Anything less than first for Auckland City will be failure I reckon, but to be fair the actual national league is the more important and there’s no seeding for finishing 2nd as opposed to 4th. They still have two NZ international quality keepers, which is weird, and have Adam Mitchell, Brotherton, Kaltack, Howieson, Kilkolly and have managed to add Ryan De Vries as well. They lost Addison Stewart to Suburbs but got Joe Lee from North Shore who’s pretty quality and still U20.
Auckland United will be top 3 as well imo, though they lost Monty Patterson who is pretty elite at this level; he was up top scorer with Alex Grieve and Kilkolly. They still have Mike Den Heijer who was their POTY, and have resigned a few guys on their IG. They did have Hudson-Wihongi but I haven’t seen him resign there yet. Jose Figueira is a good coach so he should help them a bit too, though he hasn’t seemed to be able to take anyway from ACFC with him. Oli Fay who was a key U20 for them was in Denmark trialling a month or so ago, idk if he’s still overseas.
Suburbs the other of the big three you’d expect to see come national league. Fairly sure they still have Hoani as coach, and who knows what Kalvin Kalua is up to as to whether he’s there or not. They’ll probably run pretty young again id imagine, but Stafford Dowling, who is a pretty decent fullback, has gone back down to Melville, and Christian Gray has gone to ACFC. They’ve signed Addison Stewart who is ‘04 and rated, and is in the U20 camps for 03/04, as well as keeper Joe Knowles who’s come back up to Auckland after going to St Peter’s Cambridge, as Ruben Parker has gone to the Nix. They might have lost key U20 defender, another in the NZ camps, as he was in Denmark with the aforementioned Oli Fay.
Fourth is anyone’s guess really. Birko were fourth last year, but have an Alex Grieve sized crater missing from their squad now, so whoever is set to replace him will have to do well. They’ve also lost Sanni Issa, who I personally don’t rate that highly, to Chch Utd, and Nathan Lobo to ACFC. They’ve kept Burfoot and Damo Hirst which is good, they’re quality players at this level, and signed a U20 from Shore in Brynn Sinclair who I don’t know at all. I wouldn’t be surprised to see them drop out of top 4, but Hobbo could do stuff with the squad.
Springs are possibly a good shout for top four, they just missed out last year, but of course there were unplayed games, so who knows. They’ve got a lot of guys from their academy, looking at their IG most of the players have been there at least 6 seasons, and up to 17 seasons. Kayne Vincent is decent enough, if not fading, and Dane Schnell is a quality player, bit of a forgotten guy of Des’ U20 World Cup team, even started vs Uruguay. Lots of U20 kids, but Adama Coulibaly is a big one; ‘05 I think, and played a bit last year, but you’d expect a bigger role this time. They’ve lost Danyon Drake who just wants to coach, and Zac Zoricich who has signed a youth contract with the Mariners (AU citizen).
Not sure too much where to rate the Hamilton teams tbh, Wanderers seem to have kept most of the same team, Semmy has gone to Australia, but he wasn’t his best last season, but they’ve added Brock Messenger who was relegated with Northern Rovers. Brock’s a good guy, but had to have knee surgery a couple years back so not what he used to be. They still have Tieku so that’s a big coup for them. Connor Probert is around too, he went to the U20 World Cup in 2017 so has quality, but didn’t really kick on like a lot of the others did.
Melville are in the same boat as far as I know. They’ve kept most players I think, bar Joe Knowles, but he wasn’t first choice keeper. Aaron Scott is still around, as is NZ U20 camp member John Oakman from Christchurch. Stafford Dowling is back, and they have Sean Liddicoat who missed all last season injured (he’s another from the 2017 U20 World Cup squad). They’ve signed the Mainland Prem YPOTY in 18yo Oliver Collotly, who bagged 4 in his first pre-season. Hard to judge them yet though, they seem pretty much the same as last year, where they were alright but inconsistent and finished lower-midtable, same as Wanderers.
Olympic got rid of Marshy, who apparently fell out with most of the squad towards the end of last season, and replaced him with his assistant, Liam Mulrooney. Honestly can’t say much more than that, I don’t know who they’ve signed, I don’t know who they’ve lost.
North Shore are pretty much the same. They got rid of McPherson at the back end of last year and replaced him with Valerio Raccuglia, who was most recently DOF at Bay Olympic, and also an analyst in Des’ U20 World Cup team. Player wise I can’t say much, I heard they signed Jaydyn Englefield from Northern Rovers, but aside from that, no social media = no idea.
Manukau are probably aiming higher than last year I’d reckon. They weren’t great under Kev Fallon, but ended up well clear of relegation with Rudy Mozr as coach. They’ve added current NZ U20 Moh Reynolds from Melville, possibly another ex-St. Peter’s Cambridge boarder, and Boon Ozawa from Bay Olympic, and they’ve kept guys like Bobadilla, Contrati, Wong, Khalifa, Khan. Keegan Linderboom is also back, but I didn’t see him last year to know if he’s still got it or not. Pretty decent squad, and Mozr seems to know his stuff, they could be a possible bolter for 4th if they hit form.
I can’t imagine too much from the two promoted sides, but maybe they’ll pull a few surprises. Taka have Millicich who’s a decent coach with experience, but it’s also reliant on players. The northern league forums say there’s a bit of unrest in the squad, but take that with a handful of salt. Player-wise, they don’t post signings so can’t say much.
Waiheke I predict to struggle, simply because they’ll either have an entirely new squad that fits the rules, or the same squad which doesn’t. There was a lot of talk about them not even being allowed to promote, but they’re here. Of course they’re hindered by the population of the island and the travel times for non-islanders, so recruiting can’t be easy. Pretty sure in the McPherson days they trained on the mainland, so that might be the case again. That being said, if they want to play in the highest level comp in the country, then you have to be prepared to play within the registration rules.
My pick:
Auckland City
Auckland United
Eastern Suburbs
Western Springs
Birkenhead
Manukau
Hamilton
Melville
Bay Olympic
North Shore
Takapuna
Waiheke