Troublesome trio back in the mix
In terms of sporting misdemeanours, staying out until 4am after a big loss sits down the bottom end of the scale.
But Roly Bonevacia, Ryan Lowry and Tom Doyle were warned off such conduct by their Wellington Phoenix coaches after the 5-1 loss to Melbourne City on February 18.
They didn’t listen, were caught out and were punished by missing the team’s remarkable 2-1 away win over the Brisbane Roar last weekend.
What that means for their immediate playing futures in anyone’s guess. Normally you don’t change a winning team, but Phoenix co-coaches Des Buckingham and Chris Greenacre will be forced into at least one against Perth Glory on Saturday in Auckland with right back Jacob Tratt suspended.
Centre back Marco Rossi is a 50-50 proposition with a hamstring strain and Buckingham said all fit players, including the troublesome trio, would come into consideration for selection.
‘‘They’ve apologised to the playing group, so they’re back in for selection.
‘‘All three of them have applied themselves back to the professional standards and have got on with the job that they should be doing.’’
One would imagine Dylan Fox will fill in for Rossi, if he is not fit, having played so well there against the Roar, while Matt Ridenton, who started in attacking midfielder against Brisbane, shapes as the likely Tratt replacement given he played right back the week before.
Gui Finkler is back from paternal leave in Brazil and would easily slot back into attacking midfield, meaning the coaches have their options open with what they do with the three players.
‘‘We’ve got six games left so we’ll pick the best team that we think will get us the result,’’ Buckingham said.
‘‘We want some momentum, so if that means leaving those three players out then that’s a possibility.’’
One option is to send two of them down to prove themselves with the reserves in the curtain raiser against Waitakere United on Saturday.
‘‘We haven’t got that far forwards, but we have that option available to us if we need to,’’ Buckingham said.
The other problem looming on the horizon is the March 26 home match against Newcastle Jets.
The Phoenix will lose Roy Krishna to Fiji and up to 11 players to the All Whites, although Buckingham confirmed not all of them would end up being selected.
‘‘We’ve got an indication of at least seven definites, then there are questions over a couple more.’’
The club asked Football Federation Australia to move the fixture to the weekend of March 10-12, when both teams do not have a game, but the request was denied.
Westpac Stadium was relatively free, with a four-day cricket match finishing on March 9 the only obstacle to clear, but logistically it would have been a tough ask for Newcastle.
‘‘We’ve been told we can’t move it, so we could lose up to 12 players and of the remaining players, between seven of them we have 57 professional football caps,’’ Buckingham said.
‘‘Ideally we’d like the game to be on a different weekend, whether or not you could say it brings the game into disrepute by having so many players away ... I don’t know any other league in the world that would have so many players away from one team and still play that fixture.’’
It’s tough, but that’s what the Phoenix signed up for when entering the Australian competition.