Less than three months after the curtain call of the Wellington Phoenix’s record-breaking 2023/24 A-League Men season, they lined up against Victorian NPL side South Melbourne FC in the Round of 32 of the Australia Cup, where the inevitable question became: Could the Phoenix do it on a cold Tuesday night at the Lakeside Stadium? The answer, of course, was no, as an early Harry Sawyer goal suspended the Nix's search for silverware for another season. Below, we discuss our five key takeaways from the match and what we learned about a new Wellington heading into 2024/25.
The Wellington Phoenix were knocked out of the Australia Cup by South Melbourne, failing to make it past the Round of 32 stage for the first time since 2019. (Image: Jordan M Sport Photography)
1. Sometimes, upsets aren’t actually upsets
In true Australia Cup fashion, much was made of the apparent gulf between the two sides heading into the game, as A-League Men Wellington Phoenix faced off against semi-professional NPL Victoria side South Melbourne. It is a classic trope: the wheels of lazy journalism get rolling, and the clash is inevitably framed as a David vs Goliath narrative, with the Phoenix cast – albeit unfamiliarly – in the latter's role.
It did not turn out that way, of course, as South Melbourne became just the fifth NPL side to knock an A-Leagues outfit out of the Australia Cup.
But was this result really the giant slaying the media would have you believe it was?
No – it wasn’t. With the bowels of the Phoenix’s senior team gutted by injuries, a lack of match fitness, and international duties at the 2024 Paris Olympics, Giancarlo Italiano fielded a young team (as we will explore below) that was beaten by a better team on the night (a team, it must be mentioned, that just claimed the NPL Victoria premiership, sitting six points clear of second, and seven ahead of an Oakleigh Cannons side that made short work of Sydney FC in the same competition).
This fixture was not a "banana skin", and the Phoenix's loss was not a "slip-up". If anything, it was – if I may be allowed my own lazy journalistic trope – just football.
2. "Neymar" lights up the left wing
“Go on, Neymar!” shouted some of the Phoenix fans in the corner of Lakeside Stadium as 17-year-old Wellington winger Gabriel Sloane-Rodrigues dribbled his way into South Melbourne’s defensive third.
The comparison was, presumably, made with no small part of that Phoenix fan’s tongue lodged firmly in his cheek. But yet, as the frizzy-haired winger darted lithely, and occasionally successfully, past his marker, there was a palpable aura of potential. It was hard not to get a strong sense of how good this guy could be (if you are on the fence, look at his recent goal from New Zealand’s National League below).
3. Chiefy continues to trust youth
Before the match, reports out of the New Zealand capital suggested that Nix boss Italiano was planning to “play the kids”, and the visiting gaffer duly obliged: handing first-ever competitive starts to a youth-laden attacking trio of Sloane-Rodrigues (17), Luke Supyk (18), and Nathan Walker (18).
With Isaac Hughes making just his fifth start in Wellington’s back four alongside fellow 20-year-old Matthew Sheridan and 19-year-old Alby Kelly-Heald between the sticks, it was a Phoenix line-up with an average age of just 20.8 years old that took to the field in Albert Park (a number that would have been even smaller if not for the outlier, 32-year-old English-born stalwart Scott Wootton, marshalling the defence).
It is also easy to forget that some of the more frequently seen faces from the Nix’s last campaign – the midfield trio of Mohamed Al-Taay, Fin Conchie, and Oskar van Hattum – are young, but they are: their average age is just 22 years old.
Later in the game, Chiefy would turn in vain to 19-year-old pair Tze-Xuan Loke and Fergus Gillion to make a difference and even throw hitherto unseen 18-year-old academy player Lachlan Candy into the mix.
Yet, despite the Phoenix rarely threatening the South Melbourne goal and their overall play looking disjointed (not surprising, given that this team had not played together before), those “kids” didn’t do the club a disservice. Seeing what they can do in the A-League Men this season is exciting.
4. Meet the new Phoenix: same as the old Phoenix
70% possession. Accumulating 608 passes to the opposition’s 278. Yet, just one shot on target.
As someone who suffered through all of England’s games at the 2024 Euros live, it was all starting to feel familiar. But what we watched on that chilly mid-week cup tie by Albert Park Lake was the Wellington Phoenix of old. Last season, too, was defined by tight, low-scoring affairs reduced to often singular moments of magic, to a deep, low Phoenix block designed to preserve clean sheets at the expense of bold, buccaneering forays into the opposition’s defensive third. Put like that, it sounds like a recipe for fan frustration and boredom – but the thing was, the Phoenix were brilliant at it.
Against South Melbourne – where the Phoenix laboured to create chances, the crosses too frequently failing to clear the first man or even arrive at all – the tactics were familiar. Only with a side that, for the most part, is unused to playing competitive football, they were not that good at it.
Front Page Football already raised questions about what is next for the Phoenix after losing six of their best players; Tuesday’s game told us that if one thing does not change much, it will be the team's tactical approach.
Whether Marco Rojas and Kosta Barbarouses – introduced two-thirds into the game with energy that hinted at a late equaliser rather than producing one – can replicate the form they have both shown in past iterations of the Phoenix jersey is yet to be seen.
But it is almost certainly the question that the success of the Phoenix’s 2024/25 season and the hopes and dreams of their yellow-and-black-clad mob will ride on.
5. A lack of ambition or astute management?
As the only A-Leagues club not to have won anything in its history (well, at least until Auckland FC starts playing), Phoenix fans have long bemoaned a perceived gaping hole where the club’s aspirations should be. And, when Harry Sawyer’s left-footed strike found the back of the net, those first murmurs of discontent were not far off in resurfacing.
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Yet another school of thought about the Phoenix’s Australia Cup participation essentially says: Why bother?
Sure, for 11 of the 13 clubs in the A-League Men’s newly expanded league, an Australia Cup triumph earns them a play-off spot for the AFC Champions League Two. However, as we know, Wellington and new rivals Auckland are ineligible for Asian continental participation.
That means that whatever kind of weight you put on the importance of the bragging rights and the presence of the titular cup in the Nix’s cabinet for a year, it is hard to make a case for the four more games the Phoenix would have to play – most, if not all, on away soil; and even after a victory in South Melbourne – to net a shiny piece of metal. What could the extra time this early cup exit brings buy the Nix in terms of preparation – and how crucial will a few professional minutes for these youngsters prove?
The answers to those questions will start being provided when the Wellington Phoenix kick off their season against Western United on 20 October in front of what should be a bumper home crowd.
We will cover our top takeaways from that match, too, and – before then – preview the most mouth-watering fixtures in the Nix’s upcoming A-League Men campaign.
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