We’ve come to that time in the year when most footy leagues take a little break for a couple weeks. Not the English Premier League, no way. Chris Wood and Winston Reid will need to keep testing out those dodgy hammies in increasingly freezing conditions on increasingly short rests but for the likes of Ryan Thomas and Jeremy Brockie and plenty other Flying Kiwis stalwarts the festive period is a chance to recharge the batteries before going hard on that second half of the season.

It’s no different in Aotearoa either, as the folks on the lower end of that totem pole get to settle in and have a couple too many bites of the Xmas turkey before sweating it out on the training paddock ahead of the next set of games in three weeks. We’re almost exactly halfway through the Premiership season – give or take a couple catch-up games from Auckland City’s Club World Cup expedition – which makes for a perfect time to take stock of the competition so far.

It should come as no surprise that Auckland City are sitting at the top of things. They started off with a bit of a stutter, going down 3-1 in Wellywood to the defending champs before getting pegged back twice in Dunedin as they drew 2-2 with Southern. Losing to Team Wellington is one thing, they’ve done that in the last two finals. But being held by the worst team in last year’s competition? That was a big surprise.

Perhaps it shouldn’t have been. Southern United’s mid-table boost has been one of the stories of the Premiership so far and as far as ACFC goes… well, they took that wake-up call and put it to very good use. In their following six games they swept the floor with anything they saw. Ryan De Vries scored a hatty as they beat Waitakere 5-0, youngblood Callum McCowatt was the star as he scored a double at Kiwitea Street to beat Canterbury 3-1, damn near everyone got in on the action when the Navy Blues pumped Hamilton 6-0, Emiliano Tade made it five games with a goal (and three doubles) in a 4-0 win over the Wee Nix and then he added to that with a couple more against Hawke’s Bay as that one ended 5-0.

Tade didn’t play when Auckland City beat Tasman 3-1 in their first game back from the Club World Cup, meaning his own personal streak is still intact. Six consecutive games with a goal, four of them doubles. He has ten goals from seven games played and old mate Ryan De Vries is even more effective with ten of his own in six games played. It’s basically been a massacre whenever these two have been able to start together. Those six straight wins have seen ACFC score 26 times and conceded only twice. Needless to say their two star strikers are sitting at the top of the goal scoring charts.

Team Wellington kicked things off with that statement win over Auckland City, which’ll be enough to give them belief that they can make it three titles in a row even if they don’t manage to catch them in the league stuff. Which, to be honest, it doesn’t look like anyone will. City aren’t just winning, they’re destroying everyone else. Team Welly, meanwhile, have had to fight for a lot of their wins. Thanks to that early win they had a headstart but losing to Waitakere a few weeks back didn’t help and neither did a 3-1 loss to Eastern Suburbs in their second game. However their main frustrations will be from failing to beat Hawke’s Bay (1-1) and then, most gratingly, ten-man Southern United this past weekend (0-0). Possibly a little hangover from the training trip to Fiji the week before.

Still, Team Welly looks to have a very solid defence and Angus Kilkolly has started smacking goals away at the other end, most famously with his hatty in the 3-1 win over Hamilton Wanderers. Jack-Henry Sinclair’s given them a boost since he came back from trials in South Africa – he’s one of a few ex-Phoenix players in the squad who stuck around in the capital. Cool to see Louis Fenton getting a few games in after he and the Nix chose to take a break while he got back to full fitness too.

ACFC have a game in hand on Team Welly which could put them five points clear at the top. Those two look like the clear numero uno and dos but there are three, possibly four, teams looking at filling out those last two semi-final places which means it’s all up for grabs over the next couple months.

One of those is Southern United. A year ago they went into Christmas having only just won for the first time all campaign and this time they’re sitting sixth and in range to make a push for the semis if things break right. Last season they also came back from Xmas with a 4-0 win over Hamilton and a 3-1 in Canty – whip out that kinda form here and they really will be in the running.

