Two seasons ago, Wellington Phoenix director of football Shaun Gill graded his women's team a C-minus. On Saturday night, they play in their first A-League Women's grand final. That is not a rehabilitation story — that is a rebuild done properly.
The Phoenix face three-time Premiers Plate winners Melbourne City at AAMI Park, and the occasion carries extra weight: it's the club's 100th game. From wooden spoon finishers in back-to-back seasons to grand finalists in year five. The gap between those two realities says everything about how much has changed, and how quickly.
The foundation was always shaky
The Phoenix entered the A-League Women in 2021 under restrictions that hampered them from the start — no visa players for their first two seasons. They finished last in year one, based in Wollongong due to COVID travel restrictions, scraping two wins from 14 games. They finished last again the following season. The 2023/24 campaign brought a best-ever eighth-place finish, which felt like progress until they dropped back to ninth the season after.
Four coaches in five seasons. Captains who kept getting injured. A vice-captain who walked away mid-season citing the strain of juggling full-time work with professional football. The instability was structural, not just cosmetic.
What changed this season was Bev Priestman. The Englishwoman arrived carrying serious baggage — a one-year ban from all football for her role in the drone spying scandal at the 2024 Paris Olympics while coaching Canada. She also brought a gold medal from the Tokyo Olympics and a World Cup campaign to her name. The Phoenix hired the most credentialled coach in the league and it shows. She's already locked in for next season as part of what defender Mackenzie Barry calls a deliberate two-year project.
The players who made it happen
Barry herself is the spine of this squad. Day-one signing, most-capped player in club history, starter in every game this season. She's the only A-League club she ever wanted to play for, and she's been there through all of it — the wooden spoons, the coaching changes, the slow grind upward.
Around her, Priestman built something functional and hard to beat. Goalkeeper Vic Esson returned from seven seasons abroad and immediately helped the Phoenix record the best defensive numbers in the competition. American forward Makala Woods arrived as an injury replacement and became the team's top scorer. English forward Brooke Nunn leads the entire league in assists. Teenage midfielder Pia Vlok scored the club's first-ever hat-trick and earned her first Football Ferns call-up.
Centreback Marisa van der Meer played her first game back after two consecutive ACL injuries — more than 700 days out — and scored on her return. Three more players suffered ACL injuries this season alone, prompting an internal review of injury prevention protocols. The review found nothing wrong. The injuries came anyway.
- Makala Woods — top scorer, signed as an injury replacement, returning next season
- Brooke Nunn — A-League Women's leader in assists, also returning
- Pia Vlok — hat-trick, first Ferns call-up, breakout season
- Vic Esson — best defensive record in the competition
- Mackenzie Barry — most-capped player, started every game this season
The squad also navigated a captain vacancy mid-season when CJ Bott announced her pregnancy in January. Barry stepped into the on-field role without disruption. Grace Jale, who has played for multiple A-League clubs, is having the best club season of her career and says this is the first time she has experienced playoff football. That detail alone captures the scale of what Priestman has shifted.
Nearly 6,000 people turned up to Porirua Park for Sunday's semifinal — a club record. Last season, the average home attendance was 739. The team finishing second in the regular season, beating Brisbane Roar in extra time on aggregate to reach the final, has done what attendance numbers never could: made Wellington a destination worth watching.
Melbourne City have won the Premiers Plate three times. They know how to close out seasons. The Phoenix are doing this for the first time. The odds will reflect that gap — but a team that went from C-minus to a grand final in two years is not one you dismiss lightly on a Saturday night.
