Local womens football (incl. W League)

Moving from a Central League to the Wellington only league was the right step to benefit the womens game here (even if some of the details of the league are worthy of discussion), going to a multi-fed league would be the opposite. 

It's not dying now? Or would it re-invigorate it as there would be decent quality womens football to aspire to and watch, presumably with refs ;)

Ain't going to happen at club level.

Two rounds if women's National league on Fed level is the way to go. Certainly at this stage

I think we can safely say no now. Just wait for a breakaway league option or just converse with people who rightfully believe this isn't acceptable. Women's Prem seems to be treated poorly at the moment. 

I haven't really seen much of it but I'm assuming that the standard is higher this year than previous years  (despite Tawa not even wanting to be in the league)?

I can't comment on quality because I haven't been involved in previous years. I know that the Vic Uni team is far better than in the past but there's a huge variation in quality amongst the girls in the squad.

From what I've seen this year (just a bunch of WU games) and last (not that much really, including SO twice, and a WU/UH game with stacked teams due to CL being cancelled), the quality seems about the same. Maybe a little bit better. SO were rubbish last year, and Tawa seem even worse. There's probably more teams at the top level though, which I suppose makes it better.

Vic has been a weird one. They're generally a bit slack with registering players (this caught them out a few times last year IIRC), and when uni holidays pop up the team has a tendency to disappear. When they played WU, they scored two long-range early goals and then seemed to just be content, rather than going for it.

I feel like the quality is similar or slightly lower overall but there seems to have been a shift in strength. From what I've seen and heard so far in table order:

Brooklyn - appear to be similar standard maybe slightly stronger

Vic Uni - noticeably stronger

Wgtn Utd - didn't seem as strong as last year but feel their tactics last season were particularly effective against last season so hard to truly judge

Wharf - maybe slightly stronger. Didn't look like the stronger team when we played first round but finished a lot stronger

Upper Hutt - haven't see yet

KCU - only seen in preseason. Seemed similar level to last year

Petone - slow start to the season. Hard to for me to judge quality with only one eye

Wests - only seen in preseason. Seemed a lower quality than last year

IBU - Struggling with the jump from Women's 1. Probably similar quality to last season but lacking a couple of players to be truly competitve

Tawa - Struggling with the jump from Women's 1 and sounds like struggling for numbers in a grade they didn't want to be in

Upper Hutt City hammered Wellington United 7-0 today (surprised Yomcat hasn't mentioned it :-P)

I believe Sarah Gregorious got 4 or 5 of the goals

Palmy Marist beat Seatoun 3-0

She got 6. UH's tactic was "pass it to Sarah", and it worked beautifully. WU's was "through balls to Mickey", and it didn't really work at all...

If UH drop any points this season, either Sarah isn't playing or something has gone terribly wrong.

Stop Out picked up a 2 goal win over Rapa in Masterton.

Sarah didn't play the other week as she was at the Masters games, Emma Main scored 6 that week so not just a Sarah Gregorious team

Against Rapa. Hardly counts.

Yesterday, every attack that was lead by Sarah was dangerous (the goal she didn't get, she did all the hard work and left Emma Main with a tap-in to an empty net), and every other attack (from both teams) was dealt with comfortably.

The rest of the UH team laid a solid base (she wouldn't be so effective at Stop Out, for example), so it's not just a Sarah Gregorius team, but she was at least a step or two above everyone else on the field. It makes a massive difference.

I'll probably explain better (and say worse things about WU :P) at the final today. Assuming you're not insufferably smug in your ACFC get-up...

I'd love to watch that United/UH game without Gregorious. Upper Hutt were the better team but I'd have been surprised for more than a one goal difference in the final score line without her.

Gregorious is a class above any of the players in that league which says a lot considering the quality of some of the players in the top couple of teams. Superb stuff to watch.

Rapa article

http://times-age.co.nz/stats-dont-tell-whole-story/

Optimistic take

younger players would probably leave the Rapa when they leave college wouldn't they?

another "close" game for Stop Out today lost 17-0 to Wellington United

Seatoun beat rapa 4-1

and surprise of the day which will make the top of the league interesting was Palmy Marist beating Upper Hutt 2-1

Any explanations behind UH losing to PNM? Players missing?

We (Vic Uni) just drew UH in the Cup, should be a fun game. See where we are at compared to the bottom of Central League.

I don't think CJ played for a start.

So what happens if Stop Out WANT to get relegated?

PNM came with a game plan and executed it perfectly, shutting down Gregorius for most of the game (Upper Hutt's only goal came from her run and cross to Main). PNM where the deserved winner but it took a last minute penalty to get it, makes the league interesting with them and United only 2 points behind Upper Hutt now. Going to be silly if it comes down to how many goals teams beat Stop Out and Wairarapa by.

