Mainland Premier League (Part 2)

Rant warning.

Understandable and overdue, but a great big BUT....why would a club pay players for a competition with no prize money, no gate takings and eff-all serious sponsorship? There is only one answer - and at its heart is pure, simple ego; no matter how it may be dressed up as "club ambition". If paying players is the only means you have of being the best club you can be in the environment of no prizemoney, gate or sponsorship, well, you are just deluded as a club. The sooner each club board takes a collective stance to tell players seeking money in Chch to take a hike to a semi-pro league if they are good enough, the better the game will be.  Imagine if the total amount of money used to pay players petrol money or gym money or coaching money was spent on proper coach education and facilities. Too many people at clubs are playing games thinking its a (semi) pro league. LOL, but actually just really sad. And anyone who argues "but it's always happened" is either unable or unwilling to see the need for the greater good.

And by the way, if anything, the women playing in Christchurch are easily of a better national standard than the men; based on Canterbury born and bred players and their performance at national league level and NZ representation.

Rant done.

Couldn't agree more! No matter what some will say I'm positive it's happening at at least 3 clubs. Clubs doing so are only feeding the egos of players concerned. In my humble opinion there is no player in the league good enough to demand any sort of payment! 

Some would say Anton Smith deserves some $$$.  Been very impressed with him and western so far 

I think GG's rant, whilst all the points within it are fair enough, has missed the point somewhat. Benchwarmer merely asked about paying a players travel costs, not paying a player themselves. Personally I think if Tech want to pay Air NZ to fly the likes of Siggy down here to play in our MPL then surely our league's a better place for this? The player doesn't get paid so it's all within the rules of the competition. 

People have been on here in the last week complaining of crowd sizes and asking how we could improve them. Short of changing the day/time of MPL games isn't this a good way to do this? And it's brought some good publicity to light for the MPL. All positives in my book. 

is it good for the game? What about young players coming thru who constantly get overlooked as a club consistently brings in players from outside their own club. Is that really helping development or is it all about the egotistical agendas...

surely having a Chch legend like Siggy playing down there is good for the game?

Rant has nothing to do with Ben playing for Cashmere (and of course it's great for the league as I  mentioned a few pages back in this thread); how did people make that leap FFS?

And I'd wager anything that Ben is not getting paid, is doing it because he wants to, and as a favour for a mate.

If players are constantly getting overlooked  and are good enough to play at MPL level,  then surely they woud move to another club.

If it's all within the rules then fair enough, but there is then the ethical question around it all.

Totally agree on clubs paying for transport for the whole team for trips, such as up to Nelson/Tasman, but if a club pays to fly one player down do they then help with transport costs of other players?

On this I'm meaning in general across the men's and women's game, not aiming at any specific club

They've probably promised to buy hundreds of books.

Tech can use him to encourage more young players to the club, have a few black tie evenings or club fundraisers with Ben fronting it. If he is getting  $$ abd the right marketing behind it, it'll go close to paying for itself. Win/Win

Is it good for the game?

Firstly, having international players like Sigmund, Clapham, Moore & Longo playing in our leagues must be good for the game. Good for those playing with and against them. Good for young players watching them. Good for our profile as a sport.

Similarly having imports of a higher standard than our players playing is good for the game. Our players will again learn from playing with and against them.

Personally, I see our major challenge is keeping our local players focused and committed enough to continue to play in our teams once they attain a competitive standard. Making our leagues an attractive enough option to retain them playing through to senior level and beyond.

It is great to hear that Siggy wants to play some football back in Christchurch. It would have been great to have others of his age doing the same over recent years. Unfortunately our game is currently not attractive enough to get the likes of Brent Fisher, Jeff Fleming, Greg Draper, Jamie Duncan, Mike Lilley, Thierry Thou, Ben Hughes, Blair Scadden to name a few, returning and putting on their boots. Some will be playing elsewhere in more attractive competitions others will have lives that don't include football as a priority.

How do we make our game more attractive at the top level? Sorry but I still believe, as happens across the globe with football and as happens locally and across the globe with Basketball, Cricket, League, Rugby, netball, tennis and even bowls, we need to be able to buy peoples time to get the required commitment to become better.

Our best young sports people in NZ have their time bought by our national funders and their individual sports bodies, no matter the sport they participate in. There is a level of professionalism in every top sport.

I would like to see all our leading clubs with quality senior players (imported or local)helping raise the standard of our leagues. If they are capable of coaching within the clubs, all the better. Paying for their time along with developing quality facilities whilst supporting and educating their development coaches should all be priorities.

Getting the balance right within a club and coping with all these challenges is not going to be easy for any club. There are a number who have taken up this challenge and doing it well in other NZ cities, they will leave us behind if we do not respond.

National titles for men and women will not become easier, Coastal and Cash Tech have had recent success but both will be aware of the increased challenge now out there. We will only continue to challenge at this level if we increase our investment, not halt it.

It scares me more that there are supposedly excessive amounts of money lying around unproductively in our game, than some clubs investing in the quality of there football and footballers.

Not a rant just another point of view.      

Well put. So let me just take Bowls as a point re keeping and paying the young guns.

Some of the best national and international level players get flown from Chch to Wellington every Friday to play in the weekend competition up there.

This is all paid for by the clubs not the players, why because they want the best playing for them.and a winning club culture.

I know I'm always going on about Tech's signings and it's all a good read what you've all said above, but this is getting ridiculous. 

I realise that he is Superman however:

a) that was back in the 1980's

b) he fell of a horse and became a tetraplegic

c) he has since died

quote of the year

My response to the above comments (and tangents that have formed) from Benchwarmers original post about flying players in.

Yes it is great that we have a league that some players want to fly in to play for us, however is that the best use of our time and money? Is our league really that good that people will jump on a plane and play for a club in the South? How many other leagues in the country have players fly in to play? I'm guessing probably none.