Timely goals have been the secret for Paul O’Reilly’s team. Tom Connor’s 87th minute equaliser against ACFC, Andrew Ridden’s 76th min equaliser up in Tasman, insane drama in Waitakere as Danny Furlong scored twice in injury time for a 2-1 win, similar with Garbhan Coughlan’s late winner against The Bay. Coughlan also levelled things in the 82nd min against the Wee Nix, although they blew a 2-0 lead against Hamilton Wanderers having gone 2-0 up inside five minutes. See, they got out in front and didn’t know what to do with it.

It’s been a few too many draws to really believe in Southern, plus regardless of how fit and committed and organised and all that you might be, if you’re getting all your points from late goals then there’s a large element of luck involved. Take out their goals in the last 15 minutes of games and Southern’s record looks rather different…

Southern Utd after 75 mins: 0 W | 5 D | 4 L | 6 GF | 10 GA | 5 PTS

Southern Utd after 90 mins: 2 W | 5 D | 2 L | 12 GF | 13 GA | 11 PTS

The one late goal that went against them was Andre de Jong’s 85th min winner for Suburbs. Other than that it’s mostly been equalisers and winners with half of their total goals coming in those final fifteen turns of the clock. Invite a Southern player to your party and you know they’ll turn up just in time (plus half of them are Irish so your party will get a whole lot better when they do). It gets tougher with SU’s next two games away to Eastern Subs and AK City but right now they’re without doubt one of the highlights of 2017-18. They already have more points than they managed in all of last season.

Semis might be a stretch though, especially with teams like Suburbs, Waitakere and Canterbury hanging around. The Dragons started crap with only one point from their first three games, coupled with the news that their best player of the last few years (Aaron Clapham) was gonna take some time away from the sport for family reasons. But then they toppled Suburbs with an injury time Stephen Hoyle goal (always watch Prem games until the final whistle, mate) and have now won four from five, keeping three clean sheets in there. You could argue that Hamilton, Southern and HB were all teams they should have expected to beat but doing so with eight goals scored and none conceded (they lost 2-0 to Team Welly in between) shows they’ve got plenty to offer. Especially with Hoyle hitting the net as often as he is. Dude’s bagged six goals already, good for third on the standings.

Canterbury also has a game in hand against the Phoenix Reserves so win that one as they ought to and third place is touchable. Shows what the value of a run of wins can be in a league where draws are so common. Same deal goes for Waitakere, who drew 1-1 with Canty in week one and have been pretty up and down since. Lost 5-0 to ACFC… won 5-0 against the Wee Nix the following week. They also choked that famous game away to Southern but were able to beat Team Wellington as well.

All of which makes them a tough team to judge as on merits Chris Milicich’s side should probably be semi-final favourites and yet a couple sloppy results have left them vulnerable. With Auckland City up next and coming off a 2-0 defeat to Eastern Suburbs it’ll be curious to see if they can find that consistency in the second half of the comp.

They’ll need to, because that Eastern Suburbs team doesn’t look half bad. They’re third at the moment with a game in hand (albeit against Auckland City) and have scored at least twice in all but two of their matches. After making a big deal about signing young kiwi players, they were always gonna be a team to keep an eye on and they’re actually living up to the hype as well. Andre De Jong most of all, he was a fringe bloke in the 2015 U20 squad and you could almost be forgiven for wondering if he’d have gotten that far without his last name but then he went to Aussie and absolutely bossed it in club footy, now he’s back in his hometown doing the business again (he was top notch for Canterbury last season, btw). A hat-trick in a 3-1 win over TW, two goals in the 2-0 win over the Waitaks on the weekend… mate, that’s five goals in their two biggest wins of the season. Shout out to ADJ, he’s been superb.

Not that he’s doing it alone, Suburbs have a number of lads worth a look. Moses Dyer, Reece Cox, Max Mata, Tim Payne… even Chris James has been back into things lately. Just two complaints with these guys: one is that they maybe don’t have a lot of depth to that squad (especially with only one foreign name – Derek Tieku) and two being that their defence isn’t the most reliable. Before beating Waitakere with a clean sheet they’d gone three games with only two points, losing 3-2 to the Cantabs before consecutive 2-2 draws with Tasman and Nix Ressies. Keep it tighter in those two and third place would be theirs for the taking.

