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WPM R26 @ Macarthur FC | Fri 24th Apr | 9:35pm | Sky Sport 3

161 replies · 5,876 views

6 days ago

Glad to didn’t bother with staying up for it, but didn’t expect such a horrific scoreline. Sounds like one of the few positives is that the season is over. It’s going to be one of the most interesting off seasons in a long while, given the uncertainty around the skipper. The club needs to do a lot of soul searching during this time, to win back the fans it may have already lost on the means side. A lot to replace and change.

Still, there is so much positivity around the women’s side, I hope they get rewarded for it.

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6 days ago

I am off to bed!!!!!!!!

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6 days ago

AucklandPhoenix wrote:
Yes and it was a pen

never in a million sunday's was that a pen, arm in a natural position, not moving towards the ball, relative distance between players is small - if you're blowing the whistle for a pen, you should never ever ref a game EVER!!!

Queenslander 3x a year.

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6 days ago

Don’t worry- Wood’s back and scored!

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6 days ago

It’s odd. Would Greenie have started that team if it had been a live game?

Giving Khartum a chance to make his case?

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6 days ago

martinb wrote:
Don’t worry- Wood’s back and scored!

How does that help the Phoenix?

Three for me, and two for them.

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6 days ago

Buffon II wrote:
martinb wrote:
Don’t worry- Wood’s back and scored!

How does that help the Phoenix?

Helps me! That was miserable yesterday. A greatest hits of our misery. Senior players not turning up, senior players missing from dodgy reffing, players failing to show needed quality, squad imbalances revealed, injuries leaving us asking what if, injuries causing players to be played out of position, a weak mentality, a team dependent on Rufer, soft goals, Payne’s mysterious lethargy, no left side, odd selections, Najarrine failing to play simple passes…even what I thought of as a positive with Piper rampaging, even throwing in some step overs accidentally from being in proximity to Brooke-Smith, but even from that not being to find strike partners or finish after a run…

Having to listen to the commentators tell us that was a good crowd.

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6 days ago

Was Hughes wearing the Captains armband once Nagasawa was subbed off?

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6 days ago

Procrastinixing wrote:
Was Hughes wearing the Captains armband once Nagasawa was subbed off?

I also wondered about LKH as a potential captain. But then he needs a position to play for that! He seemed to take on a fair amount of responsibility. But yeh left side CB of a 3, but not displacing Tuiloma or Hughes…

Unless we push Bill up into a DM and had Hughes and LKH as the back 2…or Bill goes right back and we try Payney as DM…a bit late to learn to spin like Rufer? But he’s got plenty of other up sides…none of that is happening tho…

I think as much as we missed Rufer, we also missed Nagasawa and Najarrine carrying the ball and linking play from the 10s.

Eh…see you in 6 months and no Australia Cup…

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6 days ago

martinb wrote:
Procrastinixing wrote:
Was Hughes wearing the Captains armband once Nagasawa was subbed off?
I also wondered about LKH as a potential captain. But then he needs a position to play for that! He seemed to take on a fair amount of responsibility. But yeh left side CB of a 3, but not displacing Tuiloma or Hughes…

Unless we push Bill up into a DM and had Hughes and LKH as the back 2…or Bill goes right back and we try Payney as DM…a bit late to learn to spin like Rufer? But he’s got plenty of other up sides…none of that is happening tho…

I think as much as we missed Rufer, we also missed Nagasawa and Najarrine carrying the ball and linking play from the 10s.

Eh…see you in 6 months and no Australia Cup…

LKH as Captain???? What have you seen to warrent that? He has zero voice, shys away from tackles and is constantly one of our worst players.

If this happens we may as well accept mediocrity.

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6 days ago

MannyMuscatsBrother wrote:
martinb wrote:
Procrastinixing wrote:
Was Hughes wearing the Captains armband once Nagasawa was subbed off?
I also wondered about LKH as a potential captain. But then he needs a position to play for that! He seemed to take on a fair amount of responsibility. But yeh left side CB of a 3, but not displacing Tuiloma or Hughes…

Unless we push Bill up into a DM and had Hughes and LKH as the back 2…or Bill goes right back and we try Payney as DM…a bit late to learn to spin like Rufer? But he’s got plenty of other up sides…none of that is happening tho…

I think as much as we missed Rufer, we also missed Nagasawa and Najarrine carrying the ball and linking play from the 10s.

