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The Agenda

"AFC vs The Phoenix In The All Whites"

28 Mar 2026

Transcription

Chapter 1: Who are the guests joining the podcast?

0.031 - 8.801 Unknown

Rightio boys, thanks for coming in. Francis de Vries, Bill Tuoloma. How are we boys? Good. Yeah, happy? Been good, yeah. Look at you two teammates now, eh? Yeah. Well, we were back in the day.

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8.861 - 13.526 Bill Tuiloma

I don't know if you guys know this. Back in the day, yeah. Right, okay. We went to high school together, yeah? What, down in Canterbury?

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13.706 - 15.368 Unknown

Yeah. Lincoln or something? Lincoln High School, yeah.

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15.388 - 15.869 Bill Tuiloma

That's right.

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15.889 - 34.141 Unknown

Okay, yo. I was having a look at your team history, Bill, and it was funny, man. On Wikipedia it's listed, Waitakere United won performance and then straight over to Ligue 1 in France. I think I got it messed up, but it is what it is. So what's happening? So you've got a game Friday night. Yep. Happy? Not happy?

34.701 - 38.745 Francis de Vries

Very happy. Exciting. You know, especially being our last camp in New Zealand.

Chapter 2: What are the upcoming FIFA World Cup warm-up games?

38.905 - 60.244 Francis de Vries

Yeah. We want to, you know, go off on our best front foot. And especially with, you know, playing in good teams like Finland and Chile. Yeah. Two good sides, eh? Two good countries, good footballing countries. So it'll be a good challenge for us. Like I said, we're very excited and good to be around an all-white environment again.

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60.224 - 81.102 Unknown

I'm sure Jay Lane's about to go into this as well, but a different weight to the badge now it feels a little bit like because there's so much conversation about the World Cup. Do you guys feel that? Is it different playing for the All Whites now knowing that the World Cup might be something that is definitely, you know, a little bit more possible it feels like than maybe previous years?

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82.465 - 87.898 Bill Tuiloma

How do you feel, mate? It'd be hard not to. You guys are going to go to a World Cup. You guys are going to hang out with some big dogs.

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87.918 - 108.352 Francis de Vries

Yeah, I mean, the World Cup is the biggest event in the world, you know, and everyone's watching you and, you know, it's... I'm pretty sure for everyone else, it's just a dream for a young kid to go there. It was always a dream for me to go to a World Cup and for it to be around the corner.

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110.095 - 119.308 Francis de Vries

Going over to the States, Mexico and Canada, and being in front of all the millions of eyes that are going to watch, it's a big deal.

119.509 - 123.795 Unknown

Francis, where were you for the last one? Where were you in 2011 when South Africa was going on?

124.045 - 132.017 Bill Tuiloma

I remember exactly, high school, watching with my mates, celebrating Rory's goal, celebrating the save, we were talking about that just before.

132.037 - 148.763 Unknown

Yeah, I've been to G-Land just to cram, I've been sitting in here watching the 2010 Bahrain highlights. Oh, okay. Was it Sky Stadium at the time or was it Wellington? Man, packed house in Wellington, the cake tin was fucking reamed. Mark Paston leant down to the right and made that save and then we went to South Africa and then went undefeated. You must have been watching it at the time.

148.783 - 149.968 Francis de Vries

Yeah. I was definitely watching it.

Chapter 3: How are the All Whites preparing for the FIFA World Cup?

150.169 - 154.272 Francis de Vries

You were 95, baby. 95, yeah. 95. Yeah, so.

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154.336 - 172.904 G Lane

I was actually, that World Cup, I was in the Middle East for my sins. And they had some great setups. They had some great setups there with big marquees on the beach and stuff. And you'd go into them and they were massive. Obviously closed off for Westerners to just drink piss and watch football.

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And there were heaps of expats there, like heaps of Brits, heaps of Aussies, and quite a few Kiwis as well. And I distinctly remember that Italy game. Oh. And we partied in that tent like we'd fucking won the World Cup. And the fact that it's the greatest spades question of all time, the only team to go undefeated. I mean, it's a big deal, you know, undefeated. Yeah, totally.

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But it must be pretty awesome for football in New Zealand. I mean, football's on a little bit of a heater at the moment. You've got the Phoenix and the Auckland FC rivalry. You know, you've got FC doing so well. Fantastic. I wasn't going to bring it up. But the football conversation, it's in the media. Rugby for so long just dominates the headlines.

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Even if it's going terribly, they still dominate the headlines. And now you've got the fact that the Oceania place in the automatic qualification into World Cups now makes that path a little bit easier, as Mashie said there. You guys must be pretty pumped that now you've got this. It is the biggest dance of all. It's probably the biggest sporting dance in the world.

