Exploring The Wellington Phoenix’s ALW Rise Under Bev Priestman
After four seasons without ever making the A-League finals, an unlikely set of circumstances contrived to present the Wellington Phoenix Women with an Olympic Games gold medallist as their new head coach. Bev Priestman’s dronery at the Paris Games, uncovered by the Football Ferns to add an extra layer of fate, meant she had to serve a 12-month suspension and needed a gig where she could not only restore her reputation but also probably her love for the game. As it happens, she’s married to kiwi Emma Humphries, who was hired in December 2024 (during Priestman’s ban) to be the new Academy Director at the Wellington Phoenix. It was a completely opportunistic thing but there you go. The WahiNix suddenly had one of the most pedigreed coaches to ever grace the ALW within their ranks.
Okay, sure, but how would Bev Priestman’s style and expectations translate to the A-League? Going from coaching a top-ten ranked Canadian national team to working with a Wellington Phoenix side that only has a couple of current players who regularly make Football Ferns squads (the Fernies being maaaaybe a top-30 team... if the wind is blowing in a favourable direction) would be a hassle for most coaches who’ve gotten used to certain standards. Not to mention the country-to-club switcharoo where you’re on the pitch training every day with the same squad instead of simply picking the in-form players from around the globe five or six times a year. It’s a very different job description.
Turns out that neither of those things have been a problem. But that still left another critical element to tackle: the task of turning a very nurturing and development-focused Wellington Phoenix team into a ruthless winning machine... without straying too far from the club ethos of bringing local youngsters into professional footy.
Fair play to the club because they were self-aware enough to realise that if they hired a coach with winning expectations then they would need to meet those expectations. And they’ve done that not only with some excellent initial recruitment but also through their willingness to sign good quality injury-replacement players. There was a buzz about this team from day one (actually, a long time before day one since Priestman’s hiring was the worst kept secret in Wellington for a while there... and in the city of our parliament that’s really saying something). Nevertheless, after the Priestman Nix won just once from their first five games, including a pair of very familiar late away defeats by single-goal margins, you had to wonder if whatever psychic imbalance had been holding them back from reaching their potential in past seasons might prove too much for their new gaffer.
Then the dam burst with a record 7-0 win against Sydney FC and they haven’t looked back since. Three goals scored in their first five games, 23 goals scored in their next seven (winning five of them). And they’ve done all that while integrating new additions and dealing with three season-ending knee injuries and a season-ending pregnancy. Despite having played the equal fewest games (along with Melbourne City, the only team ahead of them on the ladder right now), the Wellington Phoenix have scored the most goals and conceded the fewest. Something’s clicked and this team looks like the real deal. With the competition as wide open as it has ever been, making the finals should be the absolute minimum of what this team is aiming for... so let’s have a geeze at how the Bev Priestman Era Wellington Phoenix have gotten themselves in motion.
The Value Of Experience
The Phoenix have always been able to scoop up a marquee Football Fern each season. Year One was an exception because of covid but the following term they picked up Betsy Hassett and the next two involved Annalie Longo. This year both Vic Esson and CJ Bott who’ve jumped aboard... signings that felt like signals of intent in the Priestman Era (announced before BP but let’s be honest we all knew) though which easily could have happened anyway. Esson is 34yo and was ready to return home after several years overseas. Bott is four years younger but had been playing abroad for eight years and is a Wellington local.
So maybe they would have signed that pair no matter who the coach was... but they still fit neatly within a wider recruitment trend. The Nix only had one player aged 30+ last season (Longo) so with Esson and Bott on board that was immediately doubled. The additions of Tessel Middag and Brooke Nunn then expanded that further... and that’s really where we start to see the makings of a much more experienced outfit.
With experience comes consistency. With consistency comes success. Most of the imports that the club had signed in the past were early in their careers, some of them not even having played professional football before and others having only done so in fringe capacities. This season’s haul not only included far more established pros... but three of them are full internationals (Middag, Leon, Bhandari). Mariana Speckmaier was the only senior international footballer from the ten previous imports to play for the Nix (Imane Chebel would have counted but she never played). What’s more, by acquiring Brooke Nunn and Lucia Leon it meant the Nix had done another unique thing: they’d signed imports who’d already played in the A-League. Nunn was a champion with Central Coast last season.
