state league?
The WaiBOP United Thread
I didn't catch whether he had any team lined up in particular, but he's not off for two weeks or so, he's just and I quote, "injured". Take the quote marks as you wish.
sounds like Milos
A positive from the recent defections is that there's a true, almost full WaiBOP-based side now, and they are still competitive. Take this weekend's lineup for example:
Andrew McNeil (Based in Bay Of Plenty for forseeable future)
Liam Higgins (Unsure whether he's staying after the season)
Tyler Lissette (Waikato)
Aaron Scott (Waikato)
Alexi Varela (Auckland based, but plays for Wanderers)
Masaki Nomoto (Auckland)
Mark Jones (Waikato)
Reid Drake (Waikato)
Jack McNab (Bay of Plenty/Waikato)
Nik Robson (Waikato)
Add in D.Drake, Hilliar, Messam and Latham off the bench, and that's as local as you will see a side in the ASBP, hopefully signalling the days and labellings of "Auckland B".
WaiBOP's squad getting weaker every game, must be so frustrating for Peter Smith.
who else has left?
Milos Nikolic, George Slefendorfas, Marcel Galera Corbera, Raymond How and Jacob Hall.
http://www.waibopunited.co.nz/comings-and-goings/
Hawkes bay 3-2 over waibop in napier
Milos Nikolic, George Slefendorfas, Marcel Galera Corbera, Raymond How and Jacob Hall.
http://www.waibopunited.co.nz/comings-and-goings/
I meant Nikolic and Manko, as well as the injured trio of Scott, Yokota and Nomoto. Those were the side's five best players at the start of the season, and none were available today.
Which, makes the ever-so-close comeback today a pretty honourable effort, apparently it could have been 3-3 if not for a superb save from Gillespie.
HBU went out with a hiss and a roar and were 3 up after 30 minutes. Then it appeared that it was all too easy and went to sleep.
WaiBop had a good second half and although fought back to 3 -2, could easily have won the game with a bit more luck in front of goal. They appeared a lot more urgent than a lethargic HB.
A couple of great saves in the last few minutes saved the day for the Bay (and also saved the first leg of my multi-bet)
Agree 100%. HBU looked sharp for the first half an hour or so and scored three very good goals. I thought we were going to get pantsed, but the guys responded really well. Both sides looked at their best playing into that really strong breeze and kind of went to crap with the wind advantage. Gillespie pulled off three excellent saves (one from McNab when it was still 3-1 and two late on) to cap a memorable 100th game. Despite the result, and a six year old who wanted to be anywhere but at Park Island, it was a decent evening out. I hope HBU make the O-League.
Having a beast . Wai bop have been way more competitive than previous years ...but still in there normal position..
The football they play is no frills and crap to watch..
Loads of hype But same results
Highlights from the game yesterday - Some very good goals and some really excellent saves at the end, WaiBOP could have grabbed a draw or even a win with more clinical finishing/sloppier keeping: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_uckcK-AbfI&feature=youtu.be
Big interview with goalie Andy McNeil (ex-Hibs & Scotland u-21) in the Edinburgh Evening News, one of the big papers there:
It's a great advertisement for Wai-Bop and football in NZ - the guy's really positive about us and our summer football.
Compares NZ as a developing football country with Scotland where it's going backwards fast.
He finds the games here more enjoyable with our beer tents, barbeques and after-match meals with the opposition.
Sounds like his experiences of Scottish football in recent years weren't great and wages and crowds are spiralling downwards fast.
People go to games just to moan about how bad things are...
