Makala Woods scores during the A-League Women Grand Final match. Photo / Getty Images
But City held firm and were the better side across the 90 minutes to see their vastly experienced captain and Football Fern Rebekah Stott raise the trophy.
Phoenix captain Mackenzie Barry summed up her feelings after the match.
“Disappointed, I think we had a great season so that last performance can’t discredit that. I’m so proud of everyone and the fans were amazing today and back home, I’ve heard we had a huge crowd around New Zealand watching us.
“Thank you guys so much for sticking with us and I’m sorry that the performance wasn’t what we wanted today, but the second half was better and we stepped it up, so we can come away with that and build for next season.”
It was left to Priestman, who has brought so much to the club in her first season, to have the final say.
“I’m super proud of them, I’m proud of the club, I’m proud to wear the badge. We played a team tonight, that if you’re off a little bit, which I thought we were in the first half, they have the players that can punish you. Congratulations to Melbourne City.
“I think the occasion got to us, we weren’t front-footed enough defensively and I think they’ve got the players that can put you away, but we never gave up, there were a lot of chances in the second half and that’s credit to us, but it wasn’t our day.
“In many ways this might help me out next season to really make that push. It’ll leave a little bit in the tank where we can really push the group.”
Melbourne City FC players celebrate winning at fulltime. Photo / Getty Images
From ninth to grand finalists
It’s been a remarkable turnaround this season by the Nix, who have never made the top six before, never mind the grand final. Here, we look back at the past 14 months that led to this season’s showpiece.
April 2025
Three days before the last game of their 2024-25 season, the Phoenix announce head coach Paul Temple won’t be returning for a third season in charge, while captain Annalie Longo is retiring from professional football.
A 1-1 draw with Western United at Porirua Park sees the side finish ninth on the table, nine points away from a top-six spot which would have seen them qualify for the finals series.
“It’s obviously really sad for me to be leaving the Phoenix after so long at the club,” Temple said. “But ultimately first team football is a results business, I’ve always had that clarity, and we haven’t reached the targets we set ourselves.
“I can honestly say I’ve given absolutely everything to this project the past two seasons, and the players have too.”
Temple had taken the team from bottom place in their first two seasons in the A-League, to eighth in 2023-24, when they were five points away from sixth-placed team, the Newcastle Jets.
Longo, who had joined the squad for the 2023-24 season, said: “I’ve said right from the start that I just wanted to give absolutely everything in the Phoenix jersey, and I think I’ve done that”.
May 2025
Assistant coach Amy Shepherd, who was appointed in September 2024, is announced as the interim head coach, with a permanent appointment expected in late July.
“I think it’s a great opportunity for me to be involved in the season planning and recruitment process. We’ll aim to set us up for success so the new head coach can hit the ground running,” Shepherd says.
Head analyst and assistant coach Tory Schiltgen, goalkeeper coach Nick Stanton, operations and equipment manager Toni West-Luamanu, head physical performance scientist Kieran McMinn and head physiotherapist Beanie Joyes are confirmed as staying on as the backroom staff for the side.
“While we wait to appoint our new women’s head coach it’s important to have some consistency off the pitch,” director of football, Shaun Gill, said.
June 2025
Dominican Republic captain Lucia Leon becomes the club’s first signing during the off-season, joining from Adelaide United. The wingback had previously featured for the likes of Tottenham Hotspur, Watford, and Real Betis.
In doing so, she became the 10th player contracted for the 2025-26 season.
“When we were playing at Porirua Park [for Adelaide United], the fans were quite intimidating. I’m really looking forward to playing in front of our fans,” Leon said.
The signing is quickly followed by the arrival of American defender Ellie Walker, who had been playing in Portugal, and the versatile former Dutch international Tessel Middag, who’d been playing for Rangers in Scotland.
Middag’s teammate at Rangers and current Football Ferns goalkeeper Victoria Esson, also signs for the club after seven seasons playing in Europe.
July 2025
Defender Mackenzie Barry, a mainstay at the back since the women’s first game in December 2021, re-signs with the club for a fifth season.
“The last two years we just fell short of the finals unfortunately, but I really want us to get into the top six. I’m committed to getting us into the finals,” Barry said.
At the end of the month, Bev Priestman is announced as the club’s new head coach, on a two-year contract.
Known by some as the Canadian national team head coach banned from football for a year after her role in drone use at 2024’s Paris Olympics, where they were caught spying on a Football Ferns training, Priestman arrived in Wellington with an impressive coaching resume.
Before leading Canada to Olympic gold in Tokyo in 2021, Priestman was the team’s assistant coach when they claimed the bronze medal in Rio five years earlier and was England’s assistant coach at the 2019 Fifa Women’s World Cup in France, where they made the semifinals.
In 2009 Priestman headed up coach development in Wellington before going on to be New Zealand Football’s director of football development.
“Coming back to New Zealand and seeing the Phoenix week in week out as the only professional women’s team has been amazing. We have a responsibility now to fly the flag for this country and try to do something special,” Priestman said.
“There’ll be a hunger and a desire there because we know we want to achieve a first for this club and to do that is going to take something special.”
Head coach Bev Priestman looks on during the grand final at AAMI Park. Photo / Getty Images
August 2025
Adaptable and experienced Football Fern CJ Bott becomes Priestman’s first signing, joining the Phoenix on a two-year deal after four seasons with Leicester City in England.
