ISPS Handa Premiership

I'm not sure if you saw some of the now-deleted posts from Auckla United Doloras?    

Also I don't really have the brainpower to understand your comment but believe you are calling my comments racist.  Sad :( 

If MU moves away from the charity case proposal to a merit biased proposal.  Good for them I guess.  

Yes I will be very surprised if there is a National League under the current format after this season.

When do we see a draw? 

Draw usually comes out close to November (or at least it does for ACFC). I'd imagine it'll be sometime next month

Draw's out.

https://www.nzfootball.co.nz/newsarticle/96290

https://www.sporty.co.nz/asset/downloadasset?id=f4...

Final is a week before FIFA window March 2021?  That window AWs (likely to an almost total Handy Prem/A League selection) are scheduled to start OFC qualifying.

Stoked to have at least one Auckland home game every week, and only round 7 and round 13 has Auckland conflicts.

Looking forward to it.

Going to be very interesting to see how quickly the various teams come out of the blocks given the shortness of the season. A 14 game season doesn't leave much time to catch up on a poor start. The central and southern teams only have a month of pre season which might be a help or a hindrance ? The northern sides have had a longer pre season. 

Season kicks off with the WelClasico... Not bad!

Press release from Ole \ Wests - 12 players off to ISPS Handa clubs

Phoenix and Ole working together! That's good news overall for NZ football. Any coincidence Declan is out of the country (tongue partially in cheek)?

Though do think it's now time for Wests/Ole to have their own Handy Prem side.

they do its called Eastern Suburbs :-) 

More proof the Eastern Suburbs is not a local team.

Darren Bazeley is technical director now for Suburbs, Fencibles and Northern Rovers.

More jobs for the boys.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/football/domestic/123324141/back-to-the-future-nz-football-proposes-champions-league-style-national-league

Somehow I think it might be time NZF just give the national league to the leading clubs to manage. They've done a pretty good job but its been butchered every 10 or so years by them. Give it to someone else for a change and see if they can do better.

I can only speak as a Cantabrian who follows the Mainland leagues.

Having the top club(s) from the Mainland League compete at the end of the winter season in a national club competition would be a huge backwards step.

The likes of Cashmere Technical are playing in what to be honest is quite a mediocre league and would only be able to field a fairly weak side in the national play-offs.

Cashmere Technical draws "crowds" of about 80 people.

Canterbury United, even when results have been poor, have had amongst the biggest crowds in the summer national league, often about 800. Better than the more successful sides Auckland City, Team Wellington or Waitakere.

The Southern League is even weaker (Cashmere Tech thrashed Southern champs Green Island 4-1 in Dunedin recently in the South Island championship final, starting some of their best players on the bench)

Successful Christchurch sides in the national league have generally always been a combined effort with several clubs pooling their resources to create a stronger side.

(Except for a brief couple of seasons in the late 1990's when Mainland club champs Woolston qualified for the national league and were an abject failure)

Christchurch United was formed in 1970 specifically to compete in the new national league by the combined efforts of clubs Christchurch City, Shamrock, Western and Christchurch Technical.

The current Canterbury United grew as a franchise organically after Woolston AFC's failure, when Woolston first merged with Christchurch Technical to form Christchurch City to compete more strongly in the national league and then Mainland Football took over and created a Mainland representative franchise.

The "Super Club" 1993-95 era of regional league champions playing off was an abject failure which failed to capture the interest of supporters.

So it's been tried before and failed.

I see this this new proposed model as being bad for both the Southern & Mainland leagues.

Neither really bad or really bad for the Central league. TW to me has been a success so would be sad to see it fold, Hawkes Bay obviously less so - and I guess potentially just having a CL team in the Bay, would stop some financial bleeding for the Central Federation.

Think new setup will be popular with Northern league clubs, strongest league in the country.

If the A League moves to a proper winter season, which looks likely - I guess this model is better aligned for the Nix. Though to pluck one of the Academy kids from CL football with Lower Hutt, to an A League match squad will be a big leap. I'm sure a large part of the Academy's recent success has been having the Weenix youngsters, play week in week out in summer against the best NZ players in the Handy Prem.

I also wonder if would be harder for domestic based Kiwis to get signed overseas, with a Super Club type model. Could it be more difficult for say Joel Stevens, to get a gig in the Swedish 3rd tier, if his NZ highlights video package is just all lower level CL football. Will all ambitious domestic NZ players, just head north to play their winter football in Auckland, as it will be seen as a much better higher level shop window to a possible overseas signing.

Most of all I would just miss watching some summer football. But the Handy Prem is obviously struggling financially, so understand why it's all under review.

I think the current set-up needs a few tweaks here and there granted, but the current NL is fine on the whole. The summer/winter overlap needs some work, but I'd be disappointed to see the current format go. Keep it as it is for me, with a little refinement...

The last super club version in the early/mid nineties wasn't great and was propped up by tobacco money, which no longer exists. Not sure many clubs outside of Auckland (as well as in Auckland) could make it work financially, or if they can, unlikely beyond the first couple of seasons.

It just sounds like a glorified cup competition, is this really gonna be the place "where All Whites are made"? Or is this just to keep those ambituous big city clubs happy and avoid having to figure out a way for pro/rel to work?

[quote=Sancho]

It just sounds like a glorified cup competition, is this really gonna be the place "where All Whites are made"? Or is this just to keep those ambituous big city clubs happy and avoid having to figure out a way for pro/rel to work?