Even the midseason additions of Makala Woods and Mackenzie Anthony still kinda fit this mould. Admittedly, they’re younger American players similar to those signed in the past... but Woods has spent a full season in Iceland and Anthony has spent a full season in Ireland. The ALW is a step up from there but at least they’ve been through the motions and rhythms of living away from home as a professional footballer, playing regularly and in both cases scoring goals. In other words, Bev Priestman has designed a squad to win games of football, first and foremost.
| Wellington Phoenix ALW Imports | SEASON | AGE | PRO | 3+ PRO | FGN | ALW | INT |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Isabel Cox | 2023-24 | 24 | |||||
| Hailey Davidson | 2023-24 | 24 | Y | Y | |||
| Hope Breslin | 2023-24 | 24 | Y | ||||
| Rylee Foster | 2023-24 | 25 | Y | Y | |||
| Mariana Speckmaier | 2023-24 | 27 | Y | Y | Y | Y | |
| Olivia Fergusson | 2024-25 | 29 | Y | Y | Y | ||
| Mebae Tanaka | 2024-25 | 29 | Y | Y | Y | ||
| Carolina Vilão | 2024-25 | 25 | Y | Y | |||
| Alivia Kelly | 2024-25 | 24 | |||||
| Maya McCutcheon | 2024-25 | 22 | Y | ||||
| Tessel Middag | 2025-26 | 33 | Y | Y | Y | Y | |
| Brooke Nunn | 2025-26 | 32 | Y | Y | Y | Y | |
| Sabitra Bhandari | 2025-26 | 29 | Y | Y | Y | Y | |
| Lucía León | 2025-26 | 28 | Y | Y | Y | Y | Y |
| Ellie Walker | 2025-26 | 26 | Y | Y | Y | ||
| Makala Woods | 2025-26 | 23 | Y | Y | |||
| Mackenzie Anthony | 2025-26 | 23 | Y | Y |
‘Age’ there is how old they were on 1 January of those seasons. ‘Pro’ is whether they’d played professionally prior to the Nix. ‘3+ pro’ is whether they’d had at least three professional seasons beforehand. ‘Fgn’ is whether they’d played professionally in a foreign country before. You can figure out the rest.
Having said all that... it’s also gotta be acknowledged - even celebrated – that this bolstering of age and experience in the squad has not come at the expense of the youngsters. This is still a development league, a crucial stepping stone for so many kiwi (and Aussie) footballers, and that tradition has continued under Bev Priestman. Coach Bev has found room to give debuts to academy players Lily Brazendale and Grace Bartlett, as well as scooping up the two most recent NZ National League grand final MVPs in Pia Vlok and Zoe Benson, both of them still teenagers, in a pair of brilliantly astute transfers.
Vlok captained Aotearoa at the 2025 U17 World Cup and has been a top shelf prospect since she first started scoring and assisting goals in the National League aged 15 with Auckland United. She came off the bench in game one, she started in game two, she scored the winner in game three. Youngest ever goal-scorer for the club (beating Milly Clegg by one day) and third-youngest player overall. Owner of the club’s first ever ALW hat-trick. Benson is two years older, has already been to an U17 and U20 World Cup (and will go to another U20 World Cup this year) and was the leading assist-maker in the National League for two years with Eastern Suburbs before joining Auckland United where she scored the winner in the 2025 final against her former club. Benson’s already scored in the A-League and has carved out a regular spot on the bench.
Aimee Danieli has started a game this season. Manaia Elliott is still only 20yo and recently brought up her 50th appearance for the club – she’s played in every game so far. Emma Pijnenburg’s arrival may have been touted as a Football Fern returning home but she’s only 21yo and hasn’t yet started a game for the national team... hers is closer to a Zoe Benson signing than a CJ Bott signing, despite the couple years she spent with Feyenoord (again, mostly playing off the bench). Olivia Ingham has been in three matchday squads. Ella McMillan, Brooke Neary, and Ela Jerez are all hanging around. The thing about having that older core is that they help the younger players. They set the example. They raise the bar, ensuring that minutes are earned and the right habits get ingrained. It works out better for everyone.
