Northern League 2022

mrsmiis

20 Legend

@chubbs if this is your first season... I can't put my finger on it but this season has been extremely dull.

Teams seem devoid of character. Even ACFC games are snooze fests.

Think it's because the quality def has diminished a lot this season. Not too sure but here's my thinking:

- North Shore have lost *all* of their squad from last year to Bay Olympic + Div 1 and 2 clubs with money - that's one less competitive team.

- Waiheke playing fill-ins; basically young reserves players from other clubs keen to try their luck in the Northern League. Allowing them to field their promotion-winning squad is a contentious issue but you can't lie, the league would be significantly more entertaining with Waiheke at their full capabilities

- Takapuna decent, but playing some *terrible* football - they replace WCR who did try to be attractive

- Suburbs are significantly worse than last season. Team's great for developmental purposes but certainly isn't competitive this season

- An unreal lack of media coverage. It's been butchered compared to last season, where it wasn't particularly good to begin with. Feels like a social league

 
I’ve only watched Div 1 this year, but I feel that North Shore, Waiheke and I guess Suburbs too are worse than the bottom three last year of WCR, Northern and Manukau. WCR are topping Div 1, but tbf Northern aren’t doing great, but that’s because they aren’t great, and have been bailed out of some heavy score lines in recent weeks. But having ES, Shore and Waiheke on 5, 4 and 3 points after 10 games, with goal differences getting close to -30 is pretty poor, especially for Suburbs.

Having Tribe give notifications of scores on full-time and having lineups an hour before kickoff is better than it’s been before, which was nothing. Plus you add in the live-streamed games by NZF. That being said, the only way to see any other footage is from the ‘Goals of the Week’ segment they do. Every game has to be filmed, so surely they can do a full goals round-up at the very least. I’ve wanted for years an equivalent of the ‘Grassroots rugby’ show, but I know that’ll never happen.

Nonsense article.

Full time position for a club manager at Auckland United if anyone's interested?

Full time role in football for approx 60k doesn't sound too bad. Not sure how far 60k gets you in Auckland these days, but I'm sure may tickle someone's fancy.

https://aucklandunitedfc.org.nz/news/clubmanager?fbclid=IwAR2rY8y-9mnO0JAqJKSGFqb4X85S6BqB8lvNGBz5GzVO_pfZR7xbX3gpY6c

53’ GOAL! Hat trick for Champness! Built escapes the Shore defense and crosses it in for a header! Brilliant stuff@esafc 4️⃣ vs @NSUAFC_Official 2️⃣#lilywhites #NorthernLeague #ESvsNSU

🟡⚪️

— Eastern Suburbs AFC (@ESAFC) May 28, 2022

The younger Champness making an impact in his second Eastern Suburbs appearance. 

coochiee

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/300599275/coach-banned-for-swiftly-subbing-young-players-surprised-by-nz-football-ruling

Very hard to disagree with any of that.

Went to City vs United today expecting some kind of football match.

First 15-20 minutes was good. Both teams had chances. Then City scored and killed the game. Nice free kick around the 70th minute, then we left.

I used to have a rule to never leave a football game early, owing to missing out on last minute shenanigans. But I've well and truly broken that this year. Games are a total yawn!

Yeah Taka-Waiheke was largely boring today. Bit of niggle, Waiheke a bit feisty as you'd expect, but lack of quality in the final third.

Jeez had someone show me the total pokie grants Central United and Auckland City received in the last FY. Over a million dollars. No wonder they are untouchable at the moment. 