Eh…see you in 6 months and no Australia Cup…
LKH as Captain???? What have you seen to warrent that? He has zero voice, shys away from tackles and is constantly one of our worst players.

If this happens we may as well accept mediocrity.

He led New Zealand well at that age group World Cup.

I felt when he came on he was standing a bit taller and leading, looking to make play, constantly scanning and a bit different to what we’ve seen.

I don’t think I’ve seen him shy away from tackles, but that’s your opinion.

And you’re right, he’s not our best player. At least at the moment. Bill, Payney, Hughes are all better at this moment. But your best player isn’t always your best captain.

It was just a gut feeling.

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6 days ago

LKH is not good enough for the A League- let alone be in a conversation about being a capatin.

He, like Sheridan, sort of feels like a robotic academy product with no X factor (pace, mongrel, whatever).

The Nix need to wipe the slate of that cohort of academy products (aside from
Hughes who really came good this year) and blood rhew next ones.

Keeping LKH, FRC, MS is consigning the Nix to mediocrity and also, frankly, just bad busness if their model is to develop and export. Nobody is buying those players so they need to be moved on.

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6 days ago

JasperNix wrote:
LKH is not good enough for the A League- let alone be in a conversation about being a capatin.

He, like Sheridan, sort of feels like a robotic academy product with no X factor (pace, mongrel, whatever).

The Nix need to wipe the slate of that cohort of academy products (aside from
Hughes who really came good this year) and blood rhew next ones.

Keeping LKH, FRC, MS is consigning the Nix to mediocrity and also, frankly, just bad busness if their model is to develop and export. Nobody is buying those players so they need to be moved on.

Certainly there’s enough evidence to support your view.

I think Conchie is likely done.

I do just wonder if there is a bit of a spark there with LKH. Perhaps he could add a little bulk to go with the rest, especially with wrestling around the penalty spot being popular.But certainly we used to not see academy graduates unless they’d forced their way forward. It’s hard to say those three names have pushed their case through sustained good form or performances.

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mjni

6 days ago

Find many of the comments about LKH by some of you very interesting because having spoken to some senior players the last 3 seasons they ALL rate him. Thats a mixture of senior locals and Visa players, yet according to some of the armchair coaches on here he should be discarded.

GET YOUR SHIRTS OFF FOR THE BOYS

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6 days ago

I have watched him and his brother play since he played ftc football. He has never been good. His height has helped him immensly - I'd love to know what these attributes are they see. Just watch any time he goes 1v1, forever getting skinned but hey, lets stick with mediocre academy players cause that did well this year.

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6 days ago

MannyMuscatsBrother wrote:
I have watched him and his brother play since he played ftc football. He has never been good. His height has helped him immensly - I'd love to know what these attributes are they see. Just watch any time he goes 1v1, forever getting skinned but hey, lets stick with mediocre academy players cause that did well this year.

Your wrong. He was very good at the u20 WC as captain.

Has improved in the air markedly, wins a lot now tackles and is calm on the ball. He will be a very good CB one day.

He has potential, others, not so much.

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6 days ago · edited 6 days ago · History

JasperNix wrote:
LKH is not good enough for the A League- let alone be in a conversation about being a capatin.

He, like Sheridan, sort of feels like a robotic academy product with no X factor (pace, mongrel, whatever).

The Nix need to wipe the slate of that cohort of academy products (aside from
Hughes who really came good this year) and blood rhew next ones.

Keeping LKH, FRC, MS is consigning the Nix to mediocrity and also, frankly, just bad busness if their model is to develop and export. Nobody is buying those players so they need to be moved on.

Whilst an interesting take on it, who exactly are you bringing through to blood and give experience at A-League level?

The ones that were perhaps on the periphery - Candy, Watson, Flowerdew, Makowem, Gillion and a few others have all gone on to other endeavours, and the next exciting one in Jack Perniskie is apparently off to the UK when he turns 18.

The next emerging crop coming through have been 'refreshed' in the off season and are only 17-19 with a majority of them having barely even played Central League football, or at the very least are in their infancy at that level. Ben Trenberth - who I think looks a talent based on NZ U17 stuff and his couple of CL appearances is only 15/16...

This is not a dig either. I'm just genuinely interested to see who people think are coming through who would make a difference in the first team setting. Keeping in mind of course guys like Loke, Walker, Cassidy, McCarron, GSR and Smith have been in and around the first team recently and are on scholarships or full deals as it is.

