Mainland Premier League (Part 1)

The sports coverage in The Press has collectively got smaller and poorer, yep less adverts will be screwing it over a bit, but the amount and quality of content is going down. Through out the paper its the same story, motoring and business are also suffering

They did just win countless awards including newspaper of the year however.

What's going on with 18th grade re-mix? I would have thought it was fairly straightforward - that the top 3-4 from schools div 1 and top 3-4 clubs would form the new div 1 after the first round was completed. However:

Boys High 1st XI appear to have gone co,pletely AWOL from the New 18 DIV 1 league;

Christs are in the New 18 div 1 league - yet they finished last in the schools league;

Are CBHS playing in another league? Been absorbed back into clubs? Been abducted by aliens?

What on earth is going on?

It appears to have gone very quiet on the Mainland RDO appointment.....?

No idea what is happening there, but interesting to see nonetheless.  Thought the idea was there was a school's comp and a club comp but it seems now they are all bundled together.

They will have to make bigger fields for the first game with the kids from St Andrews XL (40 players) and Christ's XL (another 40!).  It'll be a battle royale!

Was speaking with Alan Walker last week and he said appointment would be made early this week.

A little birdy told me that there was some racist taunts during one of the MPL games on the wknd. Does anyone have any further info on that? Or was that birdy barking up the wrong tree?

18th grade leagues seem to have been re-drawn in a logical manner. 

NEW 18 DIV 1 is top 3 from schools div 1 and top 3 from clubs. See, it's not rocket science.

Re Vim's comment two above #2407.

Heard it was a spectactor involved, not player on player, not that that makes it any better. Club officials apologised straight after game to player and his club and then again at after match function which would suggest it did happen.

Not sure if timmymadden is still with us after the upgrade but may be able to comment further.

 

 

Thats been the case the last 3 seasons. The schools play eachother in the first round (national schools qualifiers) while the clubs play eachother. I can't help but wonder if our region would be stronger if it was like the good ol days of U/19 Super youth where we had a strong even competition with a squad from most of the clubs...

 

18s has been fixed by the looks of it, Christs 1sts dropping to div 3 - wow.

 

Shirley's 14A team has totally vanished after a 24 goal hiding from Nomads (not surprised at all, if my team got thrashed like that I'd dissapear too.......)

 

Any word on the youth rep coaching appointments and junior nominations? June is fast approaching and nothing out yet....

Re racist taunts on the pitch. Must say never in my time have I heard it from players thankfully but can say that heard it at a div 1 game earlier this yr where a spectator was heard making racist comments about the referee. As a side point to it, the ref wasn't great this day (and he seemed to be favouring Selwyn), but absolutely nothing should warrant ant racist remarks.

One most famous case saw a 2 year ban from English Park. Made the news inall. Nothing much apart from my stirring has happened this time.

The ban was not that bad as Canterbury United were crap those two years.

Gagame Feni's visa has run out. He is returning to the Solomon Islands and will likely pursue playing O-League there.

 

Bad news for Nelson Suburbs! 

Heard he will here for three more games, two league and the Chatham Cup is that correct. 

A bit of a boil over at ASB Football Park tonight with Div 1 Waimak defeating ChCh United, 3 - 2 after extra time in the English Cup 

 

Brilliant. Mind you Waimak are currently 5th in Div 1 so no easy beats. Good on them.

Thats a shock result, good news for Western that it went to extra time, hopefully a few tired legs tomorrow

Mainland currently advertising for "Head Coach" for Mainland Pride and also Canterbury Yoof. The Yoof coach reports to Keith and the Pride coach reports to Alan Walker by the looks of it.

 

Idle speculation or early betting please...

 

PS any announcement on that FDO role yet?

 

Surely Gareth Turnbull is due greater honours?

Dare I say it, I can see Halligan ending up with Youth....most of the Canty juniors he had are around that age now/close to mens rep footy.

 

Agree with Feverish there, whether he has time for it is another issue

Surely there can be no greater honour than serving Coastal Spirit!

Scores heard on ZB.