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You've got the Olympics and then you've probably got the FIFA World Cup.

Chapter 4: Is there tension between Auckland FC and Wellington Phoenix players?

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I think it is.

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242.469 - 244.131 Francis de Vries

It's the number one event.

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244.272 - 257.631 G Lane

It's insane. I don't think people realise how significant it is. But it's pretty awesome that we now get a pretty good shot at it every four years. You guys got these warm-up games this weekend, trial games. But Francis, you were saying that it's

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you can't really think about this World Cup because obviously the squad's not named yet and this is almost like warm-ups but you're almost kind of like I don't really want to get too excited but surely you want to just there's almost like trials are they these games for you guys or how does that how do you feel about the fact are you saying you can't concentrate on it but surely it's in the back of your head yeah of course it is you know like

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277.287 - 297.117 Bill Tuiloma

We know it's coming and it's exciting and it definitely motivates you to do the little things right. Especially, you know, we're at the last part of our club season and results are getting really important. So you're trying to focus on that. You're trying to focus on doing your recovery properly. You're trying to focus on keeping your body and your mind in the best place possible.

297.438 - 298.84 Unknown

Staying healthy is a good point, yeah.

298.82 - 313.977 Bill Tuiloma

Yeah, final preparation now for us. So we're putting a lot of work this season now. So now it feels like it's all coming to this pointy end of the season. And what better way to have a motivation than to be able to get a chance to go to a World Cup.

313.957 - 330.752 G Lane

Nice. Bill, can you feel that resurgence in New Zealand around football and the fact that it's in the media, there's conversations about it, obviously the derby that goes on every now and then that obviously Phoenix hasn't gone great for you. Can you feel that? No, 100%.

330.992 - 346.817 Francis de Vries

I definitely feel that. the vibe around New Zealand is all the talk is about the World Cup, the World Cup, the World Cup. And it's a great feeling. It gets the team out there and all these kids around New Zealand are watching TV and be like, well, maybe they want to do it when they grow up.

Chapter 5: What is the significance of playing Finland and Chile?

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My son's rugby team, at the time they were all, how old would they have been? They would have been like 10 years old, nine years old. Their entire rugby team went to football after that World Cup. No way. Every single one of them. They watched Lionel Messi and they watched Mbappe. And they all fucking wanted to be Mbappe and Messi. It was insane. And the whole entire team,

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rugby team went and played football. Didn't go well for them though because it was a rugby team that went and played football and they just were way too physical. They were way too kind of rough and physical and half of them went back to rugby and half of them stayed in football.

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But that was the influence that just watching a World Cup and the fact that Kiwis are going to be over there and the All Whites are going to be there, I think that's going to have an even bigger impact on youngsters seeing them on the world stage. So no pressure.

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416.966 - 431.559 Bill Tuiloma

Yeah. I mean, go to any park really during the winter season in Auckland and you'll see it's full of football players running around, young football players and probably same in Wellington, yeah, and hopefully same in Christchurch. And it's amazing to see how the growth is going in the sport.

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431.599 - 445.636 Bill Tuiloma

So for them to have that opportunity to watch real people from New Zealand being in that situation, it's something that we had once, right? Yeah. We were lucky enough to have it once, but they're going to have it hopefully moving forwards consistently. Yeah.

445.656 - 454.09 Unknown

Yeah, yeah, yeah. What's it like being a professional footballer in NZ? Like, you know, if Will Jordan walks down the road or something like that, he gets probably stopped by a few people. You guys, you know, is it ramping up?

455.092 - 463.767 Bill Tuiloma

I bet it does in Auckland. Winners over City. Nah, it's pretty low key. It's nice to be in New Zealand, you know, like people are really respectful.

463.807 - 464.829 Unknown

Your story's wild, eh?

Chapter 6: How does the World Cup impact players' motivation?

464.849 - 471.201 Unknown

I mean, I'm sure you've been asked to talk about this many a time, but only a couple of years ago you were playing in Switzerland or something like that? Sweden, yeah.

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471.421 - 474.068 Bill Tuiloma

Working in the factory, doing all the hard yards, yeah.

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474.128 - 491.068 Unknown

And then how did you get the call-up to Auckland FC? So you were over there playing? Yeah. Because you got promoted a couple of times over there, right? Twice in two seasons or something like that? And then you got the call-up from Auckland FC to come back here. You were one of the first four signings announced. I remember that happening. And how did that happen? Who gave you the call?

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491.088 - 495.355 Unknown

Was it Steve or was it, I don't know, a friend of the show, Nick Becker? Or how did it all work?

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496.057 - 503.029 Bill Tuiloma

It was, it's always like through the agent. Right, okay. But yeah, I'd done my ACL in Sweden and was just playing locally for Eastern Suburbs.