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mjni

6 days ago

The question is, why does it have to be academy players if the current crop are a few years off and not ready then? Auckland gambled and took many from the national league and look how they went for them. In fact they took two players, Randell and Prins, from right under our noses due to this high horse attitude from the club of thinking our academy players are instantly better?

I get it's the clubs strategy but if this season continues on next year we are going to be lucky to get 2k at games. For once, can we try and not strive for mediocrity, after all we are the ONLY team in the league without any silverware?

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6 days ago · edited 6 days ago · History

Prins has gone to the Pro League - A few steps below A-League level - and been decidedly average. How exactly would that help us?

What about the others that have arrived in Auckland from the domestic scene? McKenlay, Coulibaly, Bidois, Middleton, Gillion? They'd be about the same level as that of Roa Conchie in terms of what they've delivered (ie not much).

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ni+1

6 days ago

YoungHeartHM wrote:
Prins has gone to the Pro League - A few steps below A-League level - and been decidedly average. How exactly would that help us?

What about the others that have arrived in Auckland from the domestic scene? McKenlay, Coulibaly, Bidois, Middleton, Gillion? They'd be about the same level as that of Roa Conchie in terms of what they've delivered (ie not much).

Prins is a very good player. Yes poor in the o league (so have 99% of that team) but that Auckland team sets up so defensivly so does not help. Ifill rates him as one of the best in the country but yeah... im sure he wont help us? I certainly do not rate Sloane who's postion he would be fighting for.

Look all and all, I am just sick of the club not looking at the national league anymore. It sort of disrespcts the competiton and clearly has not helped us. We are going to agree to disagree here - all I can hope for is a marked improvement in squad quality next year.

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6 days ago · edited 5 days ago · History

We've literally got a starting striker we pulled out of the National League.

The players have to actually be good enough, I really don't see that many banging the door down. Telling the club to sign players that the coach doesnt rate in order to "respect the competition" is a bonkers suggestion.

If Prins has been bad at OPL level how can you expect him to be A-League level? At least GSR is 2 years younger. They're also very different players and Gabi will naturally take longer to reach the physical level of pro football.

You can't take Ifill's player rankings seriously, he always overrated the players hes been involved with, just look at his joke of a World Cup XI.

All that said, Greenie is very familiar with the National League and if he gets the gig im sure he will know who can and can't contribute to his team. Especially if we end up with an OPL team, I expect we'll recruit from within the Central League especially.

Valley FC til I die?

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6 days ago

I think the unfortunate thing, perhaps related to the confusion of styles and requirements from Chief, is that we haven’t had either from the academy or from the National League a bang the door down type talent.

On the other hand, when we get those talents like Marco they’re often off in less than a season.

But yeh we used to get players standing head and shoulders clear of the league like Roy or Siggie.

Outside maybe, Luke Brooke Smith, say and Randall, there hasn’t been any talent banging on the door to get out of the national league. And possibly too, that’s because of the pathways that exist have those guys overseas already?

But it is hard to see anyone who has been Siggie dominant in the local teams.

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5 days ago

YoungHeartHM wrote:
Prins has gone to the Pro League - A few steps below A-League level - and been decidedly average. How exactly would that help us?

What about the others that have arrived in Auckland from the domestic scene? McKenlay, Coulibaly, Bidois, Middleton, Gillion? They'd be about the same level as that of Roa Conchie in terms of what they've delivered (ie not much).

IMHO Middleton has potential, and Fitzharris. Gillion, maybe. Coulibaly, insufficient evidence. The rest I think can fairly be likened to Conchie, Sheridan and even Najjarine, ie not up to A league standard. McCarron too.

It just takes one such player to stuff up attacks with a poor or timid pass, and Milligan at Newcastle has no time for them. Well maybe Natta, who makes up for his odd stray pass. Italiano and Greenacre usually fielded several attack-breaking players.
A coach like Milligan might've had the ability to recognise attract and retain genuinely talented players (the word talented is used too freely). Perhaps then we'd be seeing a front line comprising the likes of LBS, whom I'd liken to Dobson, achieving the success Newcastle has had with young Australian talent (and Burgess), who in some cases had been discarded by lesser coaches.

