He’s captained New Zealand at age group level and played in a World Cup. Now, he’s playing his football with the Wellington Phoenix Reserves and aiming for a professional contract.

Dylan Gardiner is an 18-year-old footballer, originally from Taupō. While living in Hamilton and boarding at St Paul’s Collegiate, he played youth football for Cambridge and then Hamilton Wanderers.

He debuted for the Hamilton Wanderers first team in July 2022, when he was 16, and played regularly in the Northern League.

In January 2023, Gardiner was a member of the national U-17 squad that won the OFC U-17 Championship in Fiji, and wore the captain’s armband for the final game.

He represented New Zealand in the FIFA U-17 World Cup in November 2023, starting in all three games.

In February 2024, he moved to Wellington to join the Phoenix Academy, based at Fraser Park, Lower Hutt.

He’s currently in the Wellington Phoenix Reserves, who play in New Zealand’s highest level competition, the National League, and in the Central League. His goal is a move into the first team, and gain a pro contract.

During his summer break with family in Taupō, he caught up with WaiBOP Football to talk about life in the Phoenix academy.  

The reserve team trained with the first team last year during an international window. Tell us about that. [The first team are based 10 minutes away at NZCIS in Upper Hutt]

Chiefy [head coach Giancarlo Italiano] was awesome for me. And the other coaches when I was up there, I learned so much from them.

I went to Melbourne with the first team for the cup game [Australia Cup, August 6, 2024, against South Melbourne]. And I didn’t know until the night before or the day of, it was really last minute.

Chiefy called me over at one point. And then I stood there and he changed his mind. And then I didn't go on. Unfortunate, but I enjoyed being there.

I was disappointed that I didn’t end up continuing to train up there, but I’m working hard in the reserves and I hope get more opportunities [to train with the first team].

Auckland City FC's Myer Bevan up against Wellington Phoenix's Dylan Gardiner. National League Championship 2024, Auckland City FC v Wellington Phoenix, 10 November 2024. Photo: Shane Wenzlick / www.phototek.nz

How many in your squad? 

Twenty-plus. There are always around six that get left out of a matchday squad.

It's hard to say exactly, because we always get players from our squad that will be away training with the first team, and then we'll have players come up and train with us [from the U-17s].

It’s really competitive. The coach likes it 'cause you're fighting for your position. You're  showing you want to be there and you care. But it's good though, I think it's actually a good thing. It's healthy competitive.

How close are the reserves and the first team?

There's a lot of movement between the reserves and first team, though we don’t train together.

During the week Greenie [head coach Chris Greenacre] might get a text in the morning with changes. I might get a text in the morning. Can you come to NZCIS today? So it all changes quickly. 

Players from our squad might be called into the first team the day before our game, or the day of, and he has to do a new plan. Or the reverse. Greenie gets [first team] players who have to play a certain number of minutes.

So there are no guarantees about playing, really, for anyone. 

Photo: Cameron Macintosh / Photomac 

Tell me about that uncertainty and managing the mental side of the game. Do you have psychologists who you work with? How helpful do you find that?

Yeah, we have a psychologist who works with the first team and the academy. The club recommend it for everyone, even if you're playing your best.

I know a lot of boys that did talk to her, and I was like, well, why wouldn't I use it to improve my game? And I kind of initiated it when I was in a good space.

But then I had a spell being on the bench and my confidence dropped and I was like, what's going wrong? That's when I probably talked to her every couple of weeks. And it was so helpful. Like, it was unbelievable, just for confidence and just to get things off your chest. Talking to someone that isn't your parents or that isn't anyone close to you. 

You can just say absolutely everything. And she comes up with little cues and stuff you can use.

Regardless of where you are mentally, it's just so beneficial. 

Let’s talk about your schedule. What does a typical week in the academy look like for you?

The schedule is pretty similar most weeks. We train four days a week on a typical game week. If we're playing on a Saturday, we'll train Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.

Sunday is the day off after the game.  The body is fatigued.  I might do some prehab or recovery, like go for a walk or a jump in the ocean —  just something to move, but not hard on the body.

Then Monday, they call it the “start-up” because you're still semi-fatigued, so you don't want to push the body too hard.

Most days the schedule is a 9.30 arrival. Training usually starts around 10.30 and finishes around 12.

We’ll get into the training ground, put gear away, then we do prehab. Stretch, foam roll, loosen up for training and sometimes do some work with the S & C [strength & conditioning coach]. Sometimes we do game analysis.

Tuesday is the day off, if game day is Saturday. It’s always a three-day lead into the game.

Wednesday is conditioning. The idea is that the intensity and what you put out is similar to game intensity. It's a normal training, but it's way more intense and heaps of running and it's all tracked.