503.951 - 505.935 Unknown

So you came back here to nurse an injury?

506.095 - 522.838 Bill Tuiloma

Yeah, yeah. Fucking work out. Playing against your old team, Birkenhead. The best team. Yeah, yeah. So a bit of rivalry. We're going to go watch this weekend, mate. Yeah. But yeah, mate, it was cool. It was cool. I knew it was something that was in the pipeline.

Chapter 7: What are the dynamics of rival players in the national team?

523.178 - 545.613 Bill Tuiloma

Yeah, okay, cool. You hear whispers and stuff, but then when they actually call you, I remember I was sitting in my car just about to go shopping around where I live and then the phone rang and I was like, unknown number you know and usually don't pick it up it's the text department yeah yeah yeah You're asking that real cautiously, eh? Hello, who's this? Never with your name, eh?

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545.653 - 549.977 Bill Tuiloma

You just go, hello, hello. Sorry, who? Wrong number.

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550.778 - 562.591 Unknown

And is there any beef? I'll ask it. You know, going into camp now for the first time ever, you know, we've got two sides in New Zealand. Well, not for the first time ever, but we now have two good sides in New Zealand and they have to go into the same camp and play for the same country.

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562.611 - 571.42 Unknown

I'm sure you guys put everything aside or whatever, but is it quite an interesting dynamic now that you've got a couple of rivals that are going to be playing for the same team as you? Is that weird at all or nah? Nah, it's not weird at all.

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572.261 - 587.276 Francis de Vries

You know, obviously coming together, we're, you know, we're one team, you know, we play for the national team. So all that is pushed aside. And, you know, then once we leave the All Whites, it's, you know, back to like, you know, we want to kill these guys, you know.

587.376 - 589.998 Bill Tuiloma

You can compete and be mates at the same time.

590.299 - 595.624 Francis de Vries

Like on the field, yeah, you can be rowdy and all that. But off the field, it's, you know.

595.644 - 612.143 G Lane

You must be able to give a little bit of shit. Come on, Francis. Surely you're sitting in there. Nah, nah, nah. I must be tempting though, eh? I would. Should I be tempting? Like, you know, Phil just chirps up and he goes, okay, mate. Don't make me say it. Don't make me say it. Freddie's too kind.

612.463 - 616.568 Francis de Vries

Freddie's too kind. Okay. I've known him for years now.

Chapter 8: What are the rapid-fire questions asked in '22 in 2' segment?

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Last chance to see you guys before you head off. So tickets still available to go down to Eden Park. Before you go, guys, I've got to run you through the 22 and 2, which is questions we ask every guest. And it's rapid fire, quick fire questions. Rapid fire, yes, no, no judgment. Since there's two of you, I'm just going to have to go.

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I'm going to have to go, like, I'll go Bill then Francis, Bill then Francis, okay, to answer the questions, okay? So you just answer them and move on. So we'll start with you, Bill. Coffee or tea? Coffee. Sex or drugs? Hard or fast, Bill? Hard. Francis, would you rather wake up nude next to Paul Gascoigne or Maradona? Maradona. Thai or Indian, Bill? Indian. Eat out or dine in, Francis? Dine in.

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Freddie Mercury or Elton John? Freddie Mercury. Wet or dry?

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828.813 - 852.441 G Lane

dry uh cats or dogs dogs i got two dogs uh travis kelsey or taylor swift francis or taylor swiss on the playlist definitely okay um bill lionel messi ronaldo and palais who's got the biggest downstairs yeah surely uh what football legend francis would you bring back from the dead oh good question right

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Maradona okay well um I'm gonna have to go back to to Bill now uh Bill if the ceremony to bring back Maradona resulted in you talking like David Beckham for the rest of your life would you still do it bring it back have you ever fired a gun Francis never ever killed anything bigger than an insect Bill nope uh who's the most famous person you've ever met Francis The old Ronaldo R9. Oh, my God.

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Okay. For you, Bill, this one's a little bit weird. If you had a reoccurring dream, Bill, that a snowman killed himself with a hairdryer, would you be concerned? You've had this every night. A snowman killing a what? Killing himself with a hairdryer. I'd be very concerned, yeah. Francis, if you were offered a knighthood, would you accept it?

902.422 - 907.932 Bill Tuiloma

Depends if I have to wear the armor and stuff or not.

907.952 - 933.227 G Lane

Bill, at what age do people say, oh, I've had a fall instead of just falling over? What age? Oh, I've had a fall instead of I've just fallen over. 55. Oh, shit, that's quite young. Francis, if you ever yelled at anyone, Google me, motherfucker. Too many embarrassing photos if you've got images. Last one. Last question. Maybe you guys can answer this between you.

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