Greenie & Buck’s Big Adventure (Don’t Panic, It’s Fine)
This shouldn’t be a surprise to you because the news was more or less leaked a day or two ago but the Wellington Phoenix have confirmed that Chris Greenacre and Des Buckingham will stay on as co-coaches for the rest of the 2016-17 season. So that’s that, case closed for the next couple of months. Now we can all move on.
Except… maybe not so quickly, there’s a bit to unpack here. Like the technical point about the “FFA regulations” that mean Buckingham will officially be the head coach and Greenacre the assistant/co-coach because Buck has a Pro Licence qualification and Greenie only an A Licence. Minor details, really, as they admitted in the presser they’re definitely a duo and that’s how decisions are made.
More important is the context of this season for the Nix and then seasons beyond. The press release was pretty emphatic about “the remainder of the 2016-17 Hyundai A-League season” so get no doubts about that. This isn’t necessarily gonna be the leadership that takes this team forward, although some will choose to look at this like an extended audition for the new bosses.
Those people are a bit silly, caretaker managers that get given the full time reins on the back of their caretaker success are almost routinely disastrous, Francesco Guidolin would be an example from this current Premier League season while the trend itself should probably be called ‘Tim Sherwood Syndrome’. It’s much easier to come in mid-season and adapt what somebody else had been doing (albeit poorly, since they’d gotten sacked) compared to starting from scratch for a new season. Often when a manager gets the flick you can see it coming weeks in advance through the body language of players and the atmosphere in the crowd, let alone the results. The new guy brings a breath of fresh air and things pick up… temporarily.
Contrastingly, the best recent example of a caretaker done right has been what happened at Chelsea. Think about how poisonous things got with Jose Mourinho and his squad. Out went Mou, in came Guus Hiddink. Guus hit the reset button and by the end of the season Eden Hazard had even scored a couple goals. But they resisted the temptation to keep Hiddink beyond that season and worked quickly to wrap up Antonio Conte, who thus inherited a happy and enthusiastic team and now just bloody look at them.
The Nix example is a bit different. Ernie Merrick wasn’t sacked, the atmosphere didn’t get ugly and the players probably wish he was still there. But the results did get troublesome and the same old issues were shining through in Ernie’s side. One thing that wasn’t touched on a whole amount when it happened which has been lingering in the background is that maybe Ernie just wasn’t about this life no more. It hadn’t quite happened for him in Wellington and he wasn’t bothered with pivoting to any plan B. It was said that club management had to convince him not to resign a few weeks before he eventually did, so safe to say when he handed in his notice he was serious about it. If that’s the case then maybe it’s for the best after all. Great as Ernie was as a leader, if he wasn’t fully committed then this is the best outcome – being fully committed is a big deal in the Nix, it was the name of Ben Sigmund’s autobiography.
Greenie & Buck, as they ought to be known, might be acting as buffer bosses but they don’t have to do too much rebuilding. Instead their task is to see what can be salvaged from this campaign, like that playoff spot they keep talking about. It’s already pretty clear from their first four games that they aren’t going to deviate from the course all that much, just a few key alterations. The fullbacks are looking to overlap a little extra, the team is playing more direct and they’ve adapted the formation so that Roly Bonevacia is playing deeper (which he had to do with Alex Rodriguez having been injured ‘til recently) and the forwards are playing three across the top. Hamish Watson has started three of their four games with Roy Krishna and Kosta Barbarouses playing wider, Watto looking to be the target man/pivot through the middle (Krishna has played that role too).
This isn’t the NBA, there’s no reason to tank. If the Nix think they can salvage this season then that’s what they need to be striving for… and that’s what they’re doing. A new boss at this time wouldn’t have the chance to do much more than what Greenie & Buck are doing with the slight alterations since major changes mid-campaign sounds like a disaster waiting to happen. The players are fine, might as well stick with the familiar course for now. Remember that this is a franchise that has only ever had two full-time managers.
So don’t mistake this for the Phoenix living in limbo, they get enough of that from the FFA to go imposing it on themselves. This is the Nix telling their squad that they trust the way they were playing, that they believe they can still meet their season expectations and that all it’ll take is a little tinkering. That’s the right thing to do, especially when there isn’t a ready-made permanent replacement out there. Compromising on someone new who they don’t fully believe in because they think they have to act quickly would be reckless, now they’ve bought themselves time to make sure they find the right person. Let’s be honest, they probably weren’t getting swamped with applications.
