WPW R1 vs Melbourne City | Sun 20th November | 3:00pm | RoF

Alf Tupper

billyspleen75

+
Barry and Taylor showing to be a great combination again
Edwards made some good saves
Foster has potential
Hassett and Satchel as expected are already some of our better players

-
Knott's passing was atrocious
Whinham looked like she didn't want to be there
McMeeken looked like she shouldn't be there

Hopefully we can put this one down to playing a very good team / big game nerves.

some of these comments are unnecessary, bordering on cruel. Give these girls a break for Christ’s sake. All three looked good in patches but yes they were not 100% and I’m sure they’d acknowledge it.

No need to stick the boot in - it’s the first game!

Knott was very solid last year; McMeekan had an excellent first season, and Whinham showed huge potential.

Pull your head in.

Hahahaha

Jog on.

I praise 6 players, criticise 3 and also give those 3 an excuse that it's a big game Vs a good team.

The team had their goodwill period last year. Now they are going to be put under the same microscope as the men.

Some good debuts, Foster did well, Haslett and Satchell were strong in their work. Good to see McMeeken take the ball forward well and even have a shot. We must remember that City are a top team and will hammer quite a few teams

Ive watched the replay now. 
Taylor was diabolical, my god. 

Enjoyed the first half, caught some of the second, but I thought the back pairing (I think Taylor stuck out) were very poor in that second.  The first two goals (missed the others) were led by her not making a tackle and letting them waltz past. Shame really,as the first half was so positive. I’m sure they’ll improve as the games continue. Kudos to the crowd, turned out to be a decent day in welly today. 

WanderingSheep

Enjoyed the first half, caught some of the second, but I thought the back pairing (I think Taylor stuck out) were very poor in that second.  The first two goals (missed the others) were led by her not making a tackle and letting them waltz past. Shame really,as the first half was so positive. I’m sure they’ll improve as the games continue. Kudos to the crowd, turned out to be a decent day in welly today. 

Yea in the first half I thought the women could teach the men how to defend.  In the second half it looks like the women learned from the men :P

ballane

Throughly enjoyed that despite the loss. Our girls played well in the first half and could have quite easily been up. Swamped a bit in the second half but mostly stuck to the task. I will be back. As for those moaning about the crowd you can fudge off best stand alone crowd in the A League Womans some of you obviously havnt bothered to find out what attendances are like in Aussie.

Fudge off seems like a rather aggressive comment to make to other fans but OK.

Honestly at 10 minutes before the game started when I looked out I was disappointed.  I was personally hoping with it being the first game here and with the social media pushes for supporting Women's Sport I was hoping we would get a massive crowd.

More people filled in in the first half but it still didn't look to me like it was anywhere near the crowd of last weekend.  I was nervous when the number came up it was gonna start with a 3 so I was shocked when it was over 5k.  Maybe the corporate boxes were packed or something.

Either way, it's really not nice to tell people to fudge off in general.

My bad for wanting our team to have more supporters turn up on the day.

WanderingSheep

Enjoyed the first half, caught some of the second, but I thought the back pairing (I think Taylor stuck out) were very poor in that second.  The first two goals (missed the others) were led by her not making a tackle and letting them waltz past. Shame really,as the first half was so positive. I’m sure they’ll improve as the games continue. Kudos to the crowd, turned out to be a decent day in welly today. 

Barry was good in the tackle and weak with the ball, where as Taylor was confident on the ball - but that defending, if it was in the World Cup, would see us torn a new one.

Honestly better than expected first up against defending champs. Scoreline flatters City imo, although both teams could've easily scored more.

As an aside, is anyone able to explain what's going on with the active support? 

I was under the impression there was a new group that the Fever we're gonna join in with which seemed to be the case first half, then everyone went back to the Fever for the second?

Bananas

ballane

Throughly enjoyed that despite the loss. Our girls played well in the first half and could have quite easily been up. Swamped a bit in the second half but mostly stuck to the task. I will be back. As for those moaning about the crowd you can fudge off best stand alone crowd in the A League Womans some of you obviously havnt bothered to find out what attendances are like in Aussie.

Fudge off seems like a rather aggressive comment to make to other fans but OK.

