Central League 2021

1  Olympic
2 Miramar
3 Wests
4 Lower Hutt City
5 North Wellington 
6 Napier City Rovers
7 Karori
8 Wairarapa
9 Wainuiomata
10 Petone

Olympic come back from 3-1 to draw 3-3 with NW. Watto missed a pen.
Miramar beat Wharf 2-1 after also falling behind. 
NCR cruised past Ole B 5-1

Western Suburbs 1 1 Lower Hutt

Wests should have closed this game out before a very late equalizer.. LH keeper made a couple of good saves plus couple good other chances missed by Wests.

Tried to find updates on twitter for this game. Nothing from Wests at all. Found Ole's twitter feed was doing all the updates!!  So much for a Wests team. 

I'm not your Bro...

Western Suburbs 1 1 Lower Hutt

Wests should have closed this game out before a very late equalizer.. LH keeper made a couple of good saves plus couple good other chances missed by Wests.

And yet they don't tweet the Wainui games. 

What’s happening NZF. Big money being paid to average players. Where’s your audit?

Purposebuilt

What’s happening NZF. Big money being paid to average players. Where’s your audit?

If Sponsors pay players directly how does NZ football audit that?
On the other hand this wouldn't this make it difficult for sponsors to claim back for tax purposes? Not sure of the legalities around this.

Anyone see Mar v West’s? Comprehensive spanking by the looks?

https://www.nzfootball.co.nz/newsarticle/102240?newsfeedId=1229959

Have manage to catch two games CL games
Wainui -Napier
Olympic -Rapa

If this new level of National League.........
Having watched some of the Handa league and then the semis and finals on TV. If this is the new National League level, this is a backward step unless it improves immensely.

As for the statement "We know we have a talented generation of players coming through and hopefully they now have the opportunity to show it at the highest level in the new National League”
This is now a much lower level than before!! A lot of the young players playing were probably already on club radars. 

Surely the National Youth league was a showcase for up and coming players to show their abilities and be bought through. Maybe the idea of just having the Handa league teams play 2 youth players would have been better.

Most of the Handa league players stick out in these teams as being a lot better/faster/technical players. I guess after awhile they won't as they won't be challenged as much as they have been previously, playing against the best.

Hope this roll of the dice works for NZ Football, but I'm yet to be convinced.

I mean, it was obvious that there would be a step or two down in quality the moment the new league structure was announced, don't think anyone should be surprised by that.

Mossimo

https://www.nzfootball.co.nz/newsarticle/102240?newsfeedId=1229959

Have manage to catch two games CL games
Wainui -Napier
Olympic -Rapa

If this new level of National League.........
Having watched some of the Handa league and then the semis and finals on TV. If this is the new National League level, this is a backward step unless it improves immensely.

As for the statement "We know we have a talented generation of players coming through and hopefully they now have the opportunity to show it at the highest level in the new National League”
This is now a much lower level than before!! A lot of the young players playing were probably already on club radars. 

Surely the National Youth league was a showcase for up and coming players to show their abilities and be bought through. Maybe the idea of just having the Handa league teams play 2 youth players would have been better.

Most of the Handa league players stick out in these teams as being a lot better/faster/technical players. I guess after awhile they won't as they won't be challenged as much as they have been previously, playing against the best.

Hope this roll of the dice works for NZ Football, but I'm yet to be convinced.

 For all we know stronger clubs may develop over time and begin to take on the abilities and capable of previous Handa Prem clubs. Central League in particular is one where all the Team Wellington players got broken up across different clubs but if you look at the Northern League there's certainly a lot of clubs with enough talent up there. Just gotta be patient I guess, and see what the next couple of years (which will be the transition years) bring. 

Watson signed for oz team Dandenong Thunder. The new league delivering pathways already

I don't like the new league AT ALL, but Watto is hardly a youngster, nor is he AWs material, and has a habit of jumping across the ditch and back...

That being said, give me back my fkn Team Wellingon, NZFC!

https://youtu.be/bghmeZLejz8

Lower Hutt City vs Wellington Olympic, live tonight at 7pm, streamed on NZF youtube channel! 

I don't like the new league AT ALL
Have to agree with you so far. Watched a number of games and miss the NL already. The quality is well down for me and the same intensity and speed is missing. Hope it improves but feels like an experiment set to not meet what it replaced.

Isn't the best comparison the end of the national league section?

