Surprised Oaks was allowed "fans" in attendance pending federation meeting but, eh we all know who runs that shit show.  I heard a certain inciter of crowd violence may possibly be up on criminal charges by VICPOL... interesting if true and well deserved. 

Around the grounds,

Hume struggled at home vs Dinamo
South put on a magic show for Magic
Port salvaged a point against a very strong Burgers
Plucky Mannignham, with the upset of the round knocking off the homeless ones 3 nil. Man of the match young keeper Georgie Tzama... well done levendi.
Moreland just garbage again
Gully just cant seem to gel this year, went down to Oaks
Dandy derby was over before it started... feisty as always.

watched melbourne serbia v altona on saturday night in bundoora at the matildas centre. great game -  4-4 and standard of play as excellent, pitch obviously helps 

Might come down to a few Royals games this year (defacto Hellas these days :) )  Is Epifano still running around for the North Sunshine Alboes?

Current table
https://competitions.footballnsw.com.au/ladders?season=7MNGJn7mAz&ladder_type=regular&competition=OVdz0PxNGr&league=AZNQMDlWNx&date_range=default

Pretty damn happy APIA/Stallions/SU got wins.
SO equal bottom.

Pffft APIA and SU58 both below U23 Aleague hahahah what a stitch up.... hahahahah

Were gonna mop the floor with the Sydneysiders next year!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

hehe, one or 2 of the hares run off then they get run over season after season.
Your gonna finally have some opponents instead of 1 if that in the vpl :)
Nearly like a spl hahahaaha

hahahahahah just suprised with Olympic... from their match against SU I thought they would have a good season but ist fallen off the rails ... Oh well, like you said earlyd ays.

Down here, its the same old suspects, us, Choaks, Avondale, Bergers... but this year also Hume also looking "the goods" Knights have been pretty crap (apart from last year)  but I think they will have a decent run at it this year once they iron out their front third and stop coping silly goals... Dandy City is the early season goal machine... Only club that has really fallen off a cliff in the past few season is Bentleigh Greens. 

yer greens have lost what they built up couple of seasons back.
More so last season, previous ones not too bad but it was coming.
MK have some catching up to do.
Avondale hopefully picks up.
Surely Hume not gonna last.
Whats happenned to Port.

Port lost one of the best coaches in Melbourne because he couldnt keep it in his pants and some decent players got poached... same old story... 

I think Hume are going to be top 3-4 for sure this year... Bergers also...  

We shall see..gonna be an interesting transition year as the comp finds its level, will likely take a year or two..clubs who don’t come in from day one will potentially start to fall behind fairly quickly Imo  ….but for what it’s worth, from what I saw your boys struggled to get a touch against the current bottom of the table Sydney Olympic a few weeks back ;) (imo Olympic havent been that bad so far to be honest, a few bad performances, but also have had some very decent periods in most matches)

Meh, preseason friendly with mostly U23s getting a debut mate... You know better than that :) lol

I agree, this season is almost a "placeholder" as squads are going to be definitely bolstered ahead of next season... Still hearing end of April as a "deadline day" for clubs to be involved from season one. 

Big round of football this weekend in VIC 

Oaks v Avondale and  Bergers at Somers St will be fiesty affairs...  We should see off a struggling Gully but who knows? 

A Classic Local  Ex-NSL Derby Yesterday, Sydney United vs Marconi and it didn't disappoint. 

Marconi up 2-0 Half time, and then United with the winner in the 94th min, 3-2.  

a bit of passion and spice in the game, a taste of what NSD might be like.

Nice, Ill watch highlights later...

How is a U23 side leading the table down there? I havent watched much NSW league this year, has the standard dropped a little?

question for anyone who has anything to do with juniors at npl/npl1 clubs

why do you pay 2.5k for kids? we played a npl side on weekend (I coach), thumped them 5-1 and I knew some of the kids at the club and was talking to their parents, they said that two of the junior teams at the NPL club have parents coaching. I'd be fuming

First time that a youth club from the AL is leading since the NPL started. Normally they are the bottom feeders.
Sydney FC was good for a few seasons, and still finished outside the top 5/6. They all get torn apart when the mid year transfers happen. 

Good to hear.

Whats the feeling up there in regards to NST? Will the clubs be looking to "stock up" on players from this early or wait to end of year window?

I'll take it from here. A lot of it goes to paying senior team's wages.

They'll say it doesn't.

i think it will be a waiting game to see who is interested and available. 
Not every NPL player wants to play NST for a minimum wage, when they can earn more with a full time job and play football part time. 

I think that confirms why last I saw mentioned on here some time ago how dire MV Jnrs are in the VNPL compared to up north.
No way do WSW/SFC have parents as coachs and asking 2.5k.
Says also that as MSC asked why is a APL Club leading our comp, because they are way better than down south :) not that I care about them.
Beretta if a recall right SFC on their good runs a few seasons back even led early stages then as you say wheels fall off when it counts after the window closesure but more so the semi pro Clubs lift for the business end of the season.

WSW vs APIA next week.

Yeah thats a valid point... Ive spoken to a few of the "more experienced" players and although some of them are really keen on NST I think they have missed the boat on making a full time career out of soccer.. Most will play a season or two I reckon but this is going to be more for the younger players. 

I think this is part of FA’s reason for pushing the NST along. They want to add depth to the pool that’s available for National teams in both players and coaches.

100% spot on... Should have happened years ago.... This will funnel the top 50-100 youth players in each NPL into a full time career playing football and not having to worry about making ends meet outside of the game like in the NPL or the Aleague scholarship and academy players do. 

No A-League Youth Club has ever made the top 5 or 6, they all fade away. This WSW team is the most impressive i've seen in the NPL, they are almost averaging 4 goals a game. 

Wanderers Academy announced Jason Culina as Head of Academy last year. (Ian Crook was the original Head of Academy)

Lederer actually funds the coaches as far as i can remember as no fees are paid by Academy parents. 

I have heard that the WS Wanderers be quite cut-throat though, so expectations are high.

Fade away occurs from i can ascertain when the transfer window opens.
Recently, multiple acadeny players from WS Wanderers to CC Mariners  or Bulls plus Sydney FC to WS Wanderers.

If you watch multiple NSW NPL First Grade, there are multiple A-League Academy players who never got a professional contract that are now playing at various NPL clubs (Sydney Olympic, Blacktown City, St George FC, St George City, Marconi, Apia Leichhardt etc)

Correct, once the transfer window opens, their squads get torn apart.

so, we 3 come to the same ending but different versions lol :)

Paul01, obviously we/Beretta watch NPL and I also watch down to Prem 1 below NPL.
There is heaps of young players under U25 who didn't get a Pro contract as you'd know - one not enough Pro Clubs, 2 the internal politics are rife as incl NPL that many may be good enough for another Club IF there were more, hence our plight developing more players.
What I do enjoy is when I watch Prem1 and most played on syn the standard is NPL2 imo, fast/technical and robust play.
Such a waste so many opt out but it strengthens the lower comps like mad.

The NSW NPL is obviously a little stronger than the NPL SA but Adelaide’s youth team scored 7 in last year’s grand final.

So the kids can definitely compete and hold their own.

Complete change of topic but Jordan Smylie copped a 9 match ban for one of the worst tackles you’ll ever see.