SS Prem 2016/17 TV Games: CU v TW | Sun 19th Mar | 4.30pm | SS3

I find this sort of shark utterly bizarre.

there's also the case of Jeremy Wells, Leigh Hart etc.. being very funny and they're well known NZ comedians. Cricket is the perfect sport because there is such little action happening at times.

Classic on their Facebook. What is even more stupid is it's the THIRSTY WHALE Hawke's Bay.  

Do sponsors pay more for things to be in ALL CAPS?  

HBU sign Nile Walwyn - http://www.sporty.co.nz/hbu/newsarticle/39406?em=1

He played for the same team Messenger did, who's also resigned for Canterbury.

Riera back at city    http://www.nzherald.co.nz/sport/news/article.cfm?c_id=4&objectid=11714241

http://www.aucklandcityfc.com/news/article.asp?ID=1749

I'll go along and do a report for ITBOTN.

At least it's not at the QBE!

Wonder which team is missing

assume it's Weenix

that isn't a great look. I wondered if it were Southern, but you're probably right. 

If it's not Weenix, then probably Auckland City - playing in Melbourne on Sunday.

I'm pretty sure they'll have some sort of representation there. (Currently 0-0 at H/T against City too)

I was thinking it might be Southern for some reason though.

I must admit, for the first time in several seasons I am actually quite intrigued to see how the premiership will unfold, and also wanting to see what the new teams bring to the table. Generally I'm just happy that it's not sponsored by ASB anymore - purely because I hate them with every ounce of my being, but to me it just didn't feel like a good fit for our premier football league. Great big banking corporate ---- New Zealand's premier semi professional football competition...

Already know what to expect with Auckland City and TeeDubs - the top teams in the league hands down given the decline of Waitakere. Hawkes Bay and Canterbury aren't too bad, and if anything they've become pretty consistent.

Still needs more Youngheart too, maybe in the years to come.

Nice idea, and one I've thought about often, but it's something that will be several years in the making and will take a lot of financial effort just to get it off the ground. 

I think a more viable option would be further expansion (give it a few years) to 12-14 teams, which is not an unreasonable number given the regions that don't have national league representation currently. Possibly looking at future Federation competition winners playing off against each other for 1-2 spots in say 5-10 years? Pipe dreams maybe, but we should be looking at growing football into these untapped regions, as there is definitely talent out there.

With the current 10 team format, it will be interesting to see how close the sides are. Like I said earlier, ACFC, WU, TeeDubs, HBU, CU all relatively decent, and for our premier football league ideally you don't want teams getting dicked week in, week out 4,5,6 - 0 - I'm looking at you Southern! It's just not a good look, I want it to be competitive, where clubs turn up and give each other good hard fixtures week in week out.

Financial constraints aside It would be great to have a third round of fixtures as well, to align ourselves with an A-League type season, give the players more fixtures, more chances for development, and the hopes that an A-League club, most likely the Nix to offer talented players professional contracts - after all, that's what the S/S premiership is about, as players are not going to make a living playing football in NZ.

Maybe a two tier system with promotion relegation. Be nice to have all of NZ covered. Manawatu and Taranaki are missing from the map. East Coast and Northland. But sponsorship talks. Maybe it is better get players to travel to existing Franchises to concentrate talent?

Great thoughts here Hamish. So much to think about. We want to grow the sport but not at the expense of franchises getting beaten heavily or financially ruined - i guess that is what NZF have been about with their control of franchise expansion.

Would a draft system work for a team like Southern United? Does a draft work at all?

Could the NZF have an agreement/scholarship relationship with the Phoenix whereby the player of the SSP gets a one year contract with the Phoenix?  Great for marketing and interest - within the football community at least.

Great to see Taranaki football making a move to get closer to a regional team. I guess team taranaki are a case study on how to grow into a possible SSP franchise in the future.

I see the PS4 prem teams offer a 2 week trial with Sydney FC after sending the best 3 players from each of the 8 federations on a 3 day trial getting elite Aussie coaches to take a look and then picking a winner. Wonder if SSP could do the same with Nix?

https://in-the-back-of-the.net/2016/09/26/lift-off/

My report from the official launch. Good chat with Joel Stevens, Jake Butler, Clayton Lewis and Zac Speedy.

anybody knows where i can find latest updated squads of all SSP teams? transfermarkt.com isn't updated.. Thanks in advance ;)

Thanks!

Thoughts on the new kits?

I'd rank them in this order

Hamilton Wanderers

Southern

Weenix

Team Wellington

Tasman United

Hawke's Bay United

Eastern Suburbs

Canterbury United

Waitakere United

Auckland City

Not a Kappa fan then or is it just a dig at Auckland City......

Only 1 team still wearing crappy Lotto though so thats progress!!

Tasman my favourite kit.

Lotto is fine, just need to modernise and align its range or it is goneski. 

Kappa is fine, the material is usually good quality.

yeah i have no problem with lotto in terms of apparel - never had a problem with playing shirts, they are durable and with the new customer design feature you can get the look you want.

Lotto balls on the other hand.......

Southern has to be one of the ugliest kits I've seen in my life!

HBU and TW looking pretty sharp though and I'm biased but I love Tasman's apart from the logo being a hoop too high.

I actually quite like a couple of recent shirts you've had at Ellerslie the hooped one from a year or 2 ago was good.

The 2 stripe design that MAP and ECB amongst others wear is terrible it looks like an adidas rip off you'd get at a Market stall!! 

But I guess the fact a lot of clubs are moving away from Lotto tells its own story

Southern Looks good for me.

Nice to see a Nike kit with Macas arch on it. 

Tasman just a copy of some rubbish teams like Reading, QPR, FC Dallas note that Margate FC got with the times and ditched the 50s hoops look. I should get free tickets to Tasman the amount I've just spent on Nelson Pine timber lol.

I'm sure it could be arranged, seeing as entry is free for all Tasman home games.

Going to have a look at the three Auckland teams this weekend should be interesting.

Waitakere United vs Auckland City Westlake Boys High School 1:00pm Saturday. 

Eastern Suburbs vs Auckland City Bill McKinlay Park Midday Sunday. 

let us know how it goes

(plus players, lineups etc if poss!)

HBU vs Hamilton Wanderers in Taupo (Crown park ?)  at 1pm tomorrow (Sat 1st Oct). 

Let's hope for a short report from the game...Not much info about the HBU squad so far...

Any Weenix vs TW pre-season games at DF?

Yeah it looks proper pants, even on the NZF page.  You'd think they might jazz it up a bit for this new found exposure for the club.  Dropping the square box would be a great start.

Na, all TW and WeeNix games are at Petone Memorial. Draw released today for youth

http://www.nzfootball.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/201...

nothing wrong with it. 

why do we have this temptation to mess with long standing names and identities? i saw someone asking for eastern suburbs to change their name to east auckland in another post. next year maybe they can be called something else and change their logo again. and the year after maybe we can call them something else to mke someone else feel all warm and included

in a league that's been 'blessed' with such entities like waibop and wanderers special needs club i find it refreshing to see some actual long standing club names on board, names that mean something

Couldn't agree more.

Traveled up to Taupo from the Bay today to watch HBU v Hamilton Wanderers. Typical scrappy preseason game with Hamilton coming from a goal down to win 4-1. A couple of players caught my eye, Judd Baker who scored a hat trick and the Wanderer's Asian midfielder ( sorry don't know his name ) but he was class. I don't read too much into preseason matches but there is still plenty of work for HBU to do to prior to the start of the season