Huawei Wellington United Phoenix Academy Football School of Excellence - WeeNix
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over 1 year ago
maynardf
coochiee
No idea what the partnership actually means in a practical sense, but nice to see this sort of collaboration. NZ too small a football talent pool for it not to happen. And Pragnell showing the Nix some love, not just Auckland.
The partnership is agreed for an initial two-year term and comes into effect immediately.
Announcement on YT said this was a 'Significant 6 figure sum' - sounds very positive to me!
Just listened in to the presser on YouTube. Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant stuff.
My biggest couple of take outs from all of this - first of course is the FIFA investment, but secondly to also see the Nix going and starting a residential boarding programme next year (18 boys + 18 girls) to be based at NZCIS.
That second one for mine is really impressive stuff by the club, to be able to go and combine education with a footballing education, aided of course by the world class facilities at NZCIS. This could be a real game changer for football in this country, especially if the programmes and investment continue beyond the initial two year term touted in the release.
The Wellington Phoenix have reluctantly accepted Lee Padmore’s resignation as the club’s academy director.
While he has only been academy director since early February, Padmore has led the eight age-group teams and staff at Fraser Park through a great deal of change and has been… pic.twitter.com/AWmUiHgXSh
Ban ends July next year? Was imposed July this year.
Next major event for Ferns is 2027 WWC, so that would still have her in place for 2 years before then. I think we are of all sick of coach-player fallouts with the Ferns. Better to take the time and try get any appointment right. No rush.
As above the Matildas are finding it hard to get a new permanent coach. Will be much much harder again for little ole NZF.
If Priestman is the standout candidate almost gifted to NZF by Dronegate, be silly not to seriously consider her I reckon.
Maybe her wife Emma now at the Nix is just a coincidence, but I'm sure the Phoenix are hoping Humphries appointment is a long term one - so the couple will be in NZ awhile you'd imagine. They have a child together.
Wonder where her wife will try and pop up? Or is she completely banned from coaching at any decent level?
I'd wager she could be the next Ferns coach.
Tom Sermanni suggests she'd be a good fit. He's still the interim Matildas boss by the way, FA struggling to find a full time replacement.
Would NZ Football want to wait a whole year to appoint a new Ferns coach?
They almost did that very thing before appointing the mens one so why not? It would be a bit of a kick in the teeth though for some of the players who were at the WC when the drone incident occurred to then be coached by the perp.
Wellington Phoenix entered the world of futsal for the first time last week at the 2024 Youth Futsal Championships 🏆🆕
Hear from @WgtnPhoenixAcad coach Luke Tounge about the benefits that futsal brings to a players development, and why the Phoenix are integrating futsal into… pic.twitter.com/5xan2c8IPV
The centre-back has been appointed the academy’s youth female sport scientist.
Ben Maunsell, Alex Richardson and Grayson Harwood have been appointed to the head of male sport science, head of performance analysis and head of… pic.twitter.com/v9fUPuOmHw
So with the A-League season drawing to its glorious end I've been trying to get up to speed with the domestic competitions (brand new territory for me), including where our Academy teams feature in them. Predictably I'm now utterly confused about which teams the Academy even fields, so I was hoping someone here could help clear things up please.
In the men's competitions we have the Reserves in the Central League, the Thirds in the Capital Premier and the Fourths in Capital 1. Are these actually all Academy teams, and if so are they the only men's / boys' ones? Do they participate in other age-graded competitions, or do we also have age-graded teams for those ones?
For the women's teams all I can find is an out-of-date page on the Reserves, and that we have an Academy U18 Girls team competing in the Women's Central League. I assume the Reserves can include 18- and 19-year olds, so does that mean we have other women's / girls' Academy teams outside the local domestic comps? If so, where do they play?
Sorry if these questions are already answered in this thread, 59 pages of erudite commentary is a lot to read through... But thanks for any clarification!
EDIT: And of course within minutes of posting this I realise I'd overlooked an Academy news item that talks about U17 / U15 boys and girls teams. But I'm still not clear on the Reserves pathway, which is what interests me most as a source of future first-team talent.
So with the A-League season drawing to its glorious end I've been trying to get up to speed with the domestic competitions (brand new territory for me), including where our Academy teams feature in them. Predictably I'm now utterly confused about which teams the Academy even fields, so I was hoping someone here could help clear things up please.
In the men's competitions we have the Reserves in the Central League, the Thirds in the Capital Premier and the Fourths in Capital 1. Are these actually all Academy teams, and if so are they the only men's / boys' ones? Do they participate in other age-graded competitions, or do we also have age-graded teams for those ones?
For the women's teams all I can find is an out-of-date page on the Reserves, and that we have an Academy U18 Girls team competing in the Women's Central League. I assume the Reserves can include 18- and 19-year olds, so does that mean we have other women's / girls' Academy teams outside the local domestic comps? If so, where do they play?
Sorry if these questions are already answered in this thread, 59 pages of erudite commentary is a lot to read through... But thanks for any clarification!