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5 days ago · edited 5 days ago · History

This might be a naive question, but the players in the team which nearly got us the premiership two years ago are largely still around and playing at Perth Glory, Western Sydney and of course at the Nix. You can add Salas to this list (Brisbane). Adam Griffiths is at Perth. None had a particularly great season.
Either our Season of The Almost Premiership was a 100% fluke or - the other option - that we had the right answers for a successful Nix team right there at that time, and just cannot reproduce it for whatever reason.
In other words, my question is not "why did we have two poor seasons?" but "how come we had that good season?".

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5 days ago

Well not really true. Surman, Old and Paulsen are no longer in the A League. Neither is David Ball or Zawada.
All part of that 2023-24 team. Barba also 2 years older.

Kraev, Pennington, Sutton and Wootton yes all still in the ALM.

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5 days ago

Right - so this is perhaps the answer - the homegrown players like Old, Surman or Paulsen are not that easily replaced by a new crop of academy product, putting the business model of "train them and sell them on" into a question. It can be part of the business model, but not the foundation. Money to bring in good replacements is the issue.

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5 days ago

Mainland FC wrote:
Right - so this is perhaps the answer - the homegrown players like Old, Surman or Paulsen are not that easily replaced by a new crop of academy product, putting the business model of "train them and sell them on" into a question. It can be part of the business model, but not the foundation. Money to bring in good replacements is the issue.

I don't think anyone was expecting a continuous stream of talent from the academy from which to fund the club. Anyone with some interest in football would see the evidence overseas at big clubs down to the AL that there will be times no players are deemed long term prospects at first team level to having many youngsters of first team potential coming through. The hope is that academy is able to pay for itself, and then some.

In the AL, one benefit of an academy is the salary cap implications in that scholarship contracts are not in the cap (and have lower min contracts) and up to 4 homegrown players coming through a clubs academy and under 23 are also exempt from the salary cap. (This may change in future with some proposals for less exemptions in the cap). So, this is where you can get a competitive advantage where youth players are on relatively lower wages but performance at good or higher AL level.

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5 days ago · edited 5 days ago · History

Yep, that makes sense. And it does not negate the possibility of a good season where we might win premiership or even GF (like Newcastle), but not very often, or more than one premiership (like CCM).
However, a consistent year-in, year-out run of successes (like say Melbourne City, recently) might be harder unless we have another source of income stream that brings in better / more expensive imports to compensate for leaner academy years.

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3 days ago

YoungHeartHM wrote:
JasperNix wrote:
LKH is not good enough for the A League- let alone be in a conversation about being a capatin.

He, like Sheridan, sort of feels like a robotic academy product with no X factor (pace, mongrel, whatever).

The Nix need to wipe the slate of that cohort of academy products (aside from
Hughes who really came good this year) and blood rhew next ones.

Keeping LKH, FRC, MS is consigning the Nix to mediocrity and also, frankly, just bad busness if their model is to develop and export. Nobody is buying those players so they need to be moved on.
Whilst an interesting take on it, who exactly are you bringing through to blood and give experience at A-League level?

The ones that were perhaps on the periphery - Candy, Watson, Flowerdew, Makowem, Gillion and a few others have all gone on to other endeavours, and the next exciting one in Jack Perniskie is apparently off to the UK when he turns 18.

The next emerging crop coming through have been 'refreshed' in the off season and are only 17-19 with a majority of them having barely even played Central League football, or at the very least are in their infancy at that level. Ben Trenberth - who I think looks a talent based on NZ U17 stuff and his couple of CL appearances is only 15/16...

This is not a dig either. I'm just genuinely interested to see who people think are coming through who would make a difference in the first team setting. Keeping in mind of course guys like Loke, Walker, Cassidy, McCarron, GSR and Smith have been in and around the first team recently and are on scholarships or full deals as it is.

The question needs to be asked if the Scholarship program for A League is really working. Sure, it's great for young players to earn $ while they develop their game. However, the NZ kids who signed scholarships barely get to play...this is true for both Phoenix & AFC. So these kids spend 2 years or more with barely any game time.

Apparently, most of the AFC scholarship lads are moving on after this season. Of the Nix boys, none that came through the academy (LBS came in direct & bypassed the academy) have really been given enough opportunity to see if they are up to it. Suggests the coaches are not seeing enough at training to justify the minutes.

If we are taking the supposedly best young talents and stunting their growth by not playing them for two years perhaps, then perhaps we need to reconsider this model.

