Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: The incredible story of the women’s Phoenix football team

So I once heard someone say the best stories you could hope to read in the newspapers are always found in the sports sections—and I was reminded of that by the incredible story of the women’s Phoenix football team.

These ladies are going to play in the grand final of their A-League competition, which is remarkable when you consider that, in two of the past five years, they’ve finished as the wooden spoon team.

But why they’ve made the grand final is what makes the story truly incredible.

It’s their coach, Bev Priestman. She seems to be the person who has turned the team around. Two years ago—remember this—she was their evil nemesis. She was the head coach of the Canadian football team during the 2024 Olympics and she was caught spying on our team, the New Zealand women’s side, using a drone. And in that New Zealand team were many players who are in this Phoenix squad.

That drone spying turned into an international scandal and the coach lost her job.

She needed a new one so she moved to New Zealand, where her wife is a football player and she even considered buying a coffee cart and leaving football altogether. But the Phoenix saw an opportunity. They could never normally attract a coach of her calibre, yet she needed a way back.

So they gave her the job—and now the team is in the grand final.

Isn’t that an amazing story?

You can call it karma if you like. The women she once wronged have ended up benefiting from it. She hurt them but now she’s helping them. She’s redeemed herself.

That story is so remarkable it’s only one plot twist away from being worthy of a Netflix series—and that twist would be if the team actually wins the final.

As they say, doesn’t sport give us the best stories about ourselves?

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So I heard someone once say that the best stories
you could ever hope to read in the newspapers are
always the stories that you find in the sports sections,
and I was reminded of that by the incredible story
of the women's Phoenix team, the football team. Tomorrow, these
ladies are going to play in the grand final of
their A league competition, which is remarkable when you consider

(00:20):
the fact that two out of the last five years
they've been the Wooden Spoon team. But why they've made
the grand final is the part that makes the story incredible.
It's their coach, Bev Priestsman. Their coach seems to be
the person all the thing that has turned them around.
Two years ago. Remember this, their coach was their evil
nemesis because she was the head coach of the Canadian

(00:41):
football team during the twenty twenty four Olympics, and she
was busted spying on our team, the New Zealand women's team,
using a drone. And in that New Zealand women's team
were many players who were in this Phoenix team today.
That drone spying turned into an international scandal and the
coach lost her job. She needed a new job, so
she moved to New Zealand, where her wife is a

(01:01):
football player, and she thought about buying a coffee cut
and leaving football altogether. But the Phoenix saw a chance
because they could never normally land a coach of her caliber.
But she of course needed a way back, so they
gave her a job and the team is now in
the Grand Final. Isn't that an amazing story? You can
call it karma if you like. The women that she
did the dirty on have ended up benefiting from that.

(01:22):
She hurt them, but now she's helping them. She's redeemed herself.
That that story is so remarkable it is only one
plot twist away from being worthy of a Netflix series,
and that plot twist is if the team actually wins
the final tomorrow. As they say, doesn't sport give us
the best stories about ourselves? For more from Heather Duplessy
Allen Drive, listen live to news talk sai'd Be from

(01:44):
four pm weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.