Birkenhead 1 v Auckland United 1.Both goals in the last 10 minutes or so.Auckland took the lead after Hirst was caught out of goal and the United player finished from 25 yards.United celebrated as if they had won it but Birko scored almost immediately.If it wa boxing match i think auckland would have got a split decision.A better game than most I have seen but not a lot of quality on display.Both teams look to me to be struggling to score.Neither has a 10-15 seasons goal scorer which you need to be succesful.Conroy was busy up front but didn't look like a regular goalscorer.Burfoot in his 100th game had a battle withh Den Hiejer and it ended about square.Nice afternoon in the sunshine

Went to Birko v Bay Olympic yesterday.3-0 to Birko a fair representation of the game. Bay olympic pretty ordinary .Were big spenders previously but maybe no know. Left Wing Back Jackson woods got 2 for Birko - second goal spectacular from 80 yards away but from comments from the balcony right above even more special.Olympic second half substitute Darren white (remember him ?) very lucky to stay on the field.His tackle left stud marks above the waist of the Birko player.Yellow only .Don't think it was malicious but the end result was bad.
On a not strictly Northern league subject , interesting to see that you can probably ink in about 8 of the 10 participants in the National round at the half way stage.Finishing order is all that there is to determine. That was one of the weaknesses of the superclub back in the mid 1990's. The other weakness of superclub was a lot of one sided games (noticed Miramar 9-0 over Western suburbs yesterday).You wonder what the whole point of the regional rounds are ?
Thats the problem when you have corporate types running the show. No institutional memory about why certain concepts failed.

Yeah . I read my words again. Goal was from about 3-4 yards but an acute angle after a run along the bye line.I was 80 or so yards away but it was right under the balcony at Shepherds Park.Think the twitter account described it as goal of the season.His first one wasn't too bad either.Similar position.

Went to Kiwitea Street for Auckland City vs Hamilton Wanderers last week. Was quite happy to see City challenged in a Northern League game for once rather than hammering a team which they seem to have done in recent weeks. 

Yup City won 2-0 but had Wanderers capitalised on some of their chances it could have been a very different game. 

Went to the Croatian Club last night for the Auckland City vs Eastern Suburbs game. Nice to see City get pushed again in the second half. As much as City should have had 3-4 in the first half Suburbs had their chances in the second and deservedly got on the scoresheet through Aaryan Raj. 

Game finished on a weird note with Nick Waldron sending off Hoani Edwards from the technical area for calling him a cheat. 

Echoing your comments pop... City are certainly beatable but you need to take the game to them. yes sit deep when they're in your half. But without a doubt the way to play them is to press and make sure they've got no outlet through the centre of the park - particularly in Auckland's half. Even when City play through the press, 99% they get into the opposition's half and cut back again anyway. Which gives you a chance to get deep to defend.

Hamilton felt pretty close to coming away with something, good for them.

pop

Went to the Croatian Club last night for the Auckland City vs Eastern Suburbs game. Nice to see City get pushed again in the second half. As much as City should have had 3-4 in the first half Suburbs had their chances in the second and deservedly got on the scoresheet through Aaryan Raj. 

Game finished on a weird note with Nick Waldron sending off Hoani Edwards from the technical area for calling him a cheat. 

Thought ES were dire for the first 45. Kalua saved three? chances off his own goal line for ES. They came out and looked much more confident and made a game of it in the second.

Red card - Auckland City player controlled a pass with his arm. Lino was saying handball through this microphone. The ES bench heard this and after Nick ignored the lino, Hoani said to Nick "you're just cheating now" three or four times.

Seems the "C" word is where he draws the line. I remember a Central United game maybe three or four years ago where a spectator called Nick a cheat and he stopped the game for 3 or 4 minutes until the spectator left Kiwitea Street.

Birkenhead and Auckland City serve up an 8 goal thriller at Shepherds Park with the Navy Blues coming out on top 5-3 to move 15 points clear of Birko (Having played a game more) 

Auckland City won the league with quite a few games left to play. Would be nice to see NRF or NZ Football actually do a bit of an investigation into how much they are playing players. Otherwise this will continue on as long as they have the Trillian Trust in their back pocket (or at the summer house in Croatia)

