Marked for Jake Morrison
From our football correspondent
Upbeat
Squad20 Mar 2028
A knee injury of the worst kind for Jake Morrison
14 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. Wellington Phoenix lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Match18 Mar 2028
6 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.
Match18 Mar 2028
A 1‑0 win over Western Sydney Wanderers, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ramy Najjarine was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Player ratings20 Mar 2028
Marked 8.01 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.
The dugout20 Mar 2028
Joshua Laws gets it from the manager
“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.
Squad20 Mar 2028
4 call-ups is a compliment to the squad and a headache for the man running it. He will get them back in a fortnight, tired, in various states of repair.
The dugout20 Mar 2028
“The players deserve the credit. My job was easy today.” It was not, and everybody in the room knew it; after 1‑0, Oliver Hunter could afford to be generous.
Squad20 Mar 2028
Somebody watched every match in the division at the weekend and decided he was the best thing in any of them. A small honour, and most careers end without one.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Squad13 Mar 2028
21 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Wellington Phoenix lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match11 Mar 2028
4‑1, and the margin flattered nobody — it could have carried another goal or two without complaint. Afternoons like this are why people keep coming.
Squad13 Mar 2028
Michael Ruhs takes the match ball home
3 goals in one afternoon from one man. The other players were also present, a witness confirmed.
Squad13 Mar 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Alby Kelly-Heald and Wellington Phoenix agree another 4 years.
Player ratings13 Mar 2028
Michael Ruhs was on a different afternoon to everybody else
9.46. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
Squad13 Mar 2028
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and Wellington Phoenix know it.
The terraces13 Mar 2028
At 23 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.
Match11 Mar 2028
There is a particular helplessness in conceding 2 times before the twentieth minute. Macarthur FC tried to reorganise, Wellington Phoenix did not allow it, and the result was written long before it was confirmed.
The dugout13 Mar 2028
“That is what I want every week. Not the result, the way they went about it.” The manager, after 4‑1, already talking about the next one.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad6 Mar 2028
28 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Wellington Phoenix lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Match6 Mar 2028
Position 2, 34 points, and the result everyone checks first is now theirs. The word is still not being said around the ground, which is how you know everyone is thinking it.
Squad6 Mar 2028
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Bill Tuiloma and Wellington Phoenix agree another 2 years.
The dugout6 Mar 2028
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Alby Kelly-Heald, and the manager let it.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Ramy Najjarine was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Squad6 Mar 2028
Kazuki Nagasawa and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Match4 Mar 2028
It needed Michael Ruhs to find the net to bring anything home at all: 2‑2 against Brisbane Roar, and half the dressing room will call it a point won.
The dugout6 Mar 2028
Joshua Laws left out for the big one
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Joshua Laws will call it something else in private.
The dugout6 Mar 2028
“A point is a point and I will take it, but we should have had all three.” Oliver Hunter after the 2‑2 draw, and the sentence every manager in the country said at some stage this weekend.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad28 Feb 2028
Jake Morrison damages knee ligaments — 35 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 35 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Player ratings28 Feb 2028
Up for the corner, and Alex Rufer delivers — 7.76
Centre-halves are allowed forward twice a season and are judged on what they do when they get there. Alex Rufer scored, was marked 7.76, and got back before anybody noticed he had gone.
The dugout28 Feb 2028
This is not rotation. Tze Xuan Loke has not been in the manager's plans for some time, and nobody at Wellington Phoenix is pretending otherwise.
Match26 Feb 2028
A 2‑0 win over Melbourne Victory, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.
Match26 Feb 2028
5 matches without a win, and then this, against Melbourne Victory. Relief is a strange noise in a football ground and it was the only noise at the end.
Squad28 Feb 2028
Words at Wellington Phoenix training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Ramy Najjarine is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
Squad28 Feb 2028
100 games in this shirt, through managers and relegations and everything else. Service like it is disappearing from the game and the crowd knows what it is watching.
Player ratings28 Feb 2028
Marked 7.76. Ask anyone leaving the ground what settled it and you will get one name, which is the only award that has ever really counted.
The dugout28 Feb 2028
“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Oliver Hunter on a 2‑0 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.
From our football correspondent
Uneasy
Squad21 Feb 2028
Jake Morrison damages knee ligaments — 43 days out
The words a physio says slowly. 43 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.
Match19 Feb 2028
5 without a win now, and the ground has developed the special quiet of a crowd that expects the worst. One scrappy 1-0 would cure most of it; that is the maddening part.
Player ratings21 Feb 2028
Successful dribbles: 18. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Corban Piper falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Squad21 Feb 2028
Alex Nassiep in a row with a teammate
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Wellington Phoenix this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
Corban Piper left out for the big one
A player who expected to start watched it instead. The manager will call it a decision for the team; Corban Piper will call it something else in private.
The dugout21 Feb 2028
“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 1‑1 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.
Squad21 Feb 2028
One booking too many, and Austin Ayoubi sits out. Wellington Phoenix lose him for the sort of avoidable reason that makes a manager's week longer.