The Premmy Files – A Hefty 2018-19 Squad Analysis
The Premiership squads have been confirmed and the new season is about to begin. Better dig on in then, aye? This is all based on the team lists given by NZ Footy the other day, read ‘em up here, and it’s inevitable that new players will be added, transfers will happen, drama will unfold… but here’s what we’ve got to kick it all off with, sweet as.
Auckland City
Manager: Ramon Tribulietx
Key Players: Cameron Howieson, Enaut Zubikarai, Angel Berlanga
Young Guns: Hayden McHenery, David Browne, Yousif Ali, Maro Bonsu-Maro
Major Additions: Brian Kaltack, Javier Lopez, Hayden McHenery, Dylan Manickum & David Browne
Major Subtractions: Emiliano Tade, Ryan De Vries, Callum McCowatt, Harry Moss-Edge & Darren White
Auckland City have gone through some massive changes this season. Their frontline has been recreated after Ryan De Vries left midseason last year followed by the offseason departures of McCowatt and Tade. That’s their starting frontline from the first stage of last season all gone and most of their goals with them – a situation that got much more enlightenment in the Premmy Files Season Preview the other day.
That was what happened, this is what they’ve done. First thing is getting another superstar foreign striker and Javier Lopez is the bloke. Don’t know much about him but he’s been scoring goals in preseason and by the looks of him he could stare holes into concrete with that steely gaze of his. Next up, Micah Lea’alafa was already there so all goods. And completing the first choice trio is Dylan Manickum, formerly of Waitakere, who returns to Aotearoa after a quick stint playing futsal in Europe. There’s attacking depth from the likes of Jordan Vale (coming over from Eastern Suburbs), Yousif Ali, Maro Bonsu-Maro and especially David Browne, the Papua New Guinea international who was an Auckland City lad in the past but spent the last three years over in Holland doing his thing – Papua New Guinea’s first European pro. It’ll be hugely exciting to see how far he’s come… though it’s still fair to say the ACFC attack isn’t what it used to be.
No dramas in the midfield, with the same old blokes returning. Not only that but Fabrizio Tavano and Albert Riera are now NZ citizens so that’s freed up room to fit a few more of their import fellas into the matchday squad each week. It’s six foreigners plus an Oceania player allowed and City have five foreigners and three OFC dudes, meaning only one would have to miss out each game.
It’s City’s defence that won them the title last time and it’s their defence that least needed any work. But, bugger it, Ramon Tribulietx has gone and pumped it up anyway. They already had super keeper Enaut Zubikarai… now they’ve added Ruben Parker from HBU for an excellent backup. Parker started most of last season for the Bay before losing his spot to MacKenzie Waite. Between Angel Berlanga, Te Atawhai Hudson-Wihongi, Mario Bilen and new addition Brian Kaltack – who was previously at Tasman and captains the Vanuatu national side – they’ve got no excuses at centre-back.
Liam Graham failed to break through last season after they offered him an injury lifeline, he’s disappeared now and been replaced by Hayden McHenery, another from Hawke’s Bay transfer. Really good signing this dude, he’s 21 years old and the kind of fullback who’ll give them some real attacking impetus… as if they needed any more of that. McHenery’s got dual eligibility with Australia where he’s played a lot of his footy (he left Hawke’s Bay midseason to rejoin his Queensland side) but wants to represent Aotearoa if he gets the chance. Beauty.
Canterbury United
Manager: Willy Gerdsen
Key Players: Gary Ogilvie, Stephen Hoyle, Tom Schwarz
Young Guns: Conor Tracey, Lyle Matthysen, Luke Tongue, Sean Liddicoat, Reese Cox
Major Additions: Brock Messenger, Maksym Kowal, Reese Cox, Lyle Matthysen, Adam Thurston
Major Subtractions: Coey Turipa, Futu Nakamura, Travis Nicklaw, Francis De Vries
Interesting to see that last year’s keeper Coey Turipa hasn’t come back. Turipa had a top season but the Dragons have at least snapped up a promising replacement in former ACFC reserve goalie Conor Tracey. This fella spent some time in the QPR academy after playing for the City youth team and he was in the squad that went to the U20 World Cup last year. Very cool to look around and see that there might be a few young kiwi keepers getting opportunities to play this season, Tracey could be one of them.