It is concerning that Auckland City have won the league with so long to go.
I doubt very much that they are doing anything outside the regulations which NZF do audit and I would not be surprised if Auckland City were audited more rigorously than others. It is quite okay to pay players to coach and they have to justify the remuneration against the hours put in.
Perhaps Auckland City just do it better than others (along with a lot of other things)
The big worry is that all 3 leagues - Northern,Central and Southern have their National League entrants all but finalised 2/3 of the way through the season.
Same thing happened in the Superclub (nothing super about it) in the mid 90's. It only became interesting when the National rounds started.But NZF has never been great at learning from past errors. Corporate types with no institutional knowledge.
If I was a betting man I would put money on a return to a club based National League within 3 years.
My biggest worry is what happens if the law changes and pokies get outlawed (or heavily restricted). The National League(and some other sports) never recovered from the loss of tobacco sponsorship.No apologist for big tobacco but the amount that Rothmans put into the game was significant.

Should just bring back alcohol and tobacco sponsorship tbh. They allow gambling sponsorship like it’s nothing and that is just as harmful as alcohol or tobacco, only difference is the effects tend to be more mental than physical harm.

Not sure why one is ok but then other isn’t, then again this country is pathetic when it comes to looking after mental health so it shouldn’t surprise me.

chubbs

It is concerning that Auckland City have won the league with so long to go.
I doubt very much that they are doing anything outside the regulations which NZF do audit and I would not be surprised if Auckland City were audited more rigorously than others. It is quite okay to pay players to coach and they have to justify the remuneration against the hours put in.
Perhaps Auckland City just do it better than others (along with a lot of other things)
The big worry is that all 3 leagues - Northern,Central and Southern have their National League entrants all but finalised 2/3 of the way through the season.
Same thing happened in the Superclub (nothing super about it) in the mid 90's. It only became interesting when the National rounds started.But NZF has never been great at learning from past errors. Corporate types with no institutional knowledge.
If I was a betting man I would put money on a return to a club based National League within 3 years.
My biggest worry is what happens if the law changes and pokies get outlawed (or heavily restricted). The National League(and some other sports) never recovered from the loss of tobacco sponsorship.No apologist for big tobacco but the amount that Rothmans put into the game was significant.

Auckland City's dominance isn't good, but it's not surprising. Even in the old summer league, where the talent was condensed into 10 teams nationally as opposed to 10 just in Auckland (21 in the top two tiers), they won the league every year since 13/14. Of 126 franchise league games from 13/14 to 20/21 they only lost 12, and won all their games except for one draw (same as this Northern League) in 18/19, so this domination is nothing new. The only way to have stopped this was if Auckland City had dissolved similar to how Team Wellington did, but the brand was too strong to throw away.

It's no secret that they pay their players, but they are not alone in doing that, I would be surprised if any team was not paying their players. North Shore is a perfect example of this, you don't lose so many players to go from surviving to being one of the worst ever sides over a year for no reason. There doesn't seem to be any desire by anyone to stop it, and if they did clubs would find 'creative'  ways to get around it anyway. The City players also know that they have a very good chance at winning the OFC Champions' League (and every chance a treble too) which would get them the Club World Cup bonuses. Depending on how well they do, that could be a five figure sum, so it's no surprise that they can have three recent All Whites and two international quality keepers.

The National League places being all but decided is also not great, but I'm not sure what can be done to change that from happening again. Top players are finite, and know they can get money, so you have to pay; organic growth is almost a pipe dream. The current top four has three teams from last season's (City, Auckland Utd and Birkenhead) with Suburbs and Melville swapping fortunes. Wanderers are the only side who could break into it. In City and Utd you have probably the two richest clubs, and Birkenhead hoover up all North Shore talent, and then the Hamilton sides have 50/50 access to the entire Waikato. 

Central and Southern League are the same; Olympic and Miramar have the biggest budgets and halved TW between them, and in third (fourth) is Napier City Rovers who have access to an entire region as well. Cash Tech is Canterbury Utd under a different name and Chch Utd are just as rich as Olympic, Rangers, City or Auckland Utd. This gravitation to richer teams becoming more dominant is hardly endemic to New Zealand, it happens everywhere in Europe and will continue to do so. 