Either way, if there is money out there from funding agencies (ie: poor people's gambling addiction) available to fund players Air NZ miles, petrol money, or other added 'bonus', surely there are better things to spend money on as a club?

Prickly Thistle's post about "buying people's time" is a change of words from the usual "we don't do that".  Is everyone ok with that now because according to the employer it is making our game better? Can't say years of this technique has made much of a difference to our All Whites appearances.

Sorry Vim, I am expressing a personal opinion on the need to improve our game locally. Around the world and across many sports it is achieved by paying people to put more time into their sport, by becoming more professional I believe our game will also improve. It is not new I have said it before.

It is not the complete answer but it would help. Such a move would have to be responsibly handled and managed. You would not want to be throwing money around to youngsters that then gets gambled away before the season has kicked off, for instance. Heaven forbid, who would be that stupid? 

I do not think we would have many current All Whites playing, obviously they are all full time professionals playing in professional leagues but I do think we could start developing a few more and see them play locally for a while in a better competition. 

Money spent on keeping quality players in Christchurch during the club season, across the clubs and enabling them to then play for Canty Utd or Pride would surely benefit our competition and playing standards.

I must agree that years of doing what we have been doing locally has not worked well, so do you carry on or try to improve it.

A lot of money has been spent on facilities by some clubs, a good deal on coaching and administration, players should simply be next in line for me.

Disagree Prickly. Other leagues around the world finance it very differently from NZ. We should only be paying players in Chch if we have the sustainable means to do so, ie  we can secure prizemoney, sponsorship and charge for public attendance at matches - none of which seem likely in the near future. I don't want to see average players paid from whatever slush fund a club may be running for such purposes, be it junior subs, sausage sizzles, meat raffles or club academies. On a side not, it's only a natter of time before IRD investigate a footballers non declared income too.

Here's our picks for the double weekend. Good luck to all those people who picked Coastal to collect 6 points. Some interesting selections in here. I think some of us need to roll the dice a little more and start picking some upsets!

Weekend Action

Saturday

Midday - Nelson Suburbs vs Halswell Saxton Fields

2:45pm

Cashmere Technical vs. Western - Garrick Memorial Park

FC Twenty11 vs. Coastal Spirit - Avonhead Park

Universities vs. Ferrymead Bays - Ilam Fields 

Monday

1pm

Coastal vs. Suburbs - English Park

2:45pm

Technical vs. FC - Garrick Memorial Park

Halswell vs. Universities - Halswell Domain

3pm

Ferrymead vs. Western - English Park

Great tribute to Ben Hall in The Press this morning:

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/football/79234009/can...

Results Round 6

Cashmere Technical 1 (Michael White) Western 0 HT 0 - 0

FC Twenty11 0 Coastal Spirit 2 (Rhys Wiliams, Shawn O'Brien - pen) HT 0 - 1

Nelson Suburbs 2 (Ryan Stewart, Ben Wright) Halswell 1 (Anton McMahon) HT 1 -0

Universities 1 (Nikolai Molijn) Ferrymead Bays 0 HT 1 - 0

Both Cashmere Technical and Nelson Suburbs scored their winning goals at the death with Suburbs play 84 minutes with 10 men after their keeper, Coey Turipa received a straight red when handing outside the area to deny a goal. FC also had a player sent off when handing on the line to deny a goal.

How did Tech only get by Western late?? Western were very average last week albeit uni very good first half. Also what's going on with ferrymead, many talking them up before the start of the season. Could quite easily have been four if not for their keeper today. Doesn't look like a side that's getting on too well

From the Nelson Mail:

https://www.stuff.co.nz/nelson-mail/sport/79259740/...

Christchurch Qualflying Results

ChCh United 7 Waimak 0

Burwood 1 Parklands 1

Nomads 4 Selwyn 3

Points after 4 rounds: Nomads 12, ChCh United 9, Selwyn 6, Waimak 6, Burwood 2, Parklands 1

Deleted - double post

Yer that's a real shame for the next team to play Nelson.

"One option would be to keep centre-back Daniel Allan in the sticks. The 19-year-old didn't look out of place as Nelson Suburbs grinded out an unlikely win at Saxton Field on Saturday considering the circumstances" 

but I take your point. Big games tomorrow for all teams as the first round concludes, particularly Western v Bays.

any results? 

Coastal 1-0 over Nelson. Red card each. 

I'd picked 6 from 6 this weekend...but then Bays and Halswell happened.

Tech 3 Fc 0

Halswell 2 Uni 1

Scorers

Cashmere Technical 3 (Liam Oxley 2, Tom Schwarz) FC Twenty11 0 HT 1 - 0

Coastal Spirit 1 (Tristian Nichol) Nelson Suburbs 0 HT 1 - 0

Ferrymead Bays 4 (Chris Murphy, Andy Tuckey 3) Western 1 (Daniel Thoms) HT 2 - 1

Halswell 2 (own goal, Anton McMahon) Universities 1 (Hamish Foy) HT 1 - 1

I was advised of one of the Bays scorers incorrectly with Andy Tuckey scoring a three, the first hat-trick of the season, with Murph only scoring a singe goal. 

Updated table:

How many did Nomads stick past Waimak today?

Heard that it was Waimak 1 Nomads 4 and understand ChCh United defeated Parklands and Selwyn overcoming Burwood.

Nomads did win 4-1, Christchurch Utd was 3-0 although were lucky not to go in at half time a couple down

This is what you're waiting for.  Foal30 with the bestest this week with 7 outta 8. 

I got rid of Mastj and FCBoy as they haven't picked in the last 3 weeks.  Timtam and Metalmania you haven't picked in 2, keep up!

Next week picks are here: MPL Week 8