‘Twas a lovely break, to be sure. A couple weeks off from the Premiership as players were able to spend time with their families, maybe get away to the beach for a few days, savour the sunshine, chill in the company of people they love. All very wholesome. And we’ll find out this week when the Premiership resumes if anyone perhaps enjoyed that break a little too much and a sweaty ninety minutes is all of a sudden beyond their capabilities.

Jokes aside though, this is traditionally a time when teams reassess things. Waitakere United spent Christmas of 2018 basically rejigging the whole setup as they flipped out a few older fellas and pushed some youngsters into the deep end. It didn’t pay too many immediate dividends last season but many of those same players are looking a whole lot more competitive right now. The WeeNix went the other way and having lost every game prior to the holiday break that season they got competitive pretty quickly afterwards... coinciding with teams like Hamilton and Hawke’s Bay falling off the wagon.

Point being that the cream generally rises to the top over the second half of the season and we need a bit of that right now because the table’s not making much sense. There’s currently three points between the semi finals and last place. Other than Auckland City and Team Wellington, both of whom have had their own contextual struggles, it’s almost impossible to predict which teams will get crack the semis. Can Hawke’s Bay keep it up over the full campaign? Do Eastern Suburbs have another gear they can reach? Will the Kale Herbert resurgence in the Tron continue? What about Southern United, who would be fourth but for that overturned result? That’s what we get to find out over the next 10-11 games for each of these clubs, s’pose. In the meantime, here’s a catchup on what’s been going down.

THE LADDER

SINGLE SENTENCE REVIEW

Auckland City – Still undefeated and have only conceded once in their last six games as Jose Figuiera’s influence takes hold with that three-man defence although consecutive goalless draws (Eastern Suburbs & Southern) leading into the break did take the shine off things just a little.

Team Wellington – They’ve drawn a couple games they shouldn’t have and that loss to Tasman was a shocker but they’ve also had a knack for putting teams to the sword with a 5-1 win over HW and a 6-1 over SU highlighting a very entertaining team... still yet to keep a clean sheet though, might wanna work on that defence.

Hawke’s Bay United – Whatever Chris Greatholder and Bill Robertson are up to it’s paying off because a group of committed local players, some of them still pretty young, abetted by some excellent import signings have got this HBU side scoring more goals than any team other than Team Welly to sit third at Xmas.

Eastern Suburbs – You get the feeling Tony Readings is still sewing things together after a disrupted offseason that saw so many players (and even their coach Danny Hay) graduate to greener pastures but with the attacking capabilities in this squad that only means they’ve got a lot more still to come.

Waitakere United – The young blokes are seeing them right with some very competitive performances however they haven’t won any of their last five so gotta find just a little more creativity to turn some of these draws into wins.

Canterbury United – Desperately needed that 2-0 win over Tassie before the break as the Cantabs had struggled to get the most out of games prior to that, competing hard every week but not always getting their rewards... every game they’ve played in so far has been close so all about those fine margins.

Hamilton Wanderers – Can’t find a settled defensive unit and they were utter pants until Ricki Herbert passed the reins to Kale Herbert and since then they’ve won back to back games (beating Tasman & HBU) to get their season suddenly trending in the right direction so gotta see how far this goes now.

Southern United – A pity about the defaulted game as they’d otherwise be fourth and not eighth, though the league table’s so cluttered that doesn’t mean much... Southern have had a couple shockers along the way but the games they’ve won they’ve won big so they’re not far off those preseason expectations of a top four finish and wins against the WeeNix and Tasman in their next two would really get the train back on the tracks and steaming along.

Wellington Phoenix – Four games unbeaten for the WeeNix going into Xmas, as the only pro team in the comp makes the most of a good chunk of players (Wynne, Jones, Mogg, Othman, Elliot, etc.) with existing Premiership experience, as well as a fair few senior players dropping down for game time... still conceding quite heaps but this year they’re scoring almost as many.

Tasman United – Didn’t score a goal in their first three games, their success so far has been when they can get that CB pairing of Fox Slotemaker and Cory Brown together, would be bottom if not for that defaulted week one win but they do have the upset of the season from when Jean-Philippe Saiko’s goal gave them a 1-0 win over Team Wellington.

THE GOLDEN BOOT RACE

Early doors and it was Myer Bevan by a landslide. He scored a hatty within the first half of his first game and has literally led this race ever since. Bevan was in immense form, scoring in each of Auckland City’s first six games. But the last two he’s been shut out and so has his team, opening things up for folks like Ahinga Selemani from Hawke’s Bay who has been on a serious tear having scored in each of his last five games. He’s only two behind Bevan now. Hamish Watson and Garbhan Coughlan are always prodigious goal scorers and they’re in range to make a run at this thing. Derek Tieku’s scored some hugely important goals for the Tron Wands (he and Jake Butler have scored in each of their three wins) while Ollie Bassett has pretty much been Team Welly’s best player this season. Chuck in his assists as well and how about it.