Honestly at 10 minutes before the game started when I looked out I was disappointed.  I was personally hoping with it being the first game here and with the social media pushes for supporting Women's Sport I was hoping we would get a massive crowd.

More people filled in in the first half but it still didn't look to me like it was anywhere near the crowd of last weekend.  I was nervous when the number came up it was gonna start with a 3 so I was shocked when it was over 5k.  Maybe the corporate boxes were packed or something.

Either way, it's really not nice to tell people to fudge off in general.

My bad for wanting our team to have more supporters turn up on the day.

In this case i make no apology get sick of seeing people having a crack about crowds. The club had just broken a record for attendance at an A League womens game yet across social media what you see are comments saying how it wasnt a very good crowd. Looked like 5k all day and many around me guessed that number before it came up.
Sadly going forward unless they turn in some good results think they may struggle to get that  again especially when they charge $42.50 for a walk up ticket. 

Casual fans will turn up when they turn up, usually when we’re winning. Not worried about that much considering there were still loads of young women, girls and families. 

What was disappointing was the lack of active support. Flight of the Nix will take a while to catch on but they’ll eventually get a nice group going. The Fever though, where were you guys? There’s usually a solid 500-700 at every game, even during the worst period of the Kalezic era. This game though I’d wager not even half of the usuals showed up. I spotted a good handful of regulars, but was super disappointed that so many didn’t show up, especially since all the ALW matches are covered by the season tickets. Hopefully one of the Fever or the FOTN get some proper active support going for this team.

The Fever ringleaders were there and I'm not sure we understand why others weren't.

As for us and our (the ringleaders) movements Nelfoos.

We went to 29 to support flight of the Nix (good people  - we love their work and we'll continue to promote them) but felt homesick so headed back to our natural home at half time. 

Have seen a few accusations that the Flight of the Nix people were behind the "TERF Club" cards that were left in the toilets. 

pickledmyself

Have seen a few accusations that the Flight of the Nix people were behind the "TERF Club" cards that were left in the toilets. 

What that be?

Hard News

The Fever ringleaders were there and I'm not sure we understand why others weren't.

As for us and our (the ringleaders) movements Nelfoos.

We went to 29 to support flight of the Nix (good people  - we love their work and we'll continue to promote them) but felt homesick so headed back to our natural home at half time. 

Cheers for the answer - was sat the bay beside you guys for both halves (moved as well) cos I was with a German friend who wanted to be near the active support and I'd heard it was gonna be aisle 29, which seemed quite dead all in all.

Will keep heading to the Fever zone for future games.

Feverish

pickledmyself

Have seen a few accusations that the Flight of the Nix people were behind the "TERF Club" cards that were left in the toilets. 

What that be?

Trans-exclusionary radical feminist - basically shorthand for someone generally supportive of women's rights who doesn't recognise trans women as women.

Not sure what, if anything, the club have done to deserve the name but this is also the first I've heard of this.

First half was pretty good from us but we all saw that number 19 coming better into the game by the minute. Hasset clearly was best player for us, getting us  forward, controlling the midfield but was less visible in the second half. Some of the passing was shocking, on both sides. Also the some of decision making was questionable, long shots, to many dribbles instead of pass and move. I'm optimistic as they had a good structure and game plan. They learned pretty quick last year and you could see progress every game. What is their target is this year? Playoffs? 

I was in the zone as normal and yes there wernt the numbers like there normally are and i agree it wasnt as loud as normal.  But  most certainly there was active support being generated and enjoyed by the many newbies that were in the zone. 
People seem to forget the zone never started from day 1 in full voice it took time for things to happen.
Might help if someone who is skilled in that area made up a couple chants specific for the women.
As a starting point thought YF did okay as an aside not sure if its the stadium but little noise could be heard coming from the other end.
Sadly i for one wont be there next game i just cant justify or afford attending the stadium for the fourth weekend in a row. 

Final score line was a bit disappointing. Great fight in the first half but at the end of the day at this stage showed no real progress from last year as similar issues leading to goals conceded.
Not going to name any players in the neg as that seemed to upset earlier posters.
But thought they really missed Wisnewski or Gomez in the DM role. 
Thought a few players fell short of expectation. And some of the substitutions could have come earlier after we went 2-0 down.
First game and all that, and probably not really expected to win this game anyway but a big learning curve for this team. Next two games are not going to be any easier.
But if I was coach I'd make the following changes on performance. That's if the same players are injured for next week.
              Candy
Cicco    Barry   Taylor   VDM
     Hasett     Walker
             Whinham
Satchell            Lancaster
            Foster

Nelfoos

Feverish

pickledmyself

Have seen a few accusations that the Flight of the Nix people were behind the "TERF Club" cards that were left in the toilets. 