Canterbury have done some impressive work in the transfers, actually. Losing Aaron Clapham to semi-retirement after one game last season might’ve been a killer but instead they put an outstanding midfield trio together without him and Gary Ogilvie, George King and James Pendrigh are all back… what’s more is they’ve signed ex-Hawke’s Bay import Adam Thurston too. Slight concern about whether they’ve adequately replaced Francis De Vries or not in the middle of defence (Englishman Tom Schwarz is still there though and 2017 U20 World Cup defender Reese Cox is worth a look-see) but between Brock Messenger, Aaron Spain, Sean Liddicoat and Andreas Wilson they’ve got surely the best crop of wingbacks in the comp.
There aren’t too many other losses that haven’t been dealt with here. For the most part they’ve kept the bulk of last season’s regulars but added stronger depth around them. Japanese striker Futu Nakamura didn’t quite bring the creativity they needed from him last time (it’s a lot to ask, to be fair) and he’s gone now but in his place is Canadian forward Maksym Kowal, who last kitted up for Tasman scoring six goals in 2017-18. Chuck him up front with reigning top scorer Stephen Hoyle and watch the goals go pouring in. Notably they also added winger Lyle Matthysen, a South African born lad (hence classed as an import, though he’s been here since he was six) who rejected the chance to play for his local Canterbury side last season for better playing opps at Tasman… though he mostly had to settle for a spot off the bench there. He could be exactly the spark the Dragons need to start a little fire burning.
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Eastern Suburbs
Manager: Danny Hay
Key Players: Andre De Jong, Tim Payne, Harry Moss-Edge
Young Guns: Eli Just, Kelvin Kalua, Nando Pijnaker, Dalton Wilkins
Major Additions: Ole Football Academy
Major Subtractions: Leon van den Hoven, Moses Dyer, Max Mata, Jordan Vale, Derek Tieku
Possibly the most widely anticipated squad naming after the massive news that Eastern Suburbs were linking up with Ole Academy. Danny Hay had already gone out of his way to give minutes to some of the best young players in the country and he’d coupled them with some reliable veterans and taken them all to the semi-finals. Top nudge that. But how many players would Ole provide? Who would miss out as a result? Would there be any players left over the age of 25?
These are the players from last year that are still there are: Tim Payne, Andre De Jong, Kelvin Kalua, Michael Built and Hayden Johns. Plus Kingsley Sinclair is in the youth team so expect to see him a few times. For a team that made the semis, these are some enormous alterations. Jordan Vale has gone to ACFC, Reese Cox is at Canterbury, Derek Tieku is at Hamilton. Leon van den Hoven and Moses Dyer have gone overseas. Tristan Prattley, Louis Caunter and Max Mata have gone missing altogether (Mata spent some time in Europe earlier in the year so he might have something on the cards – he’s way too good to be ignored). That’s what happened.
What have they got instead? Well, they’ve got the Ole Academy. Which means almost the entire Western Suburbs starting team from the 2018 Chatham Cup final. Only Nate Hailemariam is missing as he had an existing connection with Team Wellington and is keen for a little Club World Cup action. But keeper Andrew Withers is there. CBs Adam Thomas and Nando Pijnaker are there. Midfielders Harry Moss-Edge, Dom Wooldridge and Eli Just are there. Mohamed Awad. Alex Clayton. Dalton Wilkins. Matt Garbett’s in the youth team so close enough. And then just for fun they’ve added Tinashe Marowa and Patryk Misik, as well as Aussie keeper Justin Biega.
Ole Academy sent three players to Auckland City last season: Callum McCowatt, Dalton Wilkins and Owen Parker-Price. McCowatt scored the winning goal in the grand final and is now in Holland while the other two have followed their buddies to Easts. It’s a very different squad this year. More Western Suburbs than Eastern Suburbs… but retaining the best from the previous flock. This one will be a fascinating experiment.
Hamilton Wanderers
Manager: Ricki Herbert
Key Players: Tommy Semmy, Matt Oliver, Joe Nottage
Young Guns: Steffano Riley, Hamish Smylie
Major Additions: Derek Tieku, Hiroki Toyokawa, Agustin Contratti, Gensei Nakamura, James Hoyle
Major Subtractions: Sam O’Regan, Sam St de Croix, Alexis Varela, Armin Pasagic, Patrick Aisa
The initial thing that stands out with the new Hamilton Wanderers squad is that they’ve given the imports an almost complete change-up… with the exception of Premmy Superstar Tommy Semmy. Should just call it the Semmy Files and be done with it. Nah but he’s back and will be hoping that Ricki’s given him some decent teammates this time. There are a few returning guys and they’re the local fellas that bled for them during that horror season, good to see them persevered with. Guys like Matt Oliver, Joe Nottage, Jordan Shaw, Xavier Pratt and Hamish Smylie.
