The WaiBOP United Thread

Crazy? Where exactly was Thomas going to play? Who was going to be dropped for him? As it is, looking at last nights ACFC team, he would be lucky to get a spot on the bench.

He did the smart thing because at least at Waikato, he is a piece they can build around... provided they play him at centre back which is where I think his best position is. He is certainly not a midfielder and if he is playing along side Hicks, then they need something other than him to get the ball to Hicks to do something with. He doesn't have the ball skill to play in the middle of the pitch in my opinion in part because he is so lanky.

Some other signings include Raymond How, Max Tommy (who I really rate), Daniel Frischknecht, and Matteo Ballan, back for another year. A big Waikato (Wanderers) influence, nothing major though. Also, Thomas looked ok in the midfield for Melville I thought, whether he can make the step up I'm not sure. Would love to see us sign Branch and Nikolic for another year. N-Bomb2011-09-19 09:54:58

Watched a bit of training/game saturday, was pretty impressed going to have a good footballing side!

Who was playing, anyone good who is unsigned as yet?

didnt really notice any new players , was a player who think played for albany looked quite good full back asian  lad.

While you didn't confirm, if you are signing players from Albany which was a mid table Div 1 team then I would not hold much hope for the season....

Was just watching and he looked pretty good thats all , from what i've seen this season some very good players in hamilton..

The team will be based around the personal associations with the academy the coach runs. My waikato based players team would be
Keepers,           Tommy
Centre halves      Bunce/Chewins/How/Thomas
Fullbacks          Krammer/Gibbons/Kim
Mid               Broderson/Jones/Ballan
Wingers
Targetman          Thompson
Academy players    Shaw/Crawford/Ewert/Thomas/Rose(St Pauls keeper)
Balance of imports    

Woops: forgot defenders Smith and Lissette

I have been told by Waikato FC coaching staff that. Declan's Edge boys will playing more often than not. Harry by all accounts is being looked at as the center Forward?

this is a farce. even with all the training that Harry does he is no where near as good as other young players in the region that were not even considered

Have witnessed Edge's behaviour when coaching 10-12 year olds,.....not good. Has has undoubted technical ability as a coach however he is a bully and a bum. I heard that young players from Wanderers, selected by Dave Edmonson were not even contacted by Edge. To have Harry E in the squad would be comical. As far as the youth side goes, there won't be many if any Edge academy players in that side but no doubt Edge will be looking after them in the Waikato U 17 development academy that he will undoubtably take charge of Just a pity that Edmonson left

man whats the go with DE does nobody like him there, i remember watching and playing against him and was a fine player. Does this mean that if your a good player does not make you a good coach. wooden spooners then?????

No, team will probably go okay and yes he was a handy player, saw him at Mt Maunganui many times, it's Edge's agenda, lack of honesty and lack of credibility that will bite Wai FC in the long term. The board must be morons

The board must be morons..?

Please tell me who else the board could have appointed once Edmondson walked out on them?

Edge has worked hard with a group of players for the last few years and deserves the chance BUT if he does play Harry he will be a laughing stock.

Please tell me who else the board could have appointed once Edmondson walked out on them?

Perhaps Peter Smith if he was available or other with good ability who will select squad and training players on MERIT

i reckon give him a chance first see how he goes at least it will be a waikato based team( which it should be) and giving young local players a chance..

Big T I'm all for giving young Wai/BOP players a chance however he has only selected youngsters from his academy,
Boyd, R Thomas, Greene, J Edge and H Edge along with a number of older players that are also in his academy. The selection of H Edge is a joke, he would be an ordinary player at schoolboy level
(perhaps that's where he should have been for the past 5 years)

fair enough! i dont know the players and of course it should be all  the good young  players from the waikato/BOP.. i believe there playing the lotto all star team tomoro so be a good chance to see if there up to it!

Bruce Holloway2011-09-23 18:31:08

To be fair though Humbug the rest of those young players from Edge's academy apart from Harry are all very good. allstars will be a good test to see where the team is at and see if the younsters are up to this level.

Why did Edmondson quit? Rumour was Edge would not release Jesse Edge, Josh Greene, Ryan Thomas etc for consideration in the senior side - that surely cant be true as they are all playing now?

I agree that this could be an exciting season for WFC and I for one will be there watching tomorrow!

