Hamilton Wanderers

Ricki Herbert to be the Wanderers coach for the 2017-18 season

http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/football/domestic/930...

That's huge news, great for the profile of the Premiership. Good to see Ricki back.

Hamilton Wanderers have started announcing some of  the players they have signed for the 2017 / 18 season.

Players signed so far are: Michael Built, Sam O'Regan, Matt Oliver, Patrick Aisa,  Reese Cox, Sam De St Croix, Jordie Shaw and Alexis Varela

Ricky is obviously going to use his connections and knowledge of Oceania football to add some depth and quality to the squad.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/football/domestic/94...

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/football/domestic/95...

agreed. he was a real talent and great to watch

he was asked to play out of position in a phoenix team that was a mess

I'm having more of a dig at Ricki than Totori here.

also according to Ben Sigmund's book, Ricki basically signed Totori and then left him to it, didn't give him any coaching or guidance, something he needed for the step up to A-League

Hamilton Wanderers sign another PNG international plus five players from the Northern League.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/waikato-times/sport/961212...

Hamilton Wanderers beat Hawkes Bay 1-0 in Taupo today. Hawkes Bay probably had the better chances in the first half but it was still 0-0 at half time. Wanderers had the better of the second half and shaded the possession and territory stats. The goal came midway through the second half. Michael Built got on the end of a pin point cross from Bailey Webster, then he turned and clinically scored a well taken goal. After the goal both teams created one or two half chances but there was no further scoring in the match.

Wanderers youth team beat Hawkes Bay youth team 4-1. Goals to Nathan Monne, Levi Clarke, Liam Steffert and Flynn Connolly with Hawkes Bay scoring a second half penalty.

Both the Youth Team and Men's Team play Eastern Suburbs at St Peter's School Cambridge on Saturday starting from 1:00 pm and 3:00 pm approx

was their a hamilton wanderers team sheet also

Here these are 12 and 2 now if anyone was going along.

Wanderers' squad so far is

Goalkeepers: David Masters, Matt Oliver
Defenders: Adam Luque, Bailey Webster, Flynn O'Brien, Jordan Shaw, Raheem Hunter, Sam O'Regan
Midfielders: Alexis Varela, Dave Samson, Hamish Smylie, Sam De St Croix, Wade Molony, Xavier Pratt, Zach Newdick
Forwards: Michael Built, Patrick Aisa, Tommy Semmy

They had Ignacio Machuca, who played for them last year, there trialling. Some of the above didn't play, including the two PNG boys.

If anything Wanderers looked worse under Herbert in that first game. Tragic display. Undecided if the coaching changes will pay off still

I want to publicly acknowledge the efforts of long-time Wanderers Sports club chairman Brendon Coker. Brendon rang the other day to say he was stepping down as chairman of Wanderers (to be replaced by David Douglas, from memory).

Brendon was the driving force behind Wanderers securing a national league berth, and also served 3 years as Waikato FC chairman.

It's probably unfair to call Brendon a victim of Wanderers challenging start to the national league season, but he did say that he felt the need to do what was right for him personally, new job posting etc, and it was time to pass the baton on.

Brendon has been a very hard worker for Wanderers, and the wider code, as well as being a qualified referee. I imagine he's done a good 20 years administrative work at Wanderers, as well as the odd coaching stint, and he will be missed.

While I belong to a rival club, I did work alongside Brendon for a couple of seasons at Waikato FC back in the day and came to respect the hours he put in, his tenacity, and his desire to see football flourish in the Waikato.

The big challenge in football administration is not so much agreeing on everything - but knowing how to disagree without completely killing a relationship. Happily, you could debate an issue with Brendon - or argue until you were blue in the face - without it being the end of the world.

However funnily enough I think it's also true that with all his effort, Brendon got worn down more than most by the perpetual grind of football politics - and competing at national league level can be a political minefield.

Either way, Brendon stepping down reminded me of part an editorial I wrote for Sitter! fanzine 20 years ago (May 1997)...

...

It is hard work being a national league club. By its very nature, the national league attacks the onion of a soccer club, removing layer after layer of club life until it gets down to the little sliver of ambition and commitment at the core.

Similarly, the bedrock of addicted national league diehards must drill their ambitions like an oil well, down and sideways, through the muck and thickness until they strike a club layer solid enough to allow them to eke out another year.

Then, when the season begins, the motivations of dedicated club officials are thrown on the pinball machine of the league and bounced around on crazy administration, prima-donna players, dodgy refereeing and bare-faced luck. What an existence.

As a Waikato fan, am very disappointed with the results I’m seeing.  How long before Herbert gets shoved?  

@Bruce, ive still got the copy of Sitter at home filled away with my many Melville United (Waikato too) programmes from those days.  Great memories excitedly buying and reading Sitter as a teen as it was my only connection to the greater world of kiwi footie then outside of club programmes.

Why would you give Herbert the shove when this is clearly a case of bad cattle. Do you honestly think a new coach is going to get better results with the same lot? I don't.

I've always believed in NZ it is the head coaches job to build his squad.  The Southern United coach clearly makes sure he has enough quality,  so does Ramon.  Is this not the case at Wanders?   Someone needs to take responsibility and in my opinion the buck stops with the head coach.  

