Deeds need to back the words at Phoenix
A couple of things jarred, as Vince Lia and Glen Moss chatted away. Quite big things, too.
If Ernie Merrick were such a good coach and the Wellington Phoenix so talented, why are they last in the A-League? And if they all liked Merrick so much, why didn’t they play for him?
If there was a feature of Phoenix training at Newtown Park yesterday, it was the intensity. Shame it took the coach’s resignation to generate it.
You can’t dwell in sport; the fixture list doesn’t allow it. Nor can you be too sentimental. But the Phoenix owe Merrick a performance or two, particularly in this period between coaching staffs.
‘‘I think Ernie’s done great since he’s been here. He’s completely transformed the club, along with the Welnix Consortium,’’ Lia said.
‘‘It’s a completely different place now than when he got here. He can be proud of what he achieved. It’s just disappointing the way it’s all ended and we can feel like we let him down.’’
So they should. Merrick was very loyal to players such as Lia, who he regularly went out of his way to praise.
Now’s the time to show some thanks, starting in Hamilton on Saturday against the Central Coast Mariners.
‘‘We have under-performed and we have to – Dura [Andrew Durante], myself, Mossy, Mikey [McGlinchey] – get the best out of our group now. We have to lift the group up and make sure we’re all together,’’ said Lia.
They’re certainly right things.
‘‘It’s disappointing, because Ernie’s done a great job. He’s transformed the club and the style of football we’ve been playing. It’s not a good time to be here and be fronting the media,’’ Lia said.
‘‘It’s been tough. It’s probably saying the been the toughest two days I can remember for a while.
‘‘You get good results, you get bad results but it’s a game of football. But Ernie’s decision to step aside, it’s people’s lives.’’
Lia’s endured some turbulent times in his 10 years at the club, while Moss has seen a bit during his career too. Notably at Gold Coast United, where owner Clive Palmer sacked coach Miron Bleiberg and then had to fold the club up after Football Federation Australia revoked his licence.
‘‘There’s a couple of us that have been through a situation like this before, whereas many haven’t,’’ Moss said.
Which made it his responsibility to make sure the wheels don’t completely fall off now.
‘‘There’s still a long way to go in the season, which I guess is the upside for us. So we can really turn things around this weekend and get back in the finals,’’ said Moss.
‘‘The squad’s not going to change. We’re going to be here for the rest of the years and giving it our all and everyone knows Chris and Des [interim coaches Chris Greenacre and Des Buckingham] so not much has changed in those kind of terms.
‘‘It’s just about sticking together for us, because it would be quite easy for lesser sides and lesser groups to fall apart and start going their own way.’’ The proof’s in the pudding now. Like Lia, Moss was passionate and positive in his appraisal of the situation. There’s just that inconvenient matter of sitting last on the table.