Status report

Thought I would put a quick summary of teams here. I have listed in the order I think they will finish.   Feel free to tell me I'm wrong or wright.  

Auckland City: Looking every part the team they have been over the past 5 years.  The young boys added from Wellington are worth their spots and have added quality whilst being Kiwi-born.  Kris Bright also to add goals when he comes back in,  Auckland looks too good to stop and will take the title back this year.

Team Wellington: Don't seem to be reaching the untouchable heights of the last two seasons. The squad looks strong enough to push Auckland City all the way to the end this season but I believe the gap is too big.  

Eastern Suburbs:  Depths looks to be a problem.  Maybe have 11 players capable of pushing Auckland city but rarely do teams get their best 11 in the park consistently.  Will be interesting if/what impact Chris James will have.  

Tasman: Results are rewarding the loyal fanbase they have down there. They look well organized and have strategically added key players to their squad. 

Hawkes Bay United: Have lost a little quality and goals over the offseason. Angel again has conjured up a competitive team from a limited resource that plays to there strengths. A midtable finish at best. 

Waitakere United:  Players have the quality to push the top half of the league but at this stage look very unorganized and clueless.  Also, reports of missed payments and financial disarray don't instill confidence.  

Southern United: The best Southern United team in years. The Irish lads are worth the admission fee to enjoy there intensity and drive. Cant be taken lightly and can upset anyone. 

Canterbury United: No Clapham,  will struggle.  

Weenix: Haven't seen them play

Hamilton Wanders:  5 game in the team looks to have lost its self-confidence.  Captain looks as though he doesn't care.  I can only wonder if Herbert had his eyes open when he took the job as the franchise is lacking in many areas.  

I watched about 15 mins of the game on TV yesterday then turned it off. It was footballers vs school kids or so it seemed and Team Wellington could have had 10 in the opening 15. The big CB was all mouth and fudge all else. He gift 2 goals I saw and then pointed his fingers at everyone else. The back 4 in general all stood around pointing and marking empty spaces such was the basics of marking opponents. Joel Stevens was absolute class and owned his side of the field giving the fullback nightmares I am sure

If thats the standard of the league now with a Ricki Herbert side, then it really is average (not taking away from Team Wellington). Wanderers were poor and I am not surprised that they have shipped a sharkload of goals based on the 15 I saw.

Why are they so bad?

They have recruited more from local talent rather than bringing in talent from Auckland and elsewhere but seeing as in a small catchment they already have Wood, Rojas, Thomas, Boyd and Rogerson and others all playing out of NZ(ish) or outside the Waikato maybe finding depth with your regions best players in the last decade all having moved to bigger things is a challenge.

Credit to their keeper and right back who between them stopped it being double figures in the second half.

Agree on Hamilton . They look extremely unorganised but i also feel they do not have enough quality locally to compete . Probably harsh but true . I agree clubs should have a vision to develop players locally but having some imports and players from outside of the region will help with that development initially ........

The clue is their first name. 

Hey guys, a few factoids:

1. The Wanderers squad certainly looks a little raw, but that is not for want of drawing in outside talent, as some posters here appear to be implying.

A glance of their squad shows it contains players from North Shore, Birkenhead (2), Tauranga (2), New Plymouth, Central, Eastern Suburbs. Plus a new Island import and another to come.

I counted 12 of the 26 in the squad I could identify as Waikato players, including the obligatory youth contract players. (I did not count Marc Evans as he withdrew from the squad last week to take up an offer from an Adelaide club).

That left nine not counting the youth. That doesn't seem overly locally-based to me.

2. Wanderers did have a phyrric victory of sorts during the game. By the end of the game they had reduced Wellington to their level. Wellington started of looking like title challengers but by the end looked barely much better than Wanderers.

3. Most of the team's coaching sessions appear to be taken by Ricki Herbert's son.

4. Foal, if anything I'd argue the clue is NOT in their first name, given the club's is legally incorporated as Wanderers Sports Club (legacy of a 1964 ruling banning them from using the name "Hamilton Wanderers" for a period of time, given that the original club under that name had just amalgamated with Technical Old Boys to form Hamilton AFC).

