The Premmy Files – Men’s Premiership Preview, Baby!
We made it. Way back when the pandemic first busted down the gates of Aotearoa, the Premiership season was going along swimmingly with two rounds plus the semis and grand final remaining. Then the borders closed and the lockdowns happened and everything that’s occurred since feels like a blur. But now here we are and a new Premiership season is about to begin. This very weekend in fact. How about that?
Always gotta leave the previews ‘til the last minute because that’s what teams do with their squads and without that info there’s really not much to say. But even those sides which haven’t chucked up a list have at least thrown up some names so we’ve got a decent enough idea of how things will look... and to be honest most teams will look a lot like they did last term given it ain’t like there’ll be too many imports ducking in or anything. I reckon we start from the top of the country and move down. And since there’s no national league presence in Northland that means Auckland City are first up to bat, which is only fair as the defending champions. Respect is earned, my friends.
You’d be forgiven if you can’t remember this far back but a little over a year ago there were seven new managers out of ten and two of the continuators resigned mid-season. Paul Temple at the Welly Nix reserves, whose job description is a slightly different one to the rest of these managers, was the only bloke who was at his current post in the 2018-19 season. Lots more consistency this time in squads and in managers... which should mean things make a bit more sense from the get go.
Auckland City in their second year under Jose Figueira’s guidance could well be even stronger than they were last time. There’s familiarity in his system now and with basically the entire band back together that means no excuses, pretty much. They shouldn’t need any. The only major departees are Clayton Lewis who has signed with the Wellington Phoenix and Myer Bevan who has gone pro in South Africa with TS Galaxy. Granted two key players there but nothing they can’t absorb, particularly with the very exciting addition of Mohamed Awad to their attacking group. Awad has been outstanding for Eastern Suburbs the last couple seasons and even better in his club stuff over in Aussie (he left ES after seven games in 2019-20). With his creative and flowing style of play he feels like such a perfect fit for ACFC.
It looks like Enaut Zubikarai has slipped into the background these days as goalkeeping coach, after Conor Tracey nicked the gloves off him last season. Tracey and Cameron Brown will be competing for the number one duties this time (might still see Super Zubi on the bench, dunno). Then you’ve got the same defensive group of Adam Mitchell, Brian Kaltack, Angel Berlanga, and Mario Bilen on rotation. Jordan Vale and Andrew Blake at wingback. Cam Howieson and Mario Ilich in the middle. Logan Rogerson, Mo Awad, and Emiliano Tade up front. Something like that anyway. Nothing to worry about from an ACFC team that’ll simply pick up where it left off.
Next we’ll circle around to Eastern Suburbs who are the only team to have changed managers in the offseason, as Tony Readings has ducked away from his many hands-on projects in Aotearoa to take a wider view of things as FIFA’s ‘Technical Consultant for the Oceania Region’. He’ll be replaced by Hoani Edwards who previously coached the NYL group at the club so a natural progression. But that’s not the major development for Suburbs, oh no. Instead that’d be that they’ve regained their link with Ole Academy. The premier talent producing academy in the nation (maybe on par with the Welly Nix, but I’d give Ole the nudge) have once again switched allegiances, keeping it nice and fresh. They were with Team Welly last time. Now they’ve lent six players (and an assistant coach in Ben Sippola) to Suburbs. Josh Rogerson, Ryan Feutz, Sean Bright, Otto Ingham, Robi Sabo, and Andrew Withers. Only Withers has any national league experience, having worn the gloves as Suburbs won the title two seasons back, but the other five have all been fast rising up the ranks with Western Suburbs in the Central League.
Along with them it’s a lot of the same blokes. Stephen Hoyle is around again. Adam Thomas. The Drake Brothers. Campbell Strong. Adam Thurston. Kingsley Sinclair. Stafford Dowling. Tyler Lisette. Alex Solomons, Christian Gray, and Kelvin Kalua at the back there. About the only important player from the team that finished fourth last season who isn’t returning is Martin Bueno - the Uruguayan is currently playing in the third tier of Switzerland. He’s a huge loss for all his goals (11 of them in 15 matches), same problem that Auckland City have losing their top goal scorer. Maybe Stephen Hoyle steps up and takes care of that having missed a lot of time with injury last season (I see he’s assistant coach for the AFF women’s team too) or maybe the Ole fellas take care of things. Time will tell... but Suburbs are definitely amongst the pre-season favourites for another semi-final spot.
