Last year's national NPL Cup semi-finalist, Hobart Olympia have had a tumultuous start in the NPL this year.

The club recruited Bor Bor Sam, Lawrence Shuruma and Jacob Collard - all former Perth Glory youth payers.

Already they have all left the club. Collard picked up a contract with a Victorian NPL club. Sam and Shuruma were let go. Coach Glenn McNeill publicly cited these two players having ego issues.

Olympia have not met expectations with the injection of these quality players.

I watched them play yesterday against Hobart Zebras. They were beaten 4-0. It could've been 10 -0. Zebras played the best football I've seen them play.

Olympia are also missing those players from last year's line up -Gustafsson, Lachlan Nichols , as well as their heavy scoring striker, Emmanuel Tsekiris. Nicholls and Tsekiris have been recruited to the Victorian NPL.

With Shuruma and Sam playing a fews weeks ago, I watched Olympic dominate the recently promoted NPL team, Clarence United, but they struggled to score and create chances on goal.

South Hobart have scored 40 goals in 6 matches while the bottom 3 are all averaging at least 6 goals conceded. Glenorchy were even worse last season, from memory. Tasmania really needs to sort out the disparity in quality from the top couple of sides and the rest of the league

Glenorchy Knights have been relegated. Clarence United have been promoted.

Knights had a shocking season last year with an inexperienced team.

Yes, well aware of that. My point is that the league has a long way to go when you've got results like this being commonplace. If you take into account that South Hobart lost one match 1-0, it means that they've scored 40 goals in just 5 matches.

Combine Tasmania with Victoria. Problem solved.

You are correct. There is a lot of discussion about it locally.

I know all three of the top team three coaches. I've trained with two of them. All would prefer the lower teams on the V League ladder to be stronger than they are.



Edited by Decentric: 26/4/2016 06:27:56 PM

Last year South Hobart drew with Sydney United 3-3 in the FFA Cup.

Also, Hobart Olympic beat South Melb in the national NPL Cup 1-0, even with 10 men for the second half.

The better Tassie teams are more competitive relative to NSW and Vic than they've ever been in the past.




Edited by Decentric: 26/4/2016 06:23:43 PM

Lost 3-2 after being up 2-0

That's against a Sydney United team that was an absolute rabble in the league

3-3 after extra time.

In the penalty shoot out your keeper cheated and so did the fans behind the goal.

Still Sydney C were the better team on the day.

The sample size you have for this valuation is far too low to be considered.

NPLV1 = Melbourne City OUT --> South Hobart IN.

Ah right, forgot about the late equaliser.

Cheated :lol: it was kids jumping around FFS :lol:

Agreed, tough to take too much out of one off Cup matches.

From memory, Hobart were knocked out by an ACT side in the previous year's addition of the Cup.

A lot can happen in a one-off elimination (eg. WSW vs Adelaide City). A 22+ league season is a different matter

How about instead of a pyramid including:



We have:



And a similar pattern for NSW with NNSW and ACT, and so on, until we had a unified pathway towards a national NPL.

This said, FFA Cup and state cup spots should have no baring on their division, but rather the state they call home, ie: South Hobart get promoted to the NPLV, but still are on the qualification path for the FFA Cup via the Milan Lakoseljac Cup, as the honour of winning the Cup of their home State.

How does something like that work if a Tasmanian team doesn't finish in a relegation spot in the NPLV? Does the team that finishes 1st in the NPL Tas just not get the opportunity to go up if a Tas team doesn't come down?

That said i support the further integration of the states into more sensible regions rather than just following state lines. There is only so many potential gains to be made for a club like South Hobart when it's stuck in a poorer league.

We've seen a decided improvement in our better teams competing against mainland teams from South Australia, NSW and Victoria over a few seasons of the NPL.

In the past they swept our better teams aside. The two Tassie NPL coaches who have been involved are not sure why the scenario has changed.

Olympia beat South Hobart last year on a number of occasions.

And the keeper put off the shooters.

Poor ref.

It was mooted in the past.

I think the improved quality of the V League means it is not as plausible as it once was.

I've seen Campbelltown SA, South Melb and Sydney United play South Hobart and Hobart Olympic on five occasions. They all look similar standard, but a chasm below the HAL in season. In heat, Bayswater, (WA) blew a depleted Olympia away.

Have seen Rockdale, Blacktown Heidelberg, Johns Anasatasiadis' Vic team, Brisbane Strikers, a couple of WA teams and another SA team play better football.

Edited by Decentric: 27/4/2016 08:03:27 AM

When did that become cheating? It's all part of the mindgames keepers and strikers use during shootouts. Happens all the time. Keepers dance around, wave their arms, point to the corner theyre going to dive to etc. If you cant handle it then you shouldnt be taking a penalty

If it was cheating and if it was a major issue, then why didnt any of the penalty takers or coaches complain to the linesman or ref?

It caused an uproar here.

Every ref ( I'm not one), every stakeholder and fan thought he should've been carded for his antics.

I'm not one of those who blames refs for results though.

In that game, I thought SU were the better team and deserved to win in the 120 minutes, so I wasn't bothered. SU played better football than SH and had more dominance. They deserved to win.

The point I'm making, is the gap has closed.

Apparently, in the NSWPL, SU have scored 19 goals in 6 games. Is that an indication of a weak/lopsided comp?

Edited by Decentric: 27/4/2016 08:44:16 AM

Ive responded to this in the other thread. We're currently scoring at 3 goals per game. It's only 7 games into the season and over the next 3 weeks we've got APIA, Bonnyrigg and Manly. We'll have a much better idea of our strength and form after those three matches.

3 goals per game isn't completely outrageous. It's when you're nearing double digit territory that you need to start questioning the quality of a competition.

In the V League, the coaches who have been at the top of the league and who have played interstate club football comps are keeping an eye on the interstate games. Ken Morton and Glenn McNeill want to see more competition in the V League, with weaker clubs pushing them.

Chris Hey from Zebras may be in the same position this year. He is considered a good coach, who has often been in the wrong place at the wrong time, with weak squads.

Hey had a very inexperienced team at Knights when he was there. He was succeeded by Mark Broadbent, who I would've thought from working with him a lot, would've been one of the top coaches in the V League.

Hey and Broadbent just didn't have enough experienced cattle at Knights. I was very disappointed to see Knights relegated. Their club policy and long term plan looked good on paper. In the past two seasons of the HAL they just lacked a few experienced quality players.

The experienced players they had weren't good enough. The good players were young and not experienced enough. The coaches didn't have enough player leaders who could double as coaches on the pitch at Knights and organise.

The players coming through in the V League are better quality, from better coaching.

ATM we could still do with a few more experienced, imported Vic and NSW NPL players. The weaker NPL teams don't have the resources to attract them though. Jake Vandermay has been a huge success as an import from South Melb over a number of seasons for Olympia.

After 7 games, the V League ( NPL) ladder reads Zebras, Devonport, South Hobart, are first, second and third.

Title holders, Olympia, are fourth.

Mon South! Who you reckon will win the FFA Cup prelim final?

I'm not into predictions.:lol:

I'm lucky this year. Two NPL clubs have grounds within 1-2 kilometres away, so attending football is very accessible . I also have kids who play senior state league too.

I'm seeing far less long balls than a few years back, so even with quite a few years playing in the other end of the state on any given weekend there is usually NPL football close by.

It is a lot better to watch too. The new coaching regime of FFA has done wonders for football this state.

Nothing wrong with a long cut out ball.