What that be?

Trans-exclusionary radical feminist - basically shorthand for someone generally supportive of women's rights who doesn't recognise trans women as women.

Not sure what, if anything, the club have done to deserve the name but this is also the first I've heard of this.

I suppose it's would be the billboard thing from a couple of years back, could be wrong though. 

Monto

Nelfoos

Feverish

pickledmyself

Have seen a few accusations that the Flight of the Nix people were behind the "TERF Club" cards that were left in the toilets. 

What that be?

Trans-exclusionary radical feminist - basically shorthand for someone generally supportive of women's rights who doesn't recognise trans women as women.

Not sure what, if anything, the club have done to deserve the name but this is also the first I've heard of this.

I suppose it's would be the billboard thing from a couple of years back, could be wrong though. 

 I'm not familiar 

It wasn't an allegation that the Phoenix supports Terfs or Terfiness.

It was just a card found in the bathrooms promoting TERF behaviors.

pickledmyself

Have seen a few accusations that the Flight of the Nix people were behind the "TERF Club" cards that were left in the toilets. 

This is an extremely serious accusation. Source? Because my support for FotN dries up like spit on a hot stove if they're promoting those ideologies.

Everything they have done and said has been very inclusive so I would say it seems unlikely.

Also mathematically they were maybe 10 or so folks in a crowd of 5.3k so odds are also unlikely.

for those fans that are complaining about crowd sizes at the game,maybe take a bit of a reality check with this......
https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/women-in-sport/130532062/wellington-phoenix-striker--i-never-thought-womens-football-would-be-this-big
the players loved it and for most it was their first experience playing infront of a crowd of any decent size.

ballane

Bananas

ballane

Throughly enjoyed that despite the loss. Our girls played well in the first half and could have quite easily been up. Swamped a bit in the second half but mostly stuck to the task. I will be back. As for those moaning about the crowd you can fudge off best stand alone crowd in the A League Womans some of you obviously havnt bothered to find out what attendances are like in Aussie.

Fudge off seems like a rather aggressive comment to make to other fans but OK.

Honestly at 10 minutes before the game started when I looked out I was disappointed.  I was personally hoping with it being the first game here and with the social media pushes for supporting Women's Sport I was hoping we would get a massive crowd.

More people filled in in the first half but it still didn't look to me like it was anywhere near the crowd of last weekend.  I was nervous when the number came up it was gonna start with a 3 so I was shocked when it was over 5k.  Maybe the corporate boxes were packed or something.

Either way, it's really not nice to tell people to fudge off in general.

My bad for wanting our team to have more supporters turn up on the day.

In this case i make no apology get sick of seeing people having a crack about crowds. The club had just broken a record for attendance at an A League womens game yet across social media what you see are comments saying how it wasnt a very good crowd. Looked like 5k all day and many around me guessed that number before it came up.
Sadly going forward unless they turn in some good results think they may struggle to get that  again especially when they charge $42.50 for a walk up ticket. 

I definitely wasn't expecting an apology, but hoping maybe you may think about how you speak to people and consider it in the future.

I mean I was dissapointed in the size of the crowd (before the number came up) because I was hoping more people would support our womens team, especially for such a massive occasion.  Obviously come people come from ridiculously far so wasn't expecting everyone but I would have liked more people to come and support our Women.  To wanting that, I feel telling people like myself to fudge off seems unecessarily toxic.  

But I also acknowledge that it's just my personal feeling, but obviosuly with some of the likes your post got I am in the minority.  Maybe telling someone to fudge off for wanting more support is the majority view.

But also as I have acknowledged, I was under the impression the numbers looked much smaller to my eyes.  The stadium didn't look close to a 6th full to me, but it may have been an optical illusion caused by the yellow seats looking dominant or something.  Not sure.  

theprof

for those fans that are complaining about crowd sizes at the game,maybe take a bit of a reality check with this......
https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/women-in-sport/130532062/wellington-phoenix-striker--i-never-thought-womens-football-would-be-this-big
the players loved it and for most it was their first experience playing infront of a crowd of any decent size.

