Eastern Suburbs AFC

council ruined it - poor timing from them.

Eastern Suburbs "reluctantly" accept resignation of coach Malcom McPherson and about 5 minutes later announce Danny Hay will be their new coach!

A senior gig for Hay. 

Intrigued to see how their season will unfold.

About time he played with the big boys. Now we get to see if he's all mouth and no trousers.

Damn, Wanderers v Suburbs will be tasty, what with Hay's previous career as professional Ricki-basher

Suburbs offering free entry to all of their games and the fixture list is floating about, because they're at Fencibles to play Hamilton on Saturday November 4th.

Yeah spotted that.  It will be interesting to observe if that helps increase the interest in the franchise and the league.

I've never heard of anyone baulking at the price to not attend ISPSHP games.  A myriad of other excuses but not that.

Still, 2 teams now offering free entry. Could be the start of a trend?

Guessing the other 8 (maybe w/ the exception of WeeNix) will find the subsidising harder to do.

Think it's $1000.00 per game the WCC charge for National league ground hire. IIRC

Might actually get more Fans than Flags at the games this season.

4 actually, Southern is free or a gold coin donation, Weenix are free if you have a big nix season pass but a few games last season (especially at Newtown) they just didn't bother with anyone on the gate

#desperateforfans

Turn up in a firefighter uniform to TW and they'll let you in for free, as they assume you've come to extinguish the bbq fire.

One of the biggest clubs in the country.

In your day Leggy. But for years now the seniors have been turning out at Madills Farm in front of a handfull of supporters - despite all those 000's of tiny kids who play in their colours. The parents just ain't interested in watching grown ups play the game.

No names, but Suburbs claiming they'll have just TWO import players this season. Tim Payne has re-signed with them too.

Any idea if one of the two is Pasagic - pretty classy last season but he turned out for Central over winter (although not in the Cup Final)

probably not, he left Central the day after the Chatham Cup semi final win over Wairarapa as his visa ran out

if you got this from their post on social media I can read that two ways, like you have obviously and then that there will only be two new overseas signings, which may supplement Rodic and Tieku for example.

I do think they will be well under any import restrictions however.

good point. the post says 'almost exclusively of local and kiwi talent'. so i guess there's room to wriggle there

here's the post for those interested:

https://www.facebook.com/EasternSuburbsAFC/posts/1...

ISPS PREMIERSHIP | The Eastern Suburbs squads to play in both the ISPS Handa Premiership League and the National Youth League will almost exclusively consist of local and kiwi talent.

Eastern Suburbs have retained the core of talented kiwi players from last season’s National League squad & the 2017 Winter Premier team, including the former Blackburn professional: Tim Payne.

Chris Ruffell (ESAFC Chairman) noted: ‘…only two international recruits will pull on the Lilywhite shirt in our Summer league squad’. Chris added ‘While building competitive squads for both the Premiership and the NYL (under 19’s), we also want to play a role in helping our members achieve their full potential & footballing aspirations with a clear and strong pathway strategy.

Eastern Suburbs will start releasing the names and profiles of their National League squad in October as they countdown to the first game of the season.

2-1 win over Hamilton Wanderers today in Cambridge. First hit out for suburbs after only 2 weeks of training.

Suburbs officially announce their first two signings: (well re-signings technically)

Tristan Prattley (Def)

Tim Payne (Mid)

Tristan Prattley (Def)

Tim Payne (Mid)

Jordan Vale (Mid)

Derek Tieku (Fwd) (F)

Graphic design seems to have taken a step back since last season?

Brock Messenger, Ryan Elder, Hayden Johns, Zac Speedy, Andre de Jong, Rossi Nkoy, Dane Schnell, Finn Cochran, Reese Cox, Harry Redwood all involved on Saturday. Rodic is back too, as the second foreigner. Not sure if Messenger and de Jong have signed, but the others all have transfers put through.

Max Mata, Kingsley Sinclair, Charles Spragg, Boyd Curry joining from the under-17s. Moses Dyer of course too, thanks Sunseeker.

Nic Zambrano was involved on Saturday too, but as a trialist.

so...

Keepers - Rodic, Speedy

Defenders - Prattley, Messenger, Elder, Johns, Cochran, Cox, Curry

Midfielders - Payne, Vale, Schnell, Sinclair, Dyer

Forwards - Tieku, Mata, Spragg, de Jong, Nkoy

And whatever Harry Redwood is

doh.

Any word if Lovemore has resigned?

i did hear that him and suburbs were talking - i also heard he was considering taking a summer off as he had done full summers and winters back to back for a number of seasons (not sure how many it is).

For those that could not see yesterdays game, I have written a small piece on it.  The idea is not to write minute by minute what happened, but write about key moments/events of the match.

https://mainlandanalyst.com/2017/11/20/canterbury-united-3-vs-eastern-suburbs-afc-2/

Great article, thanks! I wonder where Dyer was ?

He was quite impressive for them in their win vs TeeDubs here.

I have to agree with Hard News - ISPS Handa is Dyers level.  (not a fan btw)

Interesting to see Chris James on the weekend for Suburbs.

Was pretty good in central midfield in the first half but seemed to tire in the second (probably not match fit yet after a long break from playing).

From what you saw Pete, if he regained match fitness and stayed fit, is he capable of playing in the A League or for N.Z. again or is he past it?

Terrible game.

I play at BMK a lot and I really like the pitch, but there's just something about artificial pitches and hot days that seems to amplify the heat problem. Also looked like the rubber had just been freshly spread which means it hasn't quite settled yet.

Other than that the ref let far too much go, just become grab each other shirts and push and pull.

There is no way Chris James is going to play A-League. He deserved a shot four years ago. It didn't happen.

And from what I saw on the weekend he is struggling at this level, so no A league option liklely