NZ National League 2022

Teams are set for 2022!
Early prediction:
1. Auckland City (GF winner)
2. Wellington Olympic
3. Miramar Rangers
4. Cashmere Technical
5. Christchurch United
6. Birkenhead United
7. Auckland United
8. Phoenix Reserves
9. Melville United
10. Napier City Rovers

I agree with all of that bar swapping around CT and CU.

Oi Oi Edgecumbe

When does the national league kick off?

October

What are your predictions for the first round and table positions?

I have Olympic beating Auckland city this time round
Cashtech beat Miramar 
Nix beat rovers
CU and birko draw
Auckland United beat Melville 

Wellington Olympic
Auckland City (win the GF)
Christchurch United
Auckland United
Birko
Cash tech
Melville
Miramar
Nix
NCR

are all olympic home games at Endeavour Park, or just the first round?

zonknz

are all olympic home games at Endeavour Park, or just the first round?

there is only 1 round 

Olympic are playing all games at Endeavour as the Wakefield turf is being relaid and Newtown Park & Martin Luckie were unavailable 

I Find myself in the real strange situation of wanting Olympic to win. 

Tyler

I Find myself in the real strange situation of wanting Olympic to win. 

Perhaps check this out

Gutted for it only to be one round. Was really looking forward to seeing everyone at gower park. 

kwlap

Gutted for it only to be one round. Was really looking forward to seeing everyone at gower park. 

Totally agree! Birkenhead play all the Wellington teams in Wellington which is a real pity for the local Birko fans not getting the chance to see some of them live in Auckland against their team.

Enough said

kwlap

Gutted for it only to be one round. Was really looking forward to seeing everyone at gower park. 

Totally agree! Birkenhead play all the Wellington teams in Wellington which is a real pity for the local Birko fans not getting the chance to see some of them live in Auckland against their team.

Cashmere Technical face all the Northern Teams away as well, so somewhat a strange draw

AllWhites82

Enough said

kwlap

Gutted for it only to be one round. Was really looking forward to seeing everyone at gower park. 

Totally agree! Birkenhead play all the Wellington teams in Wellington which is a real pity for the local Birko fans not getting the chance to see some of them live in Auckland against their team.

Cashmere Technical face all the Northern Teams away as well, so somewhat a strange draw

and Phoenix Reserves and Napier City Rovers have to go to the South Island twice whilst Birkenhead and Auckland United don't.

Its trivial to arrange so that the Northern, Central, and Southern sides had a balanced draw in terms of number of home/away games against the different regions thus going close to equalising travel costs and travel fatigue.

NZF got the Chatham and KS Cup draws wrong in the early rounds as well.

Who does one have to offer themselves too at NZF as a draw consultant?

reubee

AllWhites82

Enough said

kwlap

Gutted for it only to be one round. Was really looking forward to seeing everyone at gower park. 

Totally agree! Birkenhead play all the Wellington teams in Wellington which is a real pity for the local Birko fans not getting the chance to see some of them live in Auckland against their team.

Cashmere Technical face all the Northern Teams away as well, so somewhat a strange draw

and Phoenix Reserves and Napier City Rovers have to go to the South Island twice whilst Birkenhead and Auckland United don't.

Its trivial to arrange so that the Northern, Central, and Southern sides had a balanced draw in terms of number of home/away games against the different regions thus going close to equalising travel costs and travel fatigue.

NZF got the Chatham and KS Cup draws wrong in the early rounds as well.

Who does one have to offer themselves too at NZF as a draw consultant?

The ability to double down apparently - I challenged them on getting the draws wrong this season and they just denied denied denied.

Yeah I'm a bit disappointed to see NCR home games are against Nix, Miramar, Olympic and Birko. 3 teams which play here every year.

Final prediction:

1. Auckland City (GF winner)
2. Wellington Olympic
3. Miramar Rangers
4. Christchurch United
5. Birkenhead United
6. Cashmere Technical
7. Auckland United
8. Melville United
9. Phoenix Reserves
10. Napier City Rovers

Given whats going on in the womens NL, hope I'm not underestimating the Auckland teams in the mens as well, but guess we'll see. 

