We’ve still got dramas that are soon to come to a head with the licence, as the Welly Nix enter their final guaranteed season awaiting an independent A-League to come to the rescue. We’ve also got mad dramas for the second straight year with two-thirds of the squad coming off contract… you really woulda hoped the club would have learned that lesson by now. To be fair the licence thing will have played a part in that too, safe to say.

A lot now depends on the transfer market. Gotta re-sign Roy Krishna for one thing. Gotta replace any jokers that find their way elsewhere too. And somewhere along the way they need to ensure that they add to the depth and talent in the squad to close the gap between themselves and the top three, whilst also ironing out their consistency as far as results go.

But those are all issues for next season, we’re talking about this one at the moment. And I guess the answer is the same as it always is with these questions: a little from Column A, a little from Column B. Success is a tricky thing to define when expectations are always shifting. Before the season a spot in the playoffs would have sounded like the closest thing to a championship this team was capable of. By early January it was clear that the top four and a home playoff game were within reach. So now what felt like the best case scenario in preseason feels like a missed opportunity instead. The Phoenix technically finished in the bottom half of the table.

Maybe I’m being ruthless and greedy and unappreciative here when I say that, no, I’m not satisfied with how it all ended. Can’t argue with the loss to a far superior Melly Vix team but they shouldn’t have been in that position in the first place. This team was good enough for fourth and if they’d beaten a team of children over in Brisbane and avoided defeat the week before in Adelaide then it would have been theirs. They were fourth at the start of April. They then lost four of their remaining five games (including the playoff) while conceding 15 goals in the process.

All a matter of perspective then. Depends how far back you wanna stand when assessing this season. And, like, ultimately it’s a meaningless debate because life is lived in the present moment, you know? Even after the most devastating disappointments, of which this was not, you’ve gotta dust yourself off and get back at it. The Phoenix are still in a precarious place. But at least now we know which way is up. You can call that a success if you want to.

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