Days after celebrating their maiden victory in their inaugural A-League campaign, Wellington Phoenix have pulled the plug on hopes of bringing their women back home this season.
As professional sporting franchises vent frustration at ongoing COVID-19 border restrictions, the Phoenix are adding their voices to the chorus, consigning their women to another two weeks across the Tasman.
"While we hold hope, albeit small, that there could still be A-League men's games in New Zealand before the end of the season, given the current border restrictions and impossible isolation requirements on trans-Tasman sports teams, there is no chance of there being a A-League women’s match in Aotearoa," says Phoenix general manager David Dome.
"On Friday night, we saw history in the making and something incredibly special - the first-ever win by a New Zealand professional women's football team - and there was no chance that it could have been in New Zealand, due to current border restrictions.
"That's incredibly sad for all of us - the club, the players, supporters and our commercial partners."
Since they relocated to Australia last November, the women - many in their teens - have struggled to come to grips with being away from home.
Two weeks ago, midfielder Grace Wisnewski missed a match with mental health issues and even after their win over Canberra, coach Gemma Lewis admitted her players had their minds on other things.
"I think you could see from the reaction from the girls at the final whistle it means a lot," she said. "There's a couple of tears even and it seems silly, it's just one game in a league [and] we're still bottom of the table, but the sacrifices that these girls have made, and they're doing it tough and they're struggling.
"Some of them are on countdown until when they'll be able to get home and they're still trying to put in a performance day in, day out, so it really means a lot then when they get this reinforcement of why they're doing it and feeling like they're making progress."
Dome is pleading for the Government to be more lenient to allow the Phoenix men home for a rare home stand since the pandemic began.
"Professional sport is a business and, like many New Zealand businesses that rely on the free transfer of people, goods and services and capital across our border, we need proactive solutions for the re-opening of borders, not the rigid, no flexibility mindset that currently dominates decision-making.
"No-one in sport is asking for special favours, but the trans-Tasman competitions like Super Rugby, NRL, NBL and A-Leagues stimulate the flow of money in the economy, especially in the hospitality and tourism sectors, which have been hit hard by COVID.
"We need Government officials to proactively work with the private sector, to think laterally to find solutions and start making proactive decisions that are real-world based, so we can return live sport with crowds to the benefit of the broader community."
Over the weekend, the NZ Warriors announced they had given up hope of hosting NRL champions Penrith Panthers at Mt Smart Stadium in June - it would have been their first real home game since August 2019.
As his team headed south to a Queenstown bubble, Blues chief executive Andrew Hore called for the Government to allow spectators back into stadiums, which will be largely empty when the Super Rugby season kicks off this week.