Round 1 picks

Cashmere 1-1 Miramar (both have slid just a tad this season, Miramar a bit better but home advantage will help Cashmere)
Napier 1-2 Nix Reserves (will be the bottom two in all likelihood, Napier poorest team in the comp)
Olympic 0-1 ACFC (both excellent defensively, Olympic will put up a better fight at home than in the CC)
Birko 2-3 Chch Utd (Chch Utd attack is fantastic and think they'll pull up some trees in this comp, Birko can be leaky)
Auckland Utd 2-0 Melville (Auckland Utd form is very good, not convinced on Melville)

I also dislike the draw imbalance, would be easily fixed with a double round but then there would be too much football. It's almost like they want this to be a champions league but without the pools or knockouts.

I'm hoping they eventually run a split season with a single round National League Qualifier for each region followed by a double round of National League Championship and Regional Leagues all at once. The start of the season will be single round regional qualifiers, top teams into the the National League and the rest will play in the Regional League for a double round.  All seasons should finish near the same time and could even make Chatham Cup be the final game of the football season.

The qualifiers could be quite scrappy and unpredicatible as every game matters.
It also gives the clubs that didn't make National League a proper season to play for. 

0-0 at halftime Olympic vs Auckland. Olympic were dominant but Auckland had a few chances. 

Cashmere beat Miramar 4-0 😬
Napier beat Nix 1-0.

Sancho

I also dislike the draw imbalance, would be easily fixed with a double round but then there would be too much football. It's almost like they want this to be a champions league but without the pools or knockouts.

I'm hoping they eventually run a split season with a single round National League Qualifier for each region followed by a double round of National League Championship and Regional Leagues all at once. The start of the season will be single round regional qualifiers, top teams into the the National League and the rest will play in the Regional League for a double round.  All seasons should finish near the same time and could even make Chatham Cup be the final game of the football season.

The qualifiers could be quite scrappy and unpredicatible as every game matters.
It also gives the clubs that didn't make National League a proper season to play for. 

Edit - now I understand what you mean. But deciding the qualifiers off a single round seems a little bit dubious, and would leave clubs that didn't qualify playing a whole lot of pointless games. Not a fan. 

Enjoying the wellington olympic and auckland ity game - very good battle so far and thought olympic had the better of the first half.

Didn't really watch too much of the napier phoenix game, but they phoebix team was pretty strong on paper.

Cashmere and miramar game was pretty one sided. Miramar were woeful and looked devoid of any attacking threat.

To be honest it's just pleasing to see so much chatter around this National League at the moment. Of course it's not a perfect set up, but I'm sure there will be some tinkering with the format going forward.

Would absolutely be a fan of a double round for the National League, although cost implications probably make this a non-starter at this stage. Hoping it's a bloody good battle out there across the 9 rounds + the final.

Results from earlier today
Cashmere Tech 4 - 0 Miramar Rangers
Napier City 1 - 0 Phoenix II

And Auckland have just gone 1-0 up against Olympic after Olympic dominated them in the first half.

Tyler

0-0 at halftime Olympic vs Auckland. Olympic were dominant but Auckland had a few chances. 

Cashmere beat Miramar 4-0 😬
Napier beat Nix 1-0.

Only saw second half but neither team that impressive. How’s the commentator saying it was Tade’s goal when surely Tor put it in? Also why is he saying Jack-Henry all the time (and not Sinclair).
Sounds like Olympic bench need to calm down. 

Silent Piano

Enjoying the wellington olympic and auckland ity game - very good battle so far and thought olympic had the better of the first half.

Didn't really watch too much of the napier phoenix game, but they phoebix team was pretty strong on paper.

Cashmere and miramar game was pretty one sided. Miramar were woeful and looked devoid of any attacking threat.

Really wanted to see what Cashmere Tech were all about, as I've seen and heard some good things about them from the Southern League.