That's awesome and am glad they are happy and feel supported.

Bananas

ballane

Bananas

ballane

Throughly enjoyed that despite the loss. Our girls played well in the first half and could have quite easily been up. Swamped a bit in the second half but mostly stuck to the task. I will be back. As for those moaning about the crowd you can fudge off best stand alone crowd in the A League Womans some of you obviously havnt bothered to find out what attendances are like in Aussie.

Fudge off seems like a rather aggressive comment to make to other fans but OK.

Honestly at 10 minutes before the game started when I looked out I was disappointed.  I was personally hoping with it being the first game here and with the social media pushes for supporting Women's Sport I was hoping we would get a massive crowd.

More people filled in in the first half but it still didn't look to me like it was anywhere near the crowd of last weekend.  I was nervous when the number came up it was gonna start with a 3 so I was shocked when it was over 5k.  Maybe the corporate boxes were packed or something.

Either way, it's really not nice to tell people to fudge off in general.

My bad for wanting our team to have more supporters turn up on the day.

In this case i make no apology get sick of seeing people having a crack about crowds. The club had just broken a record for attendance at an A League womens game yet across social media what you see are comments saying how it wasnt a very good crowd. Looked like 5k all day and many around me guessed that number before it came up.
Sadly going forward unless they turn in some good results think they may struggle to get that  again especially when they charge $42.50 for a walk up ticket. 

I definitely wasn't expecting an apology, but hoping maybe you may think about how you speak to people and consider it in the future.

I mean I was dissapointed in the size of the crowd (before the number came up) because I was hoping more people would support our womens team, especially for such a massive occasion.  Obviously come people come from ridiculously far so wasn't expecting everyone but I would have liked more people to come and support our Women.  To wanting that, I feel telling people like myself to fudge off seems unecessarily toxic.  

But I also acknowledge that it's just my personal feeling, but obviosuly with some of the likes your post got I am in the minority.  Maybe telling someone to fudge off for wanting more support is the majority view.

But also as I have acknowledged, I was under the impression the numbers looked much smaller to my eyes.  The stadium didn't look close to a 6th full to me, but it may have been an optical illusion caused by the yellow seats looking dominant or something.  Not sure.  

I agree that it didn't look particularly full, I assume that corporate boxes and other lounges were quite full though so that's probably where the disconnect comes from.

Realistically though how many people do you actually expect to be attending women's football in wellington? I think 5k is a great one off crowd but really I can't see them averaging over 2k for the season especially if they don't pull in results. There's only so much football people can watch and A-league women's is probably quite far down most people's list. It's hard enough to get a crowd for the men, the women aren't gonna pull an audience just on nice fuzzy feelings about women in sport. They have to perform and actually be entertained.

Read something about a whole lot of ex Football Ferns being invited to watch the game in a corporate box, so yes maybe being a unique first in NZ sport, the boxes were fullier than normal.

Can see this weeklend's crowd against WU, as being (very) small. Been a lot of football in Welly lately, and with the World Cup on now attracting eyeballs, going to be a big ask for some folks to get another 'leave pass' to visit the ROF. Those lawns won't mow themselves

coochiee

Read something about a whole lot of ex Football Ferns being invited to watch the game in a corporate box, so yes maybe being a unique first in NZ sport, the boxes were fullier than normal.

Can see this weeklend's crowd against WU, as being (very) small. Been a lot of football in Welly lately, and with the World Cup on now attracting eyeballs, going to be a big ask for some folks to get another 'leave pass' to visit the ROF. Those lawns won't mow themselves

seriously, that's gonna  be the excuse for not attending - mowing the lawns? Theres two days in the weekend, plus all morning to do thing around the house - if that's what you need to do to be allowed out. I'd expect $$ will be the big issue, 6 homw games since the start of the mens season, is more than normal. 

Will be felt at the ned of the season when we have a big gap of away games.

coochiee

Read something about a whole lot of ex Football Ferns being invited to watch the game in a corporate box, so yes maybe being a unique first in NZ sport, the boxes were fullier than normal.

