David Ball (Radcliffe | England)

ballane

Marto

Piss poor way to finish it really. Should have given him one last run out on the weekend for a proper send off from an admittedly very small and crowd.

Has he done enough to gain indefinite leave to remain visa wise?

You would have to hope some bureaucrat did the right thing and allowed it given its been messed up by the Covid years. then again thats probably asking to much of the NZ Immagration Service
 

Both of their staff are experiencing high case levels currently, but achieving amazing efficiencies per person. 

Bally appears on this podcast and appears to go into slightly more detail about his experience this season than we'd heard directly so far – I'm still fairly early into it, but he does touch on the early conversations with Chief, their good relationship over the years, etc.

https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/row-z-fc-episode-7-transfers-are-on-and-whats-it-like/id1782255175?i=1000684079936

cheesecake

Bally appears on this podcast and appears to go into slightly more detail about his experience this season than we'd heard directly so far – I'm still fairly early into it, but he does touch on the early conversations with Chief, their good relationship over the years, etc.

https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/row-z-fc-episode-7-transfers-are-on-and-whats-it-like/id1782255175?i=1000684079936

Let me get this straight. He doesn't mention anything about Rufer faking glandular fever to avoid having to play? Probably fake news then. We had one genius on the forum figure that one out a couple of days ago 🤣

There isn't room for sentimentality in professional sport, he had a great send off.

Marto

Piss poor way to finish it really. Should have given him one last run out on the weekend for a proper send off from an admittedly very small and crowd.

Has he done enough to gain indefinite leave to remain visa wise?

anaveragestem

cheesecake

Bally appears on this podcast and appears to go into slightly more detail about his experience this season than we'd heard directly so far – I'm still fairly early into it, but he does touch on the early conversations with Chief, their good relationship over the years, etc.

https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/row-z-fc-episode-7-transfers-are-on-and-whats-it-like/id1782255175?i=1000684079936

Let me get this straight. He doesn't mention anything about Rufer faking glandular fever to avoid having to play? Probably fake news then. We had one genius on the forum figure that one out a couple of days ago 🤣

Not trying to throw this thread off topic, but it's just something I wanted to talk about, if someone from the forum did say that about Rufer, that is very disappointing to hear. 

I know since I've joined, there have been some ridiculous and stupid things said by myself and others on this forum (one in the speculation thread about Chiefy today) but just the fact someone here would come out and say something like that in relation to a touchy situation and about a player, who has been at the Phoenix for nearly his entire career and given his all for us, suffered an ACL and come back stronger than ever, plus turned down other opportunities to keep playing with us and be just another figure for the young players coming through to look up to.

I don't know, I guess what I'm trying to say is those comments about Rufer is something I would definitely not be surprised by if they were talked about on X, Facebook, or Reddit, but not here.

Does anyone remember who said it (no names) was it a reasonably new user, someone who just joined, or even a long-serving user? 

I know I replied to it at the time but can't remember which thread, had a scroll through the ones i thought likely, but cant see it. Could also have been removed by mods, but I'm not sure why they'd have done that.

I can't remember the user, but I didn't note it as a person who's comments I usually disagree with - whether that means they're new, normally sensible or I just wasn't paying attention I couldn't say.

I made the comment - more in jest than anything... but we all know how literal people on this forum can take things.

The reality is - the coms out of the club, specifically from Chief have been odd - Paynes response to his ankle injury during an interview is a great example... same with his claims that Conchie was injured, when he wasn't. The Ball situation could have been handled better.

When the club doesn't manage its communication effectively, speculation and rumour will grow. My Rufer comment was designed to illustrate that.

MetalLegNZ

I made the comment - more in jest than anything... but we all know how literal people on this forum can take things.

The reality is - the coms out of the club, specifically from Chief have been odd - Paynes response to his ankle injury during an interview is a great example... same with his claims that Conchie was injured, when he wasn't. The Ball situation could have been handled better.

When the club doesn't manage its communication effectively, speculation and rumour will grow. My Rufer comment was designed to illustrate that.

When speculation and rumour have no basis whatsoever it just becomes absurd though. That comment was so unusual it came across as something a monkey might come up with if you gave it a typewriter

I'd own it man, I think it was hilarious. Even funnier if you were serious

MetalLegNZ

I made the comment - more in jest than anything... but we all know how literal people on this forum can take things.

The reality is - the coms out of the club, specifically from Chief have been odd - Paynes response to his ankle injury during an interview is a great example... same with his claims that Conchie was injured, when he wasn't. The Ball situation could have been handled better.