I wasn't disappointed.
Lyle Matthysen was an absolute star for them today - 1 goal, 2 assists (3 if you count the penalty he won not long after they went up 1-0). Excellent signs for them. I'm going to back them as the dark horse of this League.
 
Conversely, a lot of work to do for Miramar, a very lacklustre outing indeed. The thing with it only being a 9 game championship too is it will punish those who get off to a slow start. Lots of work ahead for them to get going and get themselves back in contention.

Just got back from the Olympic v City game, was a really entertaining match. I thought Olympic were by far the tactically more interesting side, City seem to get by simply from having higher quality individuals. Olympic were unlucky to not come away with a point.

YoungHe.\rt

Silent Piano

Enjoying the wellington olympic and auckland ity game - very good battle so far and thought olympic had the better of the first half.

Didn't really watch too much of the napier phoenix game, but they phoebix team was pretty strong on paper.

Cashmere and miramar game was pretty one sided. Miramar were woeful and looked devoid of any attacking threat.

Really wanted to see what Cashmere Tech were all about, as I've seen and heard some good things about them from the Southern League.

I wasn't disappointed.
Lyle Matthysen was an absolute star for them today - 1 goal, 2 assists (3 if you count the penalty he won not long after they went up 1-0). Excellent signs for them. I'm going to back them as the dark horse of this League.
 
Conversely, a lot of work to do for Miramar, a very lacklustre outing indeed. The thing with it only being a 9 game championship too is it will punish those who get off to a slow start. Lots of work ahead for them to get going and get themselves back in contention.

Both Cashmere and Chch Utd were really, really good in the Southern League. Played some excellent football and both scored a sharkload of goals - against poor opposition yes, but they were still absolutely excellent and put up the highest PPG in the country other than Auckland City. Think they will surprise some North Islanders in some games this season. 

lthomas20

Sancho

I also dislike the draw imbalance, would be easily fixed with a double round but then there would be too much football. It's almost like they want this to be a champions league but without the pools or knockouts.

I'm hoping they eventually run a split season with a single round National League Qualifier for each region followed by a double round of National League Championship and Regional Leagues all at once. The start of the season will be single round regional qualifiers, top teams into the the National League and the rest will play in the Regional League for a double round.  All seasons should finish near the same time and could even make Chatham Cup be the final game of the football season.

The qualifiers could be quite scrappy and unpredicatible as every game matters.
It also gives the clubs that didn't make National League a proper season to play for. 

Edit - now I understand what you mean. But deciding the qualifiers off a single round seems a little bit dubious, and would leave clubs that didn't qualify playing a whole lot of pointless games. Not a fan. 

You could be right but I don't see it being pointless. If a team can't get a good run after 13 or so games in the qualifiers then they deserve to be placed in a second division where they can play for Nothern/Central/South League honours. 
Some overseas leagues have a form of a split season but I think we need produce one that is made for our game.
At the moment the teams that don't qualify for National League are at the beach with 9 less games, seems like punishment. 

I think with NZF limited resources a split season could work really well and means the National League and Northern/Central/South leagues can operate within the same window.

lthomas20

Final prediction:

1. Auckland City (GF winner)
2. Wellington Olympic
3. Miramar Rangers
4. Christchurch United
5. Birkenhead United
6. Cashmere Technical
7. Auckland United
8. Melville United
9. Phoenix Reserves
10. Napier City Rovers

Given whats going on in the womens NL, hope I'm not underestimating the Auckland teams in the mens as well, but guess we'll see. 

Based on todays  performance Miramar will be doing well to finish third from bottom instead of top.

10cc

lthomas20

Final prediction:

1. Auckland City (GF winner)
2. Wellington Olympic
3. Miramar Rangers
4. Christchurch United
5. Birkenhead United
6. Cashmere Technical
7. Auckland United
8. Melville United
9. Phoenix Reserves
10. Napier City Rovers

Given whats going on in the womens NL, hope I'm not underestimating the Auckland teams in the mens as well, but guess we'll see. 