Can see this weeklend's crowd against WU, as being (very) small. Been a lot of football in Welly lately, and with the World Cup on now attracting eyeballs, going to be a big ask for some folks to get another 'leave pass' to visit the ROF. Those lawns won't mow themselves

I doubt boxes were open

Feverish

coochiee

Read something about a whole lot of ex Football Ferns being invited to watch the game in a corporate box, so yes maybe being a unique first in NZ sport, the boxes were fullier than normal.

Can see this weeklend's crowd against WU, as being (very) small. Been a lot of football in Welly lately, and with the World Cup on now attracting eyeballs, going to be a big ask for some folks to get another 'leave pass' to visit the ROF. Those lawns won't mow themselves

I doubt boxes were open

Apologies Chairman's lounge.
https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/women-in-sport/130530006/remarkable-moment-in-history-wellington-phoenix-set-aleague-women-record

“In the chairman’s lounge you’ve got a countless number of ex-Football Ferns who have either never played professional football or had to play overseas.

theprof

coochiee

Read something about a whole lot of ex Football Ferns being invited to watch the game in a corporate box, so yes maybe being a unique first in NZ sport, the boxes were fullier than normal.

Can see this weeklend's crowd against WU, as being (very) small. Been a lot of football in Welly lately, and with the World Cup on now attracting eyeballs, going to be a big ask for some folks to get another 'leave pass' to visit the ROF. Those lawns won't mow themselves

seriously, that's gonna  be the excuse for not attending - mowing the lawns? Theres two days in the weekend, plus all morning to do thing around the house - if that's what you need to do to be allowed out. I'd expect $$ will be the big issue, 6 homw games since the start of the mens season, is more than normal. 

Will be felt at the ned of the season when we have a big gap of away games.

I'll rephrase that to mowing the lawns around bingeing on 4 World Cup games per day.

Edit - oh & we get mornings in addition to days on the weekends. How does that work. I've really been missing out.

theprof

coochiee

Read something about a whole lot of ex Football Ferns being invited to watch the game in a corporate box, so yes maybe being a unique first in NZ sport, the boxes were fullier than normal.

Can see this weeklend's crowd against WU, as being (very) small. Been a lot of football in Welly lately, and with the World Cup on now attracting eyeballs, going to be a big ask for some folks to get another 'leave pass' to visit the ROF. Those lawns won't mow themselves

seriously, that's gonna  be the excuse for not attending - mowing the lawns? Theres two days in the weekend, plus all morning to do thing around the house - if that's what you need to do to be allowed out. I'd expect $$ will be the big issue, 6 homw games since the start of the mens season, is more than normal. 

Will be felt at the ned of the season when we have a big gap of away games.

I totally get both sides of this.

For a weekend, my first half of Saturday is gone with kids sports.  Second half may be gone with going shopping with the wife, taking kids to the park or playing a board game or something.  First half of Sunday, misc chores (may include lawns, may include gardens, may include trying to paint some of the house or wallpapering, etc) and that can easily burn another day.

This weekend I am really hoping to make it, but my entire weekend up is taken up with the kids Scouts stuff.  I am hoping we can duck out early so I can make it, but it is very possible it will be my first missed Nix game this year.

Everyone has different circumstances, and the lawns gotta get mowed in there somewhere.  Speaking of which, I really need to mow my lawns.

This image from the article is what I remembered it looking like and even now I still it looks like 5K even accounting for the handful on the other side.

But as I noted above, it may just be that the 5.6 empty seats for every filled one just draws the eye and because everyone is spread it out it skews the visual or something.  Not sure.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/women-in-sport/130530006/remarkable-moment-in-history-wellington-phoenix-set-aleague-women-record

Just as a viewer and fan, I thought the above looked a bit thin and wanted to see more filled seats.  

But that is my view and I don't need to be told to fudge off for thinking it.  Just explaining it.

EDIT: copying and pasting the image worked, the upload function didn't

  

Feverish

coochiee

Read something about a whole lot of ex Football Ferns being invited to watch the game in a corporate box, so yes maybe being a unique first in NZ sport, the boxes were fullier than normal.

Can see this weeklend's crowd against WU, as being (very) small. Been a lot of football in Welly lately, and with the World Cup on now attracting eyeballs, going to be a big ask for some folks to get another 'leave pass' to visit the ROF. Those lawns won't mow themselves

I doubt boxes were open

Well there were people in them.