When the club doesn't manage its communication effectively, speculation and rumour will grow. My Rufer comment was designed to illustrate that.

Thanks for coming forward and explaining, I understand.

I don't understand how the Rufer comment is meant to illustrate that, given its not something the club would ever, or be expected to ever, manage. All it proves to me is that unsourced info on a fan forum isn't remotely reliable.

Also can you elaborate on the Payne thing? I've not seen the comments, and can't see that he's been interviewed since the injury on the YouTube channel.

I'm glad the comment was in jest. Hard to tell with the absolute nonsense people were presenting a fact. "I was only joking" has never been the most convincing of retorts though.

HattyCW

anaveragestem

cheesecake

Bally appears on this podcast and appears to go into slightly more detail about his experience this season than we'd heard directly so far – I'm still fairly early into it, but he does touch on the early conversations with Chief, their good relationship over the years, etc.

https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/row-z-fc-episode-7-transfers-are-on-and-whats-it-like/id1782255175?i=1000684079936

Let me get this straight. He doesn't mention anything about Rufer faking glandular fever to avoid having to play? Probably fake news then. We had one genius on the forum figure that one out a couple of days ago 🤣

Not trying to throw this thread off topic, but it's just something I wanted to talk about, if someone from the forum did say that about Rufer, that is very disappointing to hear. 

I know since I've joined, there have been some ridiculous and stupid things said by myself and others on this forum (one in the speculation thread about Chiefy today) but just the fact someone here would come out and say something like that in relation to a touchy situation and about a player, who has been at the Phoenix for nearly his entire career and given his all for us, suffered an ACL and come back stronger than ever, plus turned down other opportunities to keep playing with us and be just another figure for the young players coming through to look up to.

I don't know, I guess what I'm trying to say is those comments about Rufer is something I would definitely not be surprised by if they were talked about on X, Facebook, or Reddit, but not here.

Does anyone remember who said it (no names) was it a reasonably new user, someone who just joined, or even a long-serving user? 

Ultimately it's largely a shark posting forum, it's not that deep bro

Nelfoos

I don't understand how the Rufer comment is meant to illustrate that, given its not something the club would ever, or be expected to ever, manage. All it proves to me is that unsourced info on a fan forum isn't remotely reliable.

Also can you elaborate on the Payne thing? I've not seen the comments, and can't see that he's been interviewed since the injury on the YouTube channel.

I'm glad the comment was in jest. Hard to tell with the absolute nonsense people were presenting a fact. "I was only joking" has never been the most convincing of retorts though.

it was something where chief said that pain was playing injured and pain downplayed it when asked and said something like chief might not have all the information. It was just a throw away comment that people are reading too much into

Monto

HattyCW

anaveragestem

cheesecake

Bally appears on this podcast and appears to go into slightly more detail about his experience this season than we'd heard directly so far – I'm still fairly early into it, but he does touch on the early conversations with Chief, their good relationship over the years, etc.

https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/row-z-fc-episode-7-transfers-are-on-and-whats-it-like/id1782255175?i=1000684079936

Let me get this straight. He doesn't mention anything about Rufer faking glandular fever to avoid having to play? Probably fake news then. We had one genius on the forum figure that one out a couple of days ago 🤣

Not trying to throw this thread off topic, but it's just something I wanted to talk about, if someone from the forum did say that about Rufer, that is very disappointing to hear. 

I know since I've joined, there have been some ridiculous and stupid things said by myself and others on this forum (one in the speculation thread about Chiefy today) but just the fact someone here would come out and say something like that in relation to a touchy situation and about a player, who has been at the Phoenix for nearly his entire career and given his all for us, suffered an ACL and come back stronger than ever, plus turned down other opportunities to keep playing with us and be just another figure for the young players coming through to look up to.

I don't know, I guess what I'm trying to say is those comments about Rufer is something I would definitely not be surprised by if they were talked about on X, Facebook, or Reddit, but not here.

Does anyone remember who said it (no names) was it a reasonably new user, someone who just joined, or even a long-serving user? 

Ultimately it's largely a shark posting forum, it's not that deep bro

I made my post because I wasn't on the forum at the time the comment about Rufer was made, had no idea who made it until only a while ago. I generally thought someone was being serious when they said what they said and I was disappointed to hear that it came from a user on the forum.

The user who originally made the comment has come forward and explained the context behind it and I understand, it's all good.

Also, regardless of whether the user who made the post about Chiefy in the speculation thread was joking or not, it's still a pretty random thing to come out and say given the posts that came before it, you can go and see for yourself.

