practice match results - from past few days:
Hume City 2 Altona Magic 2
Ballarat City 1 Port Melbourne Sharks 3
Springvale White Eagles 2 Oakleigh Cannons 4
Sunshine George Cross 1 Melbourne Knights 3
Goulburn Valley Suns 6 Moreland United 2
Hoppers Crossing 1 Werribee City 2

St Albans re-sign youngster David Simms:
https://twitter.com/albans_st/status/952369942803841024

Murray United sign striker Ryan Luty:
http://www.bordermail.com.au/story/5164802/murray-united-secures-former-awfa-star-striker-ryan-luty-for-2018/?cs=10

The Springvale White Eagles will play Kingston City on Tuesday the 16th of January at White Eagles Stadium starting at 8 PM. 

South Melbourne play Port Melbourne on Wednesday the 17th of January at Lakeside Stadium at 7:30 PM

Good and insightful interview with Altona Magic striker Nikola Markovski:
https://footballisstories.blogspot.com.au/2018/01/nikola-markovski.html

Kingston City FC defeated Eastern Lions SC 4-1 in a pre season friendly:
https://twitter.com/KingstonCityFC/status/952754865616257024

Green Gully sign former Melbourne Victory forward Kieran Dover from Bentleigh Greens:
https://twitter.com/GreenGullySC/status/952801467596914688

NPL 2 East full fixture (LINK):
http://websites.sportstg.com/comp_info.cgi?a=ROUND&round=-1&client=0-10178-0-479661-0&pool=1

NPL 2 West full fixture (LINK):
http://websites.sportstg.com/comp_info.cgi?a=ROUND&round=-1&client=0-10178-0-479662-0&pool=1

Langwarrin Soccer Club will face Heidelberg United Football Club at 12 PM on Saturday the 20th
https://www.facebook.com/langwarrinsoccerclub/posts/1951553221543773

Bendigo has folded their seniors team and will only play juniors in NPL comp

Men's State Leagues Update

Adjustment To Football Pyramid Due To Exit of Bendigo City FC

Football Federation Victoria was recently informed by Bendigo City FC of the club’s decision to withdraw its Men’s State Leagues (MSL) seniors and reserves from 2018 competition.

In accordance with rule 10.4.3 & 10.4.4, FFV has offered the highest finishing team which were relegated in the 2017 season, the opportunity to be reinstated into their respective leagues for the 2018 Season.

FFV has reinstated the following clubs to the following tiers of the MSL pyramid.

South Springvale SC – State League 1

Peninsula Strikes – State League 2

Fawkner SC – State League 3

Hampton Park United Sparrows – State League 4

FFV will communicate a further update on the Men’s State Leagues structures at a later date.

http://www.smfc.com.au/brennan-re-joins-club-2018-season/

Top 20 clubs in Victoria outside the A-League.

FFV Radio - NPL Victoria round 1 broadcast matches,
Thursday Night (tonight) - Bentleigh Greens v Dandenong Thunder at Kingston Heath Soccer Complex
Friday Night (tomorrow night) - Melbourne Knights v Oakleigh Cannons at Knights Stadium
Monday Night - Bulleen Lions v South Melbourne at Veneto Club (David Barro Stadium)

midseason transfer window update.

Altona Magic have made a double signing Robert Stambolziev and Daniel Kuczynski (from Geelong SC)

NPL 2 East:
1 Moreland City 14 9 3 2 38 9 +29 30
2 Dandenong City 14 9 3 2 31 18 +13 30  
3 Melbourne City Youth 14 7 1 6 39 26 +13 22      
4 Springvale White Eagles 14 6 4 4 28 23 +5 22
5 Langwarrin 14 6 2 6 20 25 -5 20
6 Goulburn Valley Suns 14 6 1 7 27 27 +0 19          
7 Eastern Lions 14 5 2 7 13 16 -3 17           
8 Murray United 14 5 1 8 18 27 -9 16
9 Box Hill United 13 4 1 9 15 30 -15 13      
10 Nunawading City 14 2 2 10 20 44 -24 8

NPL 2 West:
1 Moreland Zebras 14 7 6 1 27 11 +16 27                
2 Altona Magic 14 8 2 4 27 14 +13 26
3 St Albans Saints 14 6 6 2 28 19 +9 24                     
4 North Geelong Warriors 14 7 1 6 18 23 -5 22
5 Melbourne Victory Youth 14 6 3 5 29 26 +3 21
6 Werribee City 13 6 1 6 19 18 +1 19         
7 Brunswick City 13 5 2 6 17 30 -13 17      
8 Ballarat City 14 4 3 7 26 26 +0 15          
9 Whittlesea Ranges 13 3 4 7 21 23 -2 13
10 Sunshine George Cross 14 1 6 7 15 41 -26 9