Actually, this is the opposite of living in limbo. This is the Nix really going for it. Most of us were disappointed in how things panned out over the first couple months of the season and that’s a sign that we’d anticipated more. Well, that’s still possible – no reason to panic. You only had to count the laughs at Ernie Merrick’s farewell presser to realise that this was no ordinary situation.
But yeah, this is a single season thing. If you’re doubting that, the comments from Chairman Rob Morrison in the press release aren’t exactly a long term endorsement:
Rob Morrison: “We interviewed a number of excellent candidates but with the run of games we have through January, we felt it was too difficult for any new coach to get to grips with a new squad and the challenges of coaching in the A-League. We have a really good squad and Des and Chris impressed with their views on what needed to change and how to get the best from the squad. The board are confident that Des and Chris can take the team through to the playoffs.”
Through to the playoffs. Not through to 2020 or anything like that. While the comments were more flattering at the presser, these ones do seem to tip the hand somewhat. Which is fine, for Greenie & Buck to get this thing beyond 2016-17 they’ll need to be magnificent. They’ll need to do more than just make the playoffs. So far the duo is undefeated through four games… but they’ve only won one of those.
Swinging this thing back to the top, that old coaching licence thing might be a factor too. Ramon Tribulietx has been the only candidate mentioned so far that is in any way enticing (though there’s a whole world to choose from if they’re willing to gamble) but without going all in on the sleuthing, it appears he’s only got the same qualification as Greenacre. Given that he was rumoured with the Brisbane Roar gig a little while ago, it’s weird he wouldn’t have the papers but then that rumour might not have had any substance to it. Or maybe the papers were what cost him the job. Anyway, a conspiracy theorist might suggest that he’s just been offered an extended study break.
The theme of this article is that Nix fans have gotta keep the mind on the short term, that’s what the club has asked us to do with this decision. They’re still looking for next season’s answer but they haven’t given up on this one in the process. Now to finish, here’s an interesting quote from the presser about the key objectives of the last few weeks:
Des Buckingham: “One was shoring up the midfield out of possession and I think we done that last night. The other in possession was creating more width and getting the fullbacks wide and our third striker has given us more opportunities to do that. Chris is very much focussed on the attacking elements of the team and in possession, my focus of the last four weeks has been out of possession, making sure we’re set up right to prevent goal scoring opportunities.”
P“I think we done that” – Buck’s an Englishman if you didn’t realise. So is Greenie, which you’ll already know. Anthony Hudson, All Whites manager, is English. As is NZ Football CEO Andy Martin. Tony Readings, gaffer of the Football Ferns… he’s English too. Neil Emblen was interim All Whites boss before Hudson. Also English. Hudson’s two assistants are Peter Taylor and Darren Bazeley (himself the U20 coach at the last World Cup) and his goalie coach is Paul Gothard. Guess where they’re all from? En-Ger-Land. If there’s one major frustration about all this, that would be it. Hmm.
(By the way, the statement on the website included the phrase: Greenacre… who was a Phoenix fan favourite in his playing days…” – does anyone genuinely remember him as a ‘fan favourite’? In my mind, we definitely missed him once he left but I don’t ever remember looking at a slow, mid-30s English striker who averaged a goal in less than every four games in that way.)
Who are Ya!? – You know who’s a big winner from the new regime’s preference for a central striker? Shane Smeltz. He’s now eligible to be registered and that means he should make his return against his old team in Perth this week, probably off the bench but we’ll see how it goes. Given the way that the Nix struggled to put the ball in the net in the stalemate against Adelaide and given that Hamish Watson hasn’t proved that he’s ready for that role yet, it’s Smeltz’s to lose for the rest of the season. Roy and Kosta do all the running, he’s just gotta be there to finish things off. You know, like he’s made a career out of doing.
Undercover Brother – Great to see Tommy Doyle back starting and charging up and down that sideline. He’s had his troubles in the past with the defensive duties of an A-League fullback but he’s definitely a safer option than Adam Parkhouse, whose versatility makes him a handy bench option. If it weren’t for injuries Doyle likely woulda been playing there from the start. He signed a contract extension last week too, good for him.
Chin Up, Son – Not sure whether to pick Kosta Barbarouses of Gui Finkler because each of them have been overall pretty disappointing this season after their flashy recruitments from the Melbourne Victory. At least Finkler is getting better and better, Kosta just seems out of synch. With Mike McGlinchey edging closer to a return, his place in the starting line-up ought to be in doubt.
Up Next – Perth Glory vs Wellington Phoenix, Thursday 11.00pm (NZT)