WPM R4 vs Auckland FC | Sat 8th Nov | 7:00pm | RoF / SS1

Had we won one of the derby matches last yearr I'd have expected a larger crowd this year. Add to that the unemployment situation in Wellington and the cost of living. Finding the money and time to come to a football game is tough even for those that are actually interested in the league. 
12k is ok, not fabulous but reflective of where the club, city and country is at right now.

I don't know how you could find the interview now but it was on before the game on sky sport. Had Oli and I think Elliot and someone else Rodgerson maybe give little interview things. From what I remember Oli said stuff like he has no respect for nix fans ever since how he was treated when he played for Perth (also mentioned how he should have respect because of what he did for the nix being captain and played for a long time). Anyways he mentioned when he played for Perth some nix fans were apparently throwing cans at his family and he mentioned his grandmother was there. That is what I remember but sorry I don't know how you would be able to find the video now because I don't think sky sport does that 24 play back thing. Someone please correct me or add on if you remember. 

AucklandPhoenix

There was mention just prior to the match starting in this thread about Oli Sail and his comments about threats to his family.

Does anyone have this interview?

theprof

Had we won one of the derby matches last yearr I'd have expected a larger crowd this year. Add to that the unemployment situation in Wellington and the cost of living. Finding the money and time to come to a football game is tough even for those that are actually interested in the league. 
12k is ok, not fabulous but reflective of where the club, city and country is at right now.

Yet AP still expects us to get more than the big blue,go figure. Also forgets the fact it was a big weekend in Wellington with other things on which i know were attended by some who would normally be at Phoenix games.
There is another Derby game this season so i know of people who attended either the darts or the concert in the knowledge they would still get to see one this year. 

I don’t think anyone in their right mind can consider a 12k crowd, which is 14k less than the corresponding fixture last year, acceptable.

Sure expect a decrease, but 14k is not ok.

It was a sharke season last season, but 25k attended the Wrexham game and the Nix were unbeatable this season playing their new biggest rival who were top of the league and who also brought a good number of supporters down,

I’m sure the owners don’t believe it is acceptable so no need to defend it.

A lot of woe is me in this thread.

Auckland's extra media coverage is a function of better on field performances and better marketing teams.

And from where I'm sitting, it doesn't seem like there's much self reflection at Phoenix HQ about how to improve either.

I don’t think anyone in their right mind can consider a 12k crowd, which is 14k less than the corresponding fixture last year, acceptable.

Sure expect a decrease, but 14k is not ok.

It was a sharke season last season, but 25k attended the Wrexham game and the Nix were unbeatable this season playing their new biggest rival who were top of the league and who also brought a good number of supporters down,

I’m sure the owners don’t believe it is acceptable so no need to defend it.

20 Legend

A lot of woe is me in this thread.

Auckland's extra media coverage is a function of better on field performances and better marketing teams.

And from where I'm sitting, it doesn't seem like there's much self reflection at Phoenix HQ about how to improve either.

Probably true.  Our publicity will never match the PR budget of A-FC, but often there is very little regarding the Nix. Not even small updates that the news could mention (RNZ has improved on that though).

AucklandPhoenix

I don’t think anyone in their right mind can consider a 12k crowd, which is 14k less than the corresponding fixture last year, acceptable.

Sure expect a decrease, but 14k is not ok.

It was a sharke season last season, but 25k attended the Wrexham game and the Nix were unbeatable this season playing their new biggest rival who were top of the league and who also brought a good number of supporters down,

I’m sure the owners don’t believe it is acceptable so no need to defend it.

The change in derby attendance between last season and this season can be just as much due to fewer Port supporters travelling to Welly this time, as anything else. If I understand correctly, last year they came down in droves for the derby.
Also, last year, the first derby was early in the season, so there was a strong aspect of curiosity and novelty on part of the Wellington football audience too. A moment of occasion.  This season? Not so much, for both sides; we had a feeling the Nix was up against it due to injuries and the high line of defence :-)

Even good cheap advertising/marketing ideas cost money in that you need to employ good staff who will think of and execute these things. Good people cost decent salaries. Welnix probably pay peanuts to their staff that are tasked with such things and as such you get a monkey's output.

