He was introduced to the waiting media contingent as Tony Warner, goalkeeper and comedian, and he didn't disappoint.
The 37-year-old is poised to make his Wellington Phoenix debut against the Newcastle Jets on Sunday as Mark Paston struggles with a small abdominal tear.
Warner has 21 years of experience in the English leagues, where he started as a youngster with Liverpool but never played a first-team game.
He also brings with him a Scouse accent thicker than treacle which raises the question of whether the Phoenix's Antipodean defenders could understand what he was saying.
"Yeah they've had about eight weeks of it now so they're fluent in Scouse," Warner said.
"Maybe I'm kind of a trailblazer, try and get some more Scousers over here, we'll wait and see. What you've got to remember is I speak English and it's a far-flung place from England this, so you might not understand English quite as quickly as we have. But no, it's not a problem, everyone likes a bit of a laugh and I get a bit of a ribbing over it and stuff."
Certain language is universal and Warner confirmed that if a team-mate did happen to be confused, raising the decibel levels a few notches could clear things up.
"It's more tone, if you're shouting and barking orders, you're not doing it for nothing really. I remember when I was a kid I got told off for not shouting and talking so I just made sure I didn't get told off again. So I just started shouting a lot."
Warner is a former Millwall team-mate of Paul Ifill and most recently played for Tranmere Rovers, Chris Greenacre's old club.
He was impressed by the quality of goalkeeping in the A-League although some of the outfield tactics had left him a little baffled.
"The standard's quite good, I mean it's different from the English leagues in the way that I think the players over-pass to a fault sometimes, I think ... It's a lot of passing, passing around and maybe not getting the ball forward as quickly as we do in England."
Phoenix coach Ricki Herbert said he would wait until Sunday to make a call on who started in goal at Westpac Stadium.
Warner had played just one preseason game, against Melbourne Heart, but Herbert drew confidence from his vast experience.
"I think he'll relish the chance if he gets it."