Canterbury United

Dan scored 48 goals for Selwyn this season but overall standard no where near the MPL.   

like said not seen any div 1 so can't comment but still not matter what level you play you have to be able to still find back of net. Fully understand though that the 2 leagues are miles apart just got to look at cup final

Agree Dan's 48 goals tally is a great achievement. Dan is only in his mid 20's and once Selwyn make it in to the MPL believe that he can go on to be the all time top scorer.

There aren't in reality many players from that list available to play for Canterbury United.

Michael White is now rumoured to be signing.

Shawn O'Brien isn't available according to media reports:

"Gerdsen said Cashmere Tech keeper Danny Knight and midfielder-defender Shawn O'Brien were unavailable due to work or study commitments."

Ben Wright has been mentioned by Gerdson as a potential recruit but living and working in Nelson would probably rule him out (it's now team policy that all players must live in Canterbury).

Andy Barton is either unavailable or doesn't want to play.

Tom Schwarz and Danny Boys are of course in the squad.

I think that thirteen or fourteen of the squad named so far are Mainland Premier League players.

The players from outside: Messenger, de Jong, Parker, Kilkolly, Chang, Ogilvie.

That's only six.`

There just aren't enough local players of the required standard to form a credible team without bringing in half a dozen from outside Mainland football.

When Christchurch United was successful in the 1970's and 1980's, many of their best players were either brought in from Britain (Sumner, Almond, Dando, Braithwaite, Marshall, John Hanson etc.) or recruited from other provinces (McGarry, Grant Turner, Van Hattum, Steve Wooddin - Liverpudlian recruited from Dunedin). Always had a solid core of Christchurch-raised players though.    

Some good points big Pete.

The main problem is Willy has not watched any winter league games and has players in the squad (who are not all confirmed yet despite media releases) that he has never seen play.

So the regions best performers that Willy said he wants to select he does not know who they are as never watched any games or has he spoken to any coaches.

Cash Tech have been the benchmark dominating the local scene and the Chatham cup (something Willy has a chip on his shoulder about)

Would you not select/approach mainly from this team??

Knight was told he was 3rd choice behind Coey and the Napier GK (surely we have another young GK in Canterbury).Knight has been the best GK playing ASB and performing in last seasons Chatham cup final and conceding less goal again this season.

Barton was not even spoken to and O Brian was told he was his first choice in a position from Willy who then calls his team mate 5 minutes later who he tells is his first choice in the same position??

They were also offered very poor contracts or told no funding from Willy then watch all the out of towners come in on better contracts.

Knight and O brian are not playing due to work etc but because of Willy and the poor offers which is fair enough.

Glad White is in as he performed in the winter league and has also at ASB level.

Kelly again i agree with kiwifan is a no brainer to have in the team.

Kilkolly was poor in the chatham cup in my opinion and i think Oxley (who has played little football in recent years) who was techs top scorer and Dan Ede who is the best scorer in the region be it MPL or div1 and has ASB experience at Otago.

White,Ede ,Oxley why bring in Kilkolly and the Guatemalan?

Most players and coache/fans are not happy with no scouting from Willy no decent offers for players who have merited it (Meysum from Coastal being selected when he is not even a regular starter for them??!) who have then got fed up with the same set up as last season from the coaches and staff.

Hopefully one season we have a coach who watches all teams in Christchurch and selects the performers,approaching them professionally and using the budget mainly on them, then goes outside for quality that will improve the team not do it back to front.

We have Messanger,De Jong ,Ogilvie,Coey , Kilkolly,Guatemalan player,Napier GK, plus a few other outsiders to come in thats 7 and counting,budget used up and sends the wrong message to the player development scene in Chch and the youth team that so many average players are brought in.

why do players feel the need to be paid and get cheesed off when not offered enough to play? I'm sure lads that haven't played before would gladly play for free just to be given a chance

Like it or not the ASB is a semi professional league and players get paid at every club.

How do you think the out of town players coming in are living??

An ex CU player playing out of town was approached about playing for CU. It was all about when he'd be back in ChCh and was done in July.

No mention of being on a contract worth $ tho.

Note this was not by any of the team management for this season but from last years.

What about the likes of Daniel Burns.

Much like Dan Ede playing Div1 but still one of two performers week on week in that Nomads team. 

