R12 v Western Sydney Wanderers | Tues 8th Jan | 9:50pm | ANZ Stadium

Fitness can also be clmate based. i.e. ready to play in Sydney after having just left the snow and ice of Europe

Referee: Jonathan Barreiro
Assistant Referee 1: Owen Goldrick
Assistant Referee 2: Kearney Robinson
Fourth Official: Ben Abraham
VAR: Kris Griffiths-Jones

Under Barreiro:

Nix - P5 W2 D0 L3

WSW - P5 W0 D2 L3

This could well be the first instance that our opposition has a worse record under a referee than us.

given most of the RBB are staying away in protest theres probably a good chance that you and the other nix fans will outnumber them!

It takes 48 hours to get a work visa in Australia, CCM probably just don't want to pay extra to expedite it.

Maybe WSW will need to get some fans imported now that RBB are not turning up.  

Their metrics must be up the creek. FFA, are you aware that WSW is yet another club squatting on their licence?

Will be interesting to see how the Ru manages his men on a 3 day turnaround.

Harsh. It was a red, and it was deliberate,  but three matches is tough 

Burgess is yet to show me he's at that level, stuff he tries comes off too rarely so far

Protesting what?! 

 Yet another section of active support driven away by poor policing, I assume? Already happened to large swathes of the Vuc support.

Would prefer to have him play the full game picking up a yellow, then rest him for CCM when he's suspended anyway (same with Fenton, Elliot can come in for him). Rest period could do him a ton of good like you say

don't think there's an active protest just many of them staying away from the games

Looking like we are in for a wet one, thunderstorms forecast for the evening in Sydney.

I'm still really struggling to see what our tactics will be here with Mandi out. Kopa into defence, Nichols CM, Cacace rested and Doyle out wide?

Annoyed at the guys bagging Fenton and Cacace who were really targeted- they've performed above expectations this season and played a part in our wins. 

Burns ahead of Williams? Just a bit more trickery, though less of a goal threat perhaps.

Will we change our fundamental game plan as we'll be tired and missing key personal

me at work today       COYN

When it comes to the game tonight, I bet you Wish You Were There

It's the greatest irony of all that a team from Wellington always seems to play shark in the rain.

In Wellington it never rains. In Wellington it's always sunny.

Hopefully the lads have rested up good. Cant bear to see another game like Adelaide.

The fact that you're saying that after a 0-0 draw shows just how far we've come, good stuff

Wellington does have below average rainfall for NZ and is often the best of the major cities.

thats cause the wind blows it away

True; though that Adelaide game was painful to watch; no dynamism at all, we really struggled. Will be interesting to see if we can get back to the level where we need to be v WSW, especially without Mandi.

Any word on Cillian yet? 

3 away games in quick succession.......these should give an insight into the depth, talent and fitness of Rudan's squad.        Looked like plan A was not working against Adelaide.     Hopefully he has the nous and the players to , if necessary,  adjust  tactics mid --game tonight. 

Looks like he won't be playing. Disappointing, but what can you do? 

I am not sure anyone is bagging Cacace and Fenton.  Actually, in terms of relative improvement from his previous season(s), I am absolutely stoked for Fenton. He has a new lease of life on his footballing career under Rudan.

Cacace clearly had a shocker against Adelaide and he looks like he needs a break. Has had a great season, and I really rate him though. Fenton has done very well too.

Fenton has improved a lot, I'd still like to see go down the line more and cross it because he has a bad tendancy to hesitate and either cut in or go back especially with Cillian in the team now 

Do we know why Cillian isn't in the line-up?

I would have thought he would be perfect to whip out with the short turn around. 

I wouldn't be surprised if he needs weather / climate adjustment.

Possibly Rudan wanted him to be at the games and interacting with the rest of the team during this tight turnaround time.

I agree, a break would probably be a good idea. It's a tough ask on an 18 year old to play so many games in such a short time frame, no matter how good he is. He struggled badly with Kamau last time and after the problems he had with Ryan Strain the other night I fear he will be targeted again tonight to our cost.

Personally wouldn't mind seeing a bit of a defensive rejig with Doyle taking his role.

What are the odds of a good stream magically appearing tonight? Way too late for the ir me to go to 4Kingz. In fact, I should really be asleep by kick off but am willing to suffer through a sharky Wednesday if I get to see the game at home...