Joel Griffiths signed with Wellington Phoenix on a short term contract through to the end of the 2014/2015 A-League season after being sacked from Newcastle Jets. He was actually wanted to quit football after parting ways with embattled club Newcastle Jets, but his angry wife pushed him to start anew after the sour stint.

“My wife as pretty angry with me, because I wanted to quit a couple of months ago,” he reveled.

It is actually been a smart signing for the league’s entertainers with the clever forward getting into Phoenix’s attacking structure alongside the exciting Roy Krishna and Nathan Burns. Ernie Merrick’s side have moved into top spot on the A-League after last weekend 2-1 win in Perth, and are now looming as a genuine title contender.

From the battle at his Newcastle to successful achievement in Wellington, Griffiths says his transformation is part of the course in the life of a pro footballer.

“My wife got really stuck into me because she thought I was taking the easy way out. Which looking back was probably right but I’d just that enough,” he continued.

Months ago, following Newcastle decision to sack him out of the club, he “lost the love of football.” He stopped watching football and nothing interested him. He even admits that when he was playing with Newcastle, he was totally losing it because nothing seemed to be going right at the time.

Then he started questioning himself about “is it time to go or retire or am I good enough for this league?” And that was the time when Griffiths realized that he could not stop there because there are a lot of things he can do.

The 35-year-old striker says the whole saga at Newcastle was a learning experience after he admitting falling out of love with the game. There were a lot of lessons he has learned during his career in Newcastle, including “football is one of those roller-coasters.”

Concerning the fact that Wellington are sitting on top of the table of A-League, Griffiths is so happy, but he realizes that the team cannot get carried away. There is still a lot of work to do before they really hold the winner title if the tournament.

This weekend, Griffiths and his teammates will be back on a plane as Phoenix head to Brisbane in a match that has implications for the top two as well as sixth spot to Roar. It could be another pivotal result in the rise of Merrick’s team. However, Griffiths is not looking too far ahead, concerning the fact that he is no longer living in his young age.