The Tron Wands suffered an early blow when Alexis Varela was injured early in preseason, costing him the whole upcoming campaign. That sucks. Heaps. However despite that there’s still a definite feeling that the squad should be stronger this time. Those imports will probably decide that, let’s be honest, and it’s hard to make much of a judgement over players who haven’t graced this competition with their presence before. Having said that, definitely keep ‘em peeled on Argentine defender Tino Contratti. If you haven’t had the chance to worship at the altar of Tino during the club season then you’ll soon be converted after watching him for the Wanderers. One of those 100% passion types… and with a tendency to pop up with some crucial goals too. Oh hey and they scooped up Derek Tieku from Eastern Suburbs too, good get.
The midfield’s gonna get a fair bit of a reshuffle this season but the defence should be mostly consistent other than Sam O’Regan’s departure. Plus Tommy Semmy remains as the focal point on attack with Tieku able to play off him and presumably a few of these imports are gonna fill the remaining gaps. Again, hard to say much without seeing many of them play so might as well keep it optimistic. At the very least they should have more depth for this spin.
Hawke’s Bay United
Manager: Brett Angell
Key Players: Birhanu Taye, Sam Mason-Smith, Cameron Lindsay
Young Guns: Jorge Akers, Karan Mandair, Daniel Allan
Major Additions: Sam Mason-Smith, Cory Chettleburgh, Cameron Lindsay, Sho Goto, Maxime Olivieri
Major Subtractions: Ruben Parker, Hayden McHenery, Adam Thurston, Alex Palezevic, Bill Robertson
Now here’s a great one because before the squads were announced I was pretty down on the chances of the Bay Crew. They struggled last season with a tiny group of players and not much continuity and here I was reading how Auckland City had snapped up a couple of their dudes, Canterbury United had snapped up a couple of their dudes, Bill Robertson wasn’t even gonna be included despite starting every game (as captain, no less) last season.
And then I saw the squad.
Not a heavily-populated team once again but they’ve managed to retain the likes of Birhanu Taye, Jorge Akers, MacKenzie Waite and Bjorn Christensen. Every single one of last time’s imports have gone, which isn’t ideal, but they’ve gotten six widespread replacements there – the most tantalising being Sam Mason-Smith returning after a year in South Africa. Mason-Smith is a genuine goal-scorer in a league where that sort don’t just turn up accidentally. Getting his finishing back in there, as well as his familiarity with the club, is a big deal. And bringing some overseas effervescence along with him are Liam Schofield (UK), Joseph Zubo (Canada), Sho Goto (Japan) and Maxime Olivieri (France)… a pretty wide array of languages there.
Chucked on top of that is a quartet of steals from poor old Tasman, with Cory Chettleburgh and Cameron Lindsay enormous additions to a midfield which has lost everyone other than Birhanu Taye… who might even need to play defence since they’ve lost all them too, no Bill Robertson or Graham Craven… while Daniel Allan and Alex Britton offer a bit of extra in defence and goalkeeping respectively. Allan had a good run of games over the back end of last season with Tassie and Britton started three games as backup GK there. But it’s Chettleburgh and Lindsay that are the standouts. CC obviously played for HBU and Brett Angell in the past and the prospect him Chettleburgh, Lindsay and Taye in midfield is a lovely one. Get some solidity and a little creativity out of the imports and Hawke’s Bay could be back challenging for the semis… as long as they can keep the goals out at the other end.
Rumour is Saint Paul Ifill, in town as an assistant coach, may even lace up the boots a couple times…
Southern United
Manager: Paul O’Reilly
Key Players: Conor O’Keeffe, Garbhan Coughlan, Liam Little
Young Guns: Ben Deeley, Azariah Soromon, Abdullah Al Kalisy, Matt Brazier
Major Additions: Markus Fjørtoft, Tony Whitehead, Liam MacDevitt, Erik Panzer
Major Subtractions: Kristian Gibson, Danny Furlong, Alex Risdale, Tom Connor, Hamish Cotter
It was an unexpectedly great season for the Southerners last time, really cracking on in Paul O’Reilly’s second year in charge. No surprises then that he’s continuing on into a third with a pretty consistent squad looking to build on all that progress. All the expected names return. Conor O’Keeffe, Garbhan Coughlan, Stephen Last and Danny Ledwith are all back, the Irish contingent, and they’ve brought in a compatriot in Tony Whitehead, a defensive midfielder. Keeper Liam Little is back again. Ben Wade, Omar Guardiola, Nick Treadwell. Of the 13 players who started games in the three-game winning streak that closed the last campaign, nine of them will be back so take that clan and slide some of these new imports in along with a few local lads and bingo, see how it goes.