I don't know how feasible a change back to the old format would be. As it was, it was held up by considerable trust funding and Club World Cup money, and when both dried up it was game over. Having the two season thing was also awkward, and the franchise system worked worse than having a clear club format. It also suffered the same issues about little competition, with only Auckland City and Waitakere Utd ever winning the actual league in the 17 seasons it ran for (TW won three finals and Suburbs one, but never the league format). The concentration of talent was greater, but the league was still weak compared to anything in Europe, and it's tough to argue it moved players into professional leagues better than the current format, as the majority of development was done in club environments anyway.

 Agree with you on the payment side, but i think the difference is the other clubs do not have the same available $ and might pay a few players at the City levels, but do not have the capacity to pay more. I have been wondering how that will impact the second stage of the National league as City can afford to have almost two strong sides in a squad full of depth, versus others in the qualifiers,who with a few injuries and players off to the USA will struggle to compete in the business end of the comp. The old model at least allowed a reset with no transfer deadlines, which in the current format has closed already. I can see weakened teams playing the the national comp which is not good for football either. Just my thoughts but this current format does not feel right to me.

carlind

chubbs

It is concerning that Auckland City have won the league with so long to go.
I doubt very much that they are doing anything outside the regulations which NZF do audit and I would not be surprised if Auckland City were audited more rigorously than others. It is quite okay to pay players to coach and they have to justify the remuneration against the hours put in.
Perhaps Auckland City just do it better than others (along with a lot of other things)
The big worry is that all 3 leagues - Northern,Central and Southern have their National League entrants all but finalised 2/3 of the way through the season.
Same thing happened in the Superclub (nothing super about it) in the mid 90's. It only became interesting when the National rounds started.But NZF has never been great at learning from past errors. Corporate types with no institutional knowledge.
If I was a betting man I would put money on a return to a club based National League within 3 years.
My biggest worry is what happens if the law changes and pokies get outlawed (or heavily restricted). The National League(and some other sports) never recovered from the loss of tobacco sponsorship.No apologist for big tobacco but the amount that Rothmans put into the game was significant.

Auckland City's dominance isn't good, but it's not surprising. Even in the old summer league, where the talent was condensed into 10 teams nationally as opposed to 10 just in Auckland (21 in the top two tiers), they won the league every year since 13/14. Of 126 franchise league games from 13/14 to 20/21 they only lost 12, and won all their games except for one draw (same as this Northern League) in 18/19, so this domination is nothing new. The only way to have stopped this was if Auckland City had dissolved similar to how Team Wellington did, but the brand was too strong to throw away.

It's no secret that they pay their players, but they are not alone in doing that, I would be surprised if any team was not paying their players. North Shore is a perfect example of this, you don't lose so many players to go from surviving to being one of the worst ever sides over a year for no reason. There doesn't seem to be any desire by anyone to stop it, and if they did clubs would find 'creative'  ways to get around it anyway. The City players also know that they have a very good chance at winning the OFC Champions' League (and every chance a treble too) which would get them the Club World Cup bonuses. Depending on how well they do, that could be a five figure sum, so it's no surprise that they can have three recent All Whites and two international quality keepers.

The National League places being all but decided is also not great, but I'm not sure what can be done to change that from happening again. Top players are finite, and know they can get money, so you have to pay; organic growth is almost a pipe dream. The current top four has three teams from last season's (City, Auckland Utd and Birkenhead) with Suburbs and Melville swapping fortunes. Wanderers are the only side who could break into it. In City and Utd you have probably the two richest clubs, and Birkenhead hoover up all North Shore talent, and then the Hamilton sides have 50/50 access to the entire Waikato. 

