R9 v Brisbane Roar | Sat 22th Dec | 7:35 | RoF

What odds are the TAB offering for the winner of battleship this year?

I think Dale's on a streak of 2 or 3, he must be the clear favourite.

#PDBS

The battleship players or the Nix

I will trade a shark battleships game for a Phoenix win.

VAR have turned down your offer of a battleships game

We may need VAR for the battleships. There have been accusations of cheating before.

Only because of the horrendous cheating.

VAR has done nothing to stop Brosque. What makes you think the VAR can help you?

Santa Hats at the ready !

Have we ever won 3 in a row before?.

[quote=Royz]

Have we ever won 3 in a row before?.

[/quote

We have won 4 in a row  a few times.

Last time three games without a lost was R15-17 last season with a Win, Draw, Win. Last three wins in a row was round 5-7 season 16/17. 

Our best run was season 14/15 where we went 7 games undefeated including four wins in a row. (WWDWWWW) we have two lots of four wins in a row that season ending up 4th (5th but Perth was disqualified)

God I hope we win this one. 

Friday I'm driving to Whanganui to drop off the fam, coming back Saturday, then driving back Sunday to grab them and come back home. 

If we get pumped then Sunday is going to feel like a long ass drive. 

If we lose I'm cancelling Christmas.

Is Kopczynski expected to recover for the Brisbane game?

Soooooo pumped for this one

Apparently he was a part of the warm down, so I'd say yes.

To be honest, he's done well but out of everyone - he's probably the most expendable with Doyle there and Fox. (it's still crazy to me that Fox hasn't been given much of a go considering he was our best last season)

disagree, whilst Kop might have more deputies to play his position he is clearly the best distributor in our backline and a big reason we are keeping the ball more. His loss would be felt more than Durante and Taylor IMO.

I only watched the CCM game in spurts because I was at a wedding - how did we go when Kopy went off?

Saying his loss would be felt more than Taylor seems a huge over exaggeration, no?

Kopa and Mandy are a massive improvements to our midfield. Mandy can hold the ball like no other player and is passing is top quality. Kopa's positioning is awesome, he intercepts the ball and moves it quickly forward, I like.

The good thing with Kopa, Mandy, Tayler, Kurto is that you know they will play like that for the rest of the season. This is exactly what we expects from our imports. The rest of the team, especially the youngsters,  can build and learn on that.

Looking forward to trash Brisbane, we need more points.

Seeing Mandi provides the evidence of why we needed to upgrade from A-Rod.  He's just got more things he is able to do, including shooting from distance, which makes us so much more complete as a team.  He's not quick but he's clearly a quality player

Agreed, does a lot of the leg work and tidying up. Allows the other two to play on the front foot at times too. Hoping he makes the starting XI. Not able to make a game until the next CCM home game, so hoping we can continue the decent run and build a good head of steam! 

Fanpass are offering a $1 weekend pass for this weekend, this will include the Nix. Cant think what else is on, but there's an option for anyone without Sky

i have had a lot of those long ass drives back to wanganui after losses since 07 and i can tell you they are not much fun.

i have been using fan pass this year to watch nix away games and it is great most of the time but sometimes the volume disappears or you have playback problems.

This would rank as the greatest (and fastest) turnaround in any Nix player reputation, like, ever.

I think a lot of people (myself included), listened to reports of some YF members who said Kopa was pants when playing for the reserves and his continued absence from the first team made us, who hadn’t seen him, think he must be rubbish. From the first time I saw him play I was impressed he is really a good accomplished and steady footballer. Not flashy but gets the job done with an air of aplomb. 

The other side of it also is that Kopa played as a midfielder in pre-season, and a lot of the comments were based on his inability to impose himself in that role (and Rudan obviously saw the same thing, since Rufer and Mandi have been the preferred midfield pairing).

Putting Kopa at the back has rejuvenated his Nix career because it puts him in a position where his good attributes (composure on the ball and passing forward) are accentuated, while the weaker part of his game (dropping deeper to receive the ball, and turning and driving the team forward) is not something that's asked of him anymore. The fact that we're playing a back 3 with wing-backs also means that he's not too exposed as an inexperienced defender, so it's actually been a tactical master-stroke by Rudan.

Holy crap, you live in Whanganui and still do the trips?  I commend your excellence and tip my hat sir.

I thought driving to and from Masterton for every game for a couple of seasons was tough, and thought doing the Whanganui trek twice was impressive, but you are a champion.

Any Nelsonites able to give me the name of a bar that's likely to show the game please?

Ditto for Auckland - West Coast beaches side?

For the roar after 3 loses this game is gonna be real backs against the wall stuff for the players and the coach. Even without Bautheac they still have plenty of threats in there team, particularly Lopez. I'm sure they are going to come out firing for a win, so I hope we can match that with our own attitude and intensity. Who ever scores first will be crucial. Our front line is starting to really fire, would love to see Burns get on the score sheet early in this one and give us the momentum to push on for a good win.

Phoenix 2-1, Taggart to score. Hopefully Burnsy can get himself on the scoresheet. 

Huge game! Everyone try get a mate along so we can get 10k. I could do with winning 19 grand

Referee: Kurt Ams
Assistant Referee 1: James Tesoriero
Assistant Referee 2: Kearney Robinson
Fourth Official: Jack Morgan
VAR: Nick Waldron

Wellington Phoenix squad: 1.Filip KURTO, 4.Mandi SOSA, 5.Ryan LOWRY, 6.Dylan FOX, 8.Mitch NICHOLS, 9.Nathan BURNS, 11.David WILLIAMS, 13.Liberato CACACE, 14.Alex RUFER, 15.Michal KOPZCYNSKI, 16.Louis FENTON, 18.Sarpreet SINGH, 19.Tom DOYLE, 20.Oliver SAIL (gk), 21.Roy KRISHNA, 22.Andrew DURANTE (c), 23.Max BURGESS, 27.Steven TAYLOR ** two be omitted**

Brisbane Roar FC squad: 1.Brendan WHITE (gk), 2.Dane INGHAM, 4.Daniel BOWLES, 6.Avram PAPADOPOULOS, 7.Thomas KRISTENSEN, 8.Jacob PEPPER, 9.Adam TAGGART, 13.Stefan MAUK, 14.Alex LOPEZ, 17.Matt MCKAY (c), 18.Joe CALETTI, 19.Jack HINGERT, 20.Shannon BRADY, 21.Jamie YOUNG (gk), 22.Tobias MIKKELSEN, 24.Connor O’TOOLE, 26.Nick D’AGOSTINO, 33.HENRIQUE **two to be omitted**

Mandi replaces Goran Paracki. 

Rodriguez was already replaced last season.

Mandi's not as good as Paracki at his best, but does seem more consistent.

Wakatu has Sky and will put it on if you ask (well they used to)

Not sure what state the Royal (across the road) is in had become a backpackers last time I was there not sure if they had Sky, but if they do they should show it. Good thing about Nelson is the pubs in the town are all very close, basic rule though is if its craft beer (which a lot of them are - what do you expect with 14+ breweries in the area) it probably wont have a TV