December 14, 2006
North v South or Final Five Series
Ok, the clubs had their say last year and they chose (by majority vote) to suspend the South Final Five series and in response FFT has reintroduced the North v South series.
Which do you prefer and why?
Did you attend any of the North v South matches? What was your impressions of the standard?
I understand that one of the reasons why clubs voted against the final five series is due to one ground (KGV) hosting all the matches. That said, the final five series is redundant as the champions should be the team that comes first in regular season. The statewide cup is sufficient as a secondary competition.
While i did not see any of the Nth v Sth matches (i would have if the Hobart match was not on GF night - good one FFT!), i think it is a good idea. Having the top in-form players from both leagues fight it out should result in a quality match. It may even provide a stepping stone to introducing a state team in the not-too-distant future to fight it out in one of the Vic leagues (too much science fiction?). The downside is the potential realisation that players from other clubs you passionately fight against week in week out are actually OK blokes.
Comment by Ice-5 — December 18, 2006 @ 1:51 pm
I am a fan of the final series, it is australian, it is the way sport is played in this country , it does attract crowds. Why has it been dropped?? One can only guess - clubs who won the final series in most cases from my involvement as a club administrator whose teams have been involved in the finals, have won a bigger $ prize than the league champions, due i was always informed to sponsorship and crowd sizes .
As a club administrator it was always good to have the then Soccer Tas being responsible for all the games , no costs for clubs , just turn up and play , maybe this is the reason , nobody at FFT wants to do the work involved with the running of a final series , As i have stated above it is Tasmanian Football’s lose!
The North v South game sounds great , hope it works but again planning is at a premium - i myself fell asleep at KGV the game was so poor , i have seen 12 year olds on a Sat morning put together more passes , great to see Wimbledon ( long ball chase ) is thriving at the Southern elite level.
Maybe next year on the 22nd the game will evolve and as i sit in the stand tactical and technical football will be on show!!!
Comment by Squeezer — December 19, 2006 @ 11:50 am
Re the final 5 .
Originally it was to decide who was state champion . It was introduced with the original Summer State League and continued when the comp reverted to a winter league .
When the State League broke up the South appropriated the sponsor and kept the final 5 comp going .
By that time it was a standalone comp . When the sponsor departed Soccer Tas used to collect the money pay the expenses and distribute the profits between the top 5 clubs on a proportional basis .(At that time there was no sponsor for Southern Premier so the final 5 was used to raise the prizemoney)
Repeat it has not been the determinant for the Southern Champion for many years though that message doesn’t seem to have been realised .
Comment by Brian — December 21, 2006 @ 11:49 am
If the southern clubs want a finals series - take it to the board. It is possible to play a final five over a shortened period if Wednesday nights are utilised. Thus the North - South series can continue AND the south have their final five series. My suggestion though would be for the clubs to ask their premier league coach and his playing squad as to whether that is what they want or not.
Comment by sj — January 18, 2007 @ 12:36 am
Thanks for the advice SG , but do you really believe the Board would listen !!!!
Comment by Sent Off — January 24, 2007 @ 8:19 am
yes!!
Comment by sj — February 14, 2007 @ 11:36 pm