On his time in the Southampton youth team with Gareth Bale, Theo Walcott, Nathan Dyer and some interesting comments on low wages in Scottish football:
We could pick up some decent players from Scotland as wages decrease and NZ seems a more attractive proposition just as it did back in the '70's and '80's when talented players like 19 year-old John McGinlay came to play for North Shore in 1983 and returned to Britain to end up playing for Bolton and Scotland (top-scorer & a title winner in the English second tier and an English Premier League player), teenagers Jonathan Gould and Brian McAllister played for Napier City Rovers and went back to play for Scotland plus Celtic and Wimbledon/ Aston Villa respectively, whilst Dundee United first-choice goalkeeper Sandy Davie finished his career here in the late '70's - early 80's with North Shore and Mount Wellington, also playing for the All Whites.
nice memories pete
paul warhurst also came out before returning to star for bolton being capped by england
i remember seeing him play and being blown away by how good he was
Deserved win for WaiBOP yesterday, they've played better without getting the results but they managed to find some goals from set-pieces, something which had been a bit lacking, Nomoto's free-kick was an absolute ripper.
Also, a thing I stumbled across - the average age of the WaiBOP starting XI was 22 - and coupled with the Wanderers team - surely that is the "most youthful" ASB Premiership encounter of all time?
WaiBOP actually have a few players who would back themselves to make the NZ U20 side in a few years time - Tom Probert especially is one to keep an eye on, he's been superb lately, a real talent. For Wanderers I though De Jong and Messenger looked good, Mitchell dealt well with Messam for most of the game too, but they still lack a top-notch striker to finish off the chances they create.
Wanderers always gonna struggle without their best player on the pitch.
Wanderers always gonna struggle without their best player on the pitch.
i'll bite - who is their best player Buffon? someone from Birko perhaps?
Elijah Neblett.
fair enough - how is his trial going in the states, heard anything posititive?
Have not spoken to him but heard that he is heading back in about 6 months for a second look. Guess that's fairly positive.
Have not spoken to him but heard that he is heading back in about 6 months for a second look. Guess that's fairly positive.
yeah would assume so - good luck to him!
who's that?
NZ U17 and Birko First Team player - also has been playing for Wanderers until he left for his trial in the states.
Four goals for Nik Robson in just 60 minutes, and he's missed a pen too, phenomenal stuff. 4 goals is a WaiBOP record.
Is this a WaiBOP forum or another Birkenhead one?
Well that was the most hectic WaiBOP game I've been to in a long time. To end up with Sam Messam in goal and nine v ten was just crazy. WaiBOP have shown that they don't deserve to be lumped in with the bottom two sides, and with a bit more time next year (the season isn't ending at a good point for them, actually), as well as hopefully a bit more recruiting money should push them further towards the playoffs.
This was probably one of the results they didn't 100% deserve, but boy have they been due a scrappy result after all their tough luck - they haven't been truly dominated in any game this season, there's been no 6-1's or 9-1's here, unlike past years.
WaiBOP have done OK this year. I lol at Waitakere though. Last game of the season against Canty. Anything less than a win will be a lol fest on this forum (and new O League participant)
The key for Smith is to keep good with Cossey and Williams over winter and seek their counsel (as a way of getting buy in) where the bulk of the team will come from. At least it has shown locals can play.
The key for Smith is to keep good with Cossey and Williams over winter and seek their counsel (as a way of getting buy in) where the bulk of the team will come from. At least it has shown locals can play.
Harsh. There's a few waibop kids going on to higher honours.
Sorry you took it in a vein I did not mean. I was referring to the fact that previous coaches tended to recruit from Auckland when there is talent there.
Yeah and at the start of the season, there was that accusation, with the likes of Manko and Nikolic playing, but now there's a huge young Waikato/BOP core, and they've proven themselves - guys like Reid Drake, Ben Latham and Scott Hilliar from Div One, Jack McNab from Div Two - Tom Probert (Who is the next big thing in my eyes, superb player), they've all been given big roles in the late run and all held up either well, or very well indeed.
I was saying this to someone there - if you gave the team sheets to your average Yellow Fever fan - would they know, or be able to recognise any WaiBOP player outside of Aaron Scott. Maybe Sam Messam? And compare that to Waitak, who an educated fan in Wellington would know Butler, Hogg, Coombes, McGeorge, Myers and so on, and it gives a real perspective A) both to the level WaiBOP are fighting above their weight, and B) The woes of Waitakere.
sounds like a great game
i see chad coombes saw red again
They need to get the balance right between local players and outsiders. The reality is there is not enough quality local players at the moment to field a total local players.