Great league. 

Meeting the goals set for development of wellington based players and offering them pathways and a competitive league.  Excellent decision to cut the WCL to 6 teams  in order to even it up and cut some 'wear sides'.  The league should of been made larger if anything else.  was 7. Could of added Rapa, Petone and one more to have a 10 team league.  Im sure Stop Out and Rapa will be loving the 3rd or 4th round of game they play vs the same 'developing' sides

And yes, what if a side (stop out etc) can't sustain a team or want to stay in the league and get handed double figure losses every others week.  

Easy to criticise the current format. How could we improve it, given the funding available?

More travel doesn't seem an option, given high costs.

?

Don't know if this explains it but here's my view

and some photos from the UHC v PNM W-League game

and some photos from the Petone v UHC game premier league game on sunday

Well have relegation. Ridiculous call. Those with half a clue know how quickly a clubs quality can change.

Also don't have reserve teams in the second tier. You are better off pushing the likes of UH reserve players to the Stop Outs or Rapas (as an example)

Not sure it's sustainable for Wellington players to field themselves for Wairapapa based sides :> But i sort of see what you are saying. Is it possible however, that these younger/fringe players are making the choice to align themselves with a particular development/coaching program - i.e at UH, rather than first team football elsewhere? I'd suggest that these players have made an active choice about this.

there would be some component of that sure 

And i think a number of those UH cap prem players are under 15, so they'd need active dispensation, looking at the Womans regs.

mate I was only using one example at this particular point in time (not that I actually know what your point was then). 

Say if there was a few Wgtn Utd players who chose to play for Vic Uni if they were in the grade instead of WU Resies in Div2 - then it might make Vic a stronger prospect in WLge - which should in turn be a good thing for WU for the increased competition

I think scrap the fricken 16 players (5 subs) for a start ... this would free up players from the central league instantly (W league)...
When it was 14 players (3 subs), most teams only named 14 players each week.
Now that it is 16 players (5 subs), they get to keep a lot of those fringe players 'happy'.

When in the past those are the players who move clubs, usually before the season starts because they know they are good enough to be playing, but can't see themselves playing much at the club they are at.

If you wanted to make things even more competitive, hell make it the same in the premier league ...

Condensing to 6 teams only made the top teams stronger, and the weaker teams weaker.

Palmy is obviously on its way to being a 'super team' - with them being the only option out that way ... the only thing stopping them from being even stronger is probably wairarapa being in the league.

WU, UH and Seatoun have all gotten stronger (given the whole no promo/relegation rule) and newcomers Wairarapa and SO never really stood a chance (I will add that both of these teams could greatly improve their tactics against the top three teams).

Changes are needed. They have said that changes can happen if things aren't working ... so its about time they start looking at what has contributed to our womens football getting to this point.

Did anyone see the Stop Out vs Upper Hutt game? I was a little surprised at the score. Especially seeing that Sarah played?

what is this all about? from CF letter. No idea what it means

Equity (Women’s Football Review)

A few weeks ago CF wrote to clubs re. the issue of equity within the game, I do not think it is a perception I think it is a reality. This is not a criticism, it is an observation. It would be naive of us all to think that years of ingrained behaviour will change given a review & a few reminders on the subject.

However just as we will not “let go” of inappropriate behaviour as a subject matter neither will we when it comes to equity within the game.

CF really wants to stress to its members that changes in behaviour within clubs are the only way this issue is going to improve, I will be talking individually to clubs when I think it is necessary & will be doing so in a couple of instances shortly

A passive aggressive note to all clubs that doesn't actually say what the specific problem is. Odd. 

Feverish, do you know what the letter mention here - "A few weeks ago CF wrote to clubs re. the issue of equity within the game" - was about?

nope. Didn't notice that if it existed

though I think they only have comms with WCL clubs

equity intended or equality misspelt?

A pretty good place I would say. I watched Vic Uni v Upper Hutt, Upper Hutt won 1-0 thanks to a Sarah Gregorius penalty

Thought Uni played pretty well, stuck to their shape, defended well, didn't allow Upper Hutt to get into any sort of rhythm, didn't create too many chances but had they been more attacking they would probably have been opened up at the back.

Sort of makes a bit of a mockery of the no relegation from W-League, I think this team wouldn't have too much problem beating Stop Out or Rapa.

They should have at least allowed the premier league winners a playoff with the bottom placed w-league team

Everyone I talked to said the penalty was an abysmal decision, but the people I'm talking to are biased.

All in all the coach was happy with the performance and gutted that we couldn't get more from it, but that UH were definitely the better team.

I also think we're head and shoulders about the other Prems to teams but would definitely love a crack at Wairarapa.

You could say the penalty was soft, Keeper got the to the ball first but took out Gregorius as well, so it was a pen