and join parrafc as long as they finish above 5th in PL3 lol.......
You know what @ -30 and loss last weekend already BWE will be good odds being 1 of the 3 relegated.

early days yet. its a long long season. bonno will pull through.
NPL 1 kicking off this weekend.  exciting season ahead.  as always, plenty of teams in the mix

Olympic, Marconi, apia, united, rockdale all look strong.
but cannot discount blacktown or manly.
sutho and wolves are rebuilds so will be interesting to see how they fare. Hakoah despite not being fancied by anyone get results and play well as a unit and finally Sydney fc who can surprise teams on any given day.
cant wait.

another tough and unpredictable season ahead... 

my early predictions will be Olympic and Marconi as the front runners, with Rockdale and APIA not to far behind. 
I think United will struggle to make the 5, as we already have injuries hitting the squad, and i still feel we are a player or two short at the back. the rest it's an even playing field.

Bring on Rockdale and Pani Nikas Round 1 at home :D

Yep nothing like PL back on, mind you I'll miss the good weather barring those stinking filthy hot days.
I can never pick some front runners with so many changes as always.
Just glad football is back on !
PL2 started last weekend and PL3 starts coming as per PL1.
Enjoy yourselves fellas.

Any of you interested in a tipping comp for this year?

Friggin’ Canberra, we have to wait a month still :(

SU 0-0 RCS - A good day out at Edensor yesterday, infront of a healthy crowd. A bit disappointed we didnt grab all 3 points seeing as though rockdale had 10 men for 60min, but credit to rockdale, they are a tough side and will be up there this season.

I was at APIA vs Marconi yesterday. Good game and great crowd. Marconi seem to be playing better football and will be better this year.

Fantastic win for us yesterday, I thought it was deserved, wasn’t expecting too much with the large turn over in squad as well as several players leaving over the last month. Hopefully we can continue at home this Saturday.

Also have to say the live stream of every game is fantastic, hopefully it may drum up some interest and get people out to games more.

Hard to know what to make of united v rockdale. United without rose, antelmi and simonovski, amongst others no doubt, and rockdale without figon, da silva, canak, egger, el hafiane and sorge. The second meeting this year will be interesting

yes live streaming now is great.
I noticed whilst being at earlier arvo PL3 games many on their mobiles late arvo keeping up with other results.
Stinking hot from midday.
PL3 Magic got the points over the Students, 1st/20's win draw 18's, I videoed 20's unexpectedly and burnt as, pretty much screwed me making it to Lambert.

Interesting PL1 1st round.
That sure was a Sutho away surprise when seeing the result.
I picked Hakoah doing SFC another away win.

intense game on the field with two very solid teams, albeit both sides missing troops.
chances at either end.
gutted with the red card to macura.
that said, prob a fair result in the end.
figon played his first game in a while in 20's which was pleasing, urosevski coming off bench, same.  we get back a few others this week and next.  macura obviously out for round 2.
united get a couple back as well.

Josh Mcdonald > Sydney United

Had it stayed 11 v 11 I think Rockdale may have snatched it. Both sides had chances in the last 20 to grab the win but let down by poor finishing. 

Simonovski, Antelmi, Rose, Vlastelica and Gallegos all out for us on the weekend. Antelmi, Rose and McDonald are all available this week so that should be a huge boost. 

big inclusions.

we welcome back this week el hafiane, figon, egger, da silva and urosevski will push for a starting spot.  macura obviously out.

thats no great signing he was a wolves bench player for the last 2 yrs

I hear Marconi went to sleep in the 2nd Half to allow Rockdale to win.  Never rated Tsekenis as a coach personally. 

Marconi are a team of superstars playing bash and barge rough stuff football. Sad to see, that team is probably one of the best in the country, on paper. Tseka should be ashamed of himself

PL3 we had 3 games washed out yesterday of the round, such a bummer.

They played decent football against APIA last weekend. A change from what I saw of them last season.

1-0 over blacktown. i would take the 3 points atblacktown any day as it's a hard place to pick up a point let alone 3.

on the balance of play it could of went either way, we didnt finish some of our chances, wile blacktown had a handful of chances to equalize at the end. 

it took something special from Matt Sim to give us the 3 points, and some fantastic saves by manos.

Wollongong this week at home, they are in fine form, 2 from 2 and will be tough to beat.

I thought it was a poor first half from both sides with Blacktown looking slightly better. They were dangerous on the counter while we struggled to put two passes together. Tomelic wasn't at his best, lost possession a few times when under little pressure. 

We took control early in the second half and dominated until about the 75th minute. Blacktown put us under some pressure late in the game but we should've sealed it well before that. Antelmi had a great chance and too often our final ball let us down. 

But 3 points away to Blacktown is huge. Cant remember the last time we got a win over there. No goals conceded and 4 points from Rockdale and Blacktown, I would've taken that before the season started considering the players we've got out. The other positive is that only Wollongong have taken full points from the first two rounds. 

Speaking of Rockdale, I was reading the piece on Howard Fondyke the other week. It was mentioned that he would have lost out of lots of money under the contract for appearances if he stayed at APIA (as he was told he wouldn't play).  

How are the contracts structured? Do players get a base wage of X dollars, and then additional payments if they start a game or come off the bench? So he could have just stayed at APIA and collected a weekly wage for the season if both sides were to honour the contract? 

I've heard different things. Some clubs offer flat rates, some clubs offer base and then bonuses. Reading into it, at Apia, it must be a low base and then a large appearance bonus that he would have missed out on.

A week is a long time in football and for us it looked like we beat Olympic so thought we would walk over Hakoah, not to be, a very dull game with few chances for either side, could of gone either way but no team really deserved the 3 points.

On a side note, for all the shit Marc Warren has copped over the years, he would have to be one of the most passionate and professional players we have had at the club for a while.

I watched the live stream and thought that he had a good game as well. His passing and movement from the left back role shows his professional experience. Whilst some of the a league players get shit for playing at NPL level, if you cant get a gig at that level, or no longer wish to play professional, where else are you going to play? Yes, you do see some drop down and they dont even stand out at NPL level, but I think Warren does. Lets celebrate them instead 

I think there are many players that fall right between the NPL and the A-League. Probably a step above the NPL but not quite at the standard/consistency required for professional football. 

Having said that, a lot of the time it's purely down to a lack of opportunity when they do get a contaract. Hard to adapt and get consistent at that level when you're not given an extended run in the side. 

the person who should be ashamed of himself is ante covic for carrying on like a pork chop on the bench and getting red carded. ridiculous outburst from him. wont repeat what was said to the officials but the red card was warranted.
Marconi will come good, with their playing roster, they simply must.

Did Covic have a falling out with Rockdale? Or he was going off at the refs?