Central League

Team Taranaki win it 2-1 after being down 0-1. Karori also went down to 10 men with about 15 to go, after Ryan Edwards got sent off for second yellow.

Taranaki is now part of the Central League and teams will have a trip up both sides of the island.

Still not a real club.

time to eat some humble pie.

Hats off to team Taranaki, implemented a simple effective game plan and were the better side today.

My thoughts from the game ( I accept biased as  I am a wharfie a man)

1) on the quality of both sides performances today either side would struggle in central league. The overall quality was poor. And the pace of the game generally pedestrian.

2) The officiating was atrocious. Thought the general lack of understanding of simple laws was frustrating for all. One Lino was 'guessing' all game , evidenced by the fact he wouldn't put his flag up until the referee had made a call, then he would flag whichever way the ref blew. The ref was inconsistent throughout. 

3) Naki are technically not a good side. Played a physical direct approach which they implemented well and which the officials allowed them to get away with. Their best player was number 7-Smith for my money.

Yet another year for the Wharf in Cap prem, getting closer every year.

agreed with the above..the other crucial lesson learnt out of this..to often certain individuals from the Karori team, one of them in particular got a red card today, quite openly said that the victories will be a formality! Don't play the game before you play the game!! Tough road ahead. 

Source for such comments?

Game of two halves. Waterside had it all wrapped up by half time and then imploded in the second half.Waterside had the better technical players but Taranaki had the hunger.

Tasty? 

The Team Taranaki I watched today reminds me of the last TT in Central League and Simalar to Masonvalle? 

Got up can't stay up. 

Simply awful 

Tegal... i didnt realise you were 60+ and not up with abbreviated words. tomoz=tomorrow.  I guess you know what TT stands for though right. ;).

Sounds like a bit of pride, ticker, attitude and hunger got the naki men home and promoted.  Waterside imploded by all accounts.  2-0 on aggregate. 1-0 on the day.  Got things wrong from there on in

With reference to the lino reacting on the ref's call, I have heard many a pre-match referee's briefing to his assistants instructing them to do exactly that, the general idea being that they signal almost instantaneously.

So what you've described in point 2 will almost certainly have stemmed from that pre-match briefing.

If the officials weren't "wired up", i.e. microphones and electronic flag signals, that would probably explain the 'guessing'. If they were wired up, the lino needs a rocket for his slow reactions! :-)


Cheers,

JR

In response to your point 2. Did the referee drop the ball at the oppositions feet and give up an easy goal? Did the referee kick the player in the penalty area to concede the penalty? Did the referee have a choice when a player runs at him from 20 metres away, abusing him while knowing he is on a yellow card already, and has to give him his second one? It is easy to blame the officials when your team loses. Your understanding of the 17 Laws of football will be far less than the qualified referee in the middle. It is a contact sport, there was a lot of fair upper body contact, which is allowed in the game of football. When you start kicking people, that’s when you have the fouls go against you.

Assistant Referees main duty is to concentrate on the offside line. Sometimes they can miss who touched the ball last while looking across the offside line, and will wait for the referee to signal. That is not a bad thing, the right decision is made. The referees in question were on radios, but those are a secondary tool. There would have been calls made over the radios, and when the ball is actually out, the signal is made. Also the Assistant Referee has to stop running, then make the signal square on to the pitch. Which may look like a delay. At no time would an Assistant Referee be “Guessing”. The Officials are the 3rd team on the pitch, and need to be cohesive and make collective decisions.

From my point of view, the referee had a good game with 2 teams who were nervous and scared to play quality football. There was a lot of complaining by the teams, if they just shut up, accept the decisions and just get on a play football, they might just get up and win.

mate the officials were horrific. End of story 

You must have been watching a different game or are blind or are a referee (or all of the aforementioned). Most people I talked to thought the officiating was garbage

As previously mentioned, although it's good to have different teams from different areas in the league, it makes it tough for the clubs who have to travel up there.

Its one trip.  Get a grip. 

Just pay your players slightly less, you'll be fine. Or increase social team subs to cover the cost. 

4stars were you at the game yesterday? your take on things?

The red team won the game. The black and white side choked when 2-0 up on aggregate.  The debate whether they choked or not will linger but in reality with 45mins to go they did just that.  Pressure cooker situation and mental discipline cost them ultimately.  The games a funny old thing and goes far deeper then physical ability and showing.  

Team Taranaki played  more direct, nothing fancy pants about that but it was effective enough.  They supported the front runners better and created more chances then the previous week. Looks like a slight formation change  and couple of positional changes paid dividends on the day. The penalty was a penalty and well taken. Calm and collect right there.

Waterside can play football, they can knock passes and keep possession, and recycle. They seemed to lack that final penetration though. Do they overplay sometimes? Do they rely on a couple of playmakers too often?  Some good young players in the side who have plenty of time to play CL, maybe not for waterside?? Will they get picked up by other clubs??

Two even sides obviously, as indicated by the scores in both games.  Vastly different styles but thats sport.   I think the home leg loss actually helped TT to beef up and the attitude, want, will and passion they showed to claw back and win are some of the important attributes a team needs in CL.  Credit where credit is due. 

Capital premier will be worth watching next season for sure. Will be another tight tussle. The winner will earn their challenge for CL.

The point I'm making is that given there's very little money in the game, especially at this level, it makes it hard for some clubs. From a football perspective, if you need to go up to Napier or TT & get a win to have an impact on winning the title for example, you'd want your players well rested, possibly a hotel the night before etc.