Another interesting detail in that Ball chat was how he's basically reaching out to head coaches and players in the league with the aim of trying to find at least a half-year contract so he can finish off the season playing. I guess it fits with Uffie's comment in the press conference about today's coffee catch-up, too.

It'd be kind of nice if there was one that has the slot available and could use his input. I'd watch him play and hope he does well at least individually – even if it were at one of the baddie clubs. 

cheesecake

Bally appears on this podcast and appears to go into slightly more detail about his experience this season than we'd heard directly so far – I'm still fairly early into it, but he does touch on the early conversations with Chief, their good relationship over the years, etc.

https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/row-z-fc-episode-7-transfers-are-on-and-whats-it-like/id1782255175?i=1000684079936

Anyway - back on topic - I think it's quite a relief to hear from Bally himself that there are seemingly no hard feelings and that him and Chief are on good terms. I've been finding it pretty awkward to think that there's bad blood because they're both likeable people and I suspect that's at least partly why a lot of fans have pretty heavily sentimental views on the whole situation.

But man, hearing him say he's desperate to play and that he's been promoting himself to pretty much anyone who'll listen is heartbreaking. So brutal.

Even just to see Ball playing for a CL club like MR or Olympic, or any NL club when it restarts again in a couple of months would be sweet.

cheesecake

Another interesting detail in that Ball chat was how he's basically reaching out to head coaches and players in the league with the aim of trying to find at least a half-year contract so he can finish off the season playing. I guess it fits with Uffie's comment in the press conference about today's coffee catch-up, too.

It'd be kind of nice if there was one that has the slot available and could use his input. I'd watch him play and hope he does well at least individually – even if it were at one of the baddie clubs. 

I’d see only the likes of the Jets (they have only 1 import?) and Roar as being interested. Yipe pro football and Father Time brutal bedfellows 

I guess he’s done all the hard yards in pre season, and so for him all that hard slog was pointless if he doesn’t now play anywhere this season 

Auckland City stint and the CWC not a bad way to finish a career!!

coochiee

cheesecake

Another interesting detail in that Ball chat was how he's basically reaching out to head coaches and players in the league with the aim of trying to find at least a half-year contract so he can finish off the season playing. I guess it fits with Uffie's comment in the press conference about today's coffee catch-up, too.

It'd be kind of nice if there was one that has the slot available and could use his input. I'd watch him play and hope he does well at least individually – even if it were at one of the baddie clubs. 

I’d see only the likes of the Jets (they have only 1 import?) and Roar as being interested. Yipe pro football and Father Time brutal bedfellows 

I guess he’s done all the hard yards in pre season, and so for him all that hard slog was pointless if he doesn’t now play anywhere this season 

Auckland City stint and the CWC not a bad way to finish a career!!

I actually think this is the way to go. Finish off your career with a win against Boca Jnrs in a packed stadium before millions of viewers on the box/net (pity Bayern are our first game instead of last).

If Auckland City were looking to bolster the squad for the CWC Bally would be a solid midfield option for them, he's fit, ready to rock and now not contracted to anyone so no tricky negotiations with another club to worry about.

It might also produce an outcome for him to have a visa extension, adding up (hopefully) to the minimum time required for the Ball family to get permanent residency here, which (as I understand) is just as important to David as it is to play some more football.

I just listened to Ball's chat with Jason Pine on the radio, a moment ago – which should hopefully be uploaded before long for those that missed it. 

While it touched on a couple of familiar topics, a detail I hadn't heard was that he'd been injured with a hernia and required surgery. This, in turn, greatly limited his preseason minutes and sounds like it can't have helped in the calculations regarding his role going forward. He'd effectively requested an extension and been turned down, too, at a relatively early point in this current season or just before it. There was also a bit of chat about his relationship with Chief and he's batted away any idea of a personal rift having formed, though it certainly sounds like he'd received some mixed messages when trying to load up in the Reserves with a view to first team contributions. 

Here it is – transcript included:
https://www.iheart.com/podcast/1049-weekend-sport-with-jason-28682347/episode/david-ball-wellington-phoenix-forward-on-259137039

Another detail I'd forgotten to mention is that he seems set to depart Wellington shortly to see an ill relative, though I don't recall it going into whether that's permanent.

Mainland FC

It might also produce an outcome for him to have a visa extension, adding up (hopefully) to the minimum time required for the Ball family to get permanent residency here, which (as I understand) is just as important to David as it is to play some more football.

