Mainland Premier League (Part 1)

Heard Bays and Nelson drew 1-1 today. Good news for the chasing pack.

 

So points now: Suburbs 26, Bays 26, Technical 21, Coastal 20, Halswell 18, Western 12, FC 12, United 10. Suburbs and United have played one more game.

 

Anyone know who's going to be the Mainland Pride coach this season? What's the gossip?

Gareth

Which is pretty much why the Selwyn PDL (well.. the APFA) pulled the pin on their team as well.  Citing the need to protect the players and not having Referees at the very least wasn't good enough.  Fair call I guess as it can get a little hectic out there if you don't have an official ref nor linesmen.  Someone mentioned that because the WPFL have requested Refs and Linesmen that it has taken away the ability to fill the holes in PDL or lower.  I remember last year there were Refs for everyweek down to Div 3.

 

Fair enough, at that level refs are defo needed. Having watched the Halswell vs FC PDL B game on saturday a proper ref would've made mainland a small fortune in bookings. 4th officials at MPL games is a bit of overkill isn't it? unless these are nothing more than paper shufflers...

Yes, Gareth Turnbull confirmed as Pride coach. Another top coach recognised by those above. 

 

Formally announced tomorrow according to my source. Very much deserved.

Well you heard it here first! (well second if you count Feverish - but who does...)

Maybe mainland should just put the members of this thread on PR duty, we seem to make the announcements before they do every single time

And we're always very supportive of our governing body. I'm surprised they haven't done it sooner.

Now that the transfer window has slammed shut any big moves? (by MPL standards)? I don't see any apart from Knox...

Nope, nothing massive I agree.  Speaking of massive, Coastal Women smashed Selwyn 20-0 in the first round of the Rita Fitzpatrick Cup. Wow.

 

Damn that is fantastic for CSFC...not so much fo Selwyn or the WPL. So 7-0 in mainland talk? or is that juniors only?

Semi Draw out for the Reta Fitzpatrick Cup:

 

Western vs. FC Twenty11 2 Aug

Coastal vs. Halswell 9 Aug

lokking good for cup holders, Coastal to make the Final.

With the Chatham Cup on this weekend, (c'mon Western and Cashmere Technical), only Premier League action on is out at The Nest with Halswell playing Coastal - deferred from the snow week, full round in the Women's League.

Coastal lost 2-1 despite winning 1-0 for an hour. Red card penalty to make it 1-1 then a goal with 5 to go made it 2-1 for the Hawks. Plenty of chances both ways, but still hurts!

Yes Vim, Halswell missed heaps of chances before Gareth put Coastal infront. Then after the break Coastal wasted plenty of chances, included hitting the crossbar, which should have seen them wrap up the win before Halswell scored twice late in the game.

Your coach was lucky not to be sent from the break out in the first half when walking on to the field to air a disagreement with the ref. Took a while for him to sit down, somewhat surprising as never seem him 'go off' like that.

I only saw the last 15 minutes of the Hawks v Coastal game after I made my way from the back paddocks. I must say I was a bit dissapointed with some of the Coastal lads making stupid 'gay' and 'faggot' comments towards the Halswell supporters after the final whistle, and then a bit surprised when the Coastal coach spent more time putting the Hawks down than anything else in his after match speach in the club rooms. I don't even think he said 'well done'. Other than that a good result for the boys to leapfrog Coastal 

Yes Vim, Halswell missed heaps of chances before Gareth put Coastal infront. Then after the break Coastal wasted plenty of chances, included hitting the crossbar, which should have seen them wrap up the win before Halswell scored twice late in the game.

Your coach was lucky not to be sent from the bench in the first half when walking on to the field to air a disagreement with the ref. Took a while for him to sit down, somewhat surprising as never seem him 'go off' like that.

Divison 1 almost decided.

Nomads need only four points (less is Uni drop any more points) from their remaining three games to win their way back into the Mainland Premier League after today's results.

Nomads 6 Selwyn 0, Mid Canty 4 Halswell 2, Universities 1  FC Twenty11 1, Cashmere Tech 1 Waimak 3.

Points: 

Nomads 28, Univ 22, Waimak 17, Cashmere 16, Selwyn 14, FC 11, Mid Canty 8, Halswell 6

 

Yes agree Timmy, at the end of the day it is goals in the back of the net that count not how well or badly you or the opposition has played. Coastal had plenty if chances to added to their scoreline but were not good enough to take them. 

Always find it somewhat ironic when a coach that had just lost a game rubbishes the opposition because they are really running down their own team.

That is football is so great you can be totally be dominated / out played by the opposition but still win a game. 

Sure we've all been sharkty about a game and we don't have the anonimity of the forum to air our bad words. Yes there was some random words halfway thru the first half but didn't really see what was going on. 

I sincerely doubt our guys were calling others homophobic taunts considering the big gay following the team has...