“I’m really, really excited to be able to have secured someone of CJ’s calibre and experience,” Priestman said.
“CJ grew up down the road in Tawa, played for Waterside Karori and she really knows what it means to play for Wellington, and I think that’s critical.”
The club quickly follows up with the signing of highly rated 16-year-old forward Pia Vlok on a three-year contract from Auckland United.
“I have a history of developing young players. It’s something I’m really passionate about and to help someone realise their true potential is extremely rewarding and exciting,” Priestman said.
September 2025
The A-League draw is released, and the Nix discover that their first three games will be at home, with their season-opener against Canberra United a double-header alongside the men’s team, at Sky Stadium (later to be renamed Hnry Stadium). The side’s regular home will continue to be Porirua Park, with all their home fixtures scheduled at the family friendly time of 4pm on a weekend.
October 2025
The club sign their fifth and final player for the upcoming season, with experienced English forward Brooke Nunn joining their ranks. Fresh from being an important part of the Central Coast Mariners’ championship-winning side just five months earlier, Nunn spent eight years at Arsenal in England, as well as spells playing in Turkey and Scotland.
November 2025
It’s finally action time for the squad, as they kick off their campaign with a 1-1 draw at home against Canberra United. With a draw and a win in their following two matches, they’ve started the season unbeaten with five points from a possible nine.
However, there is a double dose of bad news, with Middag and Alyssa Whinham both suffering season-ending knee injuries. Priestman was quick to pay tribute to both players.
“They’re big losses because both of them could feature in any A-League team.”
“For Tess to go through a third ACL injury is a lot to deal with, but she’s handled herself with real class and maturity. Alyssa was reaching new heights early in her fifth season with the Phoenix, but I’m sure she’ll be back fitter, faster and stronger.”
December 2025
After wearing the armband in their first three matches of the season, Bott becomes the first Wellingtonian to be appointed as the side’s fulltime captain.
The side play three of their four games on the road, losing the first two narrowly, before bouncing back with a 7-0 victory at home against Sydney FC. They close out 2025 with a 3-0 away to Western Sydney Wanderers to sit in fourth place on the ladder heading into the new year.
January 2026
On the back of an away draw against Brisbane Roar, the Phoenix sign American forward Woods as a replacement for Middag. The 23-year-old played professionally in Iceland after an impressive college career at the University of Illinois and University of Kentucky.
“I’m super gritty,” Woods said. “Everyone in American soccer is strong, fast and athletic so you’ve got to get down, get dirty and do the hard things.”
Nepalese striker Sabitra Bhandari becomes their third player to suffer a season-ending injury.
Bott announces she’s pregnant, with her first child due in July. As a result, Bott will sit out the remainder of the 2025-26 season. Mackenzie Barry will go on to lead the side for the rest of the season.
The Nix lose to Melbourne City 2-1 at home before two wins to close out the month against Canberra United and Adelaide United see them sit second on the table.
February 2026
Four games in 20 days before an international window sees the Nix pick up two wins, a defeat and a draw. It’s Woods who rescues a point away to the Melbourne Victory in the last of those encounters, scoring with three minutes of normal time remaining. It’s her fourth goal since joining the club in January, and with another five assists, she’s showing her value.
“She’s been a great addition to the squad,” Priestman said.
“She brings energy, she’s dynamic and she’s just a real positive influence in the group. She didn’t really have a pre-season with us. She had a bit of an off-season and then in, so for someone like her this break is going to be needed.”
March 2026
The players return after the international break with an even more hectic schedule than the month before; four games in 16 days.
A 3-0 win at home to Brisbane Roar is followed by a 3-1 win away to Sydney FC. That result lifts the Phoenix back to second in the table and all but assures them of their first appearance in the A-League finals. It also gets them to 31 points from 17 matches, their highest number of points in the league.
Unfortunately, back-to-back defeats against Central Coast Mariners and Western City Wanderers leave them six points adrift of the table-topping Melbourne City, and despite remaining second, ends their chances of finishing the regular season on top of the ladder.
April 2026
With another international window, there’s just one game for the Nix and it’s their last regular season game. Two first-half goals seal victory away at Adelaide United and second place on the table. It also means they have a full month to wait before their two-leg semifinal.
Barry re-signs with the club, in what will be her sixth season, before Brisbane Roar emerge victorious from their elimination final against Adelaide United to set up a clash against the Nix in early May.
May 2026
A 2-1 defeat in Brisbane in the first leg is treated as the first half of a 180-minute match by the Phoenix, who overturn the deficit in front of a club record crowd of 5923 at Porirua Park.
A Woods double settles a tense encounter in front of a passionate home crowd to see the side make history, as the first New Zealand team to make an A-League grand final. Fittingly, it will be their 100th A-League game.
Just days before the final, six Phoenix players are named in the Professional Footballers Australia team of the season. Barry, Grace Jale, Pia Vlok and Brooke Nunn are in the starting XI, while Esson and Marisa van der Meer are two of seven substitutes named. Priestman is voted coach of the year by PFA members.
“I’m super proud of all of the players that have been named. They’re well deserved and maybe there could have been a few more,” Priestman says.
“It speaks volumes to the commitment of, not only the players named, but the players around those players to help them get there.”
This story was originally published at Newsroom.co.nz and is republished with permission.