Team Wellington... no longer an association with Ole. Chur

Understatement

appalling refereeing. Penalties both questionable

agree with general refereeing - he let a lot go, but he got the pens pretty spot on

1st one - clear contact

2nd one (not great photo) - but Rory McKeown was effectively sandwiched by two Tasman players

I’m not sure you can call a penalty from a photo!

First pen was stonewall, second looked less clear cut. Seemed like lucky dip most calls the ref made. Was a decent game otherwise, Tasman offered a bit when they could get the ball but TW dominant as a whole, think the score was a pretty fair reflection of the game. Tasman shot themselves in the foot taking too long to come out of the sheds but I also think we see a very different game if 3 of Tasman's back 4 weren't suspended, especially since 2 of the goals were Tasman mistakes more than anything else.

Watched the TW-Canterbury game on Sky. Not sure artificial pitches should be used at this level. The ball seemed to be bouncing all over the place and the ball was just a black blob from the turf. The commentators were dreadful and soo biased.

Dreadful game to have on TV

I was at the game.

Team Welly looked decidedly average against a Dragons team that had just let all their foreign imports go.

I think the league is Auckland City's to lose....

agree. At least get a white ball.

horrendous commentary/'punditry'

The balls are white, just get discoloured by the turf. Need to have ball cleaners as well as ball kids on the sidelines.

yeah well the turf must be even weirder than I thought if the balls go black after five minutes

I would hate to play on artificial pitch but I guess quite a lot of city players must have to do so these days.

Turf is much better than playing on the grass that gets served up to everyone except the top few local teams. Not sure its necessarily the right thing for the Handy - what other options exist in Chch?

Waitak play on the artificial at Seddon Fields this year, are there similar complaints about that? (Are Easts playing on Bill McKinley this year?)

Seddon Fields look just as horrendous. ES have been playing at Maddils Farm (sp?) which basically resembles a cow paddock.

Hence the name, lol. But it's a cow paddock in the middle of Remuera

Surely there is some regulation/ expectation that the fields for this level should be of a certain standard!. Watched the Waitak- Hamilton game a few weeks ago. Another dreadful turf.You could see the rubber bouncing up from players feet as they ran and whenever the ball hit the deck. Ball was black as well.  Not a great advertisement for top level football in New Zealand. 

wrong side of the railway line to be Remuera, try Kohimarama

More likely to be a horse paddock in Remmers/Kohi.

You'd be surprised. Only a few weeks back I watched AS Roma v Juventus. A classic of Italian football and a crucial game to help decide the league winner and possible UCL placements.

Well, they'd played rugby at the Olimpico a day before and the pitch was in a terrible state. 

End of story, two players blew their knee in that game, including Nicolo Zaniolo, one of the most exciting Italian prospects who is now likely to miss the Euros - or only play a small part.

oh sweet we are on a par with Serie A then. Discussion closed

What I meant was, if the Serie A can't get it right for a big match like Roma v Juve, is it a big surprise that we play on paddocks here in NZ? (or in swimming pools, in the case of Karori Park!) :))

well I am sure their venues have requirements like a stadium and a traffic plan - as they have more than 50 spectators. Surely all our NL teams can find a decent bit of grass to play on in major cities like Akld and Chch!

And I'd even prefer you as a commentator!

see you at Karori swimming pool soon :)

ps we shouldnt be whinging about surfaces in the TDub thread!

Can't wait for the season to start, and I agree, DF - despite being far from and fairly difficult to access, has as a great surface!

? ISPS Handa Premiership
⚽️ Round 16
? Eastern Suburbs
? David Farrington Park 2 pm 1/3/20 
? Adults $10 | Students $5 | Kids U14 FREE

#️⃣ #TWvES

Not many. Tbf the turf has been an absolute lifesaver after the earthquakes. 

Joao Moreira? Wow, nice

Sausage time. Oh yeah.

Maybe some $$ freed up from Watson and Bassett?  Be intresting to see howlong he stays in Wellington.  

Beautiful day today at the game.

I thought Team Wellington were well worth their win & tore Eastern Suburbs to pieces in the second half of the first half.

Second half wasn't quite of the same quality, but TW good for their win in my opinion.

The game was basically won at HT, thought the second half was more about protecting the lead and not giving the Suburbs a way in for TeeDubs in the second half.

Suburbs were very poor, I expected more from them. They're in real danger of not making the top 4 now.

Thought TeeDubs could have made better use of the bench. There was at least one player who was a passenger for last 20-30 minutes

Surely the Handa league continues.Most games don't get 500 plus spectators!

League is cancelled .

Top two teams qualify O league

Auckland awarded the title and very surprisingly, the Auckland coach says it is the right decision.

Right for who? Maybe Auckland and Wellington. Its certainly not right for Waitakere, Suburbs and Tasman

Those three teams were always in the tallest dwarf fight anyway. 

As much as I was looking forward to watching the TeeDubs in the final stretch, the decision to call off the league is absolutely the right one.