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Wellington Phoenix Women's Football Club is a New Zealand professional women's football club based in Wellington, New Zealand. The Phoenix competes in the Australian premier women's soccer competition A-League Women, under licence from Football Federation Australia and New Zealand Football.

Wellington Phoenix Women

Full name	Wellington Phoenix Women's Football Club
Nickname(s)	Phoenix, WelNix, Nix
Short name	Wellington
Founded	10 September 2021; 12 months ago (10 September 2021)
Ground	Sky Stadium, Wellington
Capacity	34,500
Owner	WelNix Group
Chairman	Robert Morrison
Coach	Gemma Lewis
League	A-League Women
2021–22	10th of 10
Website	Club website
Default colours
Current season

History

Establishment

For several years, there have been talks concerning the creation of a professional women's football team in New Zealand so as to boost the level of women's football in New Zealand and Oceania with the cost of traveling to away games a major barrier.[1][2] There were no professional clubs in New Zealand and the National League only featured amateur teams. The talks intensified after New Zealand won the rights to co-host the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup and the W-League plans to add three more expansion teams by that time.[3][4]

In September 2021, Phoenix announced they were one of the clubs in consideration under the W-League expansion and later confirmed creating a women's team.[5][6]

Inaugural season

On 11 October 2021, Wellington Phoenix announced Gemma Lewis would be the inaugural head coach of the side. They also announced that Natalie Lawrence would be her assistant for the 2021–22 season, making them one of two all-female coaching staffs in the A-League Women.[7] A few days later, they announced former Perth Glory keeper and 2020–21 players’ player of the year, Lily Alfeld as the clubs inaugural signing.[8] Alfeld was later announced as the club's inaugural captain.[9]

Phoenix played their home games at Wollongong with the hope of returning to their home stadium in Wellington later in the season. Wellington Phoenix started their debut season in the A-League in the 2021–22 season with a 0–0 draw against Western Sydney Wanderers at the Wollongong Showgrounds.[10]

Ava Pritchard scored the club's first goal in their second game of the season, in a 1–5 loss to Newcastle Jets.[11]

On 11 February 2022, the Phoenix achieved their first win in A-League Women history in a 3–0 away win against Canberra United.[12]

Players

First-team squad

As of 7 September 2022

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK  NZL Lily Alfeld (captain) 2 DF  NZL Saskia Vosper 3 DF  NZL Kate Taylor (vice-captain) 4 DF  NZL Mackenzie Barry 5 FW  AUS Jordan Jasnos 6 MF  AUS Isabel Gomez 7 MF  NZL Chloe Knott 8 FW  NZL Grace Wisnewski 9 FW  NZL Ava Pritchard 11 FW  NZL Kelli Brown 12 GK  AUS Brianna Edwards

No. Pos. Nation Player 13 MF  NZL Te Reremoana Walker 14 DF  AUS Cushla Rue 15 DF  NZL Zoe McMeeken 16 MF  AUS Hannah Jones 18 DF  AUS Annabel Martin 19 DF  NZL Charlotte Lancaster (scholarship) 20 MF  NZL Alyssa Whinham — DF  NZL Marisa van der Meer — MF  NZL Betsy Hassett — MF  NZL Michaela Robertson — FW  NZL Paige Satchell

Management team

Technical staff

As of 2 October 2022[13][14]

Position	Staff
Manager	Natalie Lawrence
Assistant manager	Callum Holmes
Team analyst	Maia Vink
Goalkeeping Coach	Trinity Allen
Strength and conditioning coach	Daniel Gordon
Football operations manager	Tracey Spray
Head physiotherapist	Brendan Wyatt
Equipment manager	Estelle Harrison

Captaincy history

Dates	Name	Honours (as captain)
2021–	Lily Alfeld[15]	Inaugural club captain

References

External links

• Official website

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