Forced into exile by COVID in their debut season, Wellington can see only upside in the campaign to come, Alyssa Whinham tells Tom Smithies.
Alyssa Whinham can afford to laugh about it now, and remember that there were benefits to living and playing football in exile.
A year ago, Wellington Phoenix’s A-League Women team was preparing for its first season, and then suddenly preparing to play what its members assumed would be a handful of games in Australia.
Read here: Wellington Phoenix Ultimate Season Guide
What actually unfolded was a remarkable story of resilience and positivity, despite the intense tribulations of COVID-enforced dislocation from their home environment.
And that’s why Whinham wasn’t so much burnt by her first season in professional football as hot-housed, and is counting the minutes until the second gets underway.
Though Wellington did finish bottom in their debut year, there were numerous fine performances along the way – and even a year later, it’s hard to comprehend the endurance required of a squad where 12 of the 18 members at the start of the season were aged 19 or above.
Most, like Whinham, had never lived away from home previously. Many had never played professional football before. With two days’ notice, they were told the team was relocating to NSW, as the Omicrom COVID variant forced a halt to travel between Australia and New Zealand.
That’s why certain moments became extra important – like the vision of Whinham’s bewildered joy at scoring her first ever goal, and only her team’s second ever, which went viral to the degree she thinks its now “iconic” and will roll it out again – as and when she adds another strike this season.
Such was the discipline of the squad under head coach Gemma Lewis that Phoenix were the only ALW team not to catch COVID last season; now, wth Lewis having moved back to Wales and assistant Natalie Lawrence in charge, Whinham hopes that level of focus can be turned towards more positive ends this season as the team prepares for a season properly “at home”.
“I think the first season was just getting that experience because a lot of us hadn’t played professional football before,” Whinham tells KEEPUP ahead of the new campaign. “And I think we grew so much as a team, individually we’ve improved from the first game to the last game. So I’m really excited.
“Being away from home, we definitely faced challenges, it was tough enough being our first season. So now we know what we can do better this season. And hopefully we can even go even further.
“We had to grow up pretty quickly, because the team came together pretty fast as well. We just had, like, a couple of weeks (training), then I had like two days before I was leaving (with the team moving to NSW).
“I never expected that this was ever going to happen, it was pretty crazy. So I did have to grow up pretty quickly, because I’ve never been away from home like that before.
“That was the same with a lot of the girls, so it took us a while I think to just get settled in. But we had great support around us, and in the end it was a cool experience, the whole thing.
“It kind of felt like a camp for the whole five, six months. We definitely grew as a team, we became like each other’s best friends because you’re just with each other 24/7. I think by the end of the season, it probably showed that on the field. We’re just so close as a team.”
There is a significant new variable to contend with after the departure of Lewis to take a job with the Welsh Football Association – promoting from within, Phoenix have allowed Natalie Lawrence to step up from assistant coach and replace her long-time collaborator.
“It’s definitely difficult with Gemma leaving, I thought she was great for us,” said Whinham. “But I know how good Nat is, she’s been our assistant and she goes a bit under the radar. I think last season, she was huge for us and she’s a very talented coach. She knows what she’s doing.
“She had that aspect where she was like our mum in a way, definitely there for us in terms of our well being but she also knows what she’s doing as a coach. She’s helped me so much to improve little things and she works so hard. She puts in so many hours behind the scenes that people probably don’t realise, so she definitely deserves this opportunity and I think she’s an awesome coach.
“I feel like we just want to go one step further and do much bigger things this season. I think we’re definitely aiming for finals. Coming off last season, I think we can really do it and we have a good group of girls. So it’s exciting.”