Central and Southern League are the same; Olympic and Miramar have the biggest budgets and halved TW between them, and in third (fourth) is Napier City Rovers who have access to an entire region as well. Cash Tech is Canterbury Utd under a different name and Chch Utd are just as rich as Olympic, Rangers, City or Auckland Utd. This gravitation to richer teams becoming more dominant is hardly endemic to New Zealand, it happens everywhere in Europe and will continue to do so. 

I don't know how feasible a change back to the old format would be. As it was, it was held up by considerable trust funding and Club World Cup money, and when both dried up it was game over. Having the two season thing was also awkward, and the franchise system worked worse than having a clear club format. It also suffered the same issues about little competition, with only Auckland City and Waitakere Utd ever winning the actual league in the 17 seasons it ran for (TW won three finals and Suburbs one, but never the league format). The concentration of talent was greater, but the league was still weak compared to anything in Europe, and it's tough to argue it moved players into professional leagues better than the current format, as the majority of development was done in club environments anyway.

carlind

chubbs

It is concerning that Auckland City have won the league with so long to go.
I doubt very much that they are doing anything outside the regulations which NZF do audit and I would not be surprised if Auckland City were audited more rigorously than others. It is quite okay to pay players to coach and they have to justify the remuneration against the hours put in.
Perhaps Auckland City just do it better than others (along with a lot of other things)
The big worry is that all 3 leagues - Northern,Central and Southern have their National League entrants all but finalised 2/3 of the way through the season.
Same thing happened in the Superclub (nothing super about it) in the mid 90's. It only became interesting when the National rounds started.But NZF has never been great at learning from past errors. Corporate types with no institutional knowledge.
If I was a betting man I would put money on a return to a club based National League within 3 years.
My biggest worry is what happens if the law changes and pokies get outlawed (or heavily restricted). The National League(and some other sports) never recovered from the loss of tobacco sponsorship.No apologist for big tobacco but the amount that Rothmans put into the game was significant.

Auckland City's dominance isn't good, but it's not surprising. Even in the old summer league, where the talent was condensed into 10 teams nationally as opposed to 10 just in Auckland (21 in the top two tiers), they won the league every year since 13/14. Of 126 franchise league games from 13/14 to 20/21 they only lost 12, and won all their games except for one draw (same as this Northern League) in 18/19, so this domination is nothing new. The only way to have stopped this was if Auckland City had dissolved similar to how Team Wellington did, but the brand was too strong to throw away.

It's no secret that they pay their players, but they are not alone in doing that, I would be surprised if any team was not paying their players. North Shore is a perfect example of this, you don't lose so many players to go from surviving to being one of the worst ever sides over a year for no reason. There doesn't seem to be any desire by anyone to stop it, and if they did clubs would find 'creative'  ways to get around it anyway. The City players also know that they have a very good chance at winning the OFC Champions' League (and every chance a treble too) which would get them the Club World Cup bonuses. Depending on how well they do, that could be a five figure sum, so it's no surprise that they can have three recent All Whites and two international quality keepers.

The National League places being all but decided is also not great, but I'm not sure what can be done to change that from happening again. Top players are finite, and know they can get money, so you have to pay; organic growth is almost a pipe dream. The current top four has three teams from last season's (City, Auckland Utd and Birkenhead) with Suburbs and Melville swapping fortunes. Wanderers are the only side who could break into it. In City and Utd you have probably the two richest clubs, and Birkenhead hoover up all North Shore talent, and then the Hamilton sides have 50/50 access to the entire Waikato. 

Central and Southern League are the same; Olympic and Miramar have the biggest budgets and halved TW between them, and in third (fourth) is Napier City Rovers who have access to an entire region as well. Cash Tech is Canterbury Utd under a different name and Chch Utd are just as rich as Olympic, Rangers, City or Auckland Utd. This gravitation to richer teams becoming more dominant is hardly endemic to New Zealand, it happens everywhere in Europe and will continue to do so. 