Round 15:
Saturday June 2nd Moreland City v Moreland Zebras     
Saturday June 2nd Murray United v Brunswick City
Saturday June 2nd Springvale White Eagles v St Albans Saints
Saturday June 2nd Sunshine George Cross v Box Hill United
Saturday June 2nd Whittlesea Ranges v Dandenong City
Saturday June 2nd Ballarat City v Eastern Lions
Saturday June 2nd Altona Magic v Melbourne City Youth
Sunday June 3rd Melbourne Victory Youth v Langwarrin
Sunday June 3rd Nunawading City v North Geelong Warriors
Sunday June 3rd Werribee City v Goulburn Valley Suns

New to the area
Could anyone give a quick rundown of how the competitions in Melbourne and surrounds are ranked generally?
Obviously NPL is #1 but how does each competition compare below this?

Sh!t

I'm going to answer this as if it's a serious question. I guess some other states/countries don't follow a simple pyramid like Victoria with promotion/relegation between each division.
So you have in order:
NPL
NPL2 (Split East and West)
State League 1 (Split North/West and South/East)
State League 2 (Split North/West and South/East)
State League 3 (Split North/West and South/East)
State League 4 (Split North, South, East and West)
State League 5 (Split North, South, East and West)

The NPL and state leagues include some teams from regional areas including Geelong, Gippsland, Ballarat, Shepparton and Wodonga (each of these areas + Bendigo, Sunraysia and Warrnambool also have there own regional leagues outside of that pyramid).

The FFV run Sunday Metropolitan Leagues Divisions 1 through 8 are also separate from the above pyramid but are mainly home to thirds/fourths teams from clubs in the State Leagues and some smaller stand alone clubs. The top Metro teams could possibly match it with the teams in the lower levels of the State Leagues. 

Outside the realm of the FFV/FFA you have the Bayside FA, Victorian Churches FA and VicSoccer each with multiple divisions. I can't really comment on the quality of these comps having never played in any of them, apart from a couple of preseason friendlies against teams from there. Recently a few clubs have made the jump from these non FFV comps to the State Leagues and they seem about the State League 4 or 5 level. 

Sasa Kolman resigns as South Melbourne senior coach,

LINK:
http://www.smfc.com.au/sasa-kolman-resigns-as-senior-coach/

How many promote from SL1 to NPL 2 ?

One each from the NW and SE get promoted from the SL1 to NPL2, well for this year anyway. Could change for 2020.
So Geelong SC and Manningham United both have 4 point buffers on top of each league with 5 games to go.

If anyone is interested huge game in SL2 N/W tonight. 

Whittlsea United V Hume Utd. 

Epping stadium 8.30 kick off.

Only 4 points seperate 1st to 6th. Whittlesea looking to bounce back after 2 losses on the trot.
Hume have won their last 2 games.

If you live in or near the north come down for a massive game !

Game finished 7-4 Hume absolutely mental

BREAKING - Green Gully coach part ways with coach Arthur Papas:
http://www.starweekly.com.au/sports/green-gully-cavaliers-part-ways-coach-arthur-papas/

Scott Miller is the new senior coach of NPL 2 East outfit Langwarrin from next year as Gus McLeod steps aside at season's end.

LINK:
https://www.heraldsun.com.au/leader/south-east/sport/langwarrin-soccer-club-appoints-former-newcastle-jets-aleague-coach-scott-miller/news-story/31a57d932ba852abcf3e2d4cfdc164b7

promoted to NPL Victoria:
Altona Magic
Dandenong City (if they win on Friday Night)

relegated to NPL 2:
FC Bulleen Lions
Northcote City

promoted to NPL 2:
Geelong SC or Preston Lions
Manningham United Blues

relegated to State League 1 N/W & State League 1 S/E:
Sunshine George Cross (if they fail to beat Melbourne Victory Youth this week)
Nunawading City

Brenton who is relegated out of NPL2?

Nunawading gone from the east. 3 games to go looks like its ballarat or georgies who will drop.

Huge game Sunday. Preston V Geelong get down if you can bumped crowd expected. COYL !

NPL Relegation Playoff spot is also up for grabs with 1 point separating Hume & Gully with final game of the season to decide who plays to stay up. Hume is 1 pt ahead but has tougher match against Paco, while Gully has Kingston. 

If Green Gully and Hume both win and South Melbourne loses to port melbourne it will be South dropping to 3rd last. Not far fetched considering south have conceeded 14 goals in the last 3 games and the players have already given up. Pascoe vale has nothing to play for against hume and gully v kingston is 50/50.

I think it will be South heading to aami park