This keeps coming up a lot.
It’s incorrect.
Only need to be here 2 years from application to qualify for permanent residency. If he wants to stay, surely he applied for PR ages ago. 

5 years is for citizenship, which he only needs for a) qualifying for non-visa status as an a-league player, or b) representing NZ national team.

I see no likelihood of b),  and as for a) he had a contract until the end of the season and opted to take a payout,  so if no team wants to commit a visa spot to him, then so be it. 

With PR in the bag he could still just apply for citizenship if he wants when he reaches the 5 years.

As far as I’m aware, the trip is short term and intends to stay in Wellington to work on his academy. Will be looking for a new club after that, my mate reckoned a Wellington team.

cheesecake

Another interesting detail in that Ball chat was how he's basically reaching out to head coaches and players in the league with the aim of trying to find at least a half-year contract so he can finish off the season playing. I guess it fits with Uffie's comment in the press conference about today's coffee catch-up, too.

It'd be kind of nice if there was one that has the slot available and could use his input. I'd watch him play and hope he does well at least individually – even if it were at one of the baddie clubs. 

I know of one club that is having a massive injury crisis and pulling a few uncontracted teenagers onto the bench..

WanderingSheep

As far as I’m aware, the trip is short term and intends to stay in Wellington to work on his academy. Will be looking for a new club after that, my mate reckoned a Wellington team.

Short term at Auckland City so he can go to the Club World Cup would be pretty cool

Friar Tuck

WanderingSheep

As far as I’m aware, the trip is short term and intends to stay in Wellington to work on his academy. Will be looking for a new club after that, my mate reckoned a Wellington team.

Short term at Auckland City so he can go to the Club World Cup would be pretty cool

As I think someone else mentioned earlier in the thread, it would be some way to end his career. Would love him to do it tbh.

Procrastinixing

I listened to this on the way to work. Great pod and insight into life at the nix. The bit about oldy, I actually lolled along the waterfront.

The glad wrap story was pretty funny.

Procrastinixing

The glad wrap story was pretty funny.

Sounds like frat boy hazing, Old looked kinda uncomfortable with it tbh

When I first read it I thought you were joking, in fact made a comment adjacent to it myself later.  The big danger here is what we’ve just seen; people getting into a rage about something they didn’t see and basing their rage on a third hand report.

MetalLegNZ

I made the comment - more in jest than anything... but we all know how literal people on this forum can take things.

The reality is - the coms out of the club, specifically from Chief have been odd - Paynes response to his ankle injury during an interview is a great example... same with his claims that Conchie was injured, when he wasn't. The Ball situation could have been handled better.

When the club doesn't manage its communication effectively, speculation and rumour will grow. My Rufer comment was designed to illustrate that.

You have a point there, I was focused on Bally telling the story, not Olds reaction.

valeo

Procrastinixing

The glad wrap story was pretty funny.

Sounds like frat boy hazing, Old looked kinda uncomfortable with it tbh

Napier Phoenix

When I first read it I thought you were joking, in fact made a comment adjacent to it myself later.  The big danger here is what we’ve just seen; people getting into a rage about something they didn’t see and basing their rage on a third hand report.

MetalLegNZ

I made the comment - more in jest than anything... but we all know how literal people on this forum can take things.

The reality is - the coms out of the club, specifically from Chief have been odd - Paynes response to his ankle injury during an interview is a great example... same with his claims that Conchie was injured, when he wasn't. The Ball situation could have been handled better.

When the club doesn't manage its communication effectively, speculation and rumour will grow. My Rufer comment was designed to illustrate that.

yeah, me too. i had a giggle. then saw some subsequent reactions to the post and thought to myself, shark, people are taking this seriously? 

This was a fun watch – cracked me up how they broke the story about Bally getting hair plugs in the off-season after the team's stay in Chatswood.

Good to see him doing the rounds. Bally had nice things to say about Corbin Piper too.

Also because of the weird editing I wasn't sure if Payne or Rufer was about to be a father.  

Procrastinixing

Good to see him doing the rounds. Bally had nice things to say about Corbin Piper too.

Also because of the weird editing I wasn't sure if Payne or Rufer was about to be a father.  

Rufer

Payne has recently announced his partner is pregnant - most recent post on his Instagram.

Though if Ballane says Rufer it could well be both.

Procrastinixing

Good to see him doing the rounds. Bally had nice things to say about Corbin Piper too.

Also because of the weird editing I wasn't sure if Payne or Rufer was about to be a father.  

Was quite sure it was Payne. I see Nelfoos confirmed it too.

Ah ok, cool, thanks for solving that for me