I don't know how feasible a change back to the old format would be. As it was, it was held up by considerable trust funding and Club World Cup money, and when both dried up it was game over. Having the two season thing was also awkward, and the franchise system worked worse than having a clear club format. It also suffered the same issues about little competition, with only Auckland City and Waitakere Utd ever winning the actual league in the 17 seasons it ran for (TW won three finals and Suburbs one, but never the league format). The concentration of talent was greater, but the league was still weak compared to anything in Europe, and it's tough to argue it moved players into professional leagues better than the current format, as the majority of development was done in club environments anyway.

The recent requirement to sign (and lodge with NZF) Amateur Player Agreements is intended to level the playing field re player's remuneration. There are only so many hours in the week that players are available to coach and with hourly rates being required to be 'reasonable', coaching income should not be a major source of differential player income. NZF is only able to audit club accounts so as long as external funding streams are used to remunerate a player outside the level defined in the Player Agreement, such payments will be not be picked up during an audit. But the NZ football community is small and most players & supporters know which clubs are cynically transgressing the National League regulations. It is only a matter of time before a club is exposed and loses points for fielding ineligible players.

Follow the money,

Trillian Trust, monthly grants, Auckland City FC + Central United + Super City Youth Academy = distorted league:
June
 Auckland City FC Incorporated Sport $50,849.48 
 Central United FC Incorporated Sport $30,064.40 
 Super City Youth Academy Incorporated Sport $21,968.33 

Steptoe

carlind

chubbs

It is concerning that Auckland City have won the league with so long to go.
I doubt very much that they are doing anything outside the regulations which NZF do audit and I would not be surprised if Auckland City were audited more rigorously than others. It is quite okay to pay players to coach and they have to justify the remuneration against the hours put in.
Perhaps Auckland City just do it better than others (along with a lot of other things)
The big worry is that all 3 leagues - Northern,Central and Southern have their National League entrants all but finalised 2/3 of the way through the season.
Same thing happened in the Superclub (nothing super about it) in the mid 90's. It only became interesting when the National rounds started.But NZF has never been great at learning from past errors. Corporate types with no institutional knowledge.
If I was a betting man I would put money on a return to a club based National League within 3 years.
My biggest worry is what happens if the law changes and pokies get outlawed (or heavily restricted). The National League(and some other sports) never recovered from the loss of tobacco sponsorship.No apologist for big tobacco but the amount that Rothmans put into the game was significant.

Auckland City's dominance isn't good, but it's not surprising. Even in the old summer league, where the talent was condensed into 10 teams nationally as opposed to 10 just in Auckland (21 in the top two tiers), they won the league every year since 13/14. Of 126 franchise league games from 13/14 to 20/21 they only lost 12, and won all their games except for one draw (same as this Northern League) in 18/19, so this domination is nothing new. The only way to have stopped this was if Auckland City had dissolved similar to how Team Wellington did, but the brand was too strong to throw away.

It's no secret that they pay their players, but they are not alone in doing that, I would be surprised if any team was not paying their players. North Shore is a perfect example of this, you don't lose so many players to go from surviving to being one of the worst ever sides over a year for no reason. There doesn't seem to be any desire by anyone to stop it, and if they did clubs would find 'creative'  ways to get around it anyway. The City players also know that they have a very good chance at winning the OFC Champions' League (and every chance a treble too) which would get them the Club World Cup bonuses. Depending on how well they do, that could be a five figure sum, so it's no surprise that they can have three recent All Whites and two international quality keepers.

The National League places being all but decided is also not great, but I'm not sure what can be done to change that from happening again. Top players are finite, and know they can get money, so you have to pay; organic growth is almost a pipe dream. The current top four has three teams from last season's (City, Auckland Utd and Birkenhead) with Suburbs and Melville swapping fortunes. Wanderers are the only side who could break into it. In City and Utd you have probably the two richest clubs, and Birkenhead hoover up all North Shore talent, and then the Hamilton sides have 50/50 access to the entire Waikato. 