The scoreline in the nomads game could've been a hell of a lot worse for selwyn, if the nomad's players had worn their shooting boots it would've been atleast 11-0

I'm thinking there was probably a few choice words from the sideline crew during the game which escalated after the final whistle but I only saw the last 10-15 minutes. The confrontation definately happened as I was standing in the general direction it was aimed at. That aside I thought your keeper was unlucky to let the last goal in, he got a good hand on it and it only just snuck inside the post. 

Chatham Cup:

Dunedin Tech 1 Western 0 HT 1 - 0

Caversham 4 Cashmere Technical 2 HT 3 - 0

My spys in Dunner's said Western were very unlucky with Caversham taking their chances in the first half and then running out of legs, with Cash Technical also having another goal ruled out late in the game.

Baz is gay? FMD never knew 

Definitely a disappointing result for selwyn given the performance in the 1st round with nomads. Too many mistakes against a side who don't give you the chance to amend them either. Was a mixture of missed chances and selwyn keeper making few good saves that kept score down. All a learning curve for the team and excuses aside we need to learn from it. Further to the apfa boys pulling out of pdl b, strong word is that mainland didn't want to promote them to pdl a as they in direct competition to what mainland running for player development. Sad if it is true

 

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Baz is gay? FMD never knew 

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One the funnest posts, (very clever) I have seen on here, almost fell off my chair.

Could someone please find out for me how the Coastal Spirit v Chch Utd Pressies A game went on Saturday. Mainland seem to be having trouble updating any table below Div 1 this year. The result could define how our season could end.

Coastal lost 4-1...

Ok maybe there was some bad words in the Coastal-Halswell game on Satdy. It appears to be still going on two days later. Bodes for an interesting rematch tomorrow night!

More kids leaving Mainland FTC player dev programme next week (you heard it here first ) and heading to APFA. More on the cards. Mainland have some competition and as always, players/parents vote where they think the best opportunity might be. Will be intersting to see if & how Mainland respond. Competition only raises the bar, right?

Well to be honest Mainland is not going to be in  competition with APFA unless they can provide training 5 days a week, full time paid coaches (that actually have the qualifications/ability to justify being full time) + all the extras. Until such times I think that it needs to be accepted that the top 1 or 2% need to be given the sort of oppurtunity that the APFA is, with the Mainland system a lower rung on the ladder.

Its simple, APFA will prepare kids to be US scholarship material at the least, and European club material at the highest. Whereas Mainland is more of a minimum MPL, maximum US scholarship type of deal. 

Its not really a relfection on the quality of Mainland as an organisation, more just a difference in available resources. It's the same deal with Ole academy in Wellington

News from National Youth Futsal Championships: Mainland U19s won (unbeaten thru pool play and beat Capital 3 nil in the final); U16s lost in the semis; U14s lost just one game - the final, 6-5 in extra time to Northern Auckland. Great skills on show.

If the best players don't have $20K per year though they don't get the APFA oportunity. Surely Mainland (ie NZ Football) should have an offering for the top 1% who don't have that kind of money? 

Not neccesarily, the very best players who go there are on 'scholarship' and don't pay a cent. Though are a lot of kids outside that top 1% that will go there and pay the cash, but I guess that's down to their family. 

I agree that Mainland should have an equivalent but the resource is just not there. They would have to pair up with a school for starters, work together with UC or some other organisation with access to high performance knowledge/facilities and above all, have the right coaches in place for the right money, i.e. a proper competitive full time wage.. (and believe it or not there is barely a handful of coaches here that justify that type of role). 

If people don't like the idea of some club coaches getting $10k or $20k a year then what will they think of someone on $40k??

In principal i think we both agree there should be something.... but until then I would still believe that the footballing pathway here would place Mainlaind behind APFA, they cannot be considered direct competition.

 

I see this as a good thing TBH, lets say 5 kids move to APFA...that means 5 more kids get FTC - a new development opportunity, while the new APFA kids get another step up. Its win-win. Mainland & NZF get more kids getting upskilled.

It also puts Selwyn in a good position at youth rep tournaments. (Lincoln falls in their catchment? I'm assuming these kids would be eligible...)

Just home from the English Cup with Coastal winning on pens over Halswell 7 - 5 after sides 2 - all at end of extra time with Coastal equalishing with the great free-kick as the extra time was up, was 1 all after normal time. One of the Halswell ladsoff to hospital after a head clash with Tom Sadd.

Yes dramarama at English Park in the English Cup. Coastal down 1-0 after ten minutes then equaliser late in the half. Ended up 1-1 at end of full time with Halswell scoring at the end of the first half of extra time. As AW82 said, a pearler of a free kick on the edge of the box with almost the last kick of the game sending it to penalty kicks. Coastal won 4-3 on penalties with a kick to come. 

Gotta love football.