Exactly, kiss goodbye to player development, selecting good players from clubs to compete nationally as a federation like we have currently, is inspiring and players dont get bored playing an extended season at club level with the same players/coach and club how do you develop new skills? who actually benefits? defs not south island teams, maybe the idea is for better players in the league to relocate North for competitive season, opportunities and development? 
why are they contemplating going back to something which failed? Can we not be innovative and tweak exisiting? 
smaller clubs in federations who may have one or two good players however fail too make top 3 at premier league what benefit is it to those players who previously made National League Comp?

Who's the fella who wrote the book on the national league changes? Would love to hear his take on the proposal. 

It's a no from me, I'm for my club football during the summer and a regional team in a national competition.

Imagine after 16 seasons of A-league, going back to NPL teams with a so called 'Champions League format' for top NPL teams.

"champions league format" = glossy marketing drivvle. it's super club plain and simple

i'd like:

10 team national league

three rounds

winter time

franchises ok. clubs ok

pro rel

it'd be fun and would stay fresh.

Agreed, although dont mind summer or winter. Play off between winners of Northern Central and Southern Leagues to get one promotion spot, bottom team relegated.

Are you talking about Bruce Holloway

Having grown up watching the mess top level football brought upon Waikato United and then the amalgamated Melville United through the 90s, I think WaiBOP and then Ham Wanderers in the NZFC (and other names since) have done the Waikato proud. Going back to that 90s mess will kill off Waikato football.

Please scrap these plans NZF before you kill decent kiwi football everywhere but Auckland and Wellington.

Ironically that was Waikato's best period in the National League!!!

Superclub was certainly not Waikato's biggest mess.  In 1993 Waikato finished third in the Northern Division, 9th in 1994, 3rd in 1995 and as Melville, 4th in 1996.  Under proposed "Superclub", Hamilton Wanderers will still be involved with Melville and Claudelands nipping at their heels.  Can't see how this will kill off Waikato football.  It's really just the Northern, Central and Southern Leagues with a National round at the end for the top qualifiers.  The present franchise system was good at the start as it was a novelty - now the gloss has worn off, some of the franchises are going broke and the mess needs fixing.  If this is not the best idea to do so, at least it would get the possibility of top football back to the clubs.

agree that the gloss has worn off. A whole Fed (Sthrn) can’t even field a team. The goals at inception are now dead and buried, and it’s not clear what it stands for.

The number 1 issue with the idea of national championship is figuring out the goal and purpose of it considering the cost that comes with it.

I don't like it but to be fair to NZF I think we're all missing the point on why this is proposed, I say the game is still running on life support and FIFA CWC funding was keeping the national league afloat for many years. Also it seems like they want to make both the Mens and Womens National Leagues the same so by resettling the top of the pyramid it will allow for easy adjustments for when the the game can allow for expansion.

I'd be interested to know what the real numbers are for running all our Men and Womens National Competitions with Youth Leagues and Cup Comps.

I'm concerned at what cost this will be to the top level of the game in terms of media exposure and to the development of our players in centres outside of Auckland and Wellington. Also places uncertainty on the current franchises which I hope they stay around. I would've thought shifting players between Winter and Summer League teams (pretty much on-loan) would give them some variation so would benefit players experience but from what I hear on social media that isn't the case.

Spot on - the document states that this year’s NL competitions are only happening with government support that is unlikely to be available next season, and without it NZF can’t afford to deliver the competitions as planned.

Classic rock vs hard place situation - everyone wants a full national league (including NZF with their weird pro/rel setup) but unfortunately the cloth needs to be cut somehow.

I remember watching Waikato put out a bunch on dinosaurs against Ngaruawahia in 95/6 in a Chatham Cup game. Was massively embarrassing to watch my club team destroy the national league team I followed religiously. (Off topic obviously!).

Anyway am annoyed that NZS/NZF and NZFA have never been able to run a national competition competently without tobacco money.  

Allowing bang average kiwi players to hold clubs to ransom for money that is not in the game here is bad also. NZF and clubs are both guilty in this respect.

This is where NZF should pull its head out if the sand and actively find sponsorship and not rely on FIFA/CWC/NZ Govt money. Instead of jobs for the boys, spend some money on decent marketing, promotion and advertising/sponsorship.

NZ and Aus have are very lucky in actually allowing fans at sporting events, it creates a far better atmosphere then any canned crowd on a Euro sporting event.  There must be sponsors there keen to be involved.

A national brand makes sense, but who'd be interested given the current tiny viewership? What is the average gate at a NL game?

Notice how all of a sudden they are trying to get all of the woman's and men's games live online.......

https://nationalleaguedebates.weebly.com/

Hey guys....

Has anyone been keeping track of the pre season results? Or will I have to go through twitter, facebook etc to find them?

Cheers 

ones I know

Weenix 3 TW 3

Hamilton 2 ACFC 1

TW 4 HBU 5

and I think ACFC beat Waitakere but not sure by what score

Was ACFC 2-1 Waitakere.

Also Weenix 3-0 Canterbury, Canterbury 3-0 Southern Premier League XI, Auckland City 2-0 Manukau United, Eastern Suburbs 2-0 Hamilton Wanderers, a Hamilton Wanderers-Waitakere game I don't know the score of, and an Eastern Suburbs-NZ U20 XI game I don't know the score of.

So my picks for season

Auckland City

Team Wellington

Eastern Suburbs

Waitakere United

Hawkes Bay United

Wanderers

Weenix

Canterbury United

Anyone of the top 3 will win the Grand Final

Anyone else?