Waitakere Utd finished third last campaign. There were a few dud results in there but for the most part they were really good. Scored in every single game and with Paul Hobson’s modern looking 3-4-1-2 formation there was a swarming nature to how they played. It was fun to watch. Typically, the Waitaks are the only club who haven’t released any deets on their squad but there are a few clues out there. Western Springs have confirmed that seven of their first-teamers will be in the group – including Premmy Files First Teamer Dane Schnell – while Sam Burfoot represented them at the opening day a few weeks back. This was a young team last time with a few elder statesmen (relatively speaking) who brought them all together and Burfoot was one of those with a brilliant campaign in the midfield. English keeper Nick Draper was another... dunno if he’s still in the country or not. They’ve definitely lost Flynn O’Brien though. The central defender who started 12 games for them in 2019-20 has been included in Team Wellington’s squad.
Not sure what else to say about them without seeing a full squad... there’s a feeling that they might have overachieved last time and maybe third place is too much to ask for. But then at the same time the league does feel wide open beneath Auckland City and Team Wellington. Possibly Eastern Suburbs as well. Beneath them it’s all about who can find some consistency and the Waitaks put points on the board last time, which matters more than usual given how similar all these teams are gonna look.
Hamilton Wanderers went all out for their squad announcement by getting the lads from Drax Project to read the names out. Which was... something. Definitely appreciate when the Premmy clubs actually show a bit of ambition when it comes to these things so pats on the back all around. As to that squad itself, this is starting to feel like a mantra but it’s basically all the same blokes. The Tron Wands started terribly last season, losing four of their first five and conceding in bundles, then Ricki Herbert stepped down and Kale Herbert took over and suddenly they won four in a row. Then they only won one of their last seven.
Very much all over the place but they’ll be chuffed to have a blank slate now to try and recapture the lighting in a bottle of that mid-season run with the likes of Tommy Semmy, Brock Messenger, Joe Harris, Brad Whitworth, Derek Tieku, and the rest of them returning. It sounds like they’ve also snapped up Josh Signey, an English dude who was really good in the midfield for Hawke’s Bay the previous season and a bit more midfield control is exactly what they need in Hamilton. They have the talent up top. They have experience and quality at the back. Just gotta tie it all together. With luck they’ll be much more stable with team selections and that adds up to solid optimism.
Hawke’s Bay United meanwhile... I have some worries for this lot. Chris Greatholder and Bill Robertson shook the team up last time with more of a local focus adorned with some very astute import signings which for the first seven weeks seemed great as they were sitting third on the ladder. Then the goals dried up and the defence were already leaking too many and the results turned sour and after 18 weeks they were second to last when lockdown put them out of their misery.
The thing with that approach is that it’s not gonna work without the likes of Ahinga Selemani, Josh Signey, and the like propping them up with import level excellence. They were HBU’s two best players and neither will be back. Signey’s in Hamilton, Selemani was last seen playing in Gibraltar. They’ll still have all the local blokes as the base of the team but without that top end it’s a bit of a concern. Ihaia Delaney’s departed too, signing with Canterbury United. If some of the younger blokes break through then that’ll do it, the gap between struggle and success in the Premiership is never a million miles, but that’s a lot to ask. However they have picked up one of the more exciting signings out there as teenaged speedster Jesse Randall has landed in the Bay after scoring three goals and setting up a heap more in 16 games for the now-defunct Tasman United. Randall is as good as any player his age in the country from outside the two major academies (Welly Nix & Ole). There are a couple other Tasman refugees who’d offer heaps to any team that’d sign them as well.
Next up we visit the capital where Team Wellington will be hoping to capitalise on a rare season where they probably won’t lose 4-5 key players in the new year when they skip across the ditch for Aussie NPL footy. Their squad looks pretty mint. Hamish Watson, Justin Gulley, cap’n Scott Basalaj, Andy Bevin, Jack-Henry Sinclair, Mario Barcia, Taylor Schrijvers, Nati Hailemariam... all the hits. Plus they’ve snapped up Flynn O’Brien from Waitakere (one of a few Mirimar Rangers blokes who got the TW call up, along with Sam Dewar, Jake Williams & Wan Gatkek) and Haris Zeb from Cantebury. Jake Williams is an ex-WeeNix lad. All filling the void left by the Ole blokes (Matt Garbett and Marko Stamenic both played for the TeeDubs last season before going pro in the big leagues of Scandinavia).