Tony Whitehead played alongside All White international Henry Cameron at Limerick until recently (in as much as Henry Cameron ever played there). Liam MacDevitt is coming from lower league English stuff and is lightning quick, don’t even worry about it. Maybe the best of the new import will be Markus Fjørtoft, a very tall Swedish defender who excelled at college in the States with Duke and was drafted by Seattle Sounders. Then there’s kiwi fella Erik Panzer, who played professionally in Sweden and started the first four games for Team Welly last season. Really good player, Panzer, who didn’t get much of a chance to show what he can do in the capital. Always good to see the South Island teams convincing Aotearoa’s domestic guns to embrace the chillier climate. Not as cold as Sweden, granted.
Tasman United
Manager: Andy Hedge
Key Players: Sam Ayers, Corey Wilson, Tom Hickey
Young Guns: Bertie Fish, Fox Slotemaker, Matt Tod-Smith, Chester Gaskin
Major Additions: Alex Risdale, Keegan Smith, Fox Slotemaker, Kiernan Hughes-Mason, Tom Hickey
Major Subtractions: Cameron Lindsay, Paul Ifill, Maksym Kowal, Luca Perico, Brian Kaltack
Umm… yeah. If Hawke’s Bay got a boost from the squad naming then Tassie went in the other direction and not just because The Bay took half their team. To be fair, Chettleburgh left mid-season… but Lindsay started all but one game. Maksym Kowal and Paul Ifill leave, taking the two top scorers from last season with them, and Callan Elliot’s still with the Wellington Phoenix and a good chance to be an U20 player with the A-League side so there goes another one. Brian Kaltack missed the last bit of last season anyway. Import Luca Perico’s gone after a useful campaign.
The departures don’t stop there either, Tasman even have a new coach with Andy Hedge taking over for Davor Tavich after he returned to Croatia for personal reasons and didn’t want to see that affect the team’s preseason. Hedge was obviously involved with the Phoenix for a good while, a former head of the academy and coach of the reserves, and he’s brought with him a real focus on youth and player development… naturally.
Local fellas Bertie Fish and Fox Slotemaker should get plenty of opportunities to impress while Matt Tod-Smith will look to build on a bit of a breakout where he started the last eight games for the team. They’re one of a few teams making use of the allowance for Oceania talent too with the brilliantly named Ronaldo Wilkins of Vanuatu on board. Strangely they got Keegan Smith to make the trip over the Cook Strait which doesn’t make a massive amount of sense given that he was more likely to start over Zac Jones than he is over Corey Wilson but then you never know, maybe he was just fed up with the way his career was being treated at the Nix and liked working with Hedgey.
Alex Risdale is back after popping over to Southern midseason too. Then there’s a strong English flavour to the midfield from Tom Hickey, Jordan Yong and Ryan Worrell while ex-Arsenal junior Kiernan Hughes-Mason is there to bang some goals away. Gonna be a lot of pressure on the imports to perform.
Team Wellington
Manager: Jose Figuera
Key Players: Justin Gulley, Andy Bevin, Ross Allen
Young Guns: Jack-Henry Sinclair, Alex Palezevic, Taylor Schrijvers, Liam Wood
Major Additions: Henry Cameron, Alex Palezevic
Major Subtractions: Louis Fenton
Of all the teams, the reigning runners-up have the least about them in terms of storylines. That’s because it’s almost the exact same squad as they finished with. Fairly good reason for that, thus being that they only went and qualified for the Club World Cup coming up in December and the folks that did the hard work all want to see the rewards for it.
As such the entirety of the players who took the field in the grand final are back for more. That includes midseason additions like Hamish Watson, Ross Allen (the Guernsey Goal Machine) and Liam Wood. Imports Allen, Roy Kayara, Eric Molloy and Mario Barcia are all returning. It’s basically as you were other than Louis Fenton re-upping with the Phoenix as was always the agreement. A few guys from the squad at the start of the previous season didn’t make it to the end for various reasons (Cole Peverley, Erik Panzer and Joel Stevens), no drama there, although shout out to Tom Jackson who’s recovered from an extended injury layoff. Great to see. Additionally, Team Welly have found some extra depth with a pair of kiwi midfielders: Henry Cameron, the ex-Blackpool youther who munted his leg on debut for the All Whites and hasn’t really been the same since so he’s clearly looking for a bit of a run of games to get the train on the tracks, and Alex Palezevic, the ex-Hawke’s Bay centre-mid who played every game for them last term and is a New Zealand representative at U17 and U20 level. Good gets.
Waitakere United
Manager: Chris Milicich
Key Players: Jake Butler, Sam Burfoot, David Parkinson
Young Guns: Matt Conroy, Dylan Burns, Oscar Browne
Major Additions: Kohei Matsumoto, Danyon Drake, Sam Burfoot, Alec Solomons, Ben Gordon
Major Subtractions: Keegan Linderboom, Dylan Manickum, Stewart MacKay, Yuki Ohtsuka, Julyan Collett
The Waitaks, in a strangely appropriate metaphor, fell off a cliff in the second half of the 2017-18 thing. Thus Chris Milicich has swung the axe. Of the seventeen players named at the squad deadline this week, only Jake Butler, Eder Franchini Pasten and David Parkinson are still there from the preseason squad deadline a year ago. The evergreen Jake Butler, mate, what a fella.
Tell you what, there’s a huge presence from the 2018 Chatham Cup winning Birkenhead squad here. Sam Burfoot, Alex Connor-McClean, Luke Jorgensen and MoM Alex Solomons all getting inclusions – more Burko players than last season’s Waitaks. There’s also NRFL Premier Division top scorer Sanni Issa (no stranger to this level – remember his winning penalty for Auckland City in the shootout that booked ACFC the bronze medal in the 2014 CWC?). He’ll be tasked with picking up the slack that Keegan Linderboom left behind.
We’re looking at a new keeper, a whole new defence (with the exception of Parkinson), a whole new midfield (with the exception of Butler) and a whole new frontline. Kohei Matsumoto joins from Hawke’s Bay (he left them midseason) so that’s helpful. Andrew Abba is a forward from the Solomon Islands with one international cap and a bit of prior Premmy experience, he’ll score some goals. Then there’s a trio of scintillating young NZers with Oscar Browne back in Auckland after a spell with the WeeNix, Matt Conroy making the step up following some heroic stuff with the All Whites U19s and, best of all, Dylan Burns returning from Sweden having played in the Nottingham Forest academy back in the day and played for Tasman in the 2016-17 campaign. All three are attacking players who can light this scene up.
Wellington Phoenix
Manager: Paul Temple
Key Player: Willem Ebbinge, Ben Waine, Anybody who gets dropped from the A-League side
Young Gun: All of them
Major Additions: Bit hard to say with a youth team, you know
Major Subtractions: Sarpreet Singh, Liberato Cacace, Keegan Smith, James McGarry, Ollie Whyte
Gonna be a tough time for the WeeNix as they do a bit of rebuilding on the fly with what was already the second worst team in the competition, having lost way more players than most teams could handle and unlike other teams they have to replace them with sixteen and seventeen year olds. So don’t have too much in terms of expectations with this lot, they’re here for the experience and to get a jump start on a future professional career.
There are some belter prospects still around though, Ben Waine has spent a lot of time with the senior team during their preseason and even made his debut off the bench in the FFA Cup. Then take a peek at Calvin Harris, a Hong Kong/English player who moved here for high school and has only recently been cleared by FIFA to play competitively in this country – having turned 18 early in the year. Folks who have seen him play have huge raps… but don’t get too attached because he’s moving to the States for uni in January. Him and Liam Moore both.
Also Keegan Smith was poised to get some minutes here with the lads but has opted to join his old Welly Nix youth coach Andy Hedge at Tasman instead, so good news for Zac Jones’ chances with the gloves. Of this year’s WeeNix class, Liam Moore, Will Ebbinge, Ben Waine, Sam Sutton, Owen Smith and Oliver Valentine all got pretty solid minutes last campaign, with a few others contributing on occasion. Boyd Curry, Kurtis Mogg and Oskar van Hattum are three folks from the National Youth League squad who’d be good bets for a few call-ups. Zac Jones, Dino Botica, Boyd Curry and Will Ebbinge all represented Aotearoa at the Oceania U19 Champs a few months back. Not a squad that’ll compete with the top dogs at all but there is a lot to like about a CB pairing of Liam Moore and Dino Botica, that’s for sure.
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