But the obvious reasons why the crowd figure dropped so steeply are that it isn't (as) novel this year and because every man and his dog knew the Nix were going to lose and the wider NZ public hates losers. A win against the Mariners would have made a small difference but the vast majority of the damage was done last season and it will take years to repair the reputational damage now. 

Mainland FC

AucklandPhoenix

I don’t think anyone in their right mind can consider a 12k crowd, which is 14k less than the corresponding fixture last year, acceptable.

Sure expect a decrease, but 14k is not ok.

It was a sharke season last season, but 25k attended the Wrexham game and the Nix were unbeatable this season playing their new biggest rival who were top of the league and who also brought a good number of supporters down,

I’m sure the owners don’t believe it is acceptable so no need to defend it.

The change in derby attendance between last season and this season can be just as much due to fewer Port supporters travelling to Welly this time, as anything else. If I understand correctly, last year they came down in droves for the derby.
Also, last year, the first derby was early in the season, so there was a strong aspect of curiosity and novelty on part of the Wellington football audience too. A moment of occasion.  This season? Not so much, for both sides; we had a feeling the Nix was up against it due to injuries and the high line of defence :-)

We had more this year. Only had 500ish knocking on 600. We were pushing 700 this time from what I heard

Uh huh 100% not me whatsoever, no matter what YoungHeart tells you.

imanixsupporter

Even good cheap advertising/marketing ideas cost money in that you need to employ good staff who will think of and execute these things. Good people cost decent salaries. Welnix probably pay peanuts to their staff that are tasked with such things and as such you get a monkey's output.

of social media platforms I'm mostly on instagram, I don't see that much difference between the teams on that platform - maybe you could argue that the 'Nix's content is pretty evenly spread across mens and womens but this is a good thing, and it was a double header. if the 'Nix are paying peanuts then they are getting very good value for money.

I think some people will be disappointed thinking Auckland will suck in few years, It's how you setup a club, culture and people. You might don't like it, but they are very successful and they own us with 4 out 4 wins with a 6:1 destruction.
Maybe the Nix is all nice and did a lot of good for football in NZ, but maybe we also suck and it's 100% we are not able to win anything.
And don't come with the evil billionaire stuff, Welnix people are rich as fudge as well. And be seeing as not successful is also not good business.
After last year humiliation they should have restarted the whole thing but the club focused mostly on the woman team. This weeks headline is we can't win even with 9 men against Auckland.
You know, it's all good, not everyone can be number one, and we can have good time with a six 6th place. But please don't defend everything with some positive spin.

While I agree with many that 11 men should win against 9, I would be happy if we had drawn.  But we lost the game in the first minute.
While nobody can begrudge Randall an excellent (second) goal, the first one came from our sheer inexperience and lack of clarity on "who does what and when" in a high line setup. If we still lose goals, because of that, heading into fourth round, clearly this is not good enough.
If we were not 1:2 down, but at say a 1:1 draw, I think the last 15 minutes would have played out the same. A-FC would play the same way because the objective would be not to lose the game.  
If we were leading 1:0 at that time, I do not think A-FC would have parked the bus; they would try to even the score (since attacking in order to even the score would in that scenario be worth the risk of losing 2:0 at that point).
So in my books it all boils down to the defensive error in the first minute.  And unless this is ironed out, this repetitive mistake alone can cost us the season, even more than the injuries.

DefNotBigRedAFC

Uh huh 100% not me whatsoever, no matter what YoungHeart tells you.

Who let you back in here Mr Undercover from the Wrexham game? (and the pub too 🫣).

It's alright folks, he's one of the good ones.

Tuiloma would be a good AFC pickup, if he can't get another MLS gig, and he's willing to take a (big) paycut to enter the ALM. 

The Auckland-Samoan prodigal son who returns home. Obvious replacement captain for Sakai, if he goes back to Japan/retires. Some/all of Hall, Pijnaker & Girdwood-Reich could be moving on from Mt Smart next year.

Kalezic has been sacked at TSC, and Singh was left on the bench there last night. Change can happen in football quickly.

Saying they have no real intent for the overall good of NZ football is maybe a bit harsh. They went all in on recruiting as many Kiwis as possible, they have few Aussies (and 2 of the 3 they have now are huge names in Hall and Brimmer). Nix have brought in a lot of substandard Aussies over the years, when AFC have shown there were almost certainly Kiwis of equivalent quality all along, even after their future was made secure (back when the threat of losing their license was real, you could have excused it for PR reasons). 