You're just trying to push your body, that's when we do the hardest work during the week.

Then Thursday is ‘match day -2’. It’s tapered off a bit. Not as high intensity, but you still do a lot of work.

Thursday and Friday is when we might go over how we're going to play, and how we can hurt the opposition. We look at how the opposition are in possession, how they are out of possession. Our playing style doesn't really change. We play a 4-2-2-2 as our shape, that never really changes. 

‘Match day -1’ is Friday. If it's an away game, he [coach Chris Greenacre] will do the lineup then. ‘Match presentation’ they call it and it's the lineup, then you go through a refresher of how we're going to play. So, set pieces, our values for that game, how we are going to rotate. It’s always very similar, a refresh of what we know.

If it's a home game, we come in earlier before the game and do that on game day. 

I go to the gym a few times a week as well, and I train on my day off, Tuesday, with a mate.

Photo: Kirk Corrie / www.phototek.nz Dylan Gardiner, Second from left: Semi-final 2, Fiji v New Zealand, HFC Bank Stadium, Suva, Fiji, Wednesday 25th January 2023.

Tell us more about the analysis and tracking?

We usually review the last game on a Monday. If the footage hasn’t come through on Monday morning, we’ll redo it on Wednesday.

We sit in a room as a team with all the staff and it's all very formal.

It's always good. It's hard, really harsh if it needs to be, but we'll get praised where it's due. If we do really well, we'll get praise and there's always comments on the stuff we need to do better.

It's always like: “I'm really happy with this, but disappointed with that,” or it's, “I'm really angry because we worked on this and you guys just did not follow instructions.”  

No matter how you play, if we've had horrible performances, there's always stuff which helps.

It's all monitored. We have these little foot trackers [Playmaker] that give so much data that we don't even see, like number of touches on the left foot, right foot, if you're passing sideways or backwards, and it's all correlated with the video as well.

We [players] don't get all the little bits of data. That's for the coaches.

With Hudl [analysis platform the club uses] we can click on our name or our number of the playmaker, and then it syncs all the clips. So then I can just watch myself.

We review our clips in our own time. We can send clips to coaches, with thoughts and questions, and they reply in the app. That’s really helpful.

Can you tell me about the financial side? How do you support yourself? Are you able to work around your training?

I have a job working for my uncle. He’s got a chocolate warehouse — he has the rights to Whittakers — he stores it here and packs orders off to supermarkets.

I work in the factory from maybe 1 until 5, three days a week or whenever I can. It’s really physical. Like mentally, anyone can do it, but it’s a lot of walking. I'll burn just as much energy doing that as I would for my training in the morning, which is not ideal.

I still get a bit of help from my parents too, otherwise I just wouldn't be able to live.

What's next? The U-20 World Cup is this year — are you the right age for that?

Well [20]05 is the perfect age for it, and I’m 06, so I am the right age. I missed out on the qualifiers last year, which I was gutted about.

Image: Ryan Imray / Imray's Snaps: Dylan Gardiner warming before a Central League match 

So that's the aim really, that's the next goal.

Greenie is the coach for both the under 20s and the Phoenix Reserves. And that could be a good thing, because he knows me, and he’s seen what I can do.

But then we can flip that. And that probably got in my head a bit last year. Like, he saw everything I did well, but also everything I didn’t do as well. So it was more pressure. 

So yeah, goals for 2025, the U-20s World Cup and to make the first team at the Phoenix.

First to get back training with them. They bring boys in, and then you try and get time with them and you either get offered the contract or you don't. They kept five or six from the reserves this year. I felt I was in a good position to be 1 of them, but just didn't work out.

It’s all decided on form. Which is good, because there’s no favourites. But it’s really cutthroat. 

You were exploring options to go and try and play overseas. Is that still something you want to do?

Now that I've been with the Phoenix, I see it a lot differently.

Like, yeah, obviously I still want to go and play in Europe but based on what I've seen and heard and what people say, I want to develop in the A-League, play professional minutes, play against experienced players before going overseas.

But not everyone has that option, and I might not get that option, but that's what I'd like to do.

Image: Ryan Imray / Imray's Snaps: Dylan Gardiner in action against Wellington Olympic / National League 2024

The regional phase of the National League – referred to as the Central League - starts at the end of March 2025, and runs through to the end of August.

It is followed by a playoff, called the Championship Phase, of the top 10 teams from the regional competitions.

The top three teams from the Northern League, three from the Central League and two from the Southern League take part in this nine-round playoff, from late September through to early December.

The Wellington Phoenix Reserves and the Auckland FC Reserves have automatic entry into the National League Championship Phase.

Article added: Tuesday 11 February 2025