Based on todays  performance Miramar will be doing well to finish third from bottom instead of top.

We'll see. Cashmere is kind of just Canterbury United and Canterbury away has always been tough. 

No way can Christchurch United be the best team from the Southern League.

Buffon II

No way can Christchurch United be the best team from the Southern League.

Poor showing today? Saw the scoreline but not the game. 

Created some good chances in the first half, albeit predominantly off set pieces. But the finishing was incredibly wasteful and they fell apart defensively second half. Their passing was very inaccurate as well.

Birko 3 v ChCh United 1
Birko probably just shaded it and had more chances but it could easily gone either way.
Was a good game although CHcH pretty direct at times.
Think they will win more than they lose .
Wilkinson up front was a tricky customer and the other red haired striker worked well.Lacked a bit of creativity in the middle of the park and tended to give the ball away when pressed.
Disappointing crowd but understandable given the dire weather although the rain largely held off during the game.I changed my mind about 5 times during the morning but pleased I went.
No one stood out for Birko - just a good solid team performance.They work hard for each other which reflects the fact that they have largely grown up together.The three centre backs were solid.Burfoot was a little bit quieter than normal.
Will be interesting to see the progress of their facilities development - most of the bank to the east (south ?) of the clubrooms has been excavated.

PS How the hell did Billingsley play for the All Whites ? Very ordinary wing back and was pushed up front late on and even more ordinary there

that turf at Keith Hay park is looking like proper National League bog.
Heartbreaking for Melville in the last minute

I went to both games - proper football tragic stuff - albeit missed about 5 mins at the end of Birko/Chirstchurch match and 10 mins at start of United/Melville.

I didn't think Christchurch was terrible; Birko held possession against them very well and Christchurch struggled to hold the ball. With that said, they made some big chances on the counter which really should have been put away. Birko definitely the better side though.

Highlight was (someone?) from Birko smashing a volley from what felt like almost the centre circle and hitting the cross bar.

Think both teams are going to struggle to finish top half if I'm honest.

When I arrived at United/Melville, my first impression was how much better the football looked... @Sancho I didn't think it was a bad pitch at all. Sure the grass could've done with a mow, but considering it was pissing down it seemed decent enough (better than Shepards park) and the players had no trouble playing on it.

United really should've scored a couple earlier on. They make chances relatively easily but seem to become a bit predictable in front of goal. For example, players like Oliver Fay (who I think is a technically excellent player) continually cutting in to shoot multiple times and it coming to nothing. (Try going around your man three or four times then when you cut in it's actually a surprise!)

Melville made a couple of decent chances which would've been cracking goals if they were on target. I'm not sold on the United GK's actual shot stopping ability.

Almost HT in the first game of the day. Christchurch United should be 1-0 up over Napier City. Ball was in the back of the net from a Wilkinson corner - looked like it took a slight deflection from a header and Mason fumbled it in. But a few bodies went down and the ref blew up for a foul. Not sure on that one. I can't see anything on the replay that would suggest a foul. 

Anyway 0-0 at HT it is, pretty even game so far. Not much in it, and good chances at a premium. Probably flick over to Miramar v Birko when that kicks off in 10 or so minutes.

They’ve fudgeed the Miramar Birko stream.

Buffon II

They’ve fudgeed the Miramar Birko stream.

Came on after about 20 minutes. Of course that delay means we've missed the first goal. 🤦‍♂️

Napier's Jonathan McNamara 1 v 1 in the 94th minute and scuffs his shot straight at the keeper!

Finishes 1-1, was actually a good open game. Physical, but lacking that little bit of quality. Looked quite windy down in Christchurch today, but otherwise pretty good playing conditions. Mika Rabuka & Eddie Wilkinson probably the best players on the pitch for mine - despite the latter missing a penalty. Both were heavily involved and had some good play between them. Definitely the most threatening for either side.

Napier will be the happier of the two though, and for now they go top of the League!