I can agree with that, but whom that is local, that is outside the squad, should be there and is not? I don't think you will find too many names. Considering the budget, you can't exactly recruit outsiders.

He has picked a squad for the money he has and while the players are not flash, there wont be the money to get better.

Jeff being a HBU fan I thought you’d know first hand what a good coach can do with a small budget in a smaller catchment area.  I’m disappointed you’ve put all the blame on the players when Ricky must cop it too. It would be a different story at Wanderers if Angel was in charge. Hamilton do have some quality in the PNG boys and Pasagic going forward, the defence needs organising. Is HBU’s current squad even that much stronger than Hamilton’s? One side would run into the ground for their gaffer and understand the roles perfectly, the other has a blame culture and looks like it doesn’t care. Pasagic’s interview after the game was disgusting, wouldn’t like to be him going into training Tuesday!

Ah, Sitter, the memories.

you miss it? 'cause you wouldn't want to! 

Something’s clearly not right ala the Nix and AWs at the end of his tenure.  I think it’s quite obvious now that Ricki is a classic British Manager who selects the team and does the admin, he’s clearly quite useless as a coach as many past and present have openly said.

What I ask is if the players Wanderers had were any better than Angell could get at HBU, do you not think those players would be at HBU....? I’m not an HBU or Angell fan but if I had a choice of playing for HBU or Wanderers, it would not be Wanderers I would be choosing.

"You wouldn't want to miss it", I came up with it and I was proud of the name Sitter too. It was perfect for the intended nature of the zine. When Bruce and Grant took it over it advanced it to another level entirely. They did a wonderful job with it. I miss Sitter a lot.

yeah valid point but it depends where you live as well. Not many players want to relocate to Hawkes Bay. If your a Hamilton, Auckland or Tauranga lad you’d more than likely prefer Hamilton. The catchment area of Hamilton its self is far greater than Napier/Hastings. And Hamilton have brought in ‘pros’ and experienced islanders from overseas. I’m not saying the squad could compete for the title but they could do a lot better with some organisation and at least be hard to beat. At the moment they are performing like a mid table winter league side and it isn’t good to have a club like this in the national league. Tasman have come I’m attracted fans and added to the league. Hamilton are worse than previous Waikato, Waibop franchises.

Maybe a special one-off reunion issue next year, Boy Gorge, before we all die.

Sitter! 63

Sub-title: Where were you when we were sh*t?

Guest contributions invited from everyone who made the cut between 1995-2005.

Though with the media-litigious efforts of Ricki Herbert and Ernie Merrick in more recent times, we would have to go easy on the defamatory and libellous copy.

"media-litigious"

Really? Actual litigation, or just petulance?

As I understand it, NZ Herald has settled with Ricki, while Merrick's action has yet to be heard.

is Ricki still leading the team? Didnt see him at the game today.Looked more like his son was taking the team

What is going on at the Wanderers?  Waikato football is terrible right now.

HI Marto,

We've struck a perfect storm of sorts, that probably has not hit Waikato football for over 30 years.

Wanderers Sports Club have unquestionably established themselves as the leading club in the Waikato in the last couple of years (in both summer and winter football) but now appear to be very much in the "down" stage of the cycle, having narrowly escaped relegation in winter, and being dead motherless last in summer, with new coaching personnel and new admin boss, and unable to even hold onto former capatain-coach Michael Built.

You can hardly blame Wanderers for wanting to minimise bad publicity by not specifically talking up the details of their struggles and newcomers do their best.

At the same time the daily print media has withdrawn almost totally from coverage of football. 

It's perverse that at a time when electronic coverage is at an all-time high with live matches weekly and 30-minute propaganda shows (by that I mean they tend to lack anything of a critical or investigative dimension) that print media coverage of our code - which traditionally gives us the real oil - is arguably at an all-time low.

As a result us football consumers get little independent analysis, and there is also next to no on-the-record comment from coaches and administrators to even start a serious examination of the issues.

Still, nothing lasts forever. You may recall the struggles of Hamilton AFC in the mid 80s, and how that eventually led to the rise of Claudelands Rovers, and then eventually a very strong Waikato United. 

While home in the Waikato in January I picked up on this, nothing in the Waikato Times and my old man, a staunch Hamilton AFC, Melville, Wanderers and Ngaras follower has ZERO interest in going to a Handy Prem match. 

The whole region seems to be in the doldrums, so hard to comprehend when so many AWs and young guys at US Colleges are Waikato lads.  I still cannot get over the fact that my team, Ngaras is not even a Northern League side anymore  :-(

Yeh, I went all the way to Dunedin to watch them play A Chatham Cup semifinal a few years ago. Coldest day on earth.

The thing is, watching from afar at least, Wanderers only have themselves to blame for the apathy towards them. Are they bothering to market themselves to their region? Their online and social media presence is a disgrace - they're not even meeting the barebones requirements from NZF regarding match updates and stuff. Slack and amateurish.

With Martin Bueno, Tommy Semmy & Derek Tieku - should get a few more goals this seaosn than last