I don't have access to a replay. Did anyone check exactly what went wrong here? I've read it was Loke's fault. But what about the rest of the backline? Randell is fast but so is Hughes, where was he? Where was the RCB Sheridan? How did that dirty plodder Cosgrove (said as a supporter of both teams) manage to find himself unmarked in front of goal - LKH's job?
To repeat, Sheridan and LKH are makeshift CBs.
Sheridan gets forward more than a natural CB would, and LKH's skillset IMO says DM or CM.
Maybe that is the problem, at least in part.

Mainland FC

While I agree with many that 11 men should win against 9, I would be happy if we had drawn.  But we lost the game in the first minute.
While nobody can begrudge Randall an excellent (second) goal, the first one came from our sheer inexperience and lack of clarity on "who does what and when" in a high line setup. If we still lose goals, because of that, heading into fourth round, clearly this is not good enough.
If we were not 1:2 down, but at say a 1:1 draw, I think the last 15 minutes would have played out the same. A-FC would play the same way because the objective would be not to lose the game.  
If we were leading 1:0 at that time, I do not think A-FC would have parked the bus; they would try to even the score (since attacking in order to even the score would in that scenario be worth the risk of losing 2:0 at that point).
So in my books it all boils down to the defensive error in the first minute.  And unless this is ironed out, this repetitive mistake alone can cost us the season, even more than the injuries.

Even good cheap advertising/marketing ideas cost money in that you need to employ good staff who will think of and execute these things. Good people cost decent salaries. Welnix probably pay peanuts to their staff that are tasked with such things and as such you get a monkey's output.

I think some people will be disappointed thinking Auckland will suck in few years, It's how you setup a club, culture and people. You might don't like it, but they are very successful and they own us with 4 out 4 wins with a 6:1 destruction.
Maybe the Nix is all nice and did a lot of good for football in NZ, but maybe we also suck and it's 100% we are not able to win anything.
And don't come with the evil billionaire stuff, Welnix people are rich as fudge as well. And be seeing as not successful is also not good business.
After last year humiliation they should have restarted the whole thing but the club focused mostly on the woman team. This weeks headline is we can't win even with 9 men against Auckland.
You know, it's all good, not everyone can be number one, and we can have good time with a six 6th place. But please don't defend everything with some positive spin.

Agree!
As well, many if not most of the reserves are young Auckland players.
And Randell, Elliot and McGarry are examples of young kiwi talents arguably undervalued by the Nix.

imanixsupporter

Saying they have no real intent for the overall good of NZ football is maybe a bit harsh. They went all in on recruiting as many Kiwis as possible, they have few Aussies (and 2 of the 3 they have now are huge names in Hall and Brimmer). Nix have brought in a lot of substandard Aussies over the years, when AFC have shown there were almost certainly Kiwis of equivalent quality all along, even after their future was made secure (back when the threat of losing their license was real, you could have excused it for PR reasons). 

nixin

Agree!
As well, many if not most of the reserves are young Auckland players.
And Randell, Elliot and McGarry are examples of young kiwi talents arguably undervalued by the Nix.

imanixsupporter

Saying they have no real intent for the overall good of NZ football is maybe a bit harsh. They went all in on recruiting as many Kiwis as possible, they have few Aussies (and 2 of the 3 they have now are huge names in Hall and Brimmer). Nix have brought in a lot of substandard Aussies over the years, when AFC have shown there were almost certainly Kiwis of equivalent quality all along, even after their future was made secure (back when the threat of losing their license was real, you could have excused it for PR reasons). 

its because they didn't go through their academy. look at Jack Henry-Sinclair, Isa Prins probably will get a trial at AFC before us.

1-match ban for Dan Hall and 2-match ban for Logan Rogerson. #ALeagues

— Jason Pine (@pineynz) November 10, 2025

Auckland obviously weren't able to get Dan Hall's red overturned

Saying they have no real intent for the overall good of NZ football is maybe a bit harsh. They went all in on recruiting as many Kiwis as possible, they have few Aussies (and 2 of the 3 they have now are huge names in Hall and Brimmer). Nix have brought in a lot of substandard Aussies over the years, when AFC have shown there were almost certainly Kiwis of equivalent quality all along, even after their future was made secure (back when the threat of losing their license was real, you could have excused it for PR reasons).