The issue isn't between Peter Smith and the local coaches around buy in. The issue is between the Federation and clubs. Clubs paid large amount of money to the Federation each year and the clubs perception is they get little in return. That is the main reason clubs won't support a Federation based team. The Federation Board is happy to be competitive rather than push the bigger franchises. The board has isolated the 3 big Waikato Northern League clubs
If Waikato football is to progress then a new Fderation Board is required
That's quite deep. Is it really that bad?
Believe me it is
There is enough good people around all the clubs trying to make the national league team work.
Peter Smith is a good person and deserves better support from all. I don't think he is the best technical coach in the region but he does want to work with the clubs too ensure Waikato has a strong national league team
The way I see it, is that we have a strong franchise then the clubs will benefit
The Federation board has strong governance but you also need vision
You have to love politics because that is holding back football in this region
Hello there.
I see things slightly differently to Fan.
Now that the national league team is run and financed by the Federation, it does not matter so much if the football fraternity choose to support them at the gate or not.
Because the cost is now effectively socialised across the whole federation. ie if the national league operation loses money, every single sub payer effectively picks up the tab.
Having said that, I still think it should be a strategic objective to try to recoup as much as possible of operating costs at the gate.
But we don't need to fret quite so much about the survival of the national league here on financial grounds quite like we have in past eras. (1977-2012)
I do agree that there are issues bubbling under around charges though.
Our charges are reputed to be the cheapest in the country (though I personally believe we are not comparing apples with apples), which means any dissatisfaction must rest on quality of service received in return.
I would argue that what we pay in affiliation fees for, say, a senior men's team, far outweighs the cost of administering a competition for them in practice (or it bloody well should, anyway).
But if you put that aside and accept the proposition that you are in effect being levied a "prior charge" on the cost of producing a future generation of talent through a myriad of programmes it becomes more palatable.
Where I beleive the system falls down is in affiliation charges not demarcating between fundamentally inert clubs, and clubs where they are ALREADY making themselves in terms of coaching and development programmes. At the moment a club which invests heavily in coaching, facilites, academies, is charged exactly the same as a club which does nothing to develop a production line of future talent.
So at a few clubs you have the user paying twice: once in affilation fees, and again through club-initiated stuff working towards the same objective.
I believe that there should be an affiliation rebate where clubs can show they have a suitably accredited coaching staff, academy programmes, youth development etc.
However i can't see any evidence of a link between this issue and perceived non-support for a Federation-run national league team. There are a myriad of reasons support levels are lower than they were a few decades ago. Historically in NZ football has always tended to be something you play, as opposed to something you watch. The great unwashed who play at junior, senior, and recreational level would largely have no grasp of the political issues anyway.
I think the politics of the game gets overstated too often (and I say that as someone who is quite political) in trying to draw a cause and effect relationship with happenings at national league level.
Indeed, I would argue pragmatism tends to rule here rather than politics. We are forever piecemeal 'fixing things up' like a farmer with a bit of No 8 wire. And that's largely because good football people shy away from robust debates about ideology and objectives, and the politics of what would improve the code, mistakenly thinking that's somehow a negative thing.
I can't believe how great people say the game was. These comments are purely weighted by the sending off's, two keepers going off injured and a player finishing in goal. As a football spectacle it was one of the worst games I have seen in the national league. It was not a good advertisement of our top level of football and I feel the quality of the league is slowly getting worse. Maybe like so many before, the national league in it's current format has run it's course.
I would hope if it does continue that some one finally listens to me "and Waibop go with mainly local players from the start". I have been preaching this for years but every regime seems to think that sub standard Auckland players are the answer and then come the tail end of the season the local players are playing because the imports leave.
I don't mind a couple of "Marque" players, but every year the same mistake is made. Waibop need a 5 year plan to build a solid local base and look to be competitive in 3-5 years instead of wasting money with Auckland players that are getting them the same results. We will never get anywhere by not giving the local talent a decent chance......
Please stop playing long ball.