Jason Pine: How new Wellington Phoenix coach can take side forward

Newly-appointed Wellington Phoenix head coach Giancarlo Italiano. Photo / Getty Images

OPINION:

Chiefy is now in charge.

Giancarlo Italiano, known to everyone as “Chiefy” and assistant men’s coach at the Wellington Phoenix for the past three years, will take on the top job from next season.

A cursory look at online comments and fan feedback shows an almost universal approval of Italiano’s elevation. He’s a popular figure around the club and has rightly been given credit for his part in a notable chapter in Phoenix history.

If finals football is achieved this month, Wellington would have played in the post-season in three of the past four years, missing out by a solitary point in the other. Ufuk Talay has been at the helm for that period, with Italiano there as right-hand-man for most of it.

For the first time in their history, the Phoenix have promoted their new head coach from within.

That brings with it any number of advantages, from existing relationships with players, a deep understanding of the challenges facing the club and the demonstration of a pathway for aspiring coaches within their system.

The most intriguing challenge for Italiano, though, will be a changed relationship with his players. An assistant coach is often a buffer between the squad and head coach, putting an arm around a shoulder when needed, providing feedback between the two as required and holding conversations that might not be had between players and the man in charge of selecting them each week.

Italiano has filled that role for three years but will now have to distance himself in some respects and forge different connections with those staying beyond this season.

Another test will be how Italiano freshens and takes the side forward from what has been a pretty successful period under Talay.

Italiano has been deeply involved in the processes which have led to those achievements but will no doubt be keen to stamp his own mark on the team.

It’s an interesting quandary. Does he stick with the playing system and tactics that have served the side so well in the past four years, or make tweaks and try new things in an attempt to take them to the next level?

Despite finals appearances under Talay (and Marko Rudan and Ernie Merrick previously), Wellington haven’t won a post-season game since 2011-12. The ability to do so is the next step in the club’s natural evolution.

Italiano has trodden a different path from many top-level coaches in that he was never an elite player.

Instead, he caught the coaching bug and spent several years gaining grassroots experience before honing his craft at Sydney FC and then Wellington.

While some may question a coach who hasn’t “been there and done that”, it provides a valuable and different perspective.

The most successful All Blacks coaches of the professional era were never top players themselves, and it didn’t affect them.

Italiano has a well-trained eye for talent, poring over his laptop for hours to prepare scouting reports for Talay on opposition players and potential recruits.

While a big part of Talay’s legacy at Wellington will be his ability to attract and get the best out of his imports, Italiano played a significant role in narrowing the list of candidates from hundreds to a few dozen, from which the likes of Ulises Davila, Tomer Hemed, Oskar Zawada and many others have been drawn.

And when everything is boiled down, the players are the most important part of this equation.

Coaches live and die by the actions of their players and their ability to develop, galvanise, invigorate and mesh their squad into a cohesive unit which can do what they ask on the field well enough to win games.

In short, Chiefy will rely on his indians. But it feels like they’ll be keen to join him on the next step of his journey.