Ballarat beating Werribee in a vital relegation tussle now, winning 3-1. Another six pointer on Wednesday against Port, hopefully I can actually make it to that one.

Ballarat leapfrogging Werribee to 3rd last, with two games in hand.

Edited by paladisious: 27/7/2014 05:45:37 PM

Werribee beat Pascoe vale 2-0. A late red for wezza also.

Sunday wrap:

Werribee City 2-1 Dandenong Thunder
Northcote City 1-3 Oakleigh
Hume City 2-1 Port Melbourne (Hume received two reds)
Melbourne Knights 0-2 Heidelberg United

So... 6 games to go, South still 7 points clear at the top, several clubs still sooking that it's a straight league comp rather than one ending with a finals playoff. Possible that the championship will still be alive when South host Oakleigh on Sept 7, if so it'll be a cracker of a match!

They can go get fucked, which clubs are they? No prizes for coming second is exactly the way it should be.

pretty sure there's still finals, it's just the premiers go to the npl finals. Looks like it will be south melbourne v south Hobart in that one.

Interesting result last night with South losing for only the 2nd time this season. Oakleigh now 7 points behind with a game in hand. Looks increasingly like it will come down to the Sept 7 head-to-head at Lakeside. Everything on the table!



No finals. Straight forward first past the post - the way it should be as Melbourne Terrace says.

That's fantastic. Finals are pretty pointless.

The purists are happy, but I'm disappointed. I loved watching the vpl final at aami.

This, it was a good occasion for the top state level to get some visibility, but of course the national playoffs would be stepping on it's toes somewhat.

Hopefully in time it'll be a case of the top few clubs from the stronger states going into the finals on a seeded basis, Champions League style.

If the intention had been to give the state winners some more visibility they would have played the game before/after a Victory game rather than a Heart one. ;)

Oakleigh won 3-0 and south are 4-0 up atm so it looks like the gap will remain at 7 and Oakleigh with a game in hand.

They would have to play at etihad though, which has very little visibility.

Also the idea of an NPL champions league makes me froth.

Bit dull for 20 minutes, but from then on South played some of the best football they've played all season. Some of the movement was top class - build-up for Lujic's first goal was tip-top.

If you need your finals fix then go to the Dockerty Cup Final at Lakeside Stadium on August 31st for the Dockerty Cup Final with Melbourne Knights playing South Springvale.

There is no need for finals anymore when the NPLV has two relegation spots and a higher level national tournament to aim for.

I might just depending on what I have on. I would still see the nplv finals as a more exciting event than an event where I cared more about who would qualify for the FFA cup than win the thing.

I don't think just because we have national playoffs means we can't have state league finals as well. I don't really think the npl finals would really be stronger anyway, I would rate top 4 vic teams above any winners from tas, act, nnsw, sa or wa. For that reason I don't really see it as a much bigger prize anyway.





Edited by tbitm: 18/8/2014 12:32:36 PM

Wins for South and Oakleigh again this weekend. Still a 7 point gap at the top, Oakleigh with a game in hand. South need a win and 2 draws to be sure of winning the title.

South melbourne 2-1 northcote city

Very close to the title and brings up a dream scenario for the club with oakleigh coming to lakeside next round, should be a monster crowd and even if we muck it up a win over the last placed goulburn valley in the final round would still give us the title.

Want to do it at home though - would be so sweet to pick the trophy up with Miron and Oakleigh watching on.

I'll definitely get round this one, I'm kinda mates with Nate foster (he got drunk at my house once :d ) of Oakleigh who will be a menace I'm sure to south defence.

I'll just be going with the hope of a tense game and good atmosphere.

Get Nate around again on Saturday 6th and get him hammered... We could do with him being off-form. ;)

he's a very superstitious fella, won't even see or text his gf the day before game day.

Maybe a big Friday with the hopes of 2 day hangover. I'm on it ;)

Ballarat six points from safety behind Port, Dandenong and Werribee but with 22 games played versus everyone else in the latter teams' 24, plus the friendly with Victory tomorrow to further add to the congestion.

The outcome of the suspended match against Pascoe Vale that Ballarat were winning may be decisive, but I haven't heard anything about what the result will be.

Edited by paladisious: 25/8/2014 02:22:13 PM

Terrible result tonight for Ballarat. It may be a mid week game, it may be against quality A-League oppisition, but shows the huge gap between A-League and NPLV like I've never seen it before....

On a related note don't think we'll be seeing regional team in the top flight next year. Red devils proved many wrong this year with some impressive results but don't think they'll convert the final few games like they need.

Eyes on the top now..... mouthwatering clash on the 7th of Sep

not too fast, North Geelong Warriors are sitting second of div 2 with a game in hand.

Red Devils look to be a well run club and will be a tough place to travel for most npl1 teams. I imagine/hope they can get themselves promoted soon enough.

Edited by tbitm: 26/8/2014 10:21:49 PM

Avondale are looking like they might be going tits up so I'm expecting them to go.

I do hope these regional teams are only going through early teething issues and aren't going to just be making up the numbers in the bottom of the NPL 1 in the future. There are still regional areas like Geelong City, Torquay, Gippsland or even Mildura that i would hope to be inspired by the great work these teams are doing for their local football community.

There was always a big risk with parachuting two sides into a league they didn't 'belong' in. It's hard to put an NPL squad together, even harder when coming from a much lower starting place. Some of us predicted this in pre-season.

Strange thing about 7th September - in a perverse way I'm actually hoping that Oakleigh get a win against the Knights so that this is a 'live' game. I want South to win the league on the pitch.

Long term, so long as they continue to get the backing they've had this season, there's no reason they can't compete. The problem this season was that decisions were made late - and these two sides were thrown into the top division with the vast majority of players in the state already signed up with other clubs.

FFV would have been better off slotting all the new sides into NPL1, and keeping the NPL for sides who had earned their place on the pitch.