The side above looks quite good apart from Fulcher and Harry Edge!!! Max Tommy should start in goal and Harry should be nowhere near the field at all!!! (even a dad should be able to see that!!)

Get behind the rest of the team though Waikato football supporters!!

Because he got a far better job offer, Ray.

Bruce you are so one eyed it is untrue. If these boys were playing for another clubs youth team and Declan was trying to play them you would be up in arms. You have always been bias with your sport reporting, it was always HBHS this and melville that.  

Deckard, a few points.

Looks like Declan Edge has finally livened up this forum! I agree with the earlier point raised about Mike Thompson, I think he would be one of our best if we could get him. Chewins would be good too.

Up 1-0 against the NFRL All Stars, Thomas penatly, dominant so far

3-2 Waikato, Thomas with 2, unsure of who scored other goal. Good first hitout, another positive is the goalscorers for the All-Stars - Watene and Thompson!

fair to say that harry edge is the worst player ever to don the waikato fc shirt. dark lad looks like a very good prospect, not overly impressed with ryan thomas after reading all about him on the melville website, definitely not a player in the "mould of Marco Rojas" ... different class. very good game played by waikato, but maybe if they pushed for goal a little bit more it would be more interesting

i watched yesterday thought waikato style of football was fantastic to watch, sure they mite get done to the top teams physically etc, but its a waikato based team and they will be competetive and fun to watch and young.

"Pedro Ahwad" hahaha is this so his Barcelona contract is easier to complete?

Decent football being played but lets remember this was against a collection of Div 1 and 2 players on the whole or players not wanted by any other NZFC side or local players either not wanted by WFC or those that didnt want to play for Declan..

This side against ACFC, Waitakere, HBU, Canterbury, YHM, TW and probably even Otago will be demolished!

yep you make a fair point , there were a few good players in the all star team but guess lack of fitness didnt help, i dont support waikato id just like to see them do well thats all!

Waikato FC 3 Lotto NRFL All Stars 2

If there was a recurrent criticism of Waikato FC last season from local punters, it was that they struggled to recognise anyone in their team.

As a result, the team�s feats � or lack of them � completely lost their relevance in the market from which they club needs to draw its support.

On the evidence of Waikato FC�s first warm-up match of the season at Gower Park, the irony is local folk may again struggle to recognise the personnel in their team this summer  � even though almost all of them are from their own backyard.

Because many of the players who starred in Waikato�s 3-2 win over the Lotto NRFL All Stars have yet to really make their mark at northern league level, let alone the national league.

Still, if they are as effective in the ASB premiership as they were against an All Stars team which was a mixed bag but still featured the likes of Jason Chewins and Mike Thompson from Melville, and Julyan Collett and Michael Mayne from premier champions Bay Olympic, they will quickly become household names.

Teenager Mohamed Awad � nicknamed Pedro � scored a delightful goal based around dozens of intricate passes with his youthful colleague from Declan Edge�s academy programme. Awad has sat on the bench a couple of times for Melville but never got his boots dirty in the northern premier league.

And Jesse Edge � nephew of Declan � who has played about 15 minutes of northern premier league football, brought about the opening goal when he surged down the middle of the field, played a nifty one-two and was brought down by the keeper for skipper Adam Thomas to casually pot the spot kick.

Further, the margin of victory may well have been greater, when Harry Edge � also yet to play at northern league level -  beat a defender to a through ball and went around the keeper only for the ball to trickle out of play before he could shoot.

Earlier Stu Watene and Thompson twice drew the All Stars level, before Thomas sealed the win by powerfully finishing another intricate Waikato attack.

Whether these kids � because they are just kids � will get a run in the ASB Premiership remains to be seen. But when a whole bunch of them came on in the second half for Waikato the All Stars were completely starved of the ball.

Waikato played possession football, stringing together 20 or more passes at a time, then, when they got in or around the area, played a blitzkrieg short passing, fast moving, quick-footed game.

The best moves were capped by goals to Adam Thomas and Pedro, though even when the final shot was off target or saved, there was much to admire in the construction.

There was debate on the clubrooms terrace.

�All they do is keep the ball,� bemoaned one spectator. �They don�t have enough shots.�

On the other hand, one regular Sunday league footballer enthused about it.

�It�s not like there is some shot clock in operation that says you have to shoot after you�ve had the ball for 20 seconds.�

On that subject, the coaching staff were happy to quote a Fifa statistic which shows that a team which holds possession for 65 per cent of a game will win 85 per cent of the time.