Hope this helps.

That doesn't answer my original question as to why are they so crap - is it a player quality issue or are there some issues with coaching etc.  I ahd assume that Ricki would be able to get them organised at the very least

There is a dearth of national league experience and pedigree across the squad. They are really missing Aaron Scott, who chose not to play this summer. And it was a shame Liam Hayes went to Hawke's Bay instead. Stafford Dowling, who impressed at the end of last season, is in the US.

A number of starting players are still finding their feet at northern league level, let alone national league level..

They don't appear to be well organised (in my view). They don't even seem to communicate very well on the pitch.

I'd say it does. Why does Ricki keep taking on coaching jobs if, as in his last days with the Nix and AWs, he thinks himself "above" actual coaching?

Why is it only in NZ where the coach is more revered than the Manager? In rest of the world the Manager is the boss and he has coaches working for him to run sessions, which is probably what Ricki is trying to do. 

I hate to beat the dead horse I was beating in the Auckland City thread but, having known Ricki's son, it seems he left school, coached youth** at his father's academy and because of that got a job with Taupo AFC (5th in division 1 [not prems] last year).

I'm really struggling to see what experience/knowledge/insight he can offer a group of national league players as a coach. As far as google will tell me (feel free to correct me) there's no coaching badges, no stand out successes as a coach, little playing experience...

I suppose I find it interesting why no one else is concerned about this blatant display of nepotism in our top league. Bit of a farce if you ask me.

** Running youth drills is a whole bunch different to teaching and implementing tactics with national league level seniors...

Worked for Hudson.

Would be a different situation if Brett Angel was the coach. Bet he has a similar budget to Hamilton and less catchment in the area. Must have been a reason Herbert wanted to take the role. $$$? Lose lose in my opinion he’d be expected to do okay and at least set up a team well if it carries on like this it only shows him as a poor coach.

Brett Angel runs the HBU ship off an oil rag.No money at all to be thrown around.Cant even afford to replace Sam mason smith who picked up a contract in SA yet Brett still produces the goods year after year

These are all the exact same issues that Southern United have struggled with for years... big gap from club to national league, the odd genuinely classy local player goes on to bigger things, the decent experienced locals get sick of struggling year on end so make themselves unavailable. Knee-jerk signings of mercenaries from around the country, that are almost always sharke and disappear mid-season, or if they do perform well they're quick to get snapped up by bigger teams.

The current regime at Southern seems to have a much better long-term strategy though. Imports were brought in to fill key positions but they were a good fit with both the team and the region's footballing community. Tactically building a solid hard-working defensive unit, then working on attacking elements.This year some of the experienced locals previously uninterested/unavailable are inspired to be involved again (and in the case of Tom Connor playing the best football of his career). Slowly but surely it's all paying off.

I think in terms of the Wanderers they probably thought Herbert would be a quick-fix whereas it's actually the worst thing they could have possibly done - the only positive I expected was that I thought he would have at least dragged a couple of Lochheads/Bertos/etc along with him but he hasn't even had that pulling power. Now he looks like the emperor with no clothes.

It's a fair comparison with Southern.

Ricki has quickly established a significant presence in Waikato football, as you would expect, so his appointment made sense for Wanderers in a region where there were not a lot of alternative candidates.

I'm not sure there was a quick-fix mentality.

Whatever coach came in was going to confront some big challenges at Wanderers. The history of Waikato teams at national league level, from Hamilton to Waikato United to Waikato FC to WaiBop shows they all struggled in their second seasons, and there is a question mark over how well resourced the club is in comparison to other entities at this level.

But that shouldn't stop Wanderers sorting out a few basics, like communication and a more cohesive backline.

As a national league follower I've been disappointed in what I have seen so far this season, but have still appreciated having a national league entity in our back yard.