Willy wouldn't know anything about him or lots of others that may not have been wanted by CTFC, KB or Devine.

It's certainly poor if, as Observer says, Willy hasn't watched any winter league games himself.

Otherwise he must be relying on the word of one or two locals who may be biased or have their own agendas due to club allegiances.

Time will tell whether Willy's choices have been wise ones...

He's certainly neglected to sign some of Canterbury's top players so far.

From what I have seen, it would seem true that Willy has spend pretty much most of his Saturdays with ECB so that does ask the question "Whom is scouting these players for him?"

I am aware that Willy was down in Christchurch one weekend when Chatham Cup games were on, may have been down here other times as well.

FREE ENTRY TO PHOENIX A-LEAGUE MATCH WITH CANTERBURY UTD SEASON PASS

Just been down to the Mainland Football office at English Park and bought my season pass.

Special offer for first 100 season passes sold ($50 per pass):

- Entry to all seven Canterbury Utd home games including the curtain raiser at AMI Stadium before the Phoenix game.

- Free entry to the Wellington Phoenix vs Central Coast Mariners game at AMI 30/01/16 (worth $30)

From the e-mail I received from Canterbury United:

"If you get in early as a Season Pass holder you receive free entrance to the 7 home games of Canterbury United in the ASB Premiership. One of our home games will be played as curtain raiser before an A-League fixture and is against Phoenix Reserves at AMI Stadium on 30 January 2016. This match is free to you as Season Pass holder.

On top of that for the first 100 season passes sold the A-League fixture between Wellington Phoenix and Central Coast Mariners at AMI Stadium will also be inclusive in your $50.00 Canterbury United season pass (general entry $30.00). This is incredible value for 7 home games and one A-League fixture.

Furthermore the first 100 Season Pass holders will have premium parking on the grass area next to the main gate at ASB Football Park. The premium parking is only available when weather permits. "

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Drop in to the office at English Park (down bottom of stairs - first office you come across)

OR:   

Contact Jesse Dingjan and ask him to e-mail you a form and payment details at:

Jesse.dingjan@mainlandfootball.co.nz

Phone: 375 4125 / 021 08322427

You fill out the form, pay and then they will post you the season pass before the season kicks off and send you the Phoenix ticket before that game.

The Dragon's have headed to Methven this weekend for a training camp.

dutch midfielder jesse dingjan has been signed

Jesse is the 'intern' at the Mainland Office, recently arrived in New Zealand.

Lifted off the Mainland website:

The relationship between Mainland Football and the University of Applied Sciences, Amsterdam, continues with the arrival of another Dutch Intern.

Jesse Dingjan, 4rd year Sport Business and Management student, joins the team at Mainland Football assisting with the day to day responsibilities for Canterbury United, Mainland Pride and Summer Futsal.

Jesse has an extensive background in football; He was part of the ADO Den Haag Academy as player and organised football camps as part of his management degree. He also coordinated the 8th to 10th grade players at one of the local clubs in the Netherlands.

As Marketing and Events Officer Jesse will be running the game days for Canterbury United, Youth and Pride as well as the 5-aside leagues at Mainland Football. He will assist Wanda in the Marketing and Communications space for both Canterbury United and Mainland Football, as well as supporting Colin with the final club events of this season.

would there be a chance he will double up as a player as well?  his clearance has come through

http://www.foxsportspulse.com/club_info.cgi?c=1-4499-124592-0-0&a=CLEAR

Will be interesting for all ASB sides this season with the rule that 50% of the players on the team sheet must be NZ born or have NZ citizenship.

Really only one side would struggle though, right ACFC!

You gotta remember that it will be NZ Football who will be checking it out, and we all know how good they are at working out whether someone is eligible don't we?

That rule might contravene TPP labour laws (not that we'd know). In the bright shiny new improved aligned ASBP will we see a positive discrimination rule applied to coaches too. Why not?

Will not be just ACFC, Canterbury have plenty of non NZ'ers in their squad, born off shore  - Aussie, UK, Europe and likely to be others in the 2015 squad, and they have not elected to take up NZ citizenship.

ACFC never had a problem with that rule last season

Across the squad they did not. Across the starting XI is a different story. I thought it was 50% in the match day squad but I am looking for someone to either confirm or correct that.