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3 days ago

the academy kids are getting plenty of gametime, maybe not in the aleague but they play plenty of games during the NZ winter and no doubt plenty of intersquad work as well.
Look at any of the top leagues in Wellington and there is a phoenix age group team there (Mens and Womens)

Queenslander 3x a year.

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3 days ago

theprof wrote:
the academy kids are getting plenty of gametime, maybe not in the aleague but they play plenty of games during the NZ winter and no doubt plenty of intersquad work as well.
Look at any of the top leagues in Wellington and there is a phoenix age group team there (Mens and Womens)

The dropping of the nzfc for thr national league has meant fewer games, and possibly of lower quality?, over the summer. There's a period over the summer where the youngsters are not playing, when they used to, which may hinder their match fitness and also allowed more opportunities for first team players to get match minutes. If we were in the ofc cl that would have provided minutes for the youngsters.

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3 days ago

theprof wrote:
the academy kids are getting plenty of gametime, maybe not in the aleague but they play plenty of games during the NZ winter and no doubt plenty of intersquad work as well.
Look at any of the top leagues in Wellington and there is a phoenix age group team there (Mens and Womens)

I was talking about the ones on scholarship who only play 5 or 6 games a season for the Reserves...and only if they are not getting game time for the A league. Sure, there are intersquad games during the season, but it's not the same as actual games.

My point is they aren't playing many game minutes, which makes it hard to progress.

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3 days ago

theprof wrote:
the academy kids are getting plenty of gametime, maybe not in the aleague but they play plenty of games during the NZ winter and no doubt plenty of intersquad work as well.
Look at any of the top leagues in Wellington and there is a phoenix age group team there (Mens and Womens)

Get what he is trying to say i think while the guys a level down may be getting reserve game. Those like LBS are getting stuff all either sitting on the bench or thrown on for last 5 or 10 minutes. So all they are getting is that and training with the team cant tell me thats a great way for a young player to develop.
Or is it the Academy just isnt developing players of a good enough quality to force their way into the team.

GET YOUR SHIRTS OFF FOR THE BOYS

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3 days ago · edited 3 days ago · History

Bradman99 wrote:
theprof wrote:
the academy kids are getting plenty of gametime, maybe not in the aleague but they play plenty of games during the NZ winter and no doubt plenty of intersquad work as well.
Look at any of the top leagues in Wellington and there is a phoenix age group team there (Mens and Womens)
I was talking about the ones on scholarship who only play 5 or 6 games a season for the Reserves...and only if they are not getting game time for the A league. Sure, there are intersquad games during the season, but it's not the same as actual games.

My point is they aren't playing many game minutes, which makes it hard to progress.

Jayden Smith is a classic example as he spent alot of last season (24/25) and early part of this season sitting on the bench in ALM games. So yes not playing for the Reserves, or playing football much in general.

Getting a team in the OFC League would go a long way to giving scholarship players valuable playing mins, when not required for the senior squad. Cross fingers it may happen in 2027.

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2 days ago

coochiee wrote:
Bradman99 wrote:
theprof wrote:
the academy kids are getting plenty of gametime, maybe not in the aleague but they play plenty of games during the NZ winter and no doubt plenty of intersquad work as well.
Look at any of the top leagues in Wellington and there is a phoenix age group team there (Mens and Womens)
I was talking about the ones on scholarship who only play 5 or 6 games a season for the Reserves...and only if they are not getting game time for the A league. Sure, there are intersquad games during the season, but it's not the same as actual games.

My point is they aren't playing many game minutes, which makes it hard to progress.
Jayden Smith is a classic example as he spent alot of last season (24/25) and early part of this season sitting on the bench in ALM games. So yes not playing for the Reserves, or playing football much in general.

Getting a team in the OFC League would go a long way to giving scholarship players valuable playing mins, when not required for the senior squad. Cross fingers it may happen in 2027.

What would also be great is if the NZ leagues re-aligned with the ALM, but I don’t see that happening

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2 days ago

Its going the other way, if anything with the National League reverting to winter.

Its always going to be a winter sport st grassroots level so you have to draw the summer/winter line at some point, I do wish the reserves were able to share the same season as the 1sts though.

Valley FC til I die?

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1 day ago

Bradman99 wrote:
YoungHeartHM wrote:
JasperNix wrote:
LKH is not good enough for the A League- let alone be in a conversation about being a capatin.