So on that basis Declan Edge, Neil Mouncher and Danny Donegan should not have been surprised at victory.

Adam Thomas was superb for Waikato, playing in the No 10 role, mobile, creative and scoring a great goal.

At the back Tyler Lisette, who got few chances over winter, was very composed, and everyone played their part, from Matteo Ballan to Mark Jones and Jason Hicks.

All Stars coach Shane Knowles said the match had been a difficult assignment given he was unfamiliar with a lot of the personnel at his disposal, but acknowledged Waikato had stamped their new brand on the match.

Chewins said it was a strange sort of game, and the jury was out on the significance of Waikato�s win until the All Stars had played waitakere and Auckland City.

He said a number of All Stars players had been caught out by the lack of physique or physicality of the Waiakto team, which meant they were getting regulalrly pinged for fouls in situations where there would normally be a counteracting physical presence in tackles and challenges that did noit exist with the lightweight, quick-moving Waikato lads.

 He wondered how Waikato would go should a referee allow more robust physical lattitude.

On that score Declan Edge chided actually his troops a bit in the second half when they were tripped by late challenges.

 ï¿½As they get slower � you have to get quicker,� he yelled at them.

And that was a factor as the match progressed. Waikato were full of running and movement � and too many of the All Stars weren�t.

Indeed, Jesse Edge came in for stick from Mouncher for being �too nice� in three times retrieving the ball for the fading All Stars. (Mouncher could find a speciality career in coaching youngsters not to be too nice.)

Waikato were without injured Mike Kramer, but started with the following lineup before making wholesale changes at half time: Max Tommy, Tyler Lissette, Jesse Smith, David Samson, Jason Hicks, Daniel Frishcnecht, Adam thomas, Mark Jones, Jesse Edge, Raymond How, Tyler Boyd. Subs included Anthony Hagan, Harry Edge, Mohamed Awad, Josh Greene, Ryan Thomas, Matteo Ballan, and Danyon Drake.

Declan Edge admitted to being anxious before the game as to how such a young squad would fare, but said he now faced genuine selection headaches.

�So many players played really well,� he said.

Who knows how well Waikato will do against Hawke�s bay in Taupo at 1pm next Saturday.

What we do know is a relatively no-name Waikato team will be drawing a hell of a lot more eyeballs if they can continue playing like this, and winning.

 

Bruce Holloway2011-09-25 14:06:42

Further comment:

To Quote.
This side against ACFC, Waitakere, HBU, Canterbury, YHM, TW and probably even Otago will be demolished!

Don't be too keen to give Canterbury a big rap.
They have a couple of crap players in the squad that has been training so far.
If these players both make the season squad expect Canterbury to be going backwards down the table.

Double Ds.

The physicality thing - I think the boys are going to have to accept that they are playing National League - senior mens football. I would doubt any team would have any sympathy if they choose not to be strong in the challenge and invariably, thats when injuries sometimes occur on clean challenges, because the other player went in soft.

It would be very wrong to rely on the leniancy of any ref if thats the angle they need to rely on for parity/competitiveness. Having said that, ACFC have moved away from that physicality and the players that used to be big hitters have gone in favour of smaller, mobile and better 'footballers'. They look a better side and gone are the days of the long ball for a short passing game and retention. Waitakere have done that as well with Lucas and De Vries but they retain the brute force with Sole and Bale (and Sykes). The Waikato team on paper does look 'light' so they are really going to have to going to rely on being quicker, faster and ball movement. That and I also believe that the difference between the top two sides and the rest is a superior first touch so if these kids have that, then it should be entertaining.

For all the knocking of the Spaniards at ACFC, they have bought a better football brand to that team (and Mulligan)

I was just wandering reading your comments Bruce, that alot of players haven't played in the top league of Northern football or have had a couple of minutes here or there. Why do you think that the coach has made these selections on some players who have only played in Div1 etc. Just seems a little confusing and obviously Id have to ask the coach but what are your views? I know for a fact that you will find most of the young players playing in the Central League rarely start for a NZFC team and going on the Chatham cup would you say the Central League is tougher than Northern League? I don't know if these are silly comments but was just wanting to know what you thought.

Very good questions, Kv. Bruce Holloway2011-09-26 10:19:45