How Wellington Phoenix's A-League Women's team have risen to the call

E Rere Te Keo.

It's the Māori phrase etched into Wellington Phoenix's club logo, curving like a branch beneath the bird-like figure of the taniwha — a great water spirit of Māori mythology — that forms its unmistakable crest.

The phrase means «rising call» or «rallying cry»: the call to prepare, to work hard, to persevere, regardless of the circumstances.

It represents everything that the A-Leagues' only New Zealand-based club has woven into the fabric of its culture, its players, and its football: mana (respect), kaha (strength), whānau and iwi (family and tribe).

And, after their tumultuous start to life in the A-League Women's competition — a debut marked by relocations and regulations, injuries and interruptions — it's plain to see how these principles have already deeply shaped the club's inaugural women's team.

It started with that first rising call, the moment the Phoenix knew they needed a women's side to complement their men's program.

According to general manager David Dome, anything less would make the club incomplete.

«We'd wanted a [women's] team for about six years, but we'd been stopped and held and held, but we finally got through,» he told ABC at the start of the season.

«We realised that, to be a full football club, you need to have both sides of your program. Because, without it, you're only half a club.

»I think there was a realisation in the ownership group that it was the right thing to do, and to really capture the football fans in this country, we needed to be in that space.

«We could see that there were decent players coming through, we were keen to bring them through an academy. But, without the professional pathway, it was somewhat limited.

»We've [now] had two women's teams in the academy for two years,