PHOENIX NOW HAS CLAWS
Both men's and women's senior Phoenix professional football teams from Wellington whose training base is at the Heretaunga sports institute, won their matches today at Auckland's Mt Smart. And both defeated teams at or near the top of their A-League competitions prior to today.
This would have been unheard of in the last two seasons when our women's team was formed and the men had been struggling prior to that of the 2022-23 season.
It is as if the imminent formation of Auckland-based teams to rival the Phoenix club as NZ's representatives in the Australian leagues, is a spur to go so much better this season than ever before. I think the women Phoenix had not won as many games in the league in both past seasons combined as this season which is only in its sixth round.
Meanwhile Phoenix men have never done as well as early as in this season's comp since it was formed 15 years or so ago.
No longer are these teams regarded as walk-overs and they have gained the respect of the Australians including their referees who largely though not completely now treat Phoenix evenhandedly.
The coaching has a lot to do with the new found success of both Phoenix teams - as well as the world class facilities in Upper Hutt. Something by the way that the Auckland Black Knights football teams will lack.
I was at the Tuki Cafe at the sports institute last Friday and this little gem of a cafe is just another reason for the plaudits given to this amenity.
Funny enough, a few weeks ago I had a brief conversation with former economist whizz Gareth Morgan. One of the owners of the Phoenix club, Morgan has some excellent ideas about cats in restricting their opportunities to kill birds. Morgan also wanted Phoenix to loosen its defensive shackles and play an entertaining, attacking style all those years ago. Happy to say that Morgan's ambitions for Phoenix and its supporters came to fruition and these days they play crowd pleasing, goal scoring football.
Poll: Is the increase in disability parking fines fair?
In October, the fine for parking in a designated mobility car park without a permit has jumped from $150 to $750—a 400% increase!
The goal is to keep these spaces open for those who truly need them. Do you think this big increase in the fine is fair? Share your thoughts below.
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88.8% Yes, it's fair
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10.3% No, it's unreasonable
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0.9% Other - I'll share below
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THE POST FOREGOES ITS OWN TEAM
Wellington Lions (men's provincial rugby rep team) brilliantly won the Bunnings NPC last Saturday but The Post (Wellington's daily newspaper) has done absolutely no follow-up article/story in the days following the brief report on the Monday edition.
In fact the Auckland-based NZ Herald carried much more surrounding Wellington's success.
What use is this Wellington newspaper - the "great" amalgamated successor of the Dominion and The Evening Post which had presented a Trump-like lie in stating it was going to to be twice as good and as large as either of the two newspapers it derived from and with a smorgasbord of journalists.
Today it is a limp, dwindling, sometimes delivered soggy cut-down-to-comic-size newspaper that cannot even capture the essence of a stunning sports win by an outstanding team of Super Rugby and All Black quality players within its realm of distribution.
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