Tremendous Defence
We’re just past the halfway stage of the season as this is being written and with only 10 goals allowed in their first 12 fixtures, the Wellington Phoenix have the best defence in the competition. Not the most clean sheets... but by far the most consistent backline, having only allowed two goals on 2/12 occasions and never more than that. There is something to be said about Sydney FC and their string of clean sheets. Somehow they’ve got the worst xGA yet have conceded drastically fewer goals than they should have by that measurement – and that’s including them shipping seven goals (from 4.31 xGA) against the Wellington Phoenix. They didn’t have American import Heather Hinz for that game – who has four clean sheets in six matches and is brilliant.
| GA | xGA | Diff | CS | GA/90 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wellington Phoenix | 10 | 11.9 | -1.9 | 4 | 0.8 |
| Melbourne City | 13 | 12.6 | 0.4 | 4 | 1.1 |
| Canberra United | 15 | 11.5 | 3.5 | 3 | 1.2 |
| Adelaide United | 17 | 17.5 | -0.5 | 3 | 1.3 |
| Sydney FC | 17 | 23.8 | -6.8 | 7 | 1.3 |
| Melbourne Victory | 20 | 13.3 | 6.7 | 4 | 1.4 |
| Central Coast | 21 | 17.1 | 3.9 | 1 | 1.5 |
| Perth Glory | 19 | 18.9 | 0.1 | 4 | 1.5 |
| Brisbane Roar | 19 | 17.8 | 1.2 | 1 | 1.6 |
| Newcastle Jets | 22 | 22.6 | -0.6 | 2 | 1.7 |
| Western Sydney | 26 | 17.9 | 8.1 | 2 | 2.0 |
That’s the value of having a great goalkeeper, aye? The Nix can relate. This team has been strong in that position throughout their existence but Victoria Esson is a step above the rest. Decent shot-stopper, for sure, but an even better organiser. She doesn’t make silly errors. She’s accurate with her clearances. She attacks any aerials that get too close. And when you do all that you don’t actually have to make very many saves – Esson has only made 15 saves in 11 appearances. Compare that to her national teammate Anna Leat at Newcastle Jets who has made 52 saves in 12 games. Esson is one clean sheet away from tying the club record.
And that’s where we step up into the defensive line to find Ellie Walker, Mackenzie Barry, and Marisa van der Meer. Those three have started every single game together and have only rarely been subbed (Walker’s played every minute, Barry was subbed once with an injury that she shook off the next week, MVDM got a rest late in the two biggest wins). They’ve formed a superb combination full of aggressive defence and secure positioning, hardly ever getting stretched out of shape and when they do there’s usually someone there to cover. Walker and MVDM are fantastic at winning their headers. Barry is one of the best tacklers in the competition. They’re all solid with the ball at feet but they don’t overplay things, only occasionally stepping up, with their defensive duties being the overwhelming priority – although MVDM is always a target for corner kick deliveries and Walker’s long throw is becoming a feature.
There are many ways to build a winning football team and Priestman has gone with the most tried and trusted by starting with a foundation of sturdy defence. Because when your defence is this good and consistent, it takes the pressure off the forwards who know they only need one or two moments of quality to earn the victory. It took them a few weeks to begin scoring those goals with regularity but the defence has been fantastic from the beginning.
Bigger, Fitter, Stronger
Priestman was talking up a big game from the moment she walked into the building. Her introductory video spoke of the club “matching my ambition” and how she “signed with this club because this club wants to win”. Those aren’t traits you’d have applied to the Nix pre-BP though, their inaugural squad (admittedly put together at short-ish notice) was basically a preview of New Zealand’s 2022 U20 World Cup squad, coaches and all, and they’ve remained one of the youngest teams in a league that ranks as one of the youngest major divisions worldwide*.