He, like Sheridan, sort of feels like a robotic academy product with no X factor (pace, mongrel, whatever).

The Nix need to wipe the slate of that cohort of academy products (aside from
Hughes who really came good this year) and blood rhew next ones.

Keeping LKH, FRC, MS is consigning the Nix to mediocrity and also, frankly, just bad busness if their model is to develop and export. Nobody is buying those players so they need to be moved on.
Whilst an interesting take on it, who exactly are you bringing through to blood and give experience at A-League level?

The ones that were perhaps on the periphery - Candy, Watson, Flowerdew, Makowem, Gillion and a few others have all gone on to other endeavours, and the next exciting one in Jack Perniskie is apparently off to the UK when he turns 18.

The next emerging crop coming through have been 'refreshed' in the off season and are only 17-19 with a majority of them having barely even played Central League football, or at the very least are in their infancy at that level. Ben Trenberth - who I think looks a talent based on NZ U17 stuff and his couple of CL appearances is only 15/16...

This is not a dig either. I'm just genuinely interested to see who people think are coming through who would make a difference in the first team setting. Keeping in mind of course guys like Loke, Walker, Cassidy, McCarron, GSR and Smith have been in and around the first team recently and are on scholarships or full deals as it is.
The question needs to be asked if the Scholarship program for A League is really working. Sure, it's great for young players to earn $ while they develop their game. However, the NZ kids who signed scholarships barely get to play...this is true for both Phoenix & AFC. So these kids spend 2 years or more with barely any game time.

Apparently, most of the AFC scholarship lads are moving on after this season. Of the Nix boys, none that came through the academy (LBS came in direct & bypassed the academy) have really been given enough opportunity to see if they are up to it. Suggests the coaches are not seeing enough at training to justify the minutes.

If we are taking the supposedly best young talents and stunting their growth by not playing them for two years perhaps, then perhaps we need to reconsider this model.

I have seen the same sentiment around the scholarship system to be honest. A general consensus seems to be that it's a way to fill out and fatten a squad on the cheap (given scholarships are excluded from the cap), but ultimately, across most clubs, it's failing to fulfilling the role of developing the player longer term with appearances/meaningful minutes.

Personally I'd like to see something similar to what happens in the MLS, whereby players who hold MLS Next Pro (reserve team) contracts can be elevated to the first team only so many times (From memory 4-6 matchday squads - They don't even have to play, just be in the squad!) before they are then automatically upgraded to a full first team deal.

Now it's not the perfect system, and could also be open to maneuvering and tomfoolery in that "Oh we've called up x so many times already, we'll select y to get around it" but I think if it something similar could be tweaked/tuned up and put in place, then that could actually funnel the best players towards meaningful contract deals.

If the same principles were in place in the A-League and you translated that to our current squad we would have seen LBS, Loke & McCarron upgraded to full deal already for the 25/26 season, and Walker upgraded for the 24/25 season.

Just my thoughts on it. I'd love to hear feedback and thoughts on this too, as I think there is some merit in how it could be applied.

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1 day ago

YoungHeartHM wrote:
Bradman99 wrote:
YoungHeartHM wrote:
JasperNix wrote:
LKH is not good enough for the A League- let alone be in a conversation about being a capatin.

He, like Sheridan, sort of feels like a robotic academy product with no X factor (pace, mongrel, whatever).

The Nix need to wipe the slate of that cohort of academy products (aside from
Hughes who really came good this year) and blood rhew next ones.

Keeping LKH, FRC, MS is consigning the Nix to mediocrity and also, frankly, just bad busness if their model is to develop and export. Nobody is buying those players so they need to be moved on.
Whilst an interesting take on it, who exactly are you bringing through to blood and give experience at A-League level?

The ones that were perhaps on the periphery - Candy, Watson, Flowerdew, Makowem, Gillion and a few others have all gone on to other endeavours, and the next exciting one in Jack Perniskie is apparently off to the UK when he turns 18.

The next emerging crop coming through have been 'refreshed' in the off season and are only 17-19 with a majority of them having barely even played Central League football, or at the very least are in their infancy at that level. Ben Trenberth - who I think looks a talent based on NZ U17 stuff and his couple of CL appearances is only 15/16...