Central and Southern League are the same; Olympic and Miramar have the biggest budgets and halved TW between them, and in third (fourth) is Napier City Rovers who have access to an entire region as well. Cash Tech is Canterbury Utd under a different name and Chch Utd are just as rich as Olympic, Rangers, City or Auckland Utd. This gravitation to richer teams becoming more dominant is hardly endemic to New Zealand, it happens everywhere in Europe and will continue to do so. 

I don't know how feasible a change back to the old format would be. As it was, it was held up by considerable trust funding and Club World Cup money, and when both dried up it was game over. Having the two season thing was also awkward, and the franchise system worked worse than having a clear club format. It also suffered the same issues about little competition, with only Auckland City and Waitakere Utd ever winning the actual league in the 17 seasons it ran for (TW won three finals and Suburbs one, but never the league format). The concentration of talent was greater, but the league was still weak compared to anything in Europe, and it's tough to argue it moved players into professional leagues better than the current format, as the majority of development was done in club environments anyway.

The recent requirement to sign (and lodge with NZF) Amateur Player Agreements is intended to level the playing field re player's remuneration. There are only so many hours in the week that players are available to coach and with hourly rates being required to be 'reasonable', coaching income should not be a major source of differential player income. NZF is only able to audit club accounts so as long as external funding streams are used to remunerate a player outside the level defined in the Player Agreement, such payments will be not be picked up during an audit. But the NZ football community is small and most players & supporters know which clubs are cynically transgressing the National League regulations. It is only a matter of time before a club is exposed and loses points for fielding ineligible players.

So being a Manurewa fan, Ive heard  quite a few negative comments about how much Monty Patterson is being paid.

I have no idea what he is getting, are there actually any rules around how much players in the NL can get paid?

LFCNZ

So being a Manurewa fan, Ive heard  quite a few negative comments about how much Monty Patterson is being paid.

I have no idea what he is getting, are there actually any rules around how much players in the NL can get paid?

Is it even policed at Div 1 level?

lthomas20

LFCNZ

So being a Manurewa fan, Ive heard  quite a few negative comments about how much Monty Patterson is being paid.

I have no idea what he is getting, are there actually any rules around how much players in the NL can get paid?

Is it even policed at Div 1 level?

APA's are required in NRFL Div 1 - which means the clubs are restricted to compensating players up to a limit of $150 per week for playing.

There are no rules about how much a coach can receive as it's an open market.

For what it's worth the number I have heard most consistently re Monty is $1k per week (for playing and coaching).

I have my thoughts on if this is a positive for the game or not but will leave it to others to debate this particular player.

Ok thanks, yeah I see he has his coaching academy.

I have mixed views on this. Whats the rule for the Premier Div, I mean Auckland City are pretty all full time pros arent they?

On a side note, shouldnt the Auckalnd City brand have been disestablished when the old National League francise system ended? 

I still find it weird you have Auckland City and Central United, I mean they are pretty much the same club aren't they lol

chopah

lthomas20

LFCNZ

So being a Manurewa fan, Ive heard  quite a few negative comments about how much Monty Patterson is being paid.

I have no idea what he is getting, are there actually any rules around how much players in the NL can get paid?

Is it even policed at Div 1 level?

APA's are required in NRFL Div 1 - which means the clubs are restricted to compensating players up to a limit of $150 per week for playing.

There are no rules about how much a coach can receive as it's an open market.

For what it's worth the number I have heard most consistently re Monty is $1k per week (for playing and coaching).

I have my thoughts on if this is a positive for the game or not but will leave it to others to debate this particular player.

Yeah Auckland City and Central both existing is dodgy as fudge.

Auckland City vs Bay Olympic [2-1]

Headed down to Kiwitea St yesterday,

Thoroughly enjoyed the game and the most entertaining Northern League game I've seen so far.  With the league title and national league spot already confirmed for the home team and Bay too far off the pace for a top 4 spot. The game had little meaning in the a wide context.