But hiring an Olympic champion and world renowned coach seems to have hauled the Phoenix into a different state of being. The club matched her ambition, right? Meaning that BP’s ambition existed first. As did her reputation because there’s no doubt that the Nix have been able to attract that higher calibre of imports at least in part because they want to work with a coach of that level. The whole “Bev Priestman is a Winner” idea has been hammered in from day one – similar to the way we hear it about men’s managers like Jose Mourinho or Ange Postecoglou. It doesn’t even matter if it’s true as long as people keep repeating it like a manifestation.
For what it’s worth, Priestman only held one senior head coaching role prior to the Nix and that was the Canadian national team gig. The Tokyo Olympics was the only major tournament she won and they got there needing two penalty shootuts, including against Sweden in the final, to go with a 1-0 win over USA in the semis thanks to a penalty. They only won 2/6 games in regulation time. But that doesn’t matter either. What matters is that they went undefeated and they never conceded multiple goals in a game (there’s that defensive emphasis again) and their rewards was Olympic Gold. With that comes an overflow of coaching aura.
When a coach has an aura about them, players will more naturally buy into what they’re asking. A coach like that is able to drive higher standards, conducive with winning, that maybe wouldn’t have gotten through as deeply were it coming from previous Nix coaches with their more nurturing youth development backgrounds. What kind of standards are we talking about? This is what Priestman chose to emphasise in that intro yarn...
“There's a lot of different factors that come into winning. But I think for me, you're going to see a team that first and foremost, it's a given when you put on the shirt that you work hard. I think we'll work harder than any other team. There'll be a hunger and a desire there because we know we want to achieve a first for this club.”
And that’s what we’ve seen. The immediate shift to a back three formation put a focus on the defence... and also allowed them to fit more of their rugged ball-winners on the park at the same time. Even more to that point was the way that both Grace Jale and CJ Bott were converted to midfielders to begin the season. Jale had already started to do that with promising results late last season (at a time when BP was still banned... but was attending games in an onlooker’s capacity while her wife ran the club’s academy system so... ya know...). Bott did play some midfield in her junior days but as a pro she’s always been this world class tackler in the fullback spots. Moving that skill set infield, alongside 5’10 tall Jale, gave the Nix two powerful and imposing midfielders to set the tone for the rest of the team.
Neither has the slick short passing game you’d expect of a midfielder and that offers us another lesson in where Coach Bev’s priorities lie. It’s not about trying to keep 70% possession and complete 600 sideways passes per game. She wants scrappers and biters. Disrupters. That Jale also happens to be an attacking threat with her long shots, a target from set pieces, and possesses an excellent diagonal switch, is simply a very happy benefit. After a couple months of seeing Jale in the midfield, it’s clear that this is the position she should have been playing her whole career.
It’s worth pointing out that the only two times this team conceded multiple goals in a game came immediately after CJ Bott was injured (2-2 vs Brisbane, 1-2 vs Melbourne City). Since then they’ve adjusted with Emma Pijnenburg, who joined the team immediately after the 7-0 win vs Sydney, getting a lot of minutes. EP is the opposite of GJ/CJB in that she’s less imposing but has that short passing rhythm and incision that the others lack, offering a healthy counterbalance. Pijnenburg’s smaller stature might explain why it took until her sixth appearance to finally last beyond sixty minutes. This is a demanding position and she joined the team late (although her display vs Newcastle suggests she’s quickly getting a handle on the physicality required by her coach). But who’s always subbing in for her? Daisy Brazendale – a teammate of EP’s at the 2024 U20 World Cup and a defensive-minded midfielder whose best trait is her workrate and combativeness. Prime Priestman areas, right there.
Look around the squad and those same benchmarks are repeated over and over again. Pia Vlok is 17 years old and playing big minutes in her first professional campaign. Yeah, she’s a phenom... but she’s also the same height as Grace Jale and gets stuck in defensively in between the goals and assists. Ellie Walker was listed as 5’11 for her college team. You don’t need everyone to be giants but with this squad there’s always going to be enough tall girls scattered around to keep up appearances. And while players like Brooke Nunn and Manaia Elliott stand in the shadows of some of those teammates, what they lack for in height they more than make up for in hustle. Those two are fearless. Full commitment, just like Bev Priestman designs it.
