Mainland Premier League (Part 1)

the juniors at ASB is better than the venue being outsourced to other codes. I'm not sure what senior footballers have been disenfranchised by FTC. I fully expect as the Dragons/Youth/Pride come into training adjustments will be made to accomodate them. It's hopefully a resource for the entire football community.

SOF program ran into parental disharmony over repeated cancellations due to no access to pitches. Having FTC at ASB Park eliminates 90% of this. The reward for the kids is playing at the big park, no justification is required, great to see a sporting organization in NZ having their Junior Program given some high quality resources.

given the repeated calls on the less than stellar nature of the MPL some attention to the junior program is surely prudent?

Anyone at the Ferrymead Caversham game today?

Yep sure was..... Cavvy were a bit disappointing to be honest (especially every time their CB just lumped it without looking). Mind you, aside from Kamo and 1 or 2 of their midfield players Bays weren't too impressive either. Going to be interesting for Bays heading up north, they will be playing Bay Olympic and any one of 3 teams from Central league (Napier, Olympic, Wairarapa). Based on today I can't see them doing too well against that sort of calibre opposition, they just don't seem to be clever enough with the ball.

It was 3-1 I saw.  There is a gulf between SI football and the Central League/Northern League.  It's well overdue for Christchurch Teams and Dunedin Teams to play in a combined league again IMHO.

1000 apologies to Nelson...of course I was meaning you need a SI League or at least playoffs again.

I seriously hope they consider changing kick off times in the Mainland competitions. If the MPL sides kicked off after the other leagues finished crowd attendance would sky rocket. Quite often if we're playing at home the same week as the MPL side there will be about 50-100 people until 10 minutes to go when we all wonder over after our game and it goes up to 200+. I must disagree that all MPL games (except the Nelson away game) should be played at ASB Park, I think it would hurt crowd numbers and would detract from the 'home advantage' part of the game.

Caversham have been lump it merchants forever.  They play on the Tonga swamp in sleety Antarctic climes week in week out - it's a necessity to boot it to Jackson or Hancock or some other kid with skill that can run like the wind.  If Jackson, especially, had played today the result might have been different.   And they have won the league in Dunners forever that way and good on them I guess.  They need some nice artificials in Dunedin (or to play at the FB) in order to change the mentality of the teams there.

Overall I felt the game was disappointing not alot of football from either side. Russell Kamo's scored a good indivdual goal to put Bays in front then got a dodgy penalty to go two up after the break, looked liked Chris Murphy fell over all on his own. Ref then awarded Cavvy a penalty and then sent a Caversham player off - another poor call by the ref, second yellow after Kamo had his shirt pulled (by other Cavvy player) Kamo broke clear and then lost ball and pushed a player, over both fell down but the Cavvy player got the card. Wiremu Piercey then scored on the break late in the game.

Yes I like the idea of the MPL kicking off at different times to everyone else, altho I hope it would make the difference to crowd numbers. It works in Nelson, sitting on the bank in the sun on a Sunday, with a good crowd alongside. So I vote for Sunday Premier League, with Friday Night Football chucked in as well. 

Lock that in Mainland.

Sunday Premier League would be good, but I wonder how well it would fit in with the Sunday league already in motion. We've had the odd 12pm kickoff and Sunday game over the last couple of years as grounds have been closed around the city and more teams join. We had our club day today and a lot of people I've talked to would watch the premiers if it didn't kick off 15 minutes into our own games. It would probably help cash flow at some of the more cash strapped clubs too (*ahem*Halswell*ahem*) with more people heading back to their own clubrooms rather than just going home after an away game.

Don't worry bout Sunday League.  Although this being the league I play in (mainly so I can watch the MPL on a Satdy) hardly any are affiliated to a club that would take up the 4 fields needed for the MPL.  I like the idea of supporting club bars and food with increased people on a Sunday. 

NZ Secondary Schools Premier playoffs. Regardless of what I think of schools football; or whatever may be happening better or worse in other parts of the country (ie play for schools midweek AND play for clubs weekends); I'm always sobered/dismayed at results such as those below. Should I be?  On a related matter, I note with dismay that, yet again, there are no national age group tourneys (federation or region) for our young players to measure themselves against the Orcs/Auks.

Boys

Burnside: 9-12th

Shirley (and Nayland): 13-16th

St Andrews: 17-20th

Boys High: 21-24th

Cashmere: 29-32nd

Girls

Nelson Girls: 5-8th

Villa Maria: 17-20th

Marian: 21-24th

Case and point I'd say.

