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?
Total North Island dominance? I will enjoy any win by Canterbury United then!
Canterbury United look significantly stronger this season.
There's a lot more goals in them with several new attacking signings.
Four of the squad scored 50 goals between them in the Mainland Prmier League this winter (Matthysen 19, Coughlan 12, Taguchi 10, Max Chretien 9)
I think they will be at least as good as Hamilton, HB and Waitak.
Weenix will struggle due to having no senior Phoenix players available this summer due to being based over in NSW.
New Canterbury signings include three Irishmen from Southern:
Ace goalscorer Garbhan Coughlan, left-back Danny Ledwith and centre-back Stephen Last.
Skilful nippy young winger Seth Clark returns after a spell away at US college.
Young South African-born Lyle Matthysen is a talented winger who has been very good for Cashmere Tech for a few years but has not got the breaks at national league level, exiting early last summer due to injury and not getting on with previous management (hence leaving for a season with Tasman). Was top goal-scorer in the Mainland Premier with 19 goals this winter.
Striker Ihaia Delaney returns to Christchurch where he was born from Hawkes Bay United after a childhood in Brunei, South East Asia then Ole Academy in Wellington etc.
Yuya Taguchi, a 19 year-old professional Japanese striker from the J 3 league (third tier) has been Cashmere Technical's third highest scorer this season with ten goals.
23 appearances, 7 goals in the J 3 league last season.
Yuya's stats: https://www.transfermarkt.com/yuya-taguchi/leistun...
Full Dragons squad: