The Premmy Files: Round 13

See, you’ll never get anywhere with local lads. Just as we’ve always said. Picking players out of the youth team and actually playing them? Giving teenagers regular starts and expecting results? Bah, ridiculous idea. No wonder Eastern Suburbs just lost twice in a week. Bloody dreamers.

Nah, there’s no right or wrong here. Suburbs are doing some impressive stuff for kiwi football by providing a pathway for so many of those youth internationals and beyond but, as Danny Hay has said himself, that’s not a luxury that some other teams have. Being set up in the heart of Auckland has its advantages. Southern, Hawke’s Bay or Tasman can’t brag the same, for example. As long as there’s a variety of approaches in the Kiwi Premiership – and right now, excitingly, there is – then we’re all good.

And up until this week Suburbs had denied the Proper Football Man agenda so well, picking their kids and getting results. Four wins in a row and six games unbeaten but then they took on Auckland City and were kept scoreless for the first time all season. Emiliano Tade and Micah Lea’alifa scored the goals as City grabbed a massive boost in their hopes of finishing first. Tade’s was another free kick, the cheeky bugger.

City did the business with a goal in each half, controlling the game from in front and killing it off despite some running improvements from the home side. City haven’t always been impervious with a lead, they’ve blown a fair few this season actually, but in such a potentially defining game, Ramon Tribulietx outsmarted Danny Hay and ACFC won 2-0 to move top.

Both of those teams then had to back it up a few days later as part of Round 13, both away games as well. Brutal stuff and you can understand them also not putting in their best showings. City rotated three players with Lea’alafa, Rogers and Edge coming in for White, Riera and Iwata as they went to Mount Maunganui to play Hamilton Wanderers. Eastern Suburbs made just the two changes for their game down in the Hawke’s Bay, Thomas and Sinclair in for Payne and Prattley. The first game that el capitan Tim Payne has missed all season and they missed him in return.

City were dominant but held it back a gear in the heat for a 1-0 win. Micah Lea’alafa grabbed his second goal in a few days and his third in four games and the trio of he, Callum McCowatt and Emiliano Tade should probably have added to that. McCowatt hit the post, Tade was too unselfish at another time, a few shots off target… no dramas. They were too good for the Winless Wanderers, whose own scoring streak came to an end. 14 goals in their last six games and they didn’t win one of them.

A 1-0 defeat against City at least comes with some moral triumphs. They may only have three points with a mere five games remaining but they’ve been competitive over the last couple months. Tommy Semmy’s made a huge difference, as noted last week, and it seems like Ricki Herbert’s figured out his best team now. Tron Wands were very busy in the transfer window and with it they’ve been able to lock that squad down (partly forced by guys like Michael Built and San De St Croix choosing to play elsewhere). The record winless streak is on the brink but don’t overlook that they’re making adjustments and improvements.

Heads up to Harry Edge, though. Played a nice game at the back for City but fell for the old high school trick, the kneel-down-behind-a-dude-and-trip-him-up classic. Usually need a joker to push him backwards but Harry does his own dirty work.

As for Suburbs, this is a week that’ll be tough to overcome. They’ve also settled on a set first XI and the game against City marked the fourth straight with the same starting team: Caunter, Kalua, Payne, Elder, Prattley, van den Hover, Dyer, Vale, De Jong, Tieku and Mata. Ages: 24, 18, 24, 26, 29, 17, 20, 23, 21, 22 and 17. Average age of a shade under 22 years old. They went all in on City and got stifled. Then they were picked off by a stubborn Hawke’s Bay team that’s now won two of three after six games without a win.

As with basically every game this week, it was played in some steaming heat and that’s one more thing you don’t wanna have to deal with when you’re already a young team playing on the road on a short turnaround following a demoralising defeat (they’re all demoralising, tbf). But HBU deserve heaps of credit. They’ve been as refreshed as anyone by the mid-season break and Brett Angell’s side continue to look extremely well organised. When they can play with a lead they’re tough to break down… they just don’t get too many leads. Still, on the four occasions out of 13 that they’ve been able to put two or more goals in the back of the net they’ve won three and drawn once. Sam De St Croix’s been a valuable signing and so too now, it seems, will Tinashe Marowa be.

That guy was on the fringes of the Phoenix before the season, playing in their FFA Cup defeat back in early August off a bench that also featured Jack-Henry Sinclair and Luke Tongue, with Liam Wood starting. Funny story that, because JHS and Woody now play for Team Wellington, Tongue went back to Canterbury (he and Wood made their debuts for their new teams this week off the bench while JHS has been there for ages). As for Marowa, he left to chase first team footy with Tasman and that didn’t work out so well. He appeared ten times for Tassie this season but only four were starts and it just wasn’t working. Tasman have a fair few attacking options: Maksym Kowal’s been their main striker, then you’ve got folks like Paul Ifill, the Al-Kalisy brothers, Kieran Smith (now gone), Callan Elliot, etc. Alex Risdale left for similar reasons to Marowa.

But Marowa bagged his first of the season before Hyato Wakino added a second and they beat Suburbs 2-0. Bingo. Perfect timing as well with regular striker Sammy Adjei going off injured the week before. Marowa’s got a bundle of ability so hopefully he finds his place in the Bay for the rest of this season.

Team Wellington took care of Tasman United on Saturday to briefly return to the top of the table and keep the pressure on ACFC even after. Eight goals in two games for Tassie but they could only score a late consolation against Team Welly, thanks to Ben Wright.

There’s an interesting bloke. Ben Wright is an Englishman born in Germany who spent his best years playing in Norway – once famously scoring against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in a UEFA Cup game - and has been playing and coaching with Nelson Suburbs for the last six or seven years. Just made his Premiership debut at age 37 and he scored as well, the legend. Between him and Paul Ifill there’s some serious pedigree there. Each one of them is as old/older than the combined ages of teammates Matt Tod-Smith and Callan Elliot.

Tasman are another team that went through some major transfers but they’ve also come out of it with a stable team. Unchanged line-up in three straight… although with Brian Kaltack leaving now that won’t be the case next week.  

Anyway, Team Wellington got goals from Jack-Henry Sinclair (2), debutant Dan Mulholland and recent signing Ross Allen for a solid 4-1 win. Chopping away at it there, the TeeDubs also snapped up Liam Wood (as mentioned) and Hamish Watson from the Wellington Phoenix last week. Rather ideal replacements for Erik Panzer and Joel Stevens and continuing on their trend of being the number one destination for ex-Phoenix young guns. Wood gives them the last bit of defensive cover they needed while Watto’s a huge boost to their attacking depth. Chances are that the OFC Champions League had a lot to do with their signings, which makes sense for them as players. A game or two at the Club World Cup could be the beginning of a long pro career. Kind of a shame though, would’ve loved to see Watson playing at Tasman or Southern or Hamilton. Oh well.

Flippin’ Southern, aye? 0-0 with five minutes left, battling away to a solid point at home against Waitakere... oh no but that’s not how this 2017-18 Southern United side do it. It’d been a few games since they last pulled out the late game heroics but here they were again. Danny Furlong chopped down by keeper Josh Dijkstra – controversial amongst the away bench – and the Irishman slotted the spottie himself. Ends a seven game run without a win, although they were drawing more than they were losing there. Which is why this result is so huge – they finally turned a grinding draw into a win.

Updating some stats here, if games ended after 75 minutes then Southern would have 7 points with zero wins and a goal difference of -7. Instead they’ve got 15 points with three wins and a GD of -4. Half of their goals have come in the final sixth of games. Remarkable. A fifth goal of the season for Danny Ridden too, who’d only played in one of the last seven games after scoring four times in the first four. Lovely time to welcome him back.

As for Waitakere, they’re still winless since the resumption of the league. Only two points from their last five games and fourth place is slipping away. Draws with ACFC and Canty kept them in the running but subsequent defeats to the Welly Nix Reserves and now Southern Utd are gonna be tough to recover from. Hard to pinpoint where things are slipping, although the goalkeeping might be the start considering Dijkstra gave away the penalty here and Anderson let in that hilarious own goal last week.

One last game and that was Canterbury United putting the slip on the Welly Nix in a thriller. The Phoenix were just starting to look quite good when they lost their defensive leader Liam Wood, although there are worse replacements out there than Liam Moore (Liberato Cacace’s been doing alright too). Luke Tongue had played a lot, starting six of their first nine games. He came off the bench for CU. And unlike the rest of teams, they’re not a team that can easily sign replacements so that could make the rest of their season kinda tricky.

Then again, the more Sarpreet Singh they get the better. Fresh from playing a chunk of time for the A-League team on Saturday night, he backed it up with a fine sixty-odd minutes in Canterbury scoring twice to help the Nix to a 2-1 lead despite falling behind to Futa Nakamura’s goal. But a wild game got even wilder as Tom Schwarz and Dan Terris scored in the final twenty minutes. The Dragons winning it 3-2, how about that?

It’s a result that makes the top four look a fair bit more distinguished. Waitakere are slipping back into the pack and Canty just earned some separation ahead of some winnable games over the next month (Southern (H), WeeNix (A), Hamilton (A) & HBU (A)). Three points clear of Tasman with a game in hand. There’s only two points between Tasman in fifth and Southern in eighth but that won’t matter if Canterbury are able to get back to their mid-season form.

Hey look, somebody bothered to put last week’s goals up online! And the three weeks that they didn’t bother with before that. That new digital media strategy at NZF might finally be working…

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