Bev Priestman: ‘You become very isolated so I’ve loved getting back on the pitch’

But in 2025-26, Priestman took the foundation that had been built and constructed perhaps the competition’s most well-oiled machine: fielding its highest scoring attack and most miserly defence, while being among the competition’s leaders in most of its underlying metrics. Under her tutelage, the likes of Brooke Nunn and Grace Jale had breakout campaigns, while the 17-year-old Pia Vlok cemented herself as a star of the future.

This was not enough to break the dynastic hold that Melbourne City – part of the City Football Group – holds over the A-League, but it did secure them a second-place finish and a week off in the first week of the finals. If they can overturn a 2-1 deficit to Brisbane Roar in the second-leg of their semi-final this Sunday, temporary seating brought in to host an expected 5,000-strong crowd at Porirua Park in the biggest game in the team’s history, they will qualify for a first grand final. Needless to say, people have taken notice.

“For the last three months, wherever I go in the city, people seem to know who I am, who the team is, and how we did on the weekend,” Priestman says. “That’s very different to when I arrived in Wellington. It’s really turned into a women’s football community. There’s a buzz about the city. But I think also being the only New Zealand team to compete in the A-League, it’s wider than just Wellington. We’ve got a lot of Football Ferns [New Zealand internationals]. I think there’s a real buzz and energy.”

‘Wherever I go in the city, people seem to know who I am, who the team is, and how we did on the weekend. That’s very different to when I arrived in Wellington.’ Bev Priestman during a Wellington Phoenix team huddle. Photograph: Hagen Hopkins/The Guardian

That Priestman is getting stopped by well-wishers on the street creates a contrast, too, given that she previously spoke about how she “didn’t feel safe” in the aftermath of the spying scandal. New Zealand had always been something of a home, anyway, and her wife, Emma Humphries, was born in Wellington and took up a position as Phoenix’s academy director before the club’s senior women’s role opened up.

“That’s nice. Not to be talked about, maybe for the controversial side of it, and just getting back to what I love and what I know I can be good at, that’s really nice,” she reflects. “And I think it’s the reason you do want to take people with you, to see a bigger opportunity in what you’re doing. And I hope the people at the club, as well, now really do see what women’s football can do.”

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