Wellington Phoenix head coach Giancarlo Italiano hopes this is the first and only time the club has to travel to Darwin for the Hahn Australia Cup playoffs.
The Phoenix have made the long journey to the Northern Territory to play Brisbane Roar at Darwin Football Stadium on Wednesday night for a place in the last 32 of the Australia Cup.
The Nix had to make the end-of-season trip after finishing in the bottom four of the Isuzu UTE A-League for the first time in seven years.
The four clubs were welcomed to the Northern Territory on Tuesday afternoon and Italiano was asked after the water ceremony whether he had been to the Darwin before.
“First time,” he said. “Hopefully the last time. It’s a long trip.
“We had a three and a half hour flight to Sydney, had a layover and then we had another four and a half hours to get here so the boys got in a little bit late [and] are a little bit fatigued today.”
Despite the arduous journey, the town and the climate has made a good first impression on Italiano.
“This is the last place in Aus I haven’t been to so I feel very privileged and very grateful that I get to see all of Australia.
“In terms of the football landscape it’s good to get a buzz. I know Darwin doesn’t get a lot of showpiece events or have regular sporting events for a local team so any kind of engagement and for us to bring some sort of entertainment is great for us.
“I love the weather here. I can’t believe this is autumn, getting close to winter. This would be like a heat wave in Wellington in summer.”
It’s forecast to be around 30 degrees at kick-off on Wednesday night, with a low of 23.
The temperatures a more likely to favour Brisbane, who have a new coach with Michael Valkanis taking over from Ruben Zadkovich last week.
“We’ll be able to see the way he’s going to have them set up for next season.
“We’re just going to go to the game playing our best football.
“We’ve had a disappointing last couple of weeks of the season but we’re going to try and end in a positive and just take what we can get from this leading into next season.”
The Phoenix will open their pre-season campaign against Wrexham AFC at Sky Stadium on Saturday, July 19 and Giancarlo Italiano hopes Australia Cup matches will follow.
“We’re a little bit unique because we’re in New Zealand. The Australia Cup is basically a creation to be a representation of Australia.
“We look at it as a very important part of our pre-season to get those competitive games, but traditionally because it’s a little bit disjointed from the rest of the A-League season it makes it harder for us logistically to get the team prepped for those games.
“We take it very seriously. We try to qualify and when we’re in the tournament we try to get as far as possible.”
Italiano will be without versatile defender Corban Piper, centre back Isaac Hughes and young fullback Xuan Loke for the playoff.
They didn’t travel to Darwin because of injuries, joining fellow first team squad members Tim Payne, Chico Geraldes, Alby Kelly-Heald and Stefan Colakovski on the sidelines.
As a result reserve team players Ryan Lee and Dan Makowem made the trip. Fullback Lee, forward Makowem and striker Luke Supyk all started the reserves’ 2-2 draw with Western Suburbs in the Central League on Saturday, with Supyk scoring a late brace to secure a point.
The Hahn Australia Cup playoff match between the Wellington Phoenix and Brisbane Roar is scheduled to kick-off at Darwin Football Stadium at 9:30pm (7pm ACST) Wednesday and will be broadcast LIVE on Football Australia’s YouTube channel.
Most recent meeting: 26 April 2025 – Brisbane Roar 1 Wellington Phoenix 0
All-time A-League head-to-head: Phoenix 13W, Roar 22W & 16D.
Wellington Phoenix squad (one to be omitted): 1. Josh OLUWAYEMI (gk), 4. Scott WOOTTON, 5. Fin ROA CONCHIE, 7. Kosta BARBAROUSES, 8. Paulo RETRE, 9. Hideki ISHIGE, 14. Alex RUFER (c), 17. Gabriel SLOANE-RODRIGUES, 18. Lukas KELLY-HEALD, 19. Sam SUTTON, 23. Luke SUPYK, 25. Kazuki NAGASAWA, 27. Matt SHERIDAN, 29. Luke BROOKE-SMITH, 31. Ryan LEE, 35. Dublin BOON (gk), 39. Jayden SMITH, 41. Nathan WALKER, 44. Dan MAKOWEM.
Unavailable: 3. Corban PIPER (injured), 6. Tim PAYNE (injured), 11. Stefan COLAKOVSKI (injured), 12. Chico GERALDES (injured), 15. Isaac HUGHES (injured), 30. Alby KELLY-HEALD (gk) (injured), 36. Xuan LOKE (injured).
Main image: Phoenix head coach Giancarlo Italiano (far left) and defender Matt Sheridan (far right) join representatives from the other three playoff teams to pose with the Hahn Australia Cup. Photo: Football Australia.
