1. Phoenix = YAY! Throw in the all whites in mid october and theres potential to really get the ball rolling (ba-dum-tsssssssssh)
2. U/22s is a great idea.
3. Competitions review: needs to happen. My biggest gripe is clubs skipping from 14s/15s to PDL. I put this down to 17s and 18s not being as strong as they were. Remember U/19 SuperYouth? That was an AWESOME competition which actually prepared the young ones for mens footy. Move 13s to 1215 kick off and merge 17s & 18s to bring it back. You want a PDL team? you've gotta have a team in super youth! (move PDL & MPL back 30 minutes so kids can get that bench time after their super youth game in like they used to).
Schools need to go aswell, but that won't happen. (Yes, I do usually beat the drum for equality etc but in terms of balance and competitions it needs to happen. 14s to 18s is one big clusterf*ck)
In terms of south island champs I'd like to see an U/17s. Surely theres a bit of a gap between baby dragons and U/16. Fill it with meaningful rep competition.
4. unfortunate. Who's the lucky cantab?