The standard of the coaching is the biggest issue, not the players. Nomads are a perfect example of this. they went from a bunch of misguided fools controlled by a raving maniac to a cohesive machine capable of winning the league by changing the coach to someone who understood the game and knew what they were doing. The pitches are also an issue. Year after year the best footy is played prior to May then it all starts to turn to custard as teams train and play in substandard conditions. The new artificial pitch should help. And it may solve another problem as well - league should start mid March 18 games (all at ASB Park on artificial surface - 2 on Friday night, 1 on Saturday, 2 on Sunday arvo)then top 4 go into South Island league (2 groups of 4) with top 4 Football South teams home and away for further 6 games, top 2 in each group play knock outs with other group top 2 to find winner, highest ranked team gets home advantage. Finishing mid September.
7 Months of football all on good surfaces predominantly. The key thing is all clubs will strive to keep their good players by trying to make the top 4 otherwise run the risk of losing them to the more ambitious clubs. And no relegation - it was fear of losing (read relegation) that got Nomads in the sh*t so quickly this year. Once they got over that they were fine. Just left it to late.
Maybe the goal difference tie like the one between United and Nomads should be decided by who won the most games - not who scored the most goals? [/QUOTE]
Certainly some interesting points here but if it is ten team league at least one team will be from the Nelson region so did you still want all the games at ASB Football Park. If two teams were from Nelson the season could be reduced by a couple of weeks if the local darbys were played midweek, with two midweek rounds in ChCh as well.
Agree on your point re the number of games won should be use to sort out the placings after points / goal difference, may promote teams going for wins rather that sitting back for a draw. This season 19 games of the 84 were draw the most for any 8 team 21 round season.