Wellington Phoenix Women General Discussion and Squad Speculation

Didn't know where best to put this, so thought I'd start a general discussion thread on anything to do with the women's team.
This is a great write-up about the team, well worth a read https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-02-21/wellington-phoenix-a-league-women-rising-call/100845924

Hopefully she has recovered by next season, which hopefully also sees the team based in Wellington - or at a minimum playing a number of games in NZ.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/women-in-sport/127889250/wellington-phoenix-support-grace-wisnewskis-decision-to-return-home

Tough gig for any 19 year old, first professional contract not been at home in trying conditions. Hope she manages to get herself right with family at home and hopefully the club gets the team to play at home next season which will make life so much easier for the kiwi women.

theprof

Tough gig for any 19 year old, first professional contract not been at home in trying conditions. Hope she manages to get herself right with family at home and hopefully the club gets the team to play at home next season which will make life so much easier for the kiwi women.

Hopefully yes they can play a number of games in NZ, next season. But from memory a condition of entry for Nix Women is they must be based in Aus for these first few seasons at least. The cost of flying other ALW teams to NZ being too expensive for the A League Women overall budget. Something like that.

And if so, will mean the team will always be unattractive to play for, if you have a good job in NZ you don't want to give up, or like Longo have family, ie older domestic based players. So it will likely continue to be a pretty young team. But playing some games in NZ would still be much better than the current situation of none.

how were the club hoping to get home games this season then?

Are you sure about the condition being based in Aus?
I know this was talked about pre entry. But there coach Lewis has more recently been talking about being based in NZ next year. (Covid permitting)
That will also have issues though. Being based in NZ will likely make it more difficult to recruit Aussie players.

Pretty sure they are basing in Wellington next season.

theprof

how were the club hoping to get home games this season then?

I don't know the finer details. But even pre Covid it was always mentioned that any Nix Womens team would need to be based in Australia/NSW to keep costs down for the W League (ALW) as a whole.

But if in future (even next season) they are going to be based in Welly, that's good news.

theprof

Tough gig for any 19 year old, first professional contract not been at home in trying conditions. Hope she manages to get herself right with family at home and hopefully the club gets the team to play at home next season which will make life so much easier for the kiwi women.

Not having a dig but surely she's not going to make it as a pro. 

Being a professional sportsperson means being able to take challenges like this head on, making them quite different from people in others careers/industry like most of us who post on here. 

Kiwi men have had to do the same thing Europe, often in cultures/languages quite different from ours, for years from a young age in many cases.  I'm sure a number of Kiwi women have also done it hard and alone.

Anxiety sadly is a widespread problem amongst teenage girls especially. Mate's daughter suffers badly, as does a niece - both dropped out of school. Now effectively home schooled. Though I understand both are slowly getting better. Certainly a stable, safe home environment/routine seems crucial - as from what I've heard it's often a change in routine/new environment that causes increased anxiety. 

I've no real evidence, but my gut feel that the rise in importance of social media etc, in everyday lives has lead to increased anxiety amongst teenagers (and younger kids even). That's just a gut feel. 

Good on Wisnewski and the Nix for being open & upfront about her problems. Hopefully she can slowly get better. But I'm sure no one will rush anything. She's only age 19. Plenty of time.

No idea exactly what Jacob Tratt's mental health issues were, but he's now carved out a respectable ALM career. And even coped with living in India for a year during the pandemic playing for Odisha (where Taylor was also). And I'm sure there has been many other pro footballers (male & female), who have worked through their mental health demons. It can be a brutal & lonely profession at times no doubt.

Marto

theprof

Tough gig for any 19 year old, first professional contract not been at home in trying conditions. Hope she manages to get herself right with family at home and hopefully the club gets the team to play at home next season which will make life so much easier for the kiwi women.

Not having a dig but surely she's not going to make it as a pro. 

Being a professional sportsperson means being able to take challenges like this head on, making them quite different from people in others careers/industry like most of us who post on here. 

Kiwi men have had to do the same thing Europe, often in cultures/languages quite different from ours, for years from a young age in many cases.  I'm sure a number of Kiwi women have also done it hard and alone.

professional football for women is at least 10 years behind the men, our boys have grown up in a culture of being able to travel to play, its a little different for the girls where pathways are only now opening up.
with the access to help and guidance she may well be able to continue on the professional environment, uncertainty and being away from support networks for extended periods is not good for anxiety. Sure she may never play in Europe, but playing in the a-league with wellington where home and away is available she may well be fine.

theprof

Marto

theprof

Tough gig for any 19 year old, first professional contract not been at home in trying conditions. Hope she manages to get herself right with family at home and hopefully the club gets the team to play at home next season which will make life so much easier for the kiwi women.

Not having a dig but surely she's not going to make it as a pro. 

Being a professional sportsperson means being able to take challenges like this head on, making them quite different from people in others careers/industry like most of us who post on here. 

