Tony P to pull plug on Phoenix Oly-Whites

Tony P to pull plug on Phoenix Oly-Whites

So it looks like the Phoenix will not allow Smeltz and Lockhead to go to the Olympics. Tough call on the players but I for one am 100% behind the club on this one.

oooooo that's a big call, source??? theprof2008-05-21 11:27:01

Dompost today.

Sauce

It's on the front page !!!

Why do we bother ! 

Excellent news as far as I'm concerned.

Maybe most folk are like me and have 'active topics' bookmarked and never go to the frontpage!

And thats why there's an RSS feed.

mmm, RSS...

Good Call - bit hard on the players but the club pay the wages and our season is to short for two of our certain starters to be missing games. Probably more likely that one of them would get the call up rather than both anyway Fulham are hardly going to stop Elliot and according to Stu Jacobs Killen is available, im guessing mark hughes wouldnt let Nelson go without a fight!

Normally I would be a bit disappointed in the club for not releasing players for international or olympic matches, but if our three UK based players are going and will fill the overage slots on the starting roster, maybe it's not such a big deal. Would hate to see the Phoenix make the sacrifice if the Smeltz and Lochheard were going to be on the bench? jamesnz2008-05-21 12:42:51

Boooooo!

Club before country... well for the olympics anyway.  Were the football matches from the last olympics even televised here?

Totally agree with Termy. 

If Kill'em goes and Elliot, they really need an experianced defender to balance the team(assuming no Nelson) I am surprised they didn't include Vilicich...or some other older player to anchor the defense.....they sure as hell will need it against the likes of Brazil

QFT.

The Europe players - out of season and better players anyway - should go. I see no reason why they wont. All of the top stars from other Euro clubs are going. (Adebayor to Togo, Messi, Riquelme to Argie)

Shouldn't even need to think about getting Smeltz or Lochhead imo.
valeo2008-05-21 13:33:58

The price of being a professional player. Still if our lads made it to the World Cup finals, I doubt if the Nix would not allow them to go. That's the real trophy. Lonegunmen2008-05-21 14:27:38

Put the 5 coloured rings in front of something - and NZ goes ga-ga.  FFS.  If Mark 'It wasn't me in the photo' Todd is in the running for a gold medal - horse jumping will become NZ's national sport in August.  If you can't see the importance of Olympic football to NZ, you're thick.

Term and Stevo fighting the good fight.

A Phoenix finals presence would do good things for football here, but as Steve says a good display at the Olympics will get coverage from all the sports media.  A good Olympics display would bring people in at the Phoenix if you can cross-promote the positives.

If we can spare a player for a couple of weeks in the wider interests of the game here I think it needs to be considered.

So are the people who think this is a good thing going to cut Nelsen/Blackburn some slack if he ends up not been able to play due to club commitments?

It's easy to say it's a good move when it involves the club you support, but lets say Smeltz played for Queensland, and they wouldnt let him play the olypmics, then I'm guessing lots of the people who say it is a good decision would be angry...

Riquelme plays for Boca Juniors.

There is no quation of clubs not releasing players for the World Cup, that's why it's always held in the off-season of most leagues in the world.

Completely agree with the rest of the post.

And Messi is U23, so has to be released.

And Kaka isn't going.yomcat2008-05-21 14:39:28

Yeah sorry - I knew that.

Still - we shouldn't need Smeltz/Lochhead to play in the Olympics. Killen, Vicelich/Nelsen , Elliot would be better anyway..

Ronaldinho and Alex are playing for Brazil too.
valeo2008-05-21 14:55:39

Depends where we have gaps, if there is no other Left back then Lochhead is pretty important.  Also if Killen is unavailable (and lets face it injury is a reasonable chance with him) it leaves us short on goal scorers.

I still think that Smeltz and Lochhead are more important to the Nix than the Olympics team. I will always support the national team and agree that sucess at the Olympics would do big things for the coverage in NZ but the chance of that happening is slim to none. There is a much bigger chance that the Nix will do well in the A-League next year. It sucks - but they're the facts.

Do you know which Alex?

Scarey stuff....Oly-Whites vs Brazil...Old vs Ronaldinno

Don't forget Michael Boxall and Jack Pelter... suspect they may have a foot in ahead of Old. 

Pelter wasn't available for the Qualifiers and Boxall started with Old.  Add Nelsen and Old is probably 4th cab off the rank.  However, none of them is a Left back...  therefore Lochhead strikes me as highly likely.

How about Feverish?

What a great battle that would be - Ronaldinho vs. the Illustrious Leader. Not to mention a huge ratings hit.

I'd give the king of Red Mist 45 seconds before we see the Bobsled.

Overly generous there HN...

The problem is Smeltz and Lochead are so vital to the nix.... We lack experienced strikers and wide defencive players. If those two didn't play I think especially in the striker department we would struggle.

Let's wait and see what other strikers we have.  They seem to want two more.

Well - we're struggling to just get one at the moment..

Unbelievable.

I reckon if we are giving up Costa, Draper and Hearfield to the Olympics...thats enough for one club. If we loose two more then it would be a nightmare. Don't forget that the squads will be away for pre Olympic camps and games. If the Phoenix lost nearly a quarter of their players it impacts on the training too. You can't have mock games with less than 22 players. The whole thing would put a major downer on the start to the Phoenix season.

There is also injuries to think of as well. Early last season we had about 6 guys injured...if that happens again then with 5 at the Olympics we would struggle to get a match day squad.

That would be him getting his winter and summer olympics mixed up.