Mainland Premier League (Part 1)

 ACFC U17 tourney.

Great start for Canterbury teams. Halswell 2-0 v Waitemata, Cashmere 5-0 v central united gold, FC20 1-1 v Onehunga/WYNRS

Results link on the ACFC U17 tourney thread.

Coastal losing 3-0 to Nelson after 75 mins.  Updates here: https://twitter.com/CoastalSpiritNZ

Today's Result

Nelson Suburbs 3 (Ryan Stewart, Wesley Olea, Brandon Kay) Coastal Spirit 0 HT 1 - 0

Is it too early to say we have a split league already - top 2, then daylight to the rest?

I assume player payments, next tier league for top 2 clubs and 2nd A league franchise/partnership were all raised in the "we have no idea what we're doing or where we are going" meeting last week?

 Oh, and on that "where are we going" subject, 2 players from the south Island have been named in the NZ U17 squad of 20 - Cory Brown from Nelson and Meysum Shafahi who has been at APFA the last  couple of years. Do we figure that 10% representation is about all we can reasonably expect on a population pro rata basis, or do we have  ambitions of punching above our weight? If so, how?

Maybe to early re the split but at the moment Bays Technical and Suburbs all two from two but I can see a clear split quickly developing going the the results so far, with two teams yet to score - FC Twenty and Coastal. I can see both Bays and Tech and maybe Suburbs clearing out from the rest with a dog fight for the middle of the table with the likes of Western, Halswell, Coastal and maybe Nomads and maybe a clear gap at the bottom. If FC conceed a handful of goals against Tech tomorrow could be a very long season for FC as against FC's Adam Highfield could be sit in goal in a deck chair for mush of the game.

Key game tomorrow for Suburbs to see if their new look side can be seriously contenders or not.

I hope I am wrong as looks like the overall standard is not getting any better. 

Anyone on the forum from FC Twenty11 as heard the the changing rooms at Avonhead Park have been closed by the council as do not meant earthquake standards so does this mean you will be playing at ASB Football Park as there was some talk about games at Burnside Park??

No.

Never assume.

Hi guys. Haven't been on here for a while but looks like i've logged back in at the right time. Can confirm we'll be playing at ASB til further notice. Can't quite understand the council decision re Avonhead, imo changing rooms there are far better than Burnside Park but nothing re council/eqc decisions seems to surprise much these days....

On the football front, have managed to watch the FC games thus far and can also confirm that we are in for a long season, in fact a very long season. Without the suspended Stu Bola against Bays there was literally no outlet up front. Tseto's insistence on playing "total football' whilst admirable is rather foolish if you don't have the players who can execute the plan. At this stage we clearly don't :( That said, Kamo and McIntyre were class and with Josh Smith and the short fat english lad whos name escapes me pulling the strings in midfield, Bays will tear up better defences than ours over the course of the season

Coastal lost 4 1 to Halswell. Bays beat Nelson 1 0 and last I heard Western were up 4 0 over Nomads.

Western 4 Nomads 0  Full time and just before half time scoreless between FC Twenty11 and Cashmere Technical

Western got off to a flier v Nomads 4 up within 20 minutes.

FT FC Twenty drew 1 - all with Cashmere Technical both goals after the break.

Points after 3 rounds: Bays 9, Technical 7, Western 6, Suburbs 6, Halswell 6, FC Twenty 1, Coastal 0, Nomads 0

Round 4 Draw all played Saturday April 6

Technical vs. Suburbs

FC vs. Western

Bays vs. Coastal - a Hurley Shield Challenge

Halswell vs. Nomads

Went the Suburbs vs Bays game. Suburbs are looking much older, a 41 year old in the midfield, almost unheard in the past we'd had 15 year olds roaming the midfield. Must say, watch out for Nelson when Gagame Feni, Jerry Donga and Sam Ayers come back from O-League duties. Three ASB Premiership quality players right there.

Skippy's not 41 mate, just looks it.

Not much fun on the bottom.  I waited ages for the Premier League to start and I get this?

Harumph.

Haha. But it looks like they've taken half of FC Nelson with them to the MPL this season (which is interesting considering they nearly put 10 on FC Nelson in the Chatham Cup last year). Johnny Gough at centreback is very decent. Him and Mark Johnston are a very good defensive partnership.

Still no junior draws. Surely done by today to get into tomorrow's Press?

Women have also had the Div 1 and 2 draws pulled off the website having been there two weeks ago.

And Sunday League need a re-draw too due to change in grades.  Busy week ahead for Mainland then!

Draws are up!

Needless panic

Needless panic

 Cursory glance got me questioning a few (but suspect there are definitely some errors), for example:

U21s - just 5 teams, 2 from Universities
18 div 1 boys (clubs) looks incredibly weak - 6 teams: Amberley, Mid Canty, Christs second X1, Cashmere 18A and 17B, FC20LMNOP
18 girls - 2 x Coastal teams? surely not.
17 boys div 1 - 2 x coastal teams again? oh dear.
16 girls - disappeared completely?

and that's just for starters.

 21s is apparently correct.

18D1 looks terrible - time to scrap 17s as well and merge them together.

I dont have a problem with CSFC getting 2 slots in those grades if they're good enough - check 14D1 too.

no schools in 14D1 for the first time in yonks...mainland finally sticking to their guns about competitions or schools realising they're crap?

Shows how bad football is in the big clash with school/club and other sports in schools when the biggest school in the South Island [Burnside High] doesn't have a single team in the Saturday comp. 

Was not that long ago when they had 3 teams playing in the super youth and premier youth grades plus a girls team.

 2 x Coastal 18 Girls

1 x Coastal 17th Boys Div 1.

apparently  there is no 16 Girls at all, low entry numbers. 

2 x Coastal 14 D1 (balanced teams). No school side in 14D1 good job. The clubs bring the players up, not the schools.

My summary of Coggan's comments of where the senior game is heading:

• Youth development will see to better senior standards... in 7-10 years
  
• Some senior coaches don't give a flying fox about youth development
  
• Most senior coaches don't even have their badges!
• Senior coaches are getting older - and likely employing methodologies taught to them in the 70s? 80s?
  
• The goal for the federation is O league or Chatham Cup glory
• better facilities will make better players

Is "we don't know what we're doing" a reasonable out-take?

 1. framework is there for sure, however retention of players aged 15-18 has to be addressed. There is also the problem that not all clubs playing Prems actually have a coherent or working junior program. 

2. unarguable, surely.

3. why would they, they already know everything.

4. which if you are still winning, you are highly likely to abandon. 

5. fair enough , does seem fairly distant

6. yes, but hardly the primary focus one would imagine to ensure #1 (at a minimum)

Where's the "needless panic" post Ron?

Needless panic

Panic for Nomads & Coastal coming soon followed close behind by FC Something.

Cashmere Tech taking Div one seriously this year as they have appointed a coach for this team of Turtles!

Just heard through the grapevine that coz of the council not doing the grounds yet Mainland Football has to postpone all Junior, Youth and most of Senior Football this weekend, but there is a possibility of some Youth Div 1’s playing.


What. A. Joke.

They better be tacking this week on to the back of the season for us in terms of ground availability.

If Gings' grapevine is good:

#panicrightnow

#laughingstock

#wedon'tknowwhatwe'redoing

#ihatehashtagsbutitseemedtheonlylegitmateresponse

Don't know gings' source but I've just heard from a very good source that junior footy is off on opening day due to CCC not marking grounds! See previous post and also capital train wreck/cancellations post. 

 I have also heard (email) the exact same thing from Mainland re CCC and grounds.  Will wait and see if anything happens tomorrow - but incredibly poor for the start of the season.