Barry, originally from New Plymouth, currently leads the team with regular captain CJ Bott on maternity leave, and it’s a role she is embracing in the team’s most impressive campaign to date.
“It’s an added responsibility and I’ve been working on some specific leadership skills. Since CJ is pregnant, Bev asked me to be captain for the rest of the season, which is great,” Barry says.
“It’s definitely a bit more pressure but I think I felt prepared. I’ve been at this club for a while and I know how things work in the A-League and a lot of the younger girls respect me. It’s about being a role model and setting standards in training, making sure we train how we play and keeping everyone focused on our goal, which is to get to the final.”
With the fewest goals conceded in the league (13) and the best goal difference (+19), Phoenix’s consistency this season has been one of the keys to their success and Barry is quick to point out why.
“The overall level of training and the content of the meetings and our game plan has gone up several notches. Bev demands respect from the room and everyone in the room wants to work hard for us and for herself and our teammates.”
“Bev is a great leader and brings out the best in people. I also think we’ve had some great international signings who have also raised the quality and had a big impact when they arrived. Also, everyone gets along very well off the field. We do a lot of things together by choice and we have a very hard-working team.”
Barry knows all about working hard. His football journey began when he was 6 years old, playing at his primary school in New Plymouth. As a 10-year-old, he trained and played in the Taranaki representative program before making the Central Federation team as a 12-year-old.
“It was difficult to do the reps as we would have to travel from New Plymouth to Palmerston North after school, so thanks to my parents for doing that because otherwise I wouldn’t have been able to do those workouts,” Barry says.
Although when she rose through the ranks there were limited avenues, Barry is excited to see the growth of women’s football in this country and also the greater opportunities that brings.
“I think now, more than ever, with Phoenix and the Phoenix reserves, and there are age groups and academies, they’re really setting a path for young girls, which is very exciting.”
“We have a lot of young players who come to watch our games too, and they tell us how they love playing and how we inspire them, which is really surprising because when I was their age I didn’t have that much, especially physically going to the games because a lot of the games we watched were on TV, so it didn’t have the same feeling.”
When Barry was younger, he played as a full-back, but it was his Central team coach, Leon Birnie, who saw his potential to make the switch.
“When I was younger I ran everywhere, but when I started playing replay football, León thought I had defensive tendencies. He put me in the center of defense and I’ve been playing there ever since. I had that competitive hunger to win the ball and I was physical, strong, fast and that really helps when you’re up against physical forwards. I enjoy winning the ball back and then giving it to my more creative players to go forward, although in training I love small-sided games when I can shoot.”
Birnie would go on to coach Barry on a higher stage, taking charge of the New Zealand U-17 team that made history by claiming the bronze medal at the FIFA U-17 World Cup in Uruguay in 2018.
“I loved the age group, it was fun. You meet a lot of new people. Being from New Plymouth I didn’t know many people on the team as most of the girls lived in Christchurch, Wellington or Auckland so it was great. The U17 was the first time I had traveled outside of New Zealand and Australia with a football team. We went to Uruguay which was also a new experience, a very different country to where I had been before and the tournament went really well. We had a great group of girls. And we also We get along very well off the field, which helped.”
Barry made his senior international debut for the Football Ferns in 2022, coming off the bench against Japan. Although she missed selection for the home FIFA World Cup in 2023, she was selected for the 18-player squad for the Paris Olympics the following year.
Most recently, he was part of the team that traveled to the Solomon Islands as part of their quest to win Oceanian Football’s only direct berth to the 2027 FIFA World Cup in Brazil. After 8-0 wins against Samoa and the Solomon Islands, the Ferns defeated American Samoa 3-0 in their final match to secure a place in the semi-finals against Fiji on April 12 in Hamilton.
But before that, the Phoenix is the center of attention. Following the trip to Australia this week, they host Western Sydney, currently in 10th place in the standings, on March 29 before an away trip to second-placed Adelaide United on April 3.
“There are pretty tight swings and a lot of traveling, but these last few games are going to determine the outcome. It’s decisive now, it’s very close, but I feel pretty confident that we can move up a couple of places and hopefully get more wins. It’s about consistency and being smart in how we play now. Not conceding and scoring goals where we can is really important and would set us up well for the playoffs.”
This story was originally published on newsroom.co.nz and is republished with permission.
