Hi Ryan, a lot of the players have been doing winter/summer/winter etc for a number of years now (partly because the summer league by itself has lacked critical mass).
The real test will come with the expansion to a 30-game national league season when the overlap will become unavoidable not just in terms of player resources but in terms of facilities (matchday pitches, midweek training, clubrooms etc).
The classic pattern from national league history has not been so much who the national league entity attracts in such an environment, but who the lesser clubs choose to cherry-pick off.
With far lesser cost structures northern league clubs are well placed to target a top player and offer him a wedge that the club with big national league costs could not match.
Typically this would occur in the latter part of the national league season, particularly if the summer campaign had not been overly successful.
For instance, one of the most talked-about instances in Waikato history was Hoani Edwards favouring lowly Oratia's pre-season over struggling Melville United in the national league in early 1998.
It would have been before your time, but when Melville were competing in the summer league, their concurrent winter operations were a disaster.
Wanderers believe they have the set-up to avoid this.
We can only wish them well because it will bring some tough challenges. Either way, they should be admired for their readiness to take on these challenges, particularly in an environment where WaiBop had been desperately looking for an escape route from national league responsibilities, and the funding landscape is undergoing significant change (and may impact significantly in the Waikato in mid-2016).
PS, was anyone else surprised about the composition of the national league review panel... ?
I'd give Roger Wilkinson a pass, with his heritage with Napier City Rovers and Waikato United, and possibly Dougal McGowan with previous work on national league reviews. But otherwise, not a lot of familiarity, it would seem, with what is required to make a national league entity tick.
Peter O'leary and Kristy Hill... for all their refereeing and women's coaching background... that's not a huge breadth of significance for understanding what makes a national league entity hum.
And nobody with direct administrative experience in running a national league club... that was the first thing that struck me.