Premier League Summer Cup groups are as follows;
Group A
Glenorchy Knights
Clarence
Kingborough Lions
Hobart Olympic
New Town Eagles
Group B
University
South Hobart
Metro
Taroona
Hobart Zebras
So which group would you prefer to belong to?
Who will be the semi finalists?
Finalists?
Winner?
Last chance to stake your claims or for bragging rights.
Division One Summer Cup groups are as follows:
Group A
Beachside
Nelson
DOSA
Kingborough
Group B
Kingston Cannons
Christian United
Hobart United
South Hobart
State U/15 Squad
Some interesting pairings. Who is likely to prevail?
There are a lot of questions being asked as to the validity of National Youth Championships. The questions stem from various aspects of the programmes and their structure;
Cost - each player (and their family) are required to pay out a considerable sum for the actual National Champs event. It has increased since the champs have moved from Sydney (Valentine Park) to Coffs Harbour.
If you factor in the transport and accommodation cost leading up to the actual event such as those just to get into any of the full time squads the cost would be close to $10,000
Venue Accommodation & Nutrition - there are some claims the accommodation at last year’s championships was substandard (overcrowded rooms, poor facilities, etc.) despite paying ‘top dollar’ for board.
Food was also considered to be a major issue with the parents taking matters into their own hands to ensure some of the players received adequate and appropriate nutrition.
Championship Tournament - There is some considerable movement to withdraw some state teams (at least the first squads) to attend a number of internationals tournaments in Malaysia, Singapore, Japan, etc.
Victoria, Western Australia, Northern NSW all went to tournaments in Asia. While Northern Territory, NSW & Queensland all toured the UK (as a build up to National Champs).
The feedback from all these teams was more than positive and all are seriously considering withdrawing their first squads in preference for other fixtures.
Coaches of State and and club based academies should begin to question their development pathways, while parents of potential state players should question the development managers as to the continued appropriateness of the National Champs. Are their better alternatives?
The following tournaments are already in place and they may even be suitable for some of the club based academies in preference to state programmes. Alternatively, the state based programmes could attend.
Boys U15
April 2007
Where: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
When: 1st week April 2007
Age Group: Under 15 (Born 1992+)
Would Suit: Regional representative teams, strong academies
Boys U15 & Boys U18
June / July 2007
Where: Jahor Bahru, Malaysia
When: 27 June to 1 July 2007
Age Group: Under 15 (Born 1992+) and Under 18 (Born 1989+)
Would Suit: State or regional representative teams, strong academies
Boys U18
Late Nov / Dec 2007
Where: Singapore
When: Late Nov early December 2007
Age Group: Under 18 (Born 1989+)
Would Suit: State or regional representative teams, strong academies
Expected participants: State & National youth teams from Asian countries
DISCUSSION?
The Mercury newspaper is biased in the extreme. There is no recognisable effort to improve the standard of football (soccer) writing during the off season apart from an obligatory half page on the English Premier League on Monday mornings and a few lines on the A-League and the league table.
Yet the Mercury has, in Walter Pless, a well respected and articulate gentleman of the game. I know for a fact that Walter submits articles during the off season on various facets of the game (local, national & international) but for whatever reason these never appear. Has anyone read anything on the local game from October through to February?? I have no recollection of such an event.
The Mercury is BIASED against football. There is no other way of putting it. I have had numerous clashes with various editors and all I have ever got is this offended sub-editor telling me that “Soccer” doesn’t have the following and support from the Australian public. Well in plain terms, that’s BULLSHIT!!!
55,000 packing into the Telstra Dome to see Melbourne Victory versus Sydney FC, 34000 jammed into Suncorp Stadium to see Sydney FC oppose Queensland Roar is a pretty clear indication that football has very good support. It must be remembered these are CLUB games, not internationals. In many cases the AFL would be thrilled with these crowd numbers. Yet the Mercury’s report on these two matches amounts to a few lines tucked into the corner deep inside the paper. Extremely poor and totally unacceptable.
Walter Pless is at home and has submitted articles over the summer but we have not seen one of them. The poor man must be completely demoralised and frankly, must be questioning why he should even bother. After all who really does care about local & A-League football?
When you hear plans about expanding the A-League, you always hear Tasmania mentioned, not because we are well organised and have the infrastructure in place to submit a bid for inclusion but mere because Tasmania SHOULD have a team in the A-League to make the league a true national competition. Support for this plan cannot be taken seriously when the local tabloid can’t see their way clear to write about the game. It’s as though they are afraid of seeing our game become successful, as if it might detract from Aussie Rules.
There must be an organised letter writing campaign (Letters to the Editor) stemming from this blog to support our game. I want to see off season articles from Walter in our local paper. I want to see reports and opinions on A-League football. I WILL NOT accept the tired old argument that there isn’t the support in Australia.
In addition, I call on ALL clubs and Schools to organise a petition at be freely available to be signed by every attendee at senior, youth & junior fixtures. This should be actively promoted by clubs. It would also be benefitial to have clubs with websites to have an ‘online’ petition available to be signed by readers.
FFT could also take a proactive stance on this matter and have a delegation approach both the editor or sports editor to demand a more equal representation for our game in the Tasmanian Press.
I’d also be interested to hear further comments and suggestions from our readers on how to maximise our efforts in this goal.
Blackjack
All ongoing player & coaching rumours to be posted here…(saves scrolling back through old posts)
TIS & FFT advertised for a full time male & female coaching position for the newly formed football side of the TIS back in October (don’t quote me on the date) but now, three months later, no appointment has been made. Just before Christmas FFT stated that an announcement was immenent but nothing has been forthcoming.
Blackjack has been advised that FFT will be forced to readvertise as interviews undercovered no suitable applicant for the mens’ teams at least. A coach for the women is an unknown quantity.
At the same time, it is believed David Abela has applied for a position in his home state of Queensland.
Should the U19 competition be strictly reserved for clubs that field Premier & Premier Reserve squads or should it be open to all comers?
Ok, who is game enough to go out a limb and predict the men’s Premier League & Div.1 tables?