Might be the case but then why market this end of the comp as the national league and a pathway etc?  it is not any where near the previous product.

2ndBest

Isn't the best comparison the end of the national league section?

Because I am following the Northern League which I never did in previous seasons, because there's a chance that these people might be in the National League later, taking on the best of Wellington and the rest of the country. I opposed the change but I've done a 180 so far. This may not be unrelated to the fact that my local club is heading the NL right now :D

Doloras

Because I am following the Northern League which I never did in previous seasons, because there's a chance that these people might be in the National League later, taking on the best of Wellington and the rest of the country. I opposed the change but I've done a 180 so far. This may not be unrelated to the fact that my local club is heading the NL right now :D

 Obviously the Northern League fronts as by far the strongest of the three regions and has the base area of half the ISPS Handa Prem teams, what'd be your comparison of it with the Handa Prem so far? Looking at some of the squads I was pretty impressed but obviously living in Dunedin have not seen any of those games so far. 

No comparison in the games I have seen. Early days so lets see how it evolves. last weekend Springs with 5 under 20 starters I read and only 3 over 21 beat a Birkenhead with most of the players ex Waitakere NL squad. I expected them to be much better and stronger, although to be fair their NL players are all young too. I love watching any level but did enjoy the NL standard even though I often read people saying it was rubbish. Part of the fun was seeing the live streams each week, which has gone too.

lsmith1001

Doloras

Because I am following the Northern League which I never did in previous seasons, because there's a chance that these people might be in the National League later, taking on the best of Wellington and the rest of the country. I opposed the change but I've done a 180 so far. This may not be unrelated to the fact that my local club is heading the NL right now :D

 Obviously the Northern League fronts as by far the strongest of the three regions and has the base area of half the ISPS Handa Prem teams, what'd be your comparison of it with the Handa Prem so far? Looking at some of the squads I was pretty impressed but obviously living in Dunedin have not seen any of those games so far. 

... there was a live stream of Lower Hutt vs Olympic just last night???

Saw that half way through and enjoyed seeing some action live streamed again. First time for me to watch that league so interesting.

Doloras

... there was a live stream of Lower Hutt vs Olympic just last night???

Link to LH vs Olympic game
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bghmeZLejz8

Doloras

... there was a live stream of Lower Hutt vs Olympic just last night???

Yep, have to say you didn't miss much though, obviously a dramatic finish but overall was a terrible quality game.

How long is the marriage between Wainui and the Ole "also rans" going to last? And who is going to pay the $50k for the coach?

lsmith1001

Doloras

... there was a live stream of Lower Hutt vs Olympic just last night???

Yep, have to say you didn't miss much though, obviously a dramatic finish but overall was a terrible quality game.

 I thought it was a pretty decent match to be fair... then again, I've though a couple of the matches Enough Said was at were decent matches too... varies depending who is playing and where they're playing, just as with the old national league. 

whatever

How long is the marriage between Wainui and the Ole "also rans" going to last? And who is going to pay the $50k for the coach?

Who is the coach of Nui?

Feverish

whatever

How long is the marriage between Wainui and the Ole "also rans" going to last? And who is going to pay the $50k for the coach?

Who is the coach of Nui?

Joe Hall - who is also in charge of performance and coach education at Ole

Wouldn't that come as part of his role rather then a $50000 add on?

Question for those of you who regularly watch the league, as I'm on the other side of the country I haven't see any with my own eyes.

What are your assessments of attendances for different teams this season? Even give estimated numbers if you can. And how does it compare to last season? 

I watch Olympic just because it’s close to home. I would say they get 3-400? Think a couple of games last year would have had more. 

Wests bring in Ben Stroud from Nui and Delaney from NW . Also X Green coming in. Must be worried about their NL push/ resies in Prem. Expect Olympic to pump Nui this weekend.

What are you picking for Wharf v Wests?

el grapadura

What are you picking for Wharf v Wests?

goals

The Irish guy from Wainui/ TW/ Napier is playing for Olympic?

Tyler

The Irish guy from Wainui/ TW/ Napier is playing for Olympic?

Gould. English I think? More clubs than Tiger (HB too)

Contractor. Ahh well, good for him. 

Big game this weekend! First vs second

Huge game at the other end of the table too. If Wainui can't win that, they're as good as down.

el grapadura

Huge game at the other end of the table too. If Wainui can't win that, they're as good as down.

then do a player swip swap with Wests resies?