Recap

Former City players Mulrooney & Pritchett had Bay setup well, sitting deep. City didn't field their strongest team but by no means a weak team. Bay stifled the opposition for the first 30 minutes or so, keeping compact line's and looking for a quick counter. They were awarded in the 36th minute on the counter when #3 Jack Duncan was brought down in the box by #12 Sam Brotherton. Dispatched calmy by former City player Darren White the visitors lead 1-0 into the break.

Into the second half Bay invited more and more pressure onto themselves and when #20 Emiliano Tade entered the counter his flair gave the visitors another dimension and in the 65th minute picked up the ball in a dangerous area outside the box and went at the back line and expertly placing it beyond #23 Hideyasu Sasaki. City continued to pile the pressure on and Bay Olympic looked inevitable to concede again. Standing at only 5'7-5'8 Bay Olympic goalkeeper #23 Hideyasu Sasaki was unable to keep out a inswinging corner from Cam Howieson that went directly in from the corner. Bay quickly pivoted to a 3-5-2 making 3 personal changes. Throwing men forward; They were inches away when a swift counter attack interchange wide on the right between #4 Callum Mcniell and substitute #15 Connor Turton ended in a driven ball across the face of goal that #6 Jaden Scott was unable to reach, throwing his left boot out. City then swiftly went up the other end with the last kick of the game and were unable to find the net.

Match Notes

- A carpet of a pitch at Kiwitea St made for a great game.

- Goalkeeper #23 Hideyasu Sasaki from Japan is one of the most technically gifted goalkeepers I've seen at this level. What he lacks in height is made up for in ability out of his feet and passion however speaking little english.

 

Player Ratings

Adam Johnston 7.5/10  Up against Joe Lee gave him little in the first half and was beaten once. However looked afraid to make an impact on the ball.

Hameed Basiri 8.5/10 Workhorse in the midfield had Cam Howieson quiet in the first half and always looking to create or put his body on the line.

Matt Ellis 7/10 Struggled to create or have any real impact on the game today.  Has shown lots of potential in other matches and is a standout @U-23.

Joe Lee 7.5/10 Very quick and exciting however lacked a cutting edge. Johnston, who is not a natural fullback did very well against who I think is the best U-20.

Callum Mcniell 9/10 started at RB however a useful CB, Technically gifted packaged with lots of pace, quality performance.

Cam Howieson 8/10 showed sparks of why he could do at a higher level. So composed on the ball, wish he would get his shot at the Phoenix.

Ryan De Vries 7.5/10 quiet today, however always showing levels when he gets on the ball. Looks like he's playing with boys at times.

Looks like there was a bit of an incident at yesterday's game at Kiwitea Street. 

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/129365868/sound-of-gunfire-interrupts-weekend-football-in-aucklands-sandringham

pop

Looks like there was a bit of an incident at yesterday's game at Kiwitea Street. 

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/129365868/sound-of-gunfire-interrupts-weekend-football-in-aucklands-sandringham

Crikey! 

Bunch of criminales and desperados out there in Sandringham

Seriously, if they were playing at Centre Park, it wouldn't have been a BB gun

Doloras

Bunch of criminales and desperados out there in Sandringham

Seriously, if they were playing at Centre Park, it wouldn't have been a BB gun

Careful Doloras. Someone might accuse you of being racist for that statement. Even though you are absolutely spot on.

... shark, you're right, my silly little joke could be read in a racist way. Two different racist ways, in fact.

I unreservedly withdraw and apologise. Hone Fowler's dad is a mate of mine and I admire MCAFC's work a lot. I was just thinking about how tough hombres are more associated with one part of town than the other. Again, sorry.

Doloras

Bunch of criminales and desperados out there in Sandringham

Seriously, if they were playing at Centre Park, it wouldn't have been a BB gun

Lol at criminales and desperados it's a long time since we've been majority Spaniard currently 2 players and a head coach.

ACFC vs Bay was the first game this year I've "enjoyed" as a football game... wish Bay started pressing City earlier. When they did they really started putting the pressure on. 

Hot take: Tade is still the best player in the league.