Socceroos striker moved to India after scoring a hat-trick in the grand final. Obviously ex-Nixer James McGarry gets a mention here. He was only with the Mariners for six months after joining mid-term but they were the finest six months of his career to date and led to a six-figure transfer fee that took him to Aberdeen (where injuries and revolving managers have led to a pretty stale first season in Scotland tbh). Sam Silvera went to Middlesbrough for a significant fee. As did Nectarios Triantis to Sunderland. Import Beni Nkololo gapped it too. That’s five of their starting eleven from the grand final who didn’t return for the defence. Five of them.

Four games into the season, with CCM having lost the lot, things weren’t looking too flash. Then they beat the Newcastle Jets 3-1 in game five and it all fell into place. They’ve only lost twice more since and have had four different instances where they’ve won at least three in a row. They’ve ended the regular season with five straight victories despite balancing those games with an AFC Cup campaign that’s taken them all over the globe and into a grand final in which they’ll face Al Ahed of Lebanon in the neutral territory of Oman this upcoming weekend. These are their A-League results in sequence...

LLLLWDWDWWWDWWWDLWWWWLWWWWW

In comparison, the Wellington Phoenix have not won three games in a row at any stage. Never, not once. There’s always been a pesky draw or a loss in there. The Nix’s season sequence goes like this...

DWWDWWLWWLDWDWDDWWDWLWWLWDW

When you consider that the Mariners gave the entire A-League a four-game headstart only to end up finishing first after 27 rounds anyway... it’s hard to argue. It’s also hard not to notice those parallels between first and second, with the clear two best clubs in the ALM both getting there with new coaches, despite player turnover, both built upon outstanding defences, and most of all with strong belief in their own academy pathways. Those are the patterns of success in the modern A-League.

Awards Night Things

The First Eleven

For the first time in a long time, the Wellington Phoenix had a full selection of players to choose from for that Macarthur match. Not the only time they’ve had a clean bill of health this term but it was the first time since Youstin Salas arrived. This is what the starting line-up looked like...

Question: Is this also what the eleven will look like for the semi-finals?

That’s a tricky one to predict without knowing who the opponent will be. With the first leg being the away leg, the most obvious adjustment would be if they decide to go with a back three for defensive insurance. That’s been the case in a number of away games (hence 3/4 of Isaac Hughes’ starts have been in away games) and has tended to be pretty successful. In that case, you’d lose a forward and slide in either Hughes or Lukas Kelly-Heald alongside Finn Surman and Scott Wootton.

If The Chief sticks with his usual back four then it does seem as though Sam Sutton has nudged ahead of LKH now that he’s been able to get a run of fitness going. Sutts has started six consecutive matches and is looking in sharp touch. Certain dudes are going to be there regardless, while it’s unlikely that Oskar Zawada starts having only been subbed on in the final ten minutes of these last two games. Although he does have an extra week to recover, so you never know.

With Ben Old now very accustomed to his midfield/left-wing hybrid role, and Alex Rufer such an essential presence, there’s only really room for one out of Youstin Salas, Nico Pennington, and Mo Al-Taay. Maybe two if Old plays further forward. Against Newcastle both Salas and MAT started but they also both got subbed off at half-time and then it was Pennington in the eleven for the next match with those other two on the bench – Al-Taay didn’t even play, the first game all season in which he’s not gotten minutes. David Ball is another who fluctuates between the starters and the bench, though his experience certainly gives him a nudge for a finals game.

Most of that seems fairly obvious. Where it gets funky is with the bench. We can trust that Oskar Van Hattum will be there because he’s increasingly becoming quite an important impact sub, having just appeared in five straight A-League games for the first time in his career. Let’s assume that Zawada is another sub. Jack Duncan will be there as reserve goalkeeper. However, if Salas and Al-Taay are amongst the subs then there’s no room for a third midfielder, hence why Fin Conchie hasn’t been in the matchday squad for the past two games after being picked in 20/21 weeks previous to that (getting minutes in roughly half of them).

OVH and the two mids (or one of them plus David Ball) leaves just two spots left. For the Macarthur game that was Lukas Kelly-Heald and Matt Sheridan. Isaac Hughes is also an option ahead of one or the other. Seems a pretty set heirarchy so don’t expect any Gabriel Sloane-Rodrigues or Luke Supyk heroics in the semis. Probably a good time to point out that GSR, Supyk, Hughes, and Conchie all started for the reserves against Wellington Olympic last week. GSR and Supyk scored late goals in a 4-2 defeat. Sloane-Rodrigues’ was a very slick acrobatic finish in case you’re wondering what the hype is for.

And with that, we await the outcomes of a pair of elimination finals. Melbourne Victory vs Melbourne City and Sydney FC vs Macarthur FC. If the Victory win, then they’ll face the Nix as the highest-ranked elimination winners. The Phoenix cannot play Melbourne City because they can only be the lowest-ranked winners, so if City win then it’ll be the winners of the Sydney game instead. But we’ll let the weekend sort all that out.

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