EDIT: And of course within minutes of posting this I realise I'd overlooked an Academy news item that talks about U17 / U15 boys and girls teams. But I'm still not clear on the Reserves pathway, which is what interests me most as a source of future first-team talent.
Fixtures aren't out for this year yet but look at https://www.capitalfootball.org.nz/fixtures-results/youth/capital-development-leagues and the U-15 mixed, you'll see thats where the women reserves were last year, and given how matched they were where I'd expect to see them again this year (and also a hint on why the u18-girls are moving out of that grade to WCL)
Cheers for that, even though we have a youth team playing in a senior comp this year I hadn't clicked that it could go the other way as well.
Last year's CDL results raise even more questions, but they're probably better asked in other threads so I'll try not to derail this one. But ouch 2024 wasn't kind to our Women's Reserves, let alone the U18 Girls!
Circling back to this for the sake of completeness after it was mentioned at the members' day we field eight Academy teams - I think this is all of them for 2025, excluding futsal and national age-grade competitions?
Some interesting comments from Shaun Gill on the Academy.
Other clubs, notably Auckland FC, are going away from the academy model and are instead partnering with junior clubs. Why is the academy a key part of the club’s professional pathway?
The academy for us is really critical to be able to bring kids in, and particularly from an early phase it’s largely Wellington based kids. We do get some kids that move from other parts of the country, particularly from the South Island and more rural areas. As they go through that academy programme that balance probably becomes a bit more 60-40, 50-50 with the Wellington kids and the kids coming from outside the region.
We feel like it’s a good opportunity to be able to bring the kids in, put them in a very, very good environment supported with all of the high performance stuff that we do, the coaching that we do and to be able to develop them in the way that we feel is necessary based on the way that the club wants to play on a curriculum underneath that that prepares them for first team football.
The evolution over the last 12 years that they’ve been doing it we’re now starting to see particularly with the likes of Ben Old, Alex Paulsen, Finn Surman, Ben Waine, Liberato Cacace and Sarpreet Singh is that the model works and the model is right for us as a football club.
We’re very fortunate that the owners are prepared to invest in that and the investment in the A-League women’s programme is strong as well. What we’re seeing now is an A-League football club that is not just about one men’s team. It’s about an A-League men’s team, it’s about an A-League women’s team and it’s about eight teams at the academy and trying to create success across that whole group of teams, not just one team.
If we can be successful in the A-League women’s then we take that as a success. If we can be successful in the A-League men’s and the A-League women’s that’s even better. If we can win the National League that’s great and if we can get to the OFC Pro League, win that and get to a Club World Cup then that’s gold for us.
But results on the pitch are not just the only key measure of success. Being able to put these young men and young women into overseas environments is also critical.
Congrats to the @WgtnPhoenixAcad boys U15 side who have won the @ChristchurchUtd International Cup beating Fencibles 3-1 in the final this afternoon. Tournament results: P6 W6 GF 32 GA 1. Well done to Coach Luke Tongue and all the team!
The Wellington Phoenix academy turned heads on the world stage on Saturday night.
A remarkable 21 past or present Phoenix academy players helped Wellington stun global football sensations Wrexham AFC 1-0 in front of 25,399 fans at Sky Stadium, with current reserve team striker Luke Flowerdew scoring the match-winner early in the second half.
Seven academy graduates (Fin Roa Conchie, Isaac Hughes, Gabriel Sloane-Rodrigues, Lukas Kelly-Heald, Xuan Loke, Matt Sheridan and Jayden Smith) started the match, before another grad (Luke Supyk) and nine current reserve team players (Ryan Lee, Ryan Watson, Dylan Gardiner, Anaru Cassidy, Fergus Gillion, Lewis Partridge, Lachlan Candy, Flowerdew and Mac Munro) started the second half. A further four (Eamonn McCarron, Nick Murphy, Luke Mitchell and Dan Makowem) came on as second half substitutes and helped secure the momentous result.
Wrexham manager Phil Parkinson was quick to give credit to the Phoenix, especially the reserve squad members that featured in the second half. https://youtu.be/3b0I4dEob2I
“I just felt the youngsters…had so much enthusiasm and energy about them and you could see what a big night it was for them playing in front of 25 thousand people,” Parkinson told media post-match.
“To be fair to them the manager will be very pleased with how they’ve stood up to that challenge.
“They defended for their lives at times, always looked a threat on the counter [and] got good energy in the team. As we know they’re all fit, athletic lads.”
Fitter, faster, stronger is the academy’s mantra and the players’ athleticism is what stood out for Parkinson from the team’s three-match tour against A-League opposition.
“The key is…running power. I spoke to the sport scientist here before the game and I was asking him about their physical data, and it was high, very high.
“That’s great for us coming up against that.
“Sometimes young players may lack the strength and physicality at this moment to play in Europe but their ability to cover the ground quickly was there for all to see.
“It looks like the A-League is producing some young talent which is fantastic for the sport over here.”
Two things... firstly, a search enging on here would be quite helpful.
Second, I created a chat a while back around football ID and how it works with the NIX, mainly because like many on here, we live and breathe footy to our detriment and see some good kids come across out paths.
