College football

The goal keeper is and a couple players who have since left are or now moved to the states.

I'm just going to chime in here with my view of the U21s league, as I see it's been discussed quite a bit.

Pretty much at the moment it's a joke. I played last year for wests as well as Aotea 1st XI, and div 2 football for AC was by far a higher standard. The only good thing about playing last year was that at wests they have a good standard of trainings (which helped me because the current AC coach is a joke). A few times I trained with the reserves, and also played in the u19 build up squad (but didn't make it because they got guest players which put other starters into my position), and the difference in skill is huge.

Basically, from someone who's playing in u21s at the moment, the overall quality would have to increase dramatically if people think it will be a conduit for youth players to get into the senior set up (at wests at least).

The only reason I'm playing this year is that I'm good enough to be able to play on the weekend while I can't make about half of the trainings because of uni.

But anyway, the point is that the standards are hilariously low, and football at college down to div 3 or 4 would be equal in terms of quality,  which isn't really helpful for anyone trying to get into a senior team.

bobboltontawa22010-03-28 18:54:49

I'll tell you the point, Bob. The point is that now, because Capital Football have in their wisdom stopped offering junior football after 14th grade, the only way to continue playing for a club if you're not physically ready to play men's football is to play 21s.

Last year was the first year of the league. It wasn't great. This year I think it will be stronger.

It's also no worse than the College leagues below Div 1.

I'm a bit surprised Wests have an u21 team

There has always been an issue with transition from juniors to seniors though. You've got to be a very good 15 year old to go straight into starting for a senior team at a good level. The rest have never really been catered for. The 21s league can bridge that gap. I think it should be U19 myself, but that's by the by.

In the league this year: Petone, Seatoun, Karori, North Wellington, Wests. That's a pretty good spread of clubs.

Different clubs will handle the transition differently (some not at all) but I think the 21s provides a useful tool to keep kids involved in the club and help them move from youth to senior footy.

GenericFan and BBW, shouldn't you be looking at your own abilities and skills instead of lambasting the standard of the leagues you dislike? If you are as good as you think you are, why are you still hanging around? By the way, what levels are you guys playing this year? EPL, eh? Let your feet do the talking, ok?

I coached an u21 team last year, the league is in its infancy and does have mild merit. But its true the standard is absolutely atrocious, but I'm under the impression that the aim of the league is not to produce quality players, it is to give those who otherwise miss out an opportunity to play regular football.

First time you've spoken sense.  Ever.

It also allowed me to put the boots on smith on a hungover sunday and sweat the alcohol out of the system, as invariably we only ever had 9 "players".

I made the effort to head down to Endeavour today to have a look at this U21 grade (Wests A vs. Nth Wgtn), and my first thoughts were that the standard does look a little low, BUT only as far as Nth Wgtn went. I saw at least a handful of Wests players that look very promising, and I think the only thing holding them back from senior mens is the fact that they looked like they were 12 or 13. Theres Lio Messi small, and then theres these guys...

Where would these players be if there was no U21 league? Probably not even playing? Also the Wests keeper in the 2nd half (Smithy i think his name was?) who was also quite small  actually looked really good and solid, even from watching him warm up before the game I could see there was something there. Didnt have a problem diving either way at full stretch, or coming off his line to meet lose balls put over his the defence. Easily good enough to play Napier U19 standard and could probably even play senior mens (Ive seen plenty of Cap 3 keepers who werent nearly as good). But because Nth Wgtn were totally out played, he didnt really have too much to do.
Give these guys another couple of years or so (enough time for a growth spurt!) and they'll be there.

Nth Wgtn were full of big chunky un-co's who were almost twice the size of Wests but the end result was 5-1 to Wests, shouldve been about 10-1 though. Hopefully with these better players coming through, the grade will strengthen over time (it helps that theres an A and B division also).
I think alot of these Wests players would carve up College Div. 3 or 4 as well.

Yeah that keeper is Matt McKay, he's usually playing for the reserves but had a shoulder dislocation in pre season and has only just got back into things.

(also did you see my cranking fluke goal)

Haha the only "fluke" goal was probably the one from the free kick late in the 2nd half, followed by the celebratory rolley-polley. I ended up in an argument with a Nth Wgtn mum who was getting stroppy over an off-side (the offside player was never involved with the play).

Im guessing that was you??

Anyway back to college football, a team to watch out for this year is the mighty HIBS 3rd XI

Go Rongotai College (my old school)!!

Theres alot of potential at Rongotai. Good stuff 

Wattsy, the Rongotai coach, is a top lad.

That result over Eastbourne (who are in Cap 5 I think) isn't a bad one. Arguably a better result than a 1-0 win over Paekak, who play in the Horowhenua league.

Good to see both these schools progress though. Is another interesting facet to the Cup.

Smithy2010-04-08 08:01:07

Go Go Wellington College.

Some of you might have seen YF tweeting the draw for the next preliminary cup round.

Id imagine Nui to be too strong for Rongotai but Id back Wgtn Col to beat Waikanae

I wouldve imagined that these initial games were seeded amoung the smaller clubs (as they have been so far) so Im a little lost as to why Wainuiomata have been drawn? I thought the likes of Douglas Villa or Seatoun etc wouldve been up next? Maybe they didnt enter?

No seeding.  Eighteen team draw anyone vs anyone.  The two schools could have run in to each other.

I mite be up against Waikanae this weekend (ankle injury/player availability pending), so will be interesting to see what theyre like.

Uhh i dont get it?

Trying to imply that you'll be playing a lower grade team.

What was the Waik vs Coll score????

So hows Rongotai looking?

 

Interesting thing happened on the weekend, and slightly controversial...:

Youth Division 4/5 grade games were all on except WC 6 vs HVHS 3 which was cancelled. The top three from the pool go to div 4 and the bottom three go to div 5. WC 6 needed a win against HVHS 3 to get into top three, except they were cancelled. WC 4 lost their game against Scots 2 but still finished third because the WC 6 game was cancelled. HVHS 3 were terrible all season and everyone was thrashing them so College Sport awarded all three points to WC6 despite the game being cancelled, thus resulting in them going through to div 4 and WC4 down to div 5.

Your thoughts? Is this fair? And right of CS?

Thats f**ked up. Surely College sport should have scheduled another game. They did that for us when I was at high and we had a midweek grading game to catch up.
I wonder why they did that.

They got a complaint or something from WC6.

Mickey Mouse competition run by a bunch of idiots. I dont understand why you kids would even bother with schools football. All weekend football should be club based as it is for all other age groups.

Your right, give it to capital football, because they have never made a mickey mouse decision in the history of their organisation

This situation is ridiculous, either play the game or don't award points. Preferably play the game. Sets a terrible precedent.

So the Premier Youth Competition is into its third round tomorrow and it looks quite tight between Wellington College, Silverstream, Tawa and Paraparam. Rongotai need a result tomorrow to get underway and HIBS look behind the pace. Does anyone know the result from Wellington College and Paraparam College on Saturday?