Coach Chris Greenacre wants the Wellington Phoenix reserves to live up to the raised expectations on his young side during the inaugural National League Championship.
The reserves visit Napier City Rovers on Saturday on the opening day of the 10-team competition, which pits the best sides from the Northern, Central and Southern Leagues against each other over a single round-robin format.
Greenacre guided the young Nix to a creditable third place finish in this year’s Central League, a repeat of the team’s 2021 result with an almost entirely new squad.
Main photo: Chris Greenacre … ‘we won’t worry about the opposition’.
Greenacre: ‘There’s now an expectation around them’
He believes the reserves have “surprised a lot of people”.
“There’s now an expectation around them because everyone has gone ‘they’re actually alright these guys”,” Greenacre said.
“So there’s a level of performance that they’ve brought to the table, whether they thought they could do it themselves or not, and I think it’s about trying to consistently keep that expectation there and deliver to it over the next nine games.”
Consistent performances are the priority.
“I think towards the end of the Central League season there was a little bit of inconsistency.
“You want to win every single game but you’ve got to give yourself a chance to be in every single game, so we’ll just worry about what we worry about. We won’t worry about any of the opposition. It’s about us, sticking to our structure, sticking to the way we play and trying to get that to the best of our ability consistently and I think we’ll be okay if we do that.
“I’m never going to stand here and say I want to do this, and I want to do that, not with these kids. There’s enough pressure on them anyway, but for them it’s about consistently delivering over nine games, week after week, and building on what they have built so far.”
Close to half of the reserves’ squad helped the New Zealand U-19s qualify for next year’s FIFA U-20 Men’s World Cup in Indonesia by winning the Oceania U-19 Men’s Championship in Tahiti.
The 10 New Zealand age-group internationals only returned to club duties on Wednesday, but Greenacre isn’t worried about the limited build-up.
“We’ve had enough work over the last eight or nine months so we’ll hit the ground running.
“The main thing is physically the players that stayed behind have worked really hard and shown fantastic attitude while the guys over in Tahiti have been training every single day and obviously have had good competition.
“Now it’s about managing the loads of the players because they’ve been on a different cycle and have had a lot of games in a short period of time. For the first week or so it’s about monitoring the players’ loads and seeing where they’re at.”
Three Junior All Whites; Noah Karunaratne, Jackson Manuel and Marco Lorenz, as well as senior striker Riley Bidois were part of the Wellington Phoenix squad for their Australia Cup campaign in August, while a number of the reserves have trained with the first team during their pre-season.
“The players that have had a taste of the first team environment have to be demanding of their teammates because we need to lift the level again.
“There’s an expectation for players that step down that there can’t be a discrepancy. We need to be working at the same level as the first team and the expectations need to be exactly the same.”
A chance to see first team players in the National League
First team players will also feature for the reserves during the National League Championship, unlike during last year’s South Central Series, when the Phoenix were based in Australia.
“Ultimately it’s about what the first team needs and wants with injuries, suspensions etc and there will be some players that need some game time.
“They’ll step down; that’ll be no problem for us. We’ll adjust accordingly.”
Watch the live stream
More about the National League
Our coverage of the new-look Men’s National League includes:
READ MORE: Your guide to the 10 teams >>>>
READ MORE: Readers’ poll: who do you think will win >>>>>
READ MORE: Christchurch United chasing back-to-back wins, thirty years apart >>>>
READ MORE: The New Zealand U-19 players to watch in the league >>>>
READ MORE: Melville United return to national league after 24-year hiatus >>>>
Fixtures
Games to be played on Saturday October 1, 2022
Cashmere Technical v Miramar Rangers
English Park, Christchurch, 1pm
Napier City Rovers v Wellington Phoenix
Bluewater Stadium, Napier, 2pm
Wellington Olympic v Auckland City
Endeavour Park, Whitby, Wellington, 3pm
Games to be played on Sunday October 2, 2022
Birkenhead United v Christchurch United
Shepherds Park, Birkenhead, 1pm
Auckland United v Melville United
Keith Hay Park, Mt Roskill, 3pm