Halswell 6 FC Twenty zip

Bays 2 Spirit 0 (another sad day for Vim)

and the Hurley on the move again with Western going down 1 - 2 to ChCh United with United also climbing off the foot of the table, Western and FC now bottom.

and winners in the women's: Coastal over Univ., FC Twenty over Western and Cash. Tech over Halswell

Never a sad day watching football. 

Bays are a good side and Kamo scored just after half time and then a dodgy penalty later on. Lotsa chances either way and that's just the way it goes. Not bitter, but that puts Bays 6 points away from us and I can't work out the rest.

Gotta love Satdys.

Points: Bays 21, Halswell 17*, Suburbs 16, Coastal 16, Cash Tech 13*, United 9, Western 8 FC 2011 8.

*Suburbs vs Tech tomorrow.

Next round: United vs Halswell, Cash Tech vs. Bays, Coastal vs Western and FC vs Suburbs 

Mate in Nelson going to game today so hopefully to he will txt me updates so will post here

Clapham and Brockie both starting today against Honduras, good luck guys

 

 

Forgot Siggy, go the Mainland lads

 

Midway through 1st half and no score, Suburbs playing with the wind and have had the better of the play so far.

 

Suburbs now 1 up, Ben Wright after 35 mins

 

HT Suburbs 1 Tech 0

1 all now, Technical equalished early in the 2nd half, mate think is was Nick Wortelboer was the scorer.

Technical score again to take the lead, scorer was Andy Barton???

Technical score again so now 3 - 1 up into added time

 

FT Suburbs 1 Cashmere Tech 3

Not sure if anyone mentioned this but Paul Dirou was playing for Nelson Suburbs.

 

His transfer from Canterbury United to Suburbs was completed in Friday. Luis what do the new lads from the Solomons Is look like.

Much needed result for Ca$hmere. Looks like Saxton is not the stronghold it has been in recent years for Suburbs as Coastal also won there recently. We currently have 3 tiers in the league: Bays, the 'chasing bunch' and the early relegation battle (which looks like a tight one at this early stage). A Bays loss next week will tighten the top group further.

Lazy Monday perusal (gotta love that) of how the the main clubs are performing below MPL - at Mens Div1, PDL and Youth Div 1, nearing the half-way point in the season.

BIG CLUBS
FC20 - Div 1 side is 7th, the 2 PDL sides are both 7th in A and B leagues. The 18 DIV 1 side made the cut for new round. The two 17div 1 sides are 6th and 7th. For a club this size I would expect a little better. Looks like they might have spread themselves too thinly.

Cashmere - 2nd Div 1, 2nd PDL A, 5th PDL B, made cut 18 div 1, top17 div 1. Strong result, as to be expected, from a club of this size; scarily so given it is year 1 of merger.

Halswell - 6th Div1, 5th PDL A, equal top PDL B, missed cut 18 div 1, 2nd 17 div1. Solid.

SMALLER CLUBS - obviously need to focus teams based around available peronnel.

Coastal - last PDL A, 3rd 17div1. No div 1, or 18 div 1 grade teams

Bays - 3rd PDL A. No other teams in Div 1, 18 div 1, 17 div1

Western - top of PDL A. No other teams in Div 1, 18 div 1, 17 div1.

Chch Utd - 6th PDL A, made cut 18 div 1. No div 1 or 17 div 1 teams

Nomads - top div 1, 4th PDL A. No 18 div 1 or 17 div 1 team

WILL BE BIG CLUBS

Selwyn - 4th div 1, top PDL B (note: this team is almost entirely APFA boys, so most will move on elsewhere), no 18div1, 17 div 1 team is 5th

Waimak - 5th div 1, no teams 18 div 1 or 17 div 1

An interesting summary of the season, points don't lie. My only spanner in the mix is the 17's and PDL that can be a mix of different ages. I know that there are a lot of kids amongst many clubs that are playing up in these grades, so technically not a fair reflection of clubs at that age-group. My only other gripe is that Div 1 should be for clubs that are trying to get into MPL and shouldn't have MPL teams in there but seeing as there aren't that many clubs keen on doing it, so be it.