This is not a dig either. I'm just genuinely interested to see who people think are coming through who would make a difference in the first team setting. Keeping in mind of course guys like Loke, Walker, Cassidy, McCarron, GSR and Smith have been in and around the first team recently and are on scholarships or full deals as it is.
The question needs to be asked if the Scholarship program for A League is really working. Sure, it's great for young players to earn $ while they develop their game. However, the NZ kids who signed scholarships barely get to play...this is true for both Phoenix & AFC. So these kids spend 2 years or more with barely any game time.

Apparently, most of the AFC scholarship lads are moving on after this season. Of the Nix boys, none that came through the academy (LBS came in direct & bypassed the academy) have really been given enough opportunity to see if they are up to it. Suggests the coaches are not seeing enough at training to justify the minutes.

If we are taking the supposedly best young talents and stunting their growth by not playing them for two years perhaps, then perhaps we need to reconsider this model.
I have seen the same sentiment around the scholarship system to be honest. A general consensus seems to be that it's a way to fill out and fatten a squad on the cheap (given scholarships are excluded from the cap), but ultimately, across most clubs, it's failing to fulfilling the role of developing the player longer term with appearances/meaningful minutes.

Personally I'd like to see something similar to what happens in the MLS, whereby players who hold MLS Next Pro (reserve team) contracts can be elevated to the first team only so many times (From memory 4-6 matchday squads - They don't even have to play, just be in the squad!) before they are then automatically upgraded to a full first team deal.

Now it's not the perfect system, and could also be open to maneuvering and tomfoolery in that "Oh we've called up x so many times already, we'll select y to get around it" but I think if it something similar could be tweaked/tuned up and put in place, then that could actually funnel the best players towards meaningful contract deals.

If the same principles were in place in the A-League and you translated that to our current squad we would have seen LBS, Loke & McCarron upgraded to full deal already for the 25/26 season, and Walker upgraded for the 24/25 season.

Just my thoughts on it. I'd love to hear feedback and thoughts on this too, as I think there is some merit in how it could be applied.

MLS next pro works as there is a whole Next Pro league for emerging players to get valuable game time and continue their development. Maybe an A League Next Pro league? However I doubt that would be financially sustainable as existing clubs can't even afford to run A-League programmes, it seems.

Best chance for Nix is to get an OPL licence as there is a decent overlap with the A League Season. AFC have the benefit of it. Gillion played a fair bit in the OPL and managed to get back in the 1st team for OFC for the last game of the season. Would he have got that opportunity had he not been playing OPL?

I fear without such an avenue for the scholarship players to get regular game time we will continue to see players fail to develop with this system. And when the players themselves work out it's dud path will young talent commit to that pathway?

Nix has a decent academy but the bit where they move from academy to 1st team seems to have some flaws.

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about 24 hours ago

That was obviously the biggest downside to my radical plan with the season's not lining up!

The OPL would be a step in the right direction in that aspect, but should it come about, and I've said this previously - I wouldn't want to see us stock that side exclusively with academy or scholarship products. There would have to be some older and more experienced bones to help drive the ship.

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about 24 hours ago · edited about 24 hours ago · History

Slightly different tangent, but is the Academy working as well as plaudits it often gets?

I mean kudos to Welnix to the big Academy investment they have made. But if you look at the Weenix grads that have then passed through the first team to then earn the club a healthy transfer fee, gut feel is it's no better than most A League clubs.

Singh, Cacace, Paulsen, Surman, Old and Fraser. Likely missed someone, but I reckon there are other ALM clubs that have done better than that, over the same 10 odd years that Weenix has been fully functioning.

And that's with the Nix until very recently having the whole NZ youth football talent pool effectively to themselves. Not that every talented young player pre Auckland FC wanted to come to Welly of course. But I remember the Nix a few years ago (2023?) cherry picking boys out of NZU17s like LBS, Walker, Foord, Gardiner etc

The number of grads 'onsold' to an overseas club is far from the only measure of success for an Academy, but don't think Weenix is anymore successful in that space than other clubs around the League. So yeah is there some improvements that could be made around the young player development pathway space, and getting guys & girls into the first teams. Again getting an OFC Pro League team a definite leg up.

Be useful to know some numbers re young players (and transfer fees) from each A League club the last 10 years. The NSW and VIC A League clubs having the benefit of their young reserve players in tough NPL winter comps, where the leap to the A League ain't so great as say Central League.

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