It's the same for everyone, I get that; it must be financially tough on Napier & will be on TT & fair play to them. However, it will make life hard for the Wellington teams with little cash.

If you're paying your players any money to play for you, you can't then plead poverty because of one game in Taranaki per season. 

Most of these teams have a wage/win bonus/travel allowance in place i would assume. They have 7 months to source some more funds for a couple of vans and few motel rooms. They have funding applications they can put in. They have sponsorship deals they can source.  

If they choose to not be organised and leave it late. That would be their downfall. Tighten the money belt in other areas.

Rumours are that Capital Football have 'helped' sides in the past with their travel cost.  Like i said rumours, whether true or not who would know.  

Whether clubs apportion funds correctly for these trips is their prerogative, the point I'm making is that smaller clubs might find it difficult to finance two, well prepped, away days.

Smaller clubs. Which of the clubs are smaller clubs. Obvioulsy you mean 2/7 welly based sides.  Its a day trip for marist to both HB and Taranaki. 

I'm pretty certain many however will not be relishing another 'day trip'.

I'm not sure about the complaints in this thread. It's like being in the national league and complaining that you have to travel across the nation.

News flash - this is the Central League not the Wellington League and if you dont like that then go and play cap prem.

I'm not complaining. I don't represent a club or an agenda - I'm not au fait with any club's finances in this region. I'm merely stating that most clubs are unlikely to be relishing visiting New Plymouth.

I'm all for increasing representation throughout the 'Central' region, however it has to be financially viable for all teams over the course of a season. Judging by the games I've seen around the area, the gates receipts are not going to be filling much more a shot glass. I appreciate clubs have other means of generating revenue & I hope for the sake of the teams in the league that the pot of money needed for another 'away day' is not being taken away from a kid's team, for example.

It's just one of those situations where everybody has to get on with it & I'm sure they will.

You must really feel for TT then because their away trips will add up to a lot more travelling, time and money than any Wellington team, rich or not-so-rich. I think it's great that kids from the Taranaki region now have a pathway up the ladder. Wellington kids, if you ignore the club loyalties, have a number of pathways.

Quote of the day from TT bench. " Hay ref can you get their #8 to leave the keeper alone"  Wharfies #8 had not been on the park for 10 minutes. 

End of the day the trip to Taranaki is a pain in the arse for all concerned

Having watched this game as a neutral, I have found reading this thread very interesting.

My thoughts for what it is worth - probably FA

The officials were not great but far from the horrors that some people have posted and no I am not a referee.  Both teams tried to put the referee under intolerable pressure.  To start with it was TT and especially their bench.  Every Karori throw was a foul throw.  Every Karori tackle was a foul, every TT foul was a fair tackle.  There was just constant moaning.  That transfers onto the players.  Also the TT coaching staff especially the head coach did not appear to understand what the painted white line around their bench means.  They were told more than once by the officials to get back inside only to have to put up with more histrionics.  It really was primary school playground stuff.

Then when TT went ahead on aggregate the roles reversed and Karori complained their butts off.  Decisions did go against them at times but decisions went against both teams.  That is football.  I had a quiet chuckle to myself when I read today's paper and the Karori coach complains that his player being sent off only queried with the referee that it was a corner not a goal kick.  But the lad had just been booked presumably for dissent.  Time to shut up me thinks.  Plus the coach by that stage had subbed himself on.  He was only a matter of yards away.  Why was he not pulling his player away and telling him to shut up?  Then when the TT number three tripped an attacker the player coach must have run 20 metres to get into the referee's face yelling and screaming.  But the ref had given a free kick and a yellow card.  It certainly was far from a red card offence. What more could he have done?  Why was he yelling at the ref like that?  Or was it more to the point that he could see the game slipping away when they thought they had already won and had lost control of himself.

Not much has been made on here about the first goal.   It was not just a mistake by the goal keeper, it was an inexcusable mistake.  Trying to let a through ball get into the penalty area so he could pick it up and thus letting the TT striker get a foot in first and nick it past him.  Made worse IMHO given the fact that he came out of the box to get to the ball and could easily have put his laces through it and clear. Then the defence giving away a very soft penalty that did not need to be conceded. 

The keeper did IMHO get the goal back a few minutes after the penalty with a couple of great saves in the one attacking movement that TT should have scored from.  But he lost my respect at the final whistle when he walked the length of the fieldwithout shaking hands with anyone and marching straight to the dressing rooms.  I appreciate that he would have been very upset and possibly blamed himself for the loss but in times of sport you have to have respect.  His team mates managed it.

I have seen a fair few games in the Central League this season including Petone twice.  I have no club affiliations in Wellington just enjoy watching a game most weekends.  I believe that Petone would have beaten both of these teams.  Has there ever been a promotion/relegation type match played in past years? 

Yes the axed the play off just recently I believe which I think is fine, you may say that Petone could be better than these two contenders this season but that hasn't always been the case in the past - in fact I'd say it's more often not the case and the team at the bottom of CL has generally had a shocker of a season and deserve to go down. It appears Petone have had one of those seasons.

Also it is unfair that you finish last and then get a chance to beat a team from a division below you to stay up - if you are in Central league you have an in built advantage to recruiting players.  If you are last you should go down, that's the penalty

From memory (?) most of those playoffs finished with the CL team going down anyway. Often they had to wait 3-4 weeks for that playoff game because of the need for inter-federation playoff

Fair enough then if that is the case

Also fair enough to you both.  Points I had not considered.