Canterbury United

Why do you say that?? 

I have heard the other candidate is Lee Padmore. Out of the 2 candidates who does everyone prefer??

Both great humans, I'll probably leave it to the experts who will have a better chance to look at their credentials rather than a forum for naming and shaming.

Thanks for the opportunity tho. 

Copied from Mainland's Website

New Director of Football Announced

Mainland Football is delighted to announce the appointment of Lee Padmore as its new Director of Football. As part of this role Lee will also become Head Coach of the Canterbury United Dragons.

“I’m ecstatic to be given this opportunity”, says Padmore. “I have been clear from the outset that this is the only job in the country that could have pulled me from the Wellington Phoenix”

After an extensive search - with 76 applicants from more than 25 countries - Mainland Football and Canterbury United are thrilled to have Padmore join the team, guiding the region into the next stage of football development, along with leading the Dragons in the 2019/20 ISPS Handa Premiership.

Mainland Football CEO Julian Bowden says, “Lee’s values and desire for development of local players and coaches aligns with the outcomes that we are aiming to achieve locally.”

Padmore, who holds an OFC ‘A’ Licence, is no stranger to the region or Canterbury United having previously been an Assistant Coach for the Dragons Youth and Selwyn United’s Director of Football. In 2018, Padmore headed north to the Wellington Phoenix Youth Academy aiming to further his development as a coach.

“I am looking to build on the high-quality work done by Alan Walker, laying the foundations and positioning Mainland as a leading federation.”

“A focus for me will be to develop the high-performance pathways within the federation, creating products that allow players to stay in the region, and play for the Dragons or Pride. For this we must identify players who show the necessary traits, and have the nature and psychological abilities to be good players.”

Another area of interest highlighted by Padmore is his desire to work with the clubs - who he acknowledges are already largely self-sustainable and delivering high-end products - to improve on their capability, talent development and strategic vision.

Padmore’s appointment follows a comprehensive recruitment process undertaken by Canterbury United’s High-Performance sub-committee and an external recruitment company.

“After a review of operations, it was clear that a greater alignment between the region’s clubs and the teams playing under the Canterbury United banner was required. The appointment today of Lee we know will play a big part in making that outcome a reality.” says Julian Bowden.

With round one of the ISPS Handa Premiership kicking off on the 3rd of November 2019, securing the player roster and support staff will be the priority for Padmore when he takes up the position in the coming weeks.

“That process begins today, Padmore says. “We will put a quality squad together made up of homegrown talent to compete at the highest levels in the national league.”

I believe Lee was the right decision. Ive been coached by him and  Lee is the one I would choose. His player management and tactical nuance is excellent at the youth level. Will be good to see how he handles a National League side though as I have small amounts of doubts about his ability at the top level of senior football.

Lots of signings being promoted by other clubs over the last wee while. Wonder if we'll have anyone decent. 

I was thinking that it was unusually quiet around all franchises and was wondering if a lot of the money has diminished.

Which lead me to think about how large your average Premiership squad is these days. It's only an 18 game season plus playoffs, yet the squads seem pretty large. Willy Geerdson certainly used a lot of players.

It was a different era I know (no sports science etc) but Christchurch United used to do it all in a 22 to 26 game season with 11 to 13 players.Imagine the cost savings if you could pull that off today!?

Few rumours doing the rounds regarding players from last seasons Dragons squad:

1. If Stephen Hoyle come back to play in the League then likely to be in Auckland

2 Rhys Cox signed by Southern United 

James Pendrigh has been back in Christchurch in recent weeks

Was also played in the winter with ChCh United second team playing in the old Southern League so easy to have players slot into to cover injuries, suspensions etc

Anyone with some insight on how our men’s and youth teams are being selected? I know youth have been nominated by clubs but has there been trials or how does it all get done? And our men’s? When does that draw come out? 

James back in town because his injury did not allow him to continue to play in Newcastle. 

Training underway this coming week. Understand that Joe Hall will be Lee's assistant.

Clapham, Schwarz, Mitchell and Liddicott all confirmed

some real odd players training with Dragons, be interested if they actually named in squad, it would certainly question the selection process

like who?

Moved - posted on wrong tread

Next group of signings announced:

man they look happy to be there

Poker face!

Draw was released by NZ Football yesterday. 

Four of the Dragons games will be live on Sky TV - two away Round 1 - Eastern Suburbs and Round 17 - Tasman United and two at home Round 12 - Waitakere and Round 14 - Team Wellington.

Home game against Tasman on Friday evening at 6;30pm, all other home games on Sunday.

Any news on today’s friendly? Would like to know who played, the announcements about our team seems to have dried up...

2-1 win to the Dragons over Southern

Clapham opened the scoring with a nice grass-cutter from inside the box in the first half

Southern equalized and the Dragons got the winner in the second half.

Not sure who the other scorers were.

Good standard of football for a pre-season friendly from both sides.

One of the Schwarz twins started (both have been signed)

George King played. I think Liddicoat was out there.

Danny Knight was in goal.

They've signed a Scottish Canadian striker, Calum Ferguson, sent our way by Stephen Hoyle who played with him in the new Canadian league recently - good on Hoyley for sending us a replacement for himself.

Ex Inverness (Scottish Premier League) where he made a handful of appearances, but has mainly played League One and Two over there in Scotland

Details: .https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calum_Ferguson

Age 24

Former Canada u-18 and u-20 international

(Born and mostly lived in Scotland but his mother is Canadian)

Hoyle scored Valour FC's first ever goal on debut in the new Canadian Premier League but lasted only seven games before terminating his contract by mutual consent after not meeting the required standard:

  https://northerntribune.ca/valour-fc-stephen-hoyle/

...