Kiwi men have had to do the same thing Europe, often in cultures/languages quite different from ours, for years from a young age in many cases.  I'm sure a number of Kiwi women have also done it hard and alone.

professional football for women is at least 10 years behind the men, our boys have grown up in a culture of being able to travel to play, its a little different for the girls where pathways are only now opening up.
with the access to help and guidance she may well be able to continue on the professional environment, uncertainty and being away from support networks for extended periods is not good for anxiety. Sure she may never play in Europe, but playing in the a-league with wellington where home and away is available she may well be fine.

Hopefully she recovers enough to put her hand up to be part of the U20 women's world cup team. In Costa Rica in August.
I'd have thought she would be in that squad on playing merit.

While there are many instances of players retiring early through injury or illness, there are numerous examples of those who have recovered and gone on to make careers in the game. Two that come to mind are:

The Nix seem to be putting support in place for Grace to give her the best chances to emerge from her struggles and find her way back in to the game.

Ranix

theprof

Marto

theprof

Tough gig for any 19 year old, first professional contract not been at home in trying conditions. Hope she manages to get herself right with family at home and hopefully the club gets the team to play at home next season which will make life so much easier for the kiwi women.

Not having a dig but surely she's not going to make it as a pro. 

Being a professional sportsperson means being able to take challenges like this head on, making them quite different from people in others careers/industry like most of us who post on here. 

Kiwi men have had to do the same thing Europe, often in cultures/languages quite different from ours, for years from a young age in many cases.  I'm sure a number of Kiwi women have also done it hard and alone.

professional football for women is at least 10 years behind the men, our boys have grown up in a culture of being able to travel to play, its a little different for the girls where pathways are only now opening up.
with the access to help and guidance she may well be able to continue on the professional environment, uncertainty and being away from support networks for extended periods is not good for anxiety. Sure she may never play in Europe, but playing in the a-league with wellington where home and away is available she may well be fine.

Hopefully she recovers enough to put her hand up to be part of the U20 women's world cup team. In Costa Rica in August.
I'd have thought she would be in that squad on playing merit.

Easily on merit I imagine . 
Just hope she’s recovered enough to cope with a more condensed and higher stress environment than she’s currently been part of.
Must be hellishly tough for these young girls in the spotlight.

They should be proud, and weren't too far off the pace.
Had they held on in the two matches they lost from 2-0 up, they would have been 6th.

coochiee

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/women-in-sport/127928641/wellington-phoenix-captain-lily-alfeld-proud-of-what-they-achieved-in-debut-season

Marto

theprof

Tough gig for any 19 year old, first professional contract not been at home in trying conditions. Hope she manages to get herself right with family at home and hopefully the club gets the team to play at home next season which will make life so much easier for the kiwi women.

Not having a dig but surely she's not going to make it as a pro. 

Being a professional sportsperson means being able to take challenges like this head on, making them quite different from people in others careers/industry like most of us who post on here. 

Kiwi men have had to do the same thing Europe, often in cultures/languages quite different from ours, for years from a young age in many cases.  I'm sure a number of Kiwi women have also done it hard and alone.

Making a dig at her and telling she is not making at a pro is exactly the opposite what they wanted to archive with the mental health awareness posts.

My guess is that with professional help this treatable, like other injuries.
There are many professional sports people,  World Champions, Olympian Gold Medal Winners with mental health issues. It's a myth that they are all strong, hard and can doing it alone.

Pretty well put together and extensive review of the season and players from TNC
https://theniche-cache.com/football/2022/3/9/the-wellington-phoenixs-inaugural-a-league-womens-season-in-review

I enjoyed watching the Womens team play this season and seeing their progression from their young inexperienced beginnings. 

Was it a successful season? 1 draw in their first 10 games and then 2 wins in their last 4 games shows how far they came, being competitive and progression wise. But on the other hand, 14 games for only 7 points with 36 goals conceded. That doesn’t make such good reading.

I guess the people best placed to measure their success are NZF, who it seems are a major influence in this Nix women’s campaign for the first two seasons. They have said that this first year was all about development of players with 2023 world cup firmly in mind. So are far as player development goes. Yes, I’d say this season was successful. But most of these players are too young for a tilt at 2023. NT honours will likely come after that.

But that being said I think Grace Jale deserves a call up to NT. And I’d like to see Alyssa Whinham bought into the mix for this next window, but not necessarily to play against Austalia, but for her own PD.

A lot of the other players will now be able to focus on U20 NT honours and a world cup in Costa Rica. That will also be good for their continued development.

Next season I wonder if we are not going to see much of the same from this Nix team. NZF are all about developing as many players as possible. So realistically that means encouraging NZers to play for other clubs so we get as many NZers as possible in the ALW. (look how well players like Bunge and Satchell are doing) So I wouldn’t be surprised to see Jale and one or two others take up contracts with Aus teams next year, and we bring in more youngsters into the Nix fold. As much as we all want to see a Nix team via for honours. I’m not sure if that’s NZF's agenda right now. Especially if they see this season as being a success.

