Wellington Phoenix’s 2011/12 A-League season ended out west on April 8 with a post-season heartbreaker against Glory. Two days short of six months later, season six of Phoenix’s life will begin with high expectations and quiet optimism.

Most pundits have followed a familiar theme when predicting the 2012/13 A-League’s top six. None has included Phoenix.  That was understandable last season when financial uncertainty and non-existent recruitment had everyone (including many of the club’s own fans) picking a wooden spoon finish.  Instead, it was the playoffs for a third straight campaign. This time around, they’re again being overlooked when forecasts of the top two, top four and even top six are made. But that’s how Phoenix like it.  They’ll never have the glamour of Roar or Victory, but season after season they defy everybody, make themselves hard to beat at home and collect enough points on the road to feature beyond the regular season.

This is a different Phoenix. Gone are stalwarts Tim Brown, Daniel and Chris Greenacre who combined for fifty goals in their three-hundred plus games for the club. Brown’s goals and midfield engine will be particularly missed. Alex Smith has been handed Brown’s number six jersey and the first opportunity to replace him in the middle of the park.  He’s a tidy player and may well thrive on a run of games in the side.

Tucked in behind him, Manny Muscat returns to the screening role in which he was so effective in the back half of 2009/10 and 2010/11. With so many playmakers now pulling strings in A-League midfields, Muscat’s job description will be simple; stop the opposition’s best player from dictating terms. Whether it’s Flores, Del Piero, Broich or others, Muscat’s ability to fulfil this assignment will have a huge bearing on the success of Phoenix this season.

For the first time, Ricki Herbert seems set to abandon his 4-3-3 in favour of a 4-4-2 formation. Muscat and Smith will play in the middle, leaving wide berths for Paul Ifill and one of the other newcomers to the squad.  Youngster Louis Fenton has turned heads with his impressive displays since graduating from the club’s new Football School of Excellence to a full-time contract and is pushing hard for a starting spot. Solomon Islands international Benjamin Totori is also in the mix with his blistering pace causing the All Whites all sorts of problems at the recent OFC Nations Cup. Herbert will hope he can terrorise A-League defences in the same fashion.

Knee and ankle injuries have stymied Ifill’s pre-season and cast doubt over his involvement in Saturday night’s season opener. The man himself desperately wants to play and the temptation to pick him must be almost irresistible for Herbert given his past heroics.  Ifill scored in each of the four games against Sydney FC last season, all of which Phoenix won. At the very least, he’s not a bad bloke to bring on with twenty minutes to go. That may well be how his season starts.

For a long time it wasn’t clear who’d replace Greenacre at centre-forward. Many even questioned the decision to let him transition into full-time coaching.  Could he perhaps have given the club another year of service as a player?  We’ll never know, but I suspect the answer would have been yes, had he been offered that opportunity.

His eventual replacement, former Belgian international Stein Huysegems, seems a nice bloke and a good footballer.  In small-sided training drills he receives well, brings others into the game and has a nice first touch.  But will he do the donkey work that opens doors for others in the attacking third? Will he make life hell for defenders and protect the ball as though his life depends on it? Will he run shuttles between tired opposition players deep into injury time in the hope of seizing the half-chance that might come once in the hundred times he does so?  Greenacre was famous for those things.  Is Huysegems the man to take over? We’ll soon know.

Pre-season, Ifill declared if the club could recruit a ten-goal-a-season striker, they could make the Grand Final and Jeremy Brockie is in just that sort of form.  Eighteen pre-season goals is a confidence-booster in anyone’s books and the fact he’s found a secure home after being somewhat of an A-League journeyman seems to have made a huge difference. Brockie’s ever-present grin is evidence of a player who’s found an environment in which he’ll thrive. Over sixty fans from his home town of Nelson will take the trip across Cook Strait to watch their favourite son make his Phoenix debut on Saturday night.

Leo Bertos is the latest to be thrown a chance to nail down the troublesome right-back spot. It’s a role he’s familiar with from playing for New Zealand where he basically becomes a fullback as Herbert’s 3-4-3 transitions to a five-man defence when they’re under pressure. Bertos has spent most of pre-season acquainting himself with the defensive nuances of the role, but he’ll hopefully also remain an attacking weapon. The thought of Bertos receiving the ball with space to run into is more appetising than what frequently happened when he played further forward last season. From a standing start he’d often find it difficult to go past defenders but on the move from further back with ball at feet, his effectiveness in wide positions may well increase.  He can certainly cross the ball as well as anyone in the league on his day.

Most Phoenix fans wouldn’t trade either half of the side’s central defensive pairing for anyone in the league. Zwaanswijk? Milligan? Thwaite? No thanks. We’ll stick with two-time player of the year Ben Sigmund and unflappable skipper Andrew Durante who have becomes the bedrock of this side and a defensive platform upon which to stifle opposition attacks. If defence wins championships then Sigmund and Durante, more than anyone else in the side, might hold the key to Phoenix going from post-season participants to genuine title contenders.

And so, on the eve of the most highly anticipated A-League season ever, what should we expect from Phoenix?

Commitment. Passion. Flexibility. Determination. And surprises.

Top six against almost everyone’s expectations?  It wouldn’t be the first time.

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