Wellington Phoenix: What it's like watching an A-League match with ...
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My wife had warned me about this moment.
Whatever happened, I was not to take my shirt off on national television. But here we were.
“Come on mate,” said the two Wellington Phoenix fans beside me, clutching beers in one hand and waving scarves in the other. “We are all doing it. What’s wrong with you? You’ve got to.”
It was gentle persuasion – but they had a point. If I wanted to stand with the most passionate supporters of any team in this country, bar none, it was time for the full experience.
The Yellow Fever started in 2007, just after the birth of the Wellington Phoenix. Almost 20 years later, they remain unique in the New Zealand landscape.
Kiwis aren’t great sports fans, by world standards. We are generally passionless, reserved and quiet. Even at the apex, the All Blacks, the crowd mainly consists of people sitting with their arms folded, waiting to be entertained. There is little sense of being part of the occasion, of helping to will the team home. The Warriors are an exception – with noisy, vocal fans – but they’ve got nothing on those that gather every fortnight in block 21 of Sky Stadium during the A-League season.
“We love the team and we are not afraid to show it,” explains a fan next to me. “I guess we are following the tradition of overseas football fans.”
Ahead of the round 19 game, they met first at the Old Bailey pub, running into Australian cricketers Steve Smith and Glenn Maxwell, celebrating their first-test triumph at the Basin Reserve. It’s a 15-minute walk from there, accompanied by their large flags, until they congregate at the stadium.
“We don’t have allocated seating as such,” says Tracey Hodge, a Fever diehard, who is also a liaison with the club. “But if other people have tickets for a particular seat they are welcome. We just warn them that this is an active support zone. Most people are fine with that.”
It’s a slow burn, as fans arrive, but the group are in full voice by the time the teams enter the field ahead of kickoff. The first chants are basic – “Come on Phoenix, come on Phoenix” – before some signature anthems.
A favoured one comes soon afterwards, pre-empted by someone – it could be anyone – yelling “Oh Wellington” at the top of their lungs. That’s followed by a group response, “Oh Wellington”, as the sequence continues.
Is wonderful
Is wonderful
Oh Wellington is wonderful
We’ve got the wind, the rain and the Phoenix
Oh Wellington is wonderful
A few rows along, longtime Fever member Patrick Barnes bangs on a large floor tom drum, adding to the theatre.
“The stadium lets us leave it here after each game, which is great,” says Barnes.
He got hooked on the Phoenix in 2010, after attending two playoff games which drew massive crowds of 30,000. “It was unlike any atmosphere I have experienced in New Zealand sport and [the Fever] were a big part of it,” says Barnes.
The fan group initially avoided using a drum or song sheets (they wanted things to happen organically) but now do, which helps if there is a low turnout on a wet, windy day. But numbers haven’t been a problem recently, with around 1000 in the zone today.
The noise continues, from the predictable – “He has been doing it all day, ref” – to the simple – “We’ve got the ball/We’ve lost the ball”. A high point is seeing a 9-year-old girl, hanging off her dad’s shoulders, leading off the “Oh Wellington” chant. Her small voice is immediately engulfed in chorus – the rest of the section love it – as she beams with delight.
There’s a large variety of player tributes, from young goalkeeper Alex Paulsen – “We’ve got the best keeper in the league” – to one for veteran forward David Ball based on Oasis’s Wonderwall – ”And all the runs that he goes on are winding, And all the goals that he scores are blinding”. There’s even a seagull chant, when a tern appears in view.
“Our fans are pretty creative,” says Hodge.
Ideas might emerge at the pub, over a WhatsApp group or on an away trip. There’s an eruptions of noise when the Phoenix open the scoring – but thankfully no beer thrown in the air – and the buzz continues through to halftime.
Hodge has mixed feelings about Auckland FC.
“Will it work? It has already failed twice up there,” she laughs. “But the derbies will be great. We normally invite away fans to join us at the pub, though I am not sure we will do that for Auckland.”
Most are looking forward to the rivalry, with Barnes adamant that one end of Mt Smart Stadium could be filled with Phoenix support.
“Away trips are great but very expensive for us,” said Barnes. “Auckland is obviously different.”
Adelaide start the second half well. They equalise, a penalty, before the goalscorer winds up the crowd with a series of gestures. He’s brave – “wanker, wanker, wanker” inevitably ensues – but is substituted immediately. The tension is alleviated soon afterwards, as the Phoenix score a brilliant counter-attacking goal, then another one.
The match time edges closer to the 80th minute. After a 10-second countdown, it’s shirts off for the Nix, the tradition that has made the Yellow Fever famous throughout Australasia. Bellies and shoulders are bared, as scarves continue to wave, while Barnes ups the rhythm on his drum.
“We know you don’t believe us, we are going to win the league,” they sing, before repetitions of “Italiano’s Yellow Army”, a tribute to coach Giancarlo Italiano.
My t-shirt and jacket have stayed on, before the nudge from two nearby fans with a few minutes to play. I still didn’t know most of the chants but I felt part of the action, while the brisk Wellington evening didn’t seem to bother anyone. It was, as a fan had promised, “liberating”.
With a few minutes to play, the Fever implore the entire crowd to “Stand up for the Phoenix” and almost all do. Adelaide get another goal back but it is too little, too late and the Fever can celebrate another win, during this most memorable of seasons.
“We hope it continues,” says Hodge. “Auckland has a lot to live up to.”
Michael Burgess has been a sports journalist since 2005, winning several national awards and covering Olympics, Fifa World Cups and America’s Cup campaigns. A football aficionado, Burgess will never forget the noise that greeted Rory Fallon’s goal against Bahrain in Wellington in 2009.