* From the PFA’s ALW Report for the 2024-25 season: “half of the players on the pitch in the ALW were aged 22 or younger, compared to the WSL and NWSL where half were 25 or younger. In the WSL and NWSL, more than 20% of minutes went to players aged 30+, but in the ALW, only 7% were in this bracket.”
Keeping The Candle Burning
That there was the starting line-up for the opening fixture of the season (1-1 vs Canberra). The formation is wrong, obviously, and there were some weird elements about Priestman’s first match in charge. Alyssa Whinham at wing-back, for example. But the main thing there is that four of those players have since suffered season ending injuries/pregnancies: Tessel Middag, Alyssa Whinham, Sabitra Bhandari, and CJ Bott. Four of them. Losing four starting-calibre players within the first third of the campaign is going to derail most teams, it certainly would have derailed the Nix in previous years. But Bev Priestman is a coach on a mission and the club are still backing her ambition.
Hence they’ve replaced both injured imports with Makala Woods and Mackenzie Anthony joining midseason along with local replacement Emma Pijnenburg. Those are expensive extra salaries... and they’re necessary ones if the club is going to challenge for the title. The A-League Women’s is wide open for new challengers. Central Coast won it last season to prove that the old guard of Melbourne City, Melbourne Victory, and Sydney FC simply aren’t the dominant forces they once were.
There’s never been a more open opportunity for the Wellington Phoenix to win a championship in the club’s history (men, women, or reserves). Priestman signed a two-year contract so that gives them a two-year window to try and make it happen. No sense in wasting the first of them due to a few pesky ACL tears. In come the replacements and nothing needs to change – Makala Woods has actually been more efficient through her first few games than Samba had been... four games in and she’s already the second leading assist-maker in the ALW.
It’s better that those injuries happened early when the team was still taking shape. Since that initial eleven, we’ve seen Brooke Nunn thrive at right wing-back, Grace Jale settle beautifully into the midfield, and Pia Vlok emerge as a regular attacking starter. Not to mention the replacement signings. It’s a very different looking team nowadays... and a better team too, now that the dust has settled and roles have been sorted.
Away Days
If the new coach’s force of personality has truly exorcised whatever sneaky demons were holding them back in previous seasons, preventing them from getting over the finals-qualifying hurdle, then the evidence would have to be in their away form. That’s where we’ve become so accustomed to this team falling just short - especially during Paul Temple’s two seasons when it was narrow loss after narrow loss.
The performances and the stats suggested they were more than good enough to have won their fair share of those games... instead Temple’s SheNix played 24 games on Aussie soil and went 4-1-19. Of those 19 defeats, there were 16 single-goal margins of which 9/16 saw the Nix finish with a higher xG tally than their opponents. Three of their four away wins in that time were by multiple goals so in away games decided by a single goal during the Temple Era (aka Close Games) their record was: 1-1-16.
Initially, there was no difference. Priestman’s Phoenix put in a fantastic display away to Melbourne City in their first away trip of the term... only to lose 1-0 to a Rebekah Stott goal with five minutes remaining. Drone Derby bragging rights for Stotty, who was the one who originally spotted the Canadian spy drone flying over Football Fern training which led to Priestman’s suspension. The same thing happened in the following game against Perth Glory where they bossed it only to lose to an olimpico from Susan Phonsonghkam in the 75th minute.
Same old story, same pesky hurdle in the way. Then they won 7-0 against Sydney FC in Porirua and the siege was broken. Since then, the Nix have played four away games for a 3-0 win against Western Sydney, a 2-2 draw against Brisbane, a 2-0 win against Canberra, and a 5-1 win against Newcastle (their biggest ever away win, extending their longest unbeaten away streak). The curse, it seems, has been lifted.
Wellington Phoenix ALW Results In Australia
2021-22: LLLLLWW (6 points from 7 games, -9 GD)
2022-23: LLLLDLWLW (7 points from 9 games, -6 GD)
2023-24: WLLLLLLLLLWL (6 points from 12 games, -8 GD)
2024-25: LLWDLWLLLLLL (7 points from 12 games, -6 GD)
2025-26: LLWDWW (10 points from 6 games, +7 GD)
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