The Wellington Phoenix's journey to Wollongong may have felt like a whirlwind to many fans. However, the wheels of motion for the move were first set almost 18 months ago.
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The University of Wollongong announced in May 2019 that the would join forces with English Premier League powerhouse Tottenham Hotspur to create a global football program.
Since then, the UOW Tottenham Hotspur Global Football Academy has gone from strength to strength, offering a suite of scholarships specifically for Illawarra students, along with receiving training from FA and UEFA-qualified coaches.
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It may not have been intended, but the innovative program also put Wollongong on the A-League's map. And when COVID-19 flipped the world upside down in 2020, causing chaos for world travel, the Phoenix were left without a home ahead of the 2020/21 season.
Enter the UOW.
The Wellington club arrived in the Illawarra in November, setting up at the university for pre-season training. The Phoenix were originally expected to stay for three weeks, however, Football Federation Australia confirmed the league's worst-kept secret on Tuesday that they will remain in Wollongong for the entire upcoming season.
The Phoenix will keep training at the UOW play all home games at WIN Stadium over the coming months.
"It's pretty exciting. We began working with the Phoenix for some months now, when it became clear that the pandemic was going to close borders. And it's all come to fruition. I think it's great for the community, great for football and great for the university as well," UOW's Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Global Strategy, Professor Alex Frino said.
"The university's pushing sport along, we have a global sport strategy in place. And football is a key component of that. We've obviously got the relationship and the academy with Tottenham that's in place and is hugely successful, and this continues the relationship that the university has with football."
The UOW has been no stranger to joining forces with sporting clubs - particularly in New Zealand. In January, the university announced it would partner with Super Rugby giants The Crusaders to offer a Player Development Program.
"It's funny, the Kiwis seem to love Wollongong. We're doing both rugby and football with our friends from across the ditch. Wellington is a great team and the university is going to get behind them, and we hope that the community does too," Professor Frino said.
"We came to their attention because of the relationship we have with Tottenham. Their CEO [David Dome] came across just before the pandemic broke, and had a look at our facilities and what we were doing. We hope that we will be able to grow our relationship with them."
It has been no secret that Wollongong has been pushing hard for their own A-League team. In April 2018, the Wolves officially declared they were ready to launch their bid to play in Australia's top football competition. The Illawarra, of course, missed out. In December that year, Football Federation Australia announced the green light for newcomers Western United and Macarthur FC, who joined the competition over a two-season period.
However, fast forward to November 2020. Could the Phoenix's temporary stay in Wollongong open the door for a permanent A-League team?
"I'd love to see an A-League and a W-League team in Wollongong. And I think anything can happen," Professor Frino said.
"The Illawarra is a very strong football region, it always has been. And it's great to see elite football at its highest level come back to the region. We hope that this demonstrates that we can really feel that support for an A-League club. I'm sure that we can, but we need to demonstrate it."
For the Phoenix players, it is just great to have a permanent home base ahead of the A-League competition starting in late December.
However, midfielder Alex Rufer said it had been a "smooth transition" moving to Wollongong.
"The players are enjoying it so far. We've got some good training under our belts and we're raring to go," Rufer, 24, said.
"The players are loving it here. There's some beautiful beaches that we will spend good time at as well and the weather's a bonus."
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The Phoenix are aiming to build on their breakout performance last season. After finishing sixth in 2018/19, the team achieved a club-best third finish before crashing out in the first week of finals.
Rufer, who has played more than 60 A-League games since joining Wellington in 2013, says there is still room for improvement.
"I've been here for a number of years now and the preparation is always the same. We prepare to win, and we prepare to put up a good fight. I think, the last few years especially, we've done that. We've done extremely well and we've got high standards here that we want to reach them. We want to play finals football, that's why we're here," he said.
"We've grown so much. Last season, we created history by coming third. And we want to finish higher than that and achieve better things in the finals. We've done extremely well the last few years, but I think we've been a little unlucky in terms of the chances we've created: we just couldn't score. But that comes. The more time we're there, the more experience we have. It's great that we've been there, now it's about taking that next step."
A key to Phoenix's success could be their head coach Ufuk Talay. After spending a season as a Sydney FC assistant coach, Talay moved across the ditch to lead Wellington last season.
It wasn't a smooth start. The Phoenix sat bottom of the ladder after seven rounds before roaring home strongly in the back half of the season. Rufer hopes his team will start off on the right foot in 2020/21.
"It was a slow start, but I think it shaped us as a team. We were learning the new style that Ufuk brought in and now we've got a whole season under our belts. Pre-season has started very well and who knows what can happen this season," he said. "It's obviously a shame that we can't play in front of our home fans at Sky Stadium but without the travel, we can recover quicker and prepare better for games. But it's business as usual and we will take it game by game."
As well as achieving on-field success, Rufer wants to see the Wollongong community get behind his club.
"We're excited to get as many fans here as we can and hopefully expand our amazing fan base, and do the best we can," he said.
