Wellington Phoenix head coach Gemma Lewis, her squad and staff faced hurdles throughout their inaugural A-League Women campaign. She speaks to KEEPUP’s Sacha Pisani about those challenges, what she learnt and what she is looking forward to next season.
If there was ever a phrase to describe Wellington Phoenix, look no further than the Maori inscription that helps make up the club’s logo.
‘E Rere Te Keo’.
It’s a rallying cry or a rising call to prevail regardless of circumstance.
The Phoenix had to muster up that spirit during a turbulent first season in the Liberty A-League. Wellington would’ve never envisioned how their inaugural campaign would transpire.
The new kids on the block, Wellington were homeless for their historic season in the A-League Women – COVID-19 forcing the debutants to play all their fixtures across the ditch in Australia.
There were also fixture disruptions, relocations and injuries.
But the youthful and inexperienced ‘Nix rose to the challenge and it has head coach Gemma Lewis excited.
While Wellington finished bottom of the table on goal difference, they captivated the league and earned admirers from far and wide having rallied to win two of their remaining four matches.
Speaking to KEEPUP, Lewis – who signed a new contract in the off-season – said: “It’s been nice to reflect on it and realise it’s actually a big turning point for football in this country.
“With the [Women’s] World Cup next year as well, it’s really exciting for women’s football in New Zealand at the moment. There’s a lot more exposure, hype about the game.
“Club’s were recording drop-off of female players that are now getting a big uptake in female players and I don’t think that’s a coincidence in terms of the exposure we had and the visibility within the game.
“There were lots of challenges but also a whole heap of learning for me, our staff, the players and the club. It was really good.
“Now for us to be able to show that season meant something and it wasn’t just a way to stamp a ticket and get an entry in the league. It’s for us to show we can build off it this season.
“How can we take what we created, which if you look at the us from the start of the season to where we ended, we did make good strides. The girls became more comfortable in their roles, we started to play a lot better and be a lot more of a complete team.
“We want to push that forward and take a big step to go from just being competitive to being a team that team’s are worried about playing.”
‘There was no balance’
Due to impacts related to the COVID-19 pandemic and strict border rules, the Phoenix based themselves out of WIN Stadium in Wollongong, New South Wales.
It’s a far cry from the comforts of home in New Zealand.
Detached from family, friends and usual outlets to escape work, it left Lewis and Wellington in a difficult spot.
“It was a big challenge,” Lewis said. “You end up not being able to really get away from football. “I might’ve ended up having two days off in a row once in the whole six-month season.
“We rarely had a day off but it’s because you’re away from home, your friends and family aren’t around, the outlets you normally have to escape work and escape a bit of football doesn’t exist anymore.
“You just end up burying yourself in the work a little bit and it can build up. I think it was the same for the players. They didn’t necessarily have their escape, they were living together, training together and it kind of built up over time. It was challenging in that respect.
“There was no balance. There was very little balance for both staff and players, and it’s something we’re really looking forward to this season – being based in New Zealand is the girls being able to o have more of that and also us as staff and a coaching group.
“To be able to fresher when you’re in the session and on the field because you haven’t been doing it 24 hours, seven days a week.”
February 11 was a milestone game for the club – the Phoenix claimed their first ever ALW victory in a 3-0 win against Canberra United.
Learning in the face of adversity
Lewis and her Phoenix never shied away from the hurdles through their maiden ALW campaign in the ALW.
Lewis discovered a lot about about the team, especially around their resilience and high-performance behaviour.
“We’re talking about, for the most part, 18-year-old players. We even had a 17-year-old in there,” Lewis said.
“Me at that age and I played at a decent level, but even me I’d have to be driven by my coach or I’d have to have someone on me. But their behaviours in terms of like the way they conducted themselves.
“We were the only team that didn’t get COVID and that’s because they held themselves to a standard where they weren’t willing to put things at risk because what they were doing and being professional was more important to them.
“They wouldn’t go out, they didn’t go to public areas, they took sacrifices to make sure they were keeping themselves in the best shape they could to be able to compete at a level when they knew were kind of underdogs and things were stacked against us. That surprised me.
“Take a bunch of 18-year-olds and that could go the opposite way. Away from home, they have all this freedom, they’re essentially adults, they’re being paid to play, they can do whatever the way. We didn’t necessarily have exposure to them all the time so they could’ve gone out and done whatever they wanted.
“… but their high-performance behaviours and the resilience – they would turn up and want to learn. They’d want to do better and do what they could. They would start to apply it more and more.
“There would always be mistakes because they’re young and learning but you can see by the end of the season, they took big jumps. Those were the two big things and also made me look forward to this season.
“We want to improve the team but we aren’t also going to chuck out everything we worked on, completely change the team. We feel like we have a really good bunch of girls we’re working with.
“It’s about moving that forward and solidifying it because a lot of them show huge potential to have really good careers.”
‘We have this unique opportunity’
Wellington have a season under their belt but 2022-23 almost feels like the club’s first proper ALW campaign, with the Phoenix set to grace New Zealand shores in front of home support.
And it’s only going to get more exciting, with the inclusion of Western United in 2022-23 and Central Coast Mariners the following campaign ensuring the league will rise to a 12-team, full home-and-away competition by 2023-24.
“Everyone is super excited about playing in front of a home crowd but also just like being in Wellington, being able to have more exposure to the people, clubs and players,” Lewis said, before the expansion announcement.
“We have this unique opportunity, especially being the only New Zealand club, where we can generate a really good following and fanbase for the female team.
“We saw that last season – our first game was the most-watched game in New Zealand out of all the Phoenix games and that was the women’s match. That won’t happen much and we had across the season quite a few of our games with higher viewership.
“It just shows people want to get behind it and being home in Wellington means we can really generate that fanbase and almost give players that play for the Phoenix but also teams who come and play there a really different experience.”