The only guy they’ve really lost is Ollie Whyte who is playing in Turkey now. He was very good in their midfield so it might be a more prominent Alex Palezevic that we get this season. Hope so. Oh obviously Ollie Bassett’s gone too but he left mid-season last time so no dramas. They have an excellent goalie. The back three of Gulley/Schrijvers/Midgley (or Spain) is untouched plus Liam Wood’s in town again after his ACL injury back in February and Flynn O’Brien too. JH Sinclair and Rory McKeown at wingback. This is a team where the bulk of them have played together for several years and they’ll have title ambitions – they only finished three points behind Auckland City last time, just a couple games where they got stumped by deep defences which is why having a full season of Hamish Watson should do wonders given he scored 8 goals in 11 games last season and 8 in 12 the season before. Old mate is automatic.
The Wellington Phoenix reserves finished eighth last time, losing only six of their 16 games. That for them was a bit of a golden year though they’re immediately worse off this time by the fact that they won’t be able to get first team players dropping down. Callan Elliot, Cam Devlin, Ben Waine, Liam McGing, Oli Sail, Walter Scott, Te Atawhai Hudson-Wihongi, Alex Rufer, Brandon Wilson, and even Gary Hooper and Matti Steinmann all chipped in with at least 45 minutes for the ressies last term. None of that this time around – they’re all in Australia. They do, however, have five Ole Academy chaps (which is like Spark Sport and Sky Sport teaming up) and have also nabbed big striker man George Ott from Hamilton Wanderers.
Being ostensibly an U20 team there are always a heap of players who graduate each year. Ronan Wynne has gone overseas, one of their top defenders the last few years. Sam Sutton has turned professional – setting the example for the lads he leaves behind. Zac Jones seems to have been squeezed out between the two squads. But there’s continuity from new captain Kurtis Mogg (powerful defender/fullback), Henry Hamilton (busy midfielder), Ben Old (tricky winger), Riley Bidois (slippery striker) and a few others. Alex Paulsen is a really talented keeper. Oskar van Hattum has had raps on him for a few years. And they’ve sneakily gone and added Liam Moore and Kieran Richards who have returned to the parish from uni in the States, and Tom Raimbault who is a Kiwi/Canadian who’d been in the Vancouver Whitecaps system. It’s a funky squad made funkier by some of the cream of the Ole crop as well... Jaylen Rodwell and Alex Clayton are two in particular to keep an eye on.
Finally it’s the lone South Island representatives. Canterbury United have been touted as having absorbed the other two SI teams (Southern United are on furlough, Tasman are probably dead) but as expected there’s not actually much of a representation there. Garbhan Coughlan and Stephen Last have both moved north... two very handy additions. Coughlan especially who gives them the reliable striker they didn’t have last time after Stephen Hoyle left. Their top scorer was George King with 5 goals. Coughlan is straight up one of the top centre forwards in this league so he’s a massive get... even if it was completely inevitable given he works for Mainland Football. Other than those two Irishmen though it’s all familiar Cantabs in the squad. The rest of the Irish contingent all left Southern but no sign of a new home for Cody Brook, Andrew Cromb, Ben Wade, Cam McKenzie or their other friends. And if there’s no Fox Slotemaker in the competition after how well he played for Tasman the last two campaigns then that’s a real shame.
Along with Coughlan and Last, the Dragons have also scooped up Ihaia Delaney from HBU while Seth Clark has returned after a year off... he was going to uni in the States but like several others in that position he’s emerged in a Premmy squad this summer. They will be sans an icon with Aaron Clapham having retired but the bulk of their better players last season are back for another swing. Sean Liddicoat, Cory Mitchell, Luke Tongue, George King, Tom Schwarz, Sam Field. A few new faces as well. Remember that the Dragons were a semi-finalist for the previous couple seasons until something imploded last time and they ended up dead last with a wooden spoon to sip their soup from. They didn’t score more than once in any of their final eight games. Six of their 10 defeats were by a single goal. It was awful but the margins weren’t as wide as they might appear just to look at the table. Whether Garbhan Coughlan makes the difference, we’ll see. Whether they’ve done enough to return to their past standards, we’ll see.
It all kicks off this coming weekend. Saturday sees Canterbury United hosting Waitakere United at 2pm while the Wel Classico kicks off concurrently with the Wellington Phoenix vs Team Wellington. Then on Sunday Hawke’s Bay United hosts Hamilton Wanderers at 2pm before Auckland City vs Eastern Suburbs gets the televised treatment at 4pm... the first three games all streamed live on Sky Sport Next’s YouTube same as the Women’s Prem has been. Which... is a lot of football to watch over the next few days and you already know that you’ll be reading about it all right here in these very pages.
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