Coughlan’s total is technically gonna be one less than it’s listed here. I choose to still count the goals from the overturned win over Tasman United but NZF won’t be able to, rules being rules and all that. Joel Stevens therefore loses two from here (hence the asterisks)... but that doesn’t matter anyway because he’s heading back to Sweden to pursue the professional thing again as their new season rolls around. That’s a huge blow to Southern’s fates because he’s been outstanding so far... although they do have Cam McKenzie and Abdullah Al-Kalisy there to pick up the slack.

One team to really keep an eye out for here is Eastern Suburbs, who have not only Martin Bueno but also Stephen Hoyle who can raise the bar for that attack. Bueno missed a game with suspension and Hoyle didn’t start until the third game with injury so they haven’t hit full speed yet, each with three goals but more than capable of surging up the golden boot tallies.

MVP POWER RANKINGS

Please, I’m not falling for that one. Not this early in the season. That’d be a twitterstorm waiting to happen so I’ll just throw out some names in no particular order:

Adam Mitchell, Mario Ilich, Myer Bevan, George King, Mohammed Awad, Adam Thomas, Ahinga Selemani, Dylan Sacramento, Derek Tieku, Joel Stevens, Garbhan Coughlan, Fox Slotemaker, Ollie Bassett, Jack-Henry Sinclair, Sam Burfoot, Nick Draper, and Sam Sutton.

Arrange them however you want, add or subtract whoever you want.

EMERGING TALENTS

Auckland City – ACFC are central city jaffas so they obviously deal in the finer things which means not a massive amount of fresh lads cracking through but in their midst are several key players from the U23 squad that qualified for the 2020 Olympics in Myer Bevan, Logan Rogerson, Clayton Lewis, and Conor Tracey. Andrew Blake (23yo) and Yousif Ali (22yo) are both pretty young too. It’s actually really impressive how many players in this City squad still have vast quantities of untapped potential considering how strong this squad already is.

Team Wellington – Mate, gotta be Marko Stamenic, who was at the U17 World Cup a few months back and through a couple impressive outings off the bench has earned himself a pair of starts to close out 2019. A classy midfielder with all the attributes you’d expect from an Ole Academy alumni. He scored his first Premiership goal against Southern United in week seven.

Hawke’s Bay United – A couple options here depending on whether you like gritty defence or flowing attack. Kaeden Atkins is doesn’t even turn 19 for another month and a half but he’s started every game in that back three and up top Ihaia Delaney (who is a couple years older) has likewise been ever-present in HBU starting lineups alongside Selamani up front, scoring four goals including a brace in a 4-2 win over Waitakere.

Eastern Suburbs – Dylan De Jong’s work up and down that left flank for Suburbs has been a big factor in some of their better performances, including scoring the only goal in a 1-1 draw against the Waitaks. The last three games have also seen 17 year old Campbell Strong in amongst the starters. Hopefully will see a bit more from Kingsley Sinclair and Leon van den Hoven after the break too.

Waitakere United – A few options here but hard to go past the defensive tank that is Robert Tipelu, out there sending strikers back the other way with no more than a stern look, and Dane Schnell in the number ten role who is both scoring them and setting them up. Schnell has four goals already. Lachie McIsaac at left wingback has been a star for Paul Hobson’s side as well.

Canterbury United – It’s a rather experienced side that the Dragons have put together but a few fellas have emerged nicely alongside the veterans. Juan Chang-Urrea has two pretty important goals already while fellow CU Youth grads Sam Field and Harris Zeb have found their way into multiple starting lineups lately.

Hamilton Wanderers – Probably gotta go with Adam Davidson here, who has appeared in all but one game this season... though with an NYL team that were second away from winning the 2019 title there’s plenty more where he came from who’ll be putting their hands up for selection over the rest of the term.

Southern United – Southern are a team that’s done really well in providing these pathways under Paul O’Reilly and with fellas like Cam McKenzie, Ben Wade, and Cody Brook getting plenty of opportunities that ain’t changing. McKenzie in particular, who has started seven of eight games and should have an even more prominent role without Joel Stevens in this team. Also gotta appreciate the fullbacks Jordan Spain and Tim O’Farrell, both only 19 years old and already looking at home at this level.

Wellington Phoenix – All of them? That’s kinda the point of having an U20/Reserves side in this league. In particular the captain Sam Sutton has already made his A-League debut this season and has been involved in five of the last eight Phoenix matchday squads. Ronan Wynne and Kurtis Mogg look great in that backline. Blake Driehuis scored a hatty off the bench against HBU. And their offseason pickup from Tasman, Ahmed Othman, has been a real boost to that forward line too.

Tasman United – Jesse Randall is 17 years old, he’s lightning fast, he scored his first Premiership goal two games back, and Tassie have not scored a single goal in a game he didn’t start. Huge talent. Ricky Muir has also impressed in the midfield in a couple starts, he captained the Tasman NYL squad in 2018.

THIS WEEK’S FIXTURES

Wellington Phoenix vs Southern United, 1.45pm on Saturday (TV)

Waitakere United vs Auckland City, 3pm on Saturday

Canterbury United vs Hamilton Wanderers, 2pm on Sunday

Tasman United vs Eastern Suburbs, 2pm on Sunday

Team Wellington vs Hawke’s Bay United, 2pm on Sunday

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