Quick notes on the final four now, the quartet of teams who are probably in it for the pride over the back half of this bad boy. None more than Hamilton Wanderers. Hey look, Wanderers got Ricki Herbert to coach them, the guy who took the All Whites to the 2010 World Cup! Yeah… but he doesn’t have a Ryan Nelsen or Simon Elliott to work with here. Herbert’s instead spoken more about trying to develop players for down the line (which is consistent with his work at St Peter's Cambridge and his now-locally-based academy). Makes sense when the ones you have aren’t quite good enough. PNG international Tommy Semmy has been a pleasant acquisition but 28 goals conceded in nine games is pure chaos.

The 1-0 loss to Hawke’s Bay was the only time the Wanderers have kept a team under two goals against them and they played 70 minutes with ten men in that game after Bailey Webster’s red card. Goals for Michael Built and Alexi Varela helped the Tron team come from 2-0 down for a draw against Southern… but that’s their only point so far. They can’t score enough goals to match how many they give away and something will need to change in a hurry if they’re even gonna win a game this season. There’s been a bit of turnover so history isn’t necessarily the best indicator, but if past experience is meant to appease the fans then remember that after Christmas last season Wanderers drew once and lost nine times, scoring seven goals and conceding 30. Hmm, sounds a lot like the first half of this season!

Hamilton Wanderers Premiership Results in 2017:

19 GM | 0 W | 2 D | 17 L | 15 GF | 58 GA | -43 GD | 2 PTS

Everyone else has won at least twice in the 2017-18 season alone, largely thanks to everyone else getting to play against Hamilton Wanderers. Hawke’s Bay United barely had a player to their squad at the start but somehow scrapped away to four games unbeaten to kick things off – including a win over Eastern Suburbs. But since then they’ve reverted back to expectations. Four defeats and a draw in their last five with three goals scored and 14 against.

HBU took forever to get a squad in place, lagging behind in the signings department and you can tell it to look at them. Which is why manager Brett Angell’s work to keep them relevant has to be loudly applauded, they could easily have gone in the same direction as Hamilton. Lately it looks a bit like they might still but there have been some deceptively close games in there. They should’ve beaten Tasman for one thing. Angell didn’t last the ninety there, it was so infuriating to him that he yapped off and got the flick from the ref. But then he wouldn’t be Brett Angell without getting his marching orders at least once.

Dunno if their struggles are down to financials or what but unfortunately that’s something that can still happen at this level. Sucks to see their five-year playoff run probably gonna come to an end... though you never know. They’ve still got some quality players and the break could be exactly what they need. Four of their last six games are home games and although both of HBU’s wins came on the road, their home form has remained consistent throughout with three draws and a 3-1 defeat to Waitakere.

Tasman United are slipping as well. Won their first two games, also both away, and then haven’t won in seven since. Brian Kaltack’s early goal gave Auckland City a scare before the leaders came back to win 3-1 most recently and they’ve clung on well for a couple of those draws. Yet it kinda looks like they’re heading for another eighth placed finish. They copped one of those late Southern goals and then a week later conceded a last-ditch winner to Team Welly and haven’t fully recovered since. Funny how different things could be in this competition but for a couple dramatic moments.

And then we have the Wee Nix. Doesn’t really matter how they go since they’re here for different reasons but it’s been pleasing to see the youngsters starting to score some goals lately. After beginning with a 0-0 against HBU they then lost 5-2 to TW, 5-0 to WU and 4-0 to ACFC. Those are some ugly results. So… yeah, look at them since. Beat Tasman and Hamilton when both those teams would’ve been targeting them as a winnable opponent and also drew with Southern and Suburbs. James McGarry’s looking really good there, as is Liam Wood at the back. Oh and Sarpreet Singh scored from a corner the other week and his form has him on the fringe of the senior Nix team. That’s all we really need to see from these lads, though it’s always nice to see them competitive as well.

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