Northern Leagues

I can see Coombes Twitting JH-M the firs time he carries on like a dick.

director of football at glenfield in 2013, and played - kinda...

That might be it and why I got confused. DoF. Apologies Buffy

I think that was Craig Alexander

Surprised he found the time in between visits to Bunnings.

nailgate

Nah Jaws did

Your right Alexander was 2012

Birko better start training on how to play with nine men. With both Coombes and J H-V in the same side they is a high likelihood that someone is going to be sent off

What happened to Birko Central midfielder, Dylan ??? . He didn't play last year for them but was there the year before. I rated him as a player 

What is Glenfield going to do at the start of the season. Gwyther, and the Auckland City lads will still be tied up in the ASB 

Daniel Ellensohn, my spies tell me.

Took a job on a cruise ship.

He's back for 2015

just under two weeks till kick off - whose picking what for honors and disappointment?

.

Premier League 

(top 2)

Birkenhead have assembled a strong squad based around a couple of core players - should be up there

Glenfield - hard to look past them if they recruit as well as last year (will start slow due to lack of ASBP/O-League players)

(bottom 2)

Bay Olympic - rumours are they have struggled to retain any players after coach change, just signed Colligan though so some hope there

Waitakere City - have been pants for several seasons now - will only be saved if Butler and friends make an appearance post ASBP

Dark Horse - Western Springs could challenge for top honors if they get points early on

Match of the Season - Glenfield vs Birko at McFetridge (16th May @ 2:45pm)

.

Div 1

(top 2)

North Shore - change of coach and several NZ U17's headed there, could be time for shore to get back into the top league

FHM - loads of ASBP talent there mixed in with some younger talent - bucks to spend if they need it

(bottom 3 - couldn't decide between these three)

MAP - no Colligan or Rhodes but plenty of heart - will it be enough to keep them in the league?

Metro - a coaching change and a bit of a clean out - can go one of two ways - they will hope it isn't a downwards trend

Waiuku - only put them here because i'm not sure how they will go away from home - at home they will pick up points - will that be enough to keep them out of trouble?  I hope so - one of my favorite NRFL teams.

Dark Horse - Ellerslie - a bit biased of me here but i feel we have a squad which is easily capable of going up - just don't know how consistent we are going to be with a young team.

Match of the Season - The first one - 27th March, the New North Road Derby between MAP and Metro at Anderson Park.

.

Div 2

(top 2)

Papatoetoe - will be young but with some ASBP Youth players and a promotion proven coach they should bounce straight back into Div 1

Papakura - missed out by a smidge last year, if HHJ is still there then probably a lock - but stranger things have happened.

(bottom 1 or is it 2?)

Lynn Avon - sorry but they have struggled for years - and i just don't see them long term staying in the league - will be sad to see them go but someone has to drop out.

Dark Horses - any one of the three promoted sides from Federation Football are the darkest of horses, with Manukau being the most well known - Fury and Te Atatu could land on their feet and be instantly competitive or could be out of their depth - my bet is one of the three will push for promotion.

Match of the Season - hard to pick - but i'm going to go with the fixture which involves more travel than anyone else this year - Fury vs North Force - both games will be a hard slog but Sunday in Tauranga seems a tough task for Force to swallow - that's the 2nd of August at 2:45pm if anyone is interested.

.

Your thoughts?

Hamilton Wanderers have finished 4th and 3rd in the past two seasons. They have assembled a very good squad so watch out for them. 7 or 8 of the Waibop starting 11 come from Wanderers

Could be the dark horses and will be tough to beat at home 

Heard Bay O and Waitakere are struggling 

Wanderers is a good shout - with WaiBOP not involved in the finals or O-League it means Wanderers will be full strength right from the start.

Only concern I had there is now with Melville in the prems will that dilute the talent pool at Wanderers?  Player movement between the two clubs has always been pretty high

I think your premier league picks are on the nose. Agree with Wanderers being a smokey and you can never discount ECB

Bay Olympic will implode with Jaws running that ship.

I like those picks Chopah! I think the dark horse you're looking for amongst the promoted sides in Div 2 will be Fury... 

On a sort of related note, I just wanted to do a shameless spam to promote my interview with Neil Emblen which has just gone up on the blog as part of my NRFL build-up. He made a few predictions himself. Oratia under Steve Cain was the other one he thought might be worth watching out for in Div 2, which I thought was interesting...

http://in-the-back-of-the.net/2015/03/17/an-interview-with-neil-emblen/

great article Enzo , always enjoy them. Great read 

That is one awesome article Enzo - thanks!!

Great article. I like the part where he talks about Hudson and is professional enough to know it was not personal and the connection was left open to come back in and be a resource in a different way. Truly a class bloke and I hope he is part of the future stuff nationally.

Dylan Ball = Dylan Bull yes?

Quite possibly. I transcribed the interview from a recording so he may well have said Bull. Will change. Thanks.

No Mandy Smith pics?

Depends. Does she play defensive midfield for Claudelands Rovers? ;-)

Under-age starlet for Rolling Bones FC. Clean sheets not guaranteed.

NRFL rebranding for this season new logo and new social media channels specifically dedicated to the league  www.facebook.com/LottoNRFL and the twitter handle is @LottoNRFL 

I think my team ECB will struggle this year, from the players they have lost and bought in

neither under estimate East Coast Bays . Onehunga looked to have recruited well 

Yes you never do, but I have seen there squad lol

First game done and dusted, Metro take a 2-1 win with a suspect offside goal.  MAP were the better team but end up on the wrong side of the Derby result this time.

Any interesting newcomers?

e.g : I see Ben Vidaic is the new captain of Eastern Suburbs. 27 yr old Oz striker, ex Oz Under-20's, Sydney FC (2 games) & Marconi Stallions.

went to ECB vs Hamilton Wanderers game. Well deserved win for Wanderers against 9 man Bays. joe Bresenan sent off for two silly yellow cards. The other play was sent with about 15 mins to go. ECB had a number of players missing

Interesting results .Melville hammered and Western Springs hold Birkenhead. 

Sounds like Eastern Suburds fielding a number of foreigners this year as the oversee players regulations have been relaxed 

Central United 4-2 winners over Three Kings United Regont Murati with 2 goals Finn Cochrane and Aaron Bawdekar scoring the others. Thomas Konusi and Alan Pearce scoring for Three Kings. The Central youngsters looked really good today and will do better than they did last season. 

Stupid fells by Joe, ruined the game. Wanderers did look good but the game was over when he got sent. Just so you know our assistant coach and goalkeeper coach were both playing. They then subbed on a 15, 16 year old keeper

Birko threw it away. 2-0 up with a few minutes to go.... Dominated the game though.

did this rule (the guest player rule) just change?

What a surprise Joe being sent off. He is a poor mans Chad Coombes. At least Coombes has a couple of tricks in his bag. Joe just kicks anything that moves all day and its never his fault.

He did score the first goal. But yes not a very good captain

ECB will definitely get stronger but you can only play whats in front of you. Wanderers did that and were missing a few players as well

Teams will sort themselves out when the ASB season finishes 

I have heard that you can field 11 foreigners if you want. I maybe wrong but that's what an ECB official told me 

True but springs were missing five or six starters and played a lot of reserve players and then three schoolkids came on at the end and turned the game!!!!!