Calum Ferguson was the other scorer for the Dragons.

The squad list is the weakest I’ve seen in some years.

The coach has done what he said he would do and pick mainly chch players. The reality is this is the best around. 

you never know, it could work out better

Is it though? Some of the names I haven't heard of in the MPL, can anyone do a breakdown of who is from where? 

Ta in advance.

Agree its not the best in Canterbury, Handpicked with no trial process I’m led to believe. Not to name names but there are at least 4 players I’m surprised are even selected 

Ok I'll start, feel free to correct my errors and fill in the blanks.

Christchurch Utd: Eddie Ashton, Harrison Bowman???

Coastal Spirit: Haris Zeb (well... he went North but I'm still counting him) Jacob Richards, Juan Chang (well.... SAS....) Sean Liddicoat, Abdul Khalifa

Cashmere Technical: Aaron Clapham, Dan Terris, Benji Lapslie, Dan Schwarz, Sam Lapslie, Tom Schwarz, Danny Knight, George King, Cory Mitchell, Luke Tongue.

Nomads: James Pendrigh (was overseas this year I think) 

Overseas: Calum Ferguson (Big Pete posted that above)

I got no idea: Reece Dalton, Sam Field, Tom Scott. 

Sam Field is Cash Tech isn’t he??

Like some have said it doesn’t appear to be a strong squad but in previous years people have complained because local players weren’t getting a decent crack & no name out of town players were (& getting paid no doubt) so be good to see how this team goes.

Maybe a more local side will also help get some better crowds

Tom Scott - one of NZ Best cartoonist's and satirical writers on politics - will add banter / colour to the changing sheds

Read it and believe it! With mainland 500K in the red it was inevitable that the approach would have to change unless someone was willing to bankroll the franchise or get out there and do some fundraising. Earlier in the year, the clubs made the decision to support the franchise model, with the caveat that it should embody the local scene. And this is it! 

The squad Lee has assembled is pretty much the best available to him and the region. As always there might be arguments for the presence or substitution of the odd player, but the reality is that many players are able to earn more playing for local clubs and enjoy their summer off, some have other commitments and most simply don't have the commitment. For the most part the players just ain't up to scratch.

I for one, wish Lee and the squad the best in difficult circumstances. They have stepped up. My question is what is the rest of the region going to do about the situation we find ourselves in? We used to be a proud region but now we hide on a Wellington forum and bleat instead of getting out there and making a difference!  The standard of regional football in the South Island is as bad as it has ever been and the drop in quality in the SIL and MPL last year was the greatest I've seen. Look at the players in the Canterbury United squad - almost entirely under 21 or over 30! The majority of MPL teams have an average age of 20 and most clubs are struggling to fill their reserve sides with players who can actually be bothered to train a couple of times a week and are out of diapers. How do we retain players at the higher end of the game? how do we make the local competition something to be proud of?  Just two of the major questions that will require everyone to work together and to be honest with one another. There are answers out there in the footballing world - just look at Iceland, Puerto Rico - and its not about throwing money at players, its about a culture and its about being smart. Their relative success didn't happen by chance. But you gotta wanna do it and my observation is that there is too much apathy and too much politics in the local game to change the situation. She'll be right, eh! For Lee, this is where the real challenge lies! 

Believe Reece Dalton has been playing in the Queensland League with Tom Scott recently involved with the Wellington Phoenix Academy set-up. 

Copied from Glenfield Rovers AFC facebook page:

Is anybody out there this year?  Seems nothing worth posting for CU this year?

Your sideline team needed you or at least a steadier hand looks like the lads struggled with the beers having to carry the 4 cup holders from the container shop over the other side - some cups were half empty from spillage with the longer distance.  Hopefully the gazebo behind goal is selling beers this week.  Then at least the head from the average pour from the can will only be knocked off!

Go United!

First game back and to be honest it looked pretty poor in terms of skill level. Lots of missed passes, long balls etc, all with a low accuracy rate. Still, good to have football in the city over the summer, despite it feeling like I was cheering on Tech with 8 of the 11 (by my count) coming from the one team. I guess with not selecting anyone outside of the region, this was always going to be where we're at. 

What hasn't really been delved into is how the new national league structure is going to work. With the Mainland region guaranteed 1 spot, with another optional one, could we see a Canterbury United and a Christchurch United in the national league? And what will happen when it comes time for a relegation? We might see Canterbury drop out and Christchurch stay in! 

To be honest, I still can't work out how this relegation system is going to work. It happens every 4 years apparently, however surely they can't just take the team at the bottom after the fourth year. They might have been amazing in years 1-3 and then all of a sudden everyone packs their teams in year 4? And surely they can't keep points over all of the 4 years! Has anyone got any ideas on this?

I think it's an accumulation from something I read. I'm sure someone will know definitively??? It does take into account 'guaranteed' places for regions, so you might not finish bottom, but still get relegated.

Oh ok, I didn't see anything about an accumulation of points, not sure if there is a 4 year league for relegation in the world. They should do 4 year winner too if that's the case. :-)  

Yes you're correct about the guaranteed regional places, so yer, you might finish above the teams that have a guaranteed spot, and then you're out! 

I did a little digging, the ODT did a bit here.