I wouldn't be dismayed, given the football options available for secondary school age players it's hard to see why  that tournament would be taken seriously or prioritzed.

Think there is NTC South players heading to Wellington in the Summer and pretty sure National FTC games will be played 2013. We nearly had some 12 years age games to tie in with Nike Cup (Feb 2012) .  Did you put a submission into the Mainland review about this?

Surely the way to go is back to the super youth days? Had all the schools against each other (Boys High and Shirley the top 2 by a way), and the standard was pretty good. Definitely had Chch schools fighting higher at a national level. No reason you couldn't have it on a Wednesday so players can turn out for clubs at the weekend. Different code, but rugby have got a good competition with the Press cup for the region. Probably not the money for schools to have it over as large a region (Timaru to Nelson) but something to look at. I would have loved the chance to travel round the South Island playing games!

One of the original reasons for the Federations being brought into existence was so that players from provinces such as Nelson, Timaru, the Coast etc could get selected for national age group tournaments with the obvious opportunity to make national age group sides from there. Then they go and do away with them. Muppetts.

What are everyones thoughts for the cup finals tomorrow?

Three close games in the league between Bays and Coastal suggest it should be a good contest.

I think Bays with Kamo up front will just edge it by a goal, i'm going for 3-2 Bays.

Coastal will obviously win the womens final.

Lets hope there is a good crowd for both games.

Love to see Bays get knocked over tomorrow, shouldn't be allowed to have money buy a league, doesn't happened in the EPL.  

And yes the Coastal women should win, however anything can happen.  Men 2-1 Coastal, Women 2-0 Coastal.

Results today: good news bad news....

Coastal women beat FC2011 1-0 scoring with a big head wind in the first half and held on for the second. 

In the men's game Bays beat Coastal 3-1 on penalties after a 0-0 game and extra time.  Boo.

Well done Coastal women's team and Bays but Coastal men should have won it in normal / extra time, their pens were poor with Highfield stopping three of the four that Coastal took, two were not the best spot kicks but the save that Highfield made from Cairns was top drawer.

Couple of dodgy off side calls too....

Bit like finding a long lost friend. 

How will Bays go up north, against Hamilton Wanderers, Napier City Rover and Petone over thee weekend. Will be a big ask as I hear that Adam Highfield and Russell Kamo will not be travelling to Wellington.

If it ain't broke......

Will be watching Bays performance closely - always like to see how the Mainlanders do against opposition outside the village.

Thought they were lucky to get to penalties last week v Coastal.

Now here's a bit of initiative: the Dragons are starting a Development programme - selected players to train with the senior squad to give them a taste of the level required to play national league. Looks like a logical follow-on from the U22 Cup thing that's currently running.

 any word on the Intermeadite nationals Vim?

From Wellington:

Federation Quad Tournament

First Round - Played this evening

Petone 4 Hamilton Wanderers 3

Napier City Rovers 3 Ferrymead Bays 0 HT 0 - 0 

From Wellington:

Federation Quad Tournament

Second Round - Played this afternoon

Napier City Rovers 0 Hamilton Wanderers 0

At Half Time Bays 2 Petone 0 

From Wellington:

Federation Quad Tournament

Final - Played this afternoon

Napier City Rovers 2 Petone 1 (I think)

Bays 1 Hamilton 2  

Final points: Napier 7, Hamilton 4, Petone 3, Bays 3

 Coastal beat Chch Utd 7-2 in U22 ASB game

Vim says coaching staff of Chch Utd world's angriest man.

 Harry has stepped down

he's got 1x FTC 12's and 1 of the 12's rep teams.

U22 Development Cup.

Final playoffs as follows. Predictions? Comments on this competition?

Friday 21st, 7pm. Chch Utd v Nomads (7th & 8th)

Sat, 22nd

12:30. Halswell v Western (5th & 6th)

2:30. Cashmere v Coastal (3rd & 4th)

4:30. Bays v FC20 (final)

Wow, surprised we made 3rd vs 4th, I saw us vs Bays and Utd and got smashed by Bays and then smashed Utd altho that score was a little flattering.  I like the idea, and just hope there was Canty Utd officials in attendance to view the players and take into consideration. 

Few clubs advertising for senior coaches - Halswell Prem Women, Waimak DIV 1 (with stated objective of promotion to Prem League); Burwood PDL and Universities. 

Reckon the Waimak one is the one to watch. Wouldn't surprise if they land a bit of a coup there (feel free to gossip readers, I'm only speculating based on progressive set-up, size and potential of the club)