I would think that Waitakere would sail close to the wind too.

Personally, I would limit it to no less than 15 from a season squad of 20 (20 seems about right for 14 games) must be eligible allowing you to sign 5 people not eligible. If we are looking to grow our game in terms of player depth (and not necessarily in quality so I get that side of the argument as well) this is the way I would approach it.

I guess going forward in the new structure, there could be some tie in with Youth league and being able to drop 2 overage or something like that so that senior players get some game time or something in that manner.

I was told on the team sheet, including the bench, so that is that same as the match day squad.

50% of match day squad - same as last year

https://www.facebook.com/CanterburyUnitedDragons/p...

can anyone name these dudes?

I guess they will be looking for another Marketing and Events Officer now with Jesse Dingjan named in team?

From the Dragon's facebook page: 

SQUAD ANNOUNCEMENT | Canterbury United coach Willy Gerdsen has added three more players from the Mainland Premier League to complete his provisional squad for the upcoming ASB Premiership. The 2015/16 squad includes Aaron Clapham, Dan Terris, Julyan Collett, Dan Schwarz, Tom Schwarz, Danny Boyes (all Cashmere Technical), Atken Kaua, Coey Turipa (Nelson Suburbs), Gary Ogilvie (Concord, UK), Meysum Shafahi , Aaron Spain (Coastal Spirit), Andreas Wilson, Jacob Allan (Western), Renta Yamamoto, Michael White (Ferrymead Bays), Jackson Brady, Boon Azawa (Halswell), Ruben Parker Hanks, Angus Kilkolly (Napier City Rovers) Andre de Jong, Brock Messenger (East Coast Bays, Auckland) Juan Chang (Western Suburbs, Wellington) Jesse Dingjan (vv Katwijk, Netherlands)

Match the name to the faces - unsure who Danny Boyes. is this a new name to the region?  Maybe related to Fanny Girls or Danny Boys.

Jackson plays for Coastal 

So the sky isn't really falling in Canterbury then?

16 players of the 23 from Mainland Premier League. So much for the out of town conspiracy...

that's nearly a third of the squad that are being fully funded from out of town in an amateur league while players like o'brien, knight, kelly, barton, moya, etc are not included

and i think that those bought in will need to improve significantly in order to bring something superior to what could otherwise be offered by the players on that absent list 

that said, it looks like a decent squad with enough quality to be competitive

There was no conspiracy more the fact that Willy stated in the press he would select the best performers in the region.

He has done this with no scouting/watching games and anyone who watched games regularly here then you would have

O Brian ,Kelly ,Knight,White, Highfield,Barton you then have other performers like Mike Forshaw and Mark Peers at Ferrymead and maybe Dan Ede and Cash Techs top goal scorer Oxley.

If you were scouting players you would not select Meysum and Spain or the boy from Halswell as they cant even play every week for these clubs the 2 Western players Andre has good pace but like Jacob are ok  MPL players never mind ASB level.

So why are the best performing players in town not being selected and players that cant play each week for their MPL teams are??

The defense apart from Tom Swartz will struggle to be fit all season Colett and Terris injured on off all MPL season and Dan Swartz struggles to complete 90  mins each week,Boys missed most of the season and is the biggest piss head in town.

As for the out of towners as i have said before look at the list above,they are not needed and not better it seems Willy had already chosen players to bring in with out preparing/scouting here first then has made false statements to why kelly,o brian and knight etc are not selected.

Top 4 is always a possibility given the league size but you are not going to compete with the big boys selecting players that can not play week in and out for thier MPL clubs

while yes 16 players are MPL and 7 Out of town. 7 out of town are like starters which leaves the rest to make up the numbers. It very clever the way they gone bout it. The guys left out should have a crack at southern they always require more players

Understand that Liam Oxley 'trialed' but missed out and Dan Ede is currently injured, not doubt Dan will comment on this. 

I'm willing and happy to see how this plays out, looks like a good squad for us and balances the dramas of bringing in out of towners like we did in 2014/15 that didn't cut it. 

Looking forward to kickoff, need to get my season pass and free Phoenix ticket!

Pretty sure this is around the same out of towners as last year which was not the problem,last year it was the coaching etc