Anyways, the kid I was thinking about specifically when I wrote the post has been invited down to the NIX - so whatever scout network they have, it is working, at least in this kids case.
Quality young footballer in the making - so hope he goes well.
Two things... firstly, a search enging on here would be quite helpful.
Second, I created a chat a while back around football ID and how it works with the NIX, mainly because like many on here, we live and breathe footy to our detriment and see some good kids come across out paths.
Anyways, the kid I was thinking about specifically when I wrote the post has been invited down to the NIX - so whatever scout network they have, it is working, at least in this kids case.
Quality young footballer in the making - so hope he goes well.
What's the kids name and where has he been playing?
Two things... firstly, a search enging on here would be quite helpful.
Second, I created a chat a while back around football ID and how it works with the NIX, mainly because like many on here, we live and breathe footy to our detriment and see some good kids come across out paths.
Anyways, the kid I was thinking about specifically when I wrote the post has been invited down to the NIX - so whatever scout network they have, it is working, at least in this kids case.
Quality young footballer in the making - so hope he goes well.
What's the kids name and where has he been playing?
I'll share after he's gone down and come back up. Not my place to share his personal details beforehand.
It's interesting how Nix are driving forward with their academy alongside investment in the boarding facilities at NZCIS. AFC have elected not to go down the Academy path so will be interesting to see if Nix's approach yields results.
An overseas academy director once told me, though, that they can't tell if a players is going to be any good or not until they are around 16 as they develop physically. Seems like getting u14 players in may be a little early.
It's interesting how Nix are driving forward with their academy alongside investment in the boarding facilities at NZCIS. AFC have elected not to go down the Academy path so will be interesting to see if Nix's approach yields results.
An overseas academy director once told me, though, that they can't tell if a players is going to be any good or not until they are around 16 as they develop physically. Seems like getting u14 players in may be a little early.
I don't know if I agree with the above. I have seen 4 kids across the yeats (i'm a teacher) at 8 - 12 years old and said they will make NZ... all have in different sports. I think you can definately see talent at an early age.
The above, may be more outliers than the norm admittedly.
I think the fact that academies overseas start picking up players at 6/7 years of age is sill personally, but by 10 I can see the logic. Things like body feints and shifts, are they natural etc come early. Teaching kids to understand the game, a little later.
Well according to Wegner it likely depends if you are in a good technical coaching environment between ages 7-14. Then yes ages 14-17 is a physical emphasis.
Remembering that the longer in years a player is at the Nix Academy, the higher the potential valuable solidarity payments for the Nix down the track. That's if that ex Weenix alumni is one of the small number of grads eventually sold onto an overseas club.
Auckland FC have a wider Upper North Island catchment of close to 3 million people, within a 3 hour drive of the 09. That's a big potential talent base. They can just employ football development officers in the BOP, Waikato, Auckland and Northland. Hold regular training & scouting camps. Pick some rep type teams. Give them some nice free AFC merch. Identify the most talented age 13-16 kids for some quality coaching, tailored training and later bring the best to the Auckland Reserves setup from about age 17 onwards.
The Nix don't have that luxury, recruiting from basically the whole country. It's hard to keep tabs on a kid in Dunedin, and ensuring he/she is getting access to top coaching etc etc, without bringing them into the Academy.
make no mistake, that the Phoenix are a business that generates a significant revenue stream from academy subscriptions.
maybe someone here knows the answer to the following questions...
at what age or stage does a phoenix academy player stop paying to attend?
does the phoenix scholarship in highly promising players? for example a young candidate scouted from out of town?
ole have schaolarships for players who otherwise cannot afford it. do the phoenix do this?
they do, Singh and Max Mata both did, as did Raphael Leai. Iirc this was boarding and education at Scots. I do see kids boarding at St Pats and Dome recently said they have kids staying at nzcis and recently Nix were looking to hire someone to provide pastoral care for kids under Nix care
Would be interesting to weigh up the Auckland multi club ownership vs the Nix history of selling to big clubs overseas ie Bayern, Portland etc when it comes to deciding which team to sign for as a prospect.
Would be interesting to weigh up the Auckland multi club ownership vs the Nix history of selling to big clubs overseas ie Bayern, Portland etc when it comes to deciding which team to sign for as a prospect.
Portland would be flattered to be mentioned in the same breath as Bayern Munich. But I get what you meant. 😆
I talked to someone who had been involved heavily at the Wellington Phoenix up until recent times about this same thing. Let's call him Steve Coleman.
The gist of the conversation being - While Wellington continue to play youth and give opportunities to talented young players coming through, then Wellington should be the team of choice for any prospect coming through in this country.
The other side of the conversation was that if you're wanting to win, then you're probably going to look at Auckland - Knowing of course that minutes for younger players coming through will likely be limited initially, but that perhaps over the course of the next 2-3 seasons then perhaps those opportunities may come through more frequently.
It hurt to hear that, but he is 100% right.
*Conversation was held in the latter part of last season*