Monto

Bananas

ballane

Bananas

ballane

Throughly enjoyed that despite the loss. Our girls played well in the first half and could have quite easily been up. Swamped a bit in the second half but mostly stuck to the task. I will be back. As for those moaning about the crowd you can fudge off best stand alone crowd in the A League Womans some of you obviously havnt bothered to find out what attendances are like in Aussie.

Fudge off seems like a rather aggressive comment to make to other fans but OK.

Honestly at 10 minutes before the game started when I looked out I was disappointed.  I was personally hoping with it being the first game here and with the social media pushes for supporting Women's Sport I was hoping we would get a massive crowd.

More people filled in in the first half but it still didn't look to me like it was anywhere near the crowd of last weekend.  I was nervous when the number came up it was gonna start with a 3 so I was shocked when it was over 5k.  Maybe the corporate boxes were packed or something.

Either way, it's really not nice to tell people to fudge off in general.

My bad for wanting our team to have more supporters turn up on the day.

In this case i make no apology get sick of seeing people having a crack about crowds. The club had just broken a record for attendance at an A League womens game yet across social media what you see are comments saying how it wasnt a very good crowd. Looked like 5k all day and many around me guessed that number before it came up.
Sadly going forward unless they turn in some good results think they may struggle to get that  again especially when they charge $42.50 for a walk up ticket. 

I definitely wasn't expecting an apology, but hoping maybe you may think about how you speak to people and consider it in the future.

I mean I was dissapointed in the size of the crowd (before the number came up) because I was hoping more people would support our womens team, especially for such a massive occasion.  Obviously come people come from ridiculously far so wasn't expecting everyone but I would have liked more people to come and support our Women.  To wanting that, I feel telling people like myself to fudge off seems unecessarily toxic.  

But I also acknowledge that it's just my personal feeling, but obviosuly with some of the likes your post got I am in the minority.  Maybe telling someone to fudge off for wanting more support is the majority view.

But also as I have acknowledged, I was under the impression the numbers looked much smaller to my eyes.  The stadium didn't look close to a 6th full to me, but it may have been an optical illusion caused by the yellow seats looking dominant or something.  Not sure.  

I agree that it didn't look particularly full, I assume that corporate boxes and other lounges were quite full though so that's probably where the disconnect comes from.

Realistically though how many people do you actually expect to be attending women's football in wellington? I think 5k is a great one off crowd but really I can't see them averaging over 2k for the season especially if they don't pull in results. There's only so much football people can watch and A-league women's is probably quite far down most people's list. It's hard enough to get a crowd for the men, the women aren't gonna pull an audience just on nice fuzzy feelings about women in sport. They have to perform and actually be entertained.

Realistically I have absolutely no idea to be honest.  We never really were going to know untill it happened.

I think my dumb optimism just hoped that given it was the first game so was a big deal in that right, and as I say all these social pushes for womens sports equity and all that jazz may have brought along some people that normally aren't interested in football/Nix.

I was hoping it would be an insanely big crowd, knowing it would drop off massively in the second game.

Bananas

This image from the article is what I remembered it looking like and even now I still it looks like 5K even accounting for the handful on the other side.

But as I noted above, it may just be that the 5.6 empty seats for every filled one just draws the eye and because everyone is spread it out it skews the visual or something.  Not sure.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/women-in-sport/130530006/remarkable-moment-in-history-wellington-phoenix-set-aleague-women-record

Just as a viewer and fan, I thought the above looked a bit thin and wanted to see more filled seats.  

But that is my view and I don't need to be told to fudge off for thinking it.  Just explaining it.

EDIT: copying and pasting the image worked, the upload function didn't

You are right though, that really doesn't look like 5k at all

The next Men's game I might walk around to the other side and have a look.

It's possible that because where I sit there is a group of people so it skews my ability to see how empty the stadium looks from that angle.  This was the first time I ever sat on the opposite side of the stadium so maybe the crowd genuinely looks like that for similar sized men's games.

Ballane definitely reckoned it looked like 5k so it could just be the bias of the angle I sat at.

Im probably wrong but i thought the crowd seemed to be spread across more bays than they normally are. I just thought it looked about the same size as all those mens games we have had with that number.