Mainland Premier League (Part 2)

FT Nelson Suburbs 2 Universities 1

Updated Table

Games for Round 5 - one or two tasty match-ups next Saturday

Coastal Spirit vs. Cashmere Technical

Ferrymead Bays Vs. Nelson Suburbs

Halswell vs, FC Twenty11

Western vs. Universities

So who was to blame everytime Canterbury united dragons got it wrong because I'm pretty sure they got it wrong quite a few times.

Here's this week's results, well done to Bench Warmer, Scottie Rd and Dan Ede who become the first people to successfully pick all the results in the weekend.   FC Boy and Green beans are about to be scratched.

This weeks picks: Here

Won't last long so will make the most of being top!

From the Nelson Mail:

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nelson-mail/sport/78754036/...

This from The Press this morning.  At least Coastal will get more than a couple of sentences next week! 

michael-white-scores-in-first-mainland-premier-league-game-for-cashmere-technical

This from The Press this morning.  At least Coastal will get more than a couple of sentences next week! 

michael-white-scores-in-first-mainland-premier-league-game-for-cashmere-technical

I know this has been discussed before at length but I'm gonna chuck it out there again. Having our first game on a Satdy this week, (our others have been Friday nights or before the full season kicked off) it was noticeable that the amount of supporters was down. The usuals were there, but obviously noone from all the other divisions that were playing at exactly the same time. 

Is it time to look at playing MPL games on a Sunday in order to get the crowds up?  What are the reasons against it? Nelson seem to be fine with it and it's always pretty good fan-wise up there.

Thoughts?

Been like that for years! Unless you have a good number of older heads watching then numbers attending seem to be poor. I know Selwyn wanted to host Friday night games to boost numbers of other club members attending but this was turned down by mainland. With the facilities available i would like to see one or two Saturday 5pm kick offs so a lot more people can attend whether its their club playing or not. Again i think Selwyn are toying with this proposal as then all other Selwyn teams & players are able to watch if they want to. Definitely needs something done to help with this issue though! Seem's pointless having floodlit pitches if they are only going to be used once on Friday nights.

"White moved for the facilities" #whitewash

Sundays definitely have my vote. Not a fan of 7pm or even 5pm kick-offs unless it's early in the season. By the time May/June/July roll around and the temperatures plummet I'm not sure crowd numbers will swell that much. Faced with sitting on the couch with the fire going watching the Warriors on telly or heading down to Avonhead park in zero degrees to watch FC20, as much as i love my club (and for that matter find the Warriors incredibly frustrating to watch), I'll be staying home every time. That's just me of course but i'm pretty sure many others feel the same.

2pm Kick-offs on a Sunday though, brilliant. The whole club can come and watch and who doesn't like a couple of quiet ales on a Sunday arvo after watching a footy game. If i reminisce back to the 80's and the old national league days that's exactly what happened then and we used to get 500+ (paying) crowds back then every week.

But then what are you personally going to do? You'll have to switch from the prolific Sunday goalscoring and tear up the Saturday charts :)

As this topic of Ferrymead Bays and what's happening around the club was doing the rounds over a week ago. I'm not surprised someone has pulled the plug. It's hard on young guys [let alone the like of MW] trying to push for a first team spot to see others lack of effort being rewarded on a Saturday with game time.

With the money ferrymead bays pay there players, they should be challenging tech for the title. 

Roll on 5:00 Saturday

Yes an interesting question Vim. I suppose it may be different at different clubs but I think a lot of players down the divisions are just happy to just play but not always interested in watching the first team footy, i.e. plenty do participate in football but not necessary followers of football for many reasons, otherwise their would be thousands watching Canterbury United during the summer not just several hundred.

If games are played on Sunday it means more work for the committee to cover both days over the weekend so are those people able to commit the extra time?

Unsure numbers involved the Sunday League these days does this have an impact if games played in Sunday?

In the old National League Days when both ChCh United and New Brighton were playing they would draw several thousand paying fans, (one local derby I can remember the main stand at QE II was packed to over flowing) Sunday work and 7 day shopping was not around.

Would be interesting to try it see if crowds were noticeably bigger.

Here is to a bumper crowd for the top of the table clashes for both the Women's PL Friday night and then the late game on Saturday at English Park for the MPL.

Good to see numbers up on the Chatham Cup this year with 130 clubs throwing their names into the hat.

Here are the 15 teams that have entered from the Mainland region:

Burwood AFC, Cashmere Technical, Coastal Spirit FC, FC Nelson, FC Twenty 11, Ferrymead Bays, Halswell United AFC, Nomads United, Parklands United, Selwyn United FC, Richmond Athletic AFC, Wakefield FC, Western AFC, Waimak United FC, Universities.

Yes good points, and pretty much spot on. I suppose looking around my club, people are mainly there for their own playing, not to support on the Premier teams. Slightly different to Canty Utd as the Premier team is your own club, not a mix of others. 

I don't think your comment on committee work is that relevant, I think it could easy be handled by clubs. I also don't think Sunday League will have any effect, they are probably even more focused on themselves rather than Premier League.

I remember seeing a photo of New Brighton AFC at QE2 and it was a record for a club match, something like 10,000 people. Wow, imagine that nowadays. 

Hopefully bumper crowds on Friday and Satdy, both 1st vs 2nd and both are the same clubs. I'll certainly be there.

What no Christchurch United.

They must have a low ambition if they can't see themselves getting a win over any of these teams.

Some will say putting an all out effort into getting promotion.

Didn't look that way last Saturday for Chch U.

Nomads are just hanging on in the promotion race and could be all but out of it come Monday night of Anzac weekend.

Being 6 points behind Selwyn would do that.

Nomads need to start finishing chances.   Some of their players need to learn to attack a cross not stand on the edge of the 18 yard box watching.

Based on 1st 2 games of the season I'd say Nomads are the better side over Selwyn, although Selwyn do certainly take their chances well. On another day Selwyn could quite easily have dropped points against Parklands last weekend despite the scoreline.

As we all know though what happens in Football can change from week to week.... a bit like Nelson beating Cashmere but then losing to Western!

Ultras

Flares and tifos at English Park please!

Hey, on that, tell whoever is tweeting to include the club twitter handles, ie @CoastaSpiritNZ and @cashmere_tech. It's better for everyone's #metrics, including @MainlandFooty

I see there's three teams from Nelson in the Chatham Cup so one will play a Christchurch team first up

Cmon fellas get ya picks in so we can talk about it!  

Y

No Marley then, already gone overseas. Storer, Vest, Smith, Almond, Blake, Soutter, Reece, Mulgrew, Quirke, Morton etc. Very good side as was Utd.

LOL

now come out and say they don't play players. 

Either ask Siggy or buy his book (when it is released) for the answer.

Caught up with the new Mainland guy Andrew (?) doing the Internet stuff

Gave him the thumbs up from Coastal, especially the post match interviews. Tops!