I was hoping the WPW reserves would play in the Central and National Leagues like the men do, so I could get my regular (and local) fix of WPW all year. But I have not seen anything about a reserves team. Does anyone know? Am I looking at the wrong league table? (Capital W-League)

Raynor

I was hoping the WPW reserves would play in the Central and National Leagues like the men do, so I could get my regular (and local) fix of WPW all year. But I have not seen anything about a reserves team. Does anyone know? Am I looking at the wrong league table? (Capital W-League)

There is no reserve team, their first academy intake of girls was last year at under-15 level, so they're not quite there yet, plus the ALW players have all gone their separate ways.

Anyone else watch the Grandfinal? That second half was exciting to watch. Both teams going for it. It started to get a bit physical too. Ibini in a bit of push and shove. Good goals, one disallowed and some great saves. MV won 2-1 and they held up under intense pressure from Sydney. IMHO a better final than last years. A credit to the game too.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/football/300588157/wellington-phoenix-star-grace-wisnewskis-letter-to-her-mental-illness-you-made-my-life-feel-like-it-was-falling-to-pieces

A little bit of my story 🫶 pic.twitter.com/WxgsO0Fck7

— Grace Wisnewski (@GraceWisnewski) May 13, 2022

really good read. great to see that despite being quite young, she is still being able to identity and communicate her battles in such a way, its pretty incredible.
Hope Grace can continue to get better and I really look forward to seeing her play next season. 

What are the chances FA will amend the skewed rules and allow us to sign more NZer or at least some imports that don't cost NZer there place in the squad. I would have thought a rule where we need to have a min 6 Aussies, then fill the rest of the squad the way we want, would be fairer than current agreements.
Although not going to hold my breath with anything forthcoming from FA. Together as one or not.

Ranix

What are the chances FA will amend the skewed rules and allow us to sign more NZer or at least some imports that don't cost NZer there place in the squad. I would have thought a rule where we need to have a min 6 Aussies, then fill the rest of the squad the way we want, would be fairer than current agreements.
Although not going to hold my breath with anything forthcoming from FA. Together as one or not.

Western United entering ALW next season probably helps. Another 20 odd Australian (likely mostly young players) becoming pro footballers. Then CCM to come in season after that?

Great to see Gemma returning, she showed a lot of leadership in  a pretty tough environment and had the team playing good football at times. Really exciting to see what she can do with a pre season and time to build a squad.

Gemma Lewis Interview.

https://player.whooshkaa.com/episode?id=1000444

As she says getting 7 quality Aussies to move to Wellington is probably the biggest challenge for this coming season. Lots of these girls are either studying or have jobs to prop up the poor football salaries.
If we can't sign imports (because they take NZers places in the squad)  we should maybe splash out a bit and be targeting a few high profile Aussies. easier said than done though.

Ranix

Gemma Lewis Interview.

https://player.whooshkaa.com/episode?id=1000444

As she says getting 7 quality Aussies to move to Wellington is probably the biggest challenge for this coming season. Lots of these girls are either studying or have jobs to prop up the poor football salaries.
If we can't sign imports (because they take NZers places in the squad)  we should maybe splash out a bit and be targeting a few high profile Aussies. easier said than done though.

By selling the facilities so much in the interview, she seems to be targetting younger players who don't have that career or things to tie them down, but want to be in an environment which can help them develop..

Yeh, it sounded that way. Trying to sign up fringe players that don't make other teams. A bit like Hannah Jones last season.  Also remember we can't sign any Aussies under 18 years old.
The facilities do sound good though. So at least that is a point of difference.
From memory this is the final season of these restrictions. After that I think the squad rules become a bit more aligned with the Nix mens team.

Alysa Whinham misses out on ALW young footballer of the year to Holly McNamara.
Fair enough in the end I reckon. McNamara was pretty damn good,  assisted alot of goals for Hannah Wilkinson and scored quite a few herself. and Mel City were not quite the same team after she got injured.

Ranix

Alysa Whinham misses out on ALW young footballer of the year to Holly McNamara.
Fair enough in the end I reckon. McNamara was pretty damn good,  assisted alot of goals for Hannah Wilkinson and scored quite a few herself. and Mel City were not quite the same team after she got injured.

huge achievement for Whinham being in the same conversation as McNamara, especially given she was on a "trial" contract at the start of the season.

Phillip Rollo reporting that Grace Jale is going to Canberra United for the upcoming season. That'll be gutting for the team

Depends on who they might be bringing in. They only have so few spots for NZers. Every time a ferns squad is announced there always seem to be a few unattached, and I wonder if any players at US colleges are coming available?
ALW still over 4 month away from starting again so lots of time to speculate.
I think bigger picture for NZF is getting as many NZers as possible playing pro. And at the moment any players with goal scoring ability need developing / testing at pro level as that is the weakness at Ferns level right now.