Winter’s Over And The New National League Is Now Upon Us
The leaves are back on the trees. The temperature is rising. Cricketers are starting to lay claim to the local fields again. All that can only mean one thing: it’s nearly time for National League football to begin. A new National League this time. RIP the ol’ Handy Premiership because that one’s died and been replaced by a club based system with qualifiers, marking an end to the franchise model. The history books suggest that a shake-up like this happens every couple decades or more and this is the latest in that long legacy.
There are positives and negatives to the new way of doing things. On the positive side, this way there’s alignment throughout the winter and summer season with (almost) every club having access to the National League... at least hypothetically. On the negative it spreads the talent a whole lot thinner which will result in a lower standard of footy and as we’ll see it’s really not the best for football outside the country’s three biggest cities. I still think the old model was more beneficial to NZ footy as a whole but I’m also glad we’ve found some clarity for the competitions. Gotta make it make sense... and this way at least does that – even if it’s way more about bringing the summer league into accordance with the winters as opposed to the other way around.
Because yeah the National League is now an extension of winter club football, a Champions League style competition at the end of the year. The Premiership format has effectively been wiped from existence. Except, that is, for in the women’s comp where they’re compromising with a half-and-half for at least one more season. That’s despite the franchise format working a whole lot better there than in the men’s comp (because players/admins/coaches/fans actually treated it like the regional rep league it’s supposed to be). But in the interests of alignment and equality... alas the women’s comp must suffer. Ah well, at least the Wellington Phoenix have that A-League Women team on the way.
The Wellington Phoenix academy is guaranteed a place in the 10-team men’s National League, same as before. Additionally the rest of the clubs stem from what are now recognised as the three major regional conferences, one of which was freshly created for this very purpose. Four teams qualify from the Northern League, the top three from the Central League get in, and then the brand-new Southern League supply the last two for the men’s comp. Ten teams, playing each other once. With a grand final at the end of it between the two top teams.
Meanwhile the women initially get a hybrid version where the Northern League representatives are clubs but the federation teams of Central, Capital, Canterbury & Southern remain. The plan is to go fully club based in a year or two but they’re transitioning into that. The women’s National League has added one extra team though: four Northern League cohorts replacing the trio of Northern, Auckland & WaiBOP. Read this article for more on all that.
The winter stuff had been rolling along smoothly. A few clubs were had already punched their tickets for the National League train while others were caught in feisty competition. Then the delta variant found its way into the community and everything got upended. Thankfully the Central and Southern conferences were eventually able to pick back up where they left off and complete their seasons. The Northern League was not so fortuitous. But one way or another we got there in the end and now all our qualifiers are set and sorted.
Let’s begin in the middle where all the late drama was. The Southern League didn’t exist before the new National League. They had to make one – which required squeezing in the Mainland and Southern (aka Canterbury and Otago) prem divisions and then taking the top few into a rapid first ever Southern League, where there’d only be time for one round with the top two teams qualifying. Seven games is not a lot and that kept things extremely tight as the competition returned after the lockdown pause. Not for Cashmere Technical, granted. They did have had a sneaky 1-0 loss to Coastal Spirit early-ish on in there but otherwise they swept their rivals aside to make it through with room to spare. We’re talking about a squad that’s remarkably similar to the last Canterbury United squad so no shockers there. Then they beat Western Suburbs 1-0 in the Chatham Cup semi-final, shout out to the Techies.
The second qualifier though... woah boy. Heading into the final round there were five of the seven other teams still in with a genuine chance of getting that last golden ticket. The last one available in the entire country. Otago University had won 6-0 against Green Island in the midweek to sit second on 12 points but having played their final game already, meaning that this was the state of affairs heading into the final weekend...
2) Otago Uni: 7 GM | -1 GD | 12 PTS
3) Christchurch Utd: 6 GM | +6 GD | 10 PTS
4) Selwyn Utd: 6 GM | +1 GD | 10 PTS
5) Coastal Spirit: 6 GM | +1 GD | 9 PTS
6) South City Royals: 6 GM | -2 GD | 9 PTS
Christchurch United were the one team who had things mostly within their own control and a quarter of the way through their game at home against South City Royals they were up 2-0 and looking sweet. Then they conceded just before and just after half-time and while Eddie Wilkinson did put them back in the lead on 58’, Kaleb de Groot-Green equalised in the 69th min and then won it for the Royals in the 86th. Incredible game. That took Christchurch United out of the running and launched South City Royals up into second by virtue of having scored more goals than Otago Uni... for about half an hour until the second game that Saturday came to a conclusion.
That second game was Nelson Suburbs vs Selwyn United (Green Island vs Coastal Spirit was on Sunday so the Spirit were left banking on other results). With 86 mins gone, Suburbs were up 1-0 and the Royals would have been nervously excited. Then Luke Blackie equalised. Still enough for South City Royals to sneak through but with no wiggle room whatsoever. Then, in the fourth minute of stoppage time, Olliver Sims nabbed a dramatic winner and Selwyn United won it 2-1. Thus Selwyn United moved up to 13 points, eliminating Coastal Spirit (who then lost 3-2 to Green Island the next day). Thus Selwyn United finished second in the Southern League. Thus Selwyn United booked their spot in the National League.
Moving into the middle of the nation, the Central League had only one round to go when lockdown struck. Not only that but the three qualifiers, as well as champions and the relegated club, were already determined. Hey might as well finish what was started though. Thus after a month spent on pause, everyone had to return to training for round 18 (plus the one other game that needed to be played) and all the completionists could rest easy at night.
To the surprise of nobody, Wellington Olympic and Miramar Rangers dominated the competition most of the way with Olympic clinching the title in the last game before lockdown thanks to a 1-0 win over Rangers. Kailan Gould with the golden 71st minute goal there. Mad scenes. Olympic and Rangers are the two squads who between them pretty much split the last Premiership champion Team Wellington squad down the middle. They were always favoured to be duking it out at the top and yup what do you know. Then Lower Hutt City made a fantastic run to end up just six points off top in third. With a squad built largely of last season’s WeeNix reps they overcame a tricky start to things to at one stage win nine in a row (however all three of their defeats came to the top two sides).
But LHC are effectively already in the National League via their memorandum with the Wellington Phoenix Reserves so they can’t qualify. Hence fourth place Western Suburbs swoop into the big show and if the Olympic/Miramar/Team Welly split is a good indication of how this new National League dilutes the top talent then Western Suburbs’ inclusion is a beautiful development in the opposite direction. These are the Ole Academy boys. They made a Chatham Cup final a couple years back and were in the semis this year. Yet come National League time they tend to affiliate with another club so as to get their players involved - best case scenario being that Eastern Suburbs team that won the comp.
Last season the Ole players were mostly split between Eastern Suburbs and the WeeNix. This time they’re all competing together as a team. That’s awesome. I happen to believe that NZF’s fetish with this comp being a player development thing, with that U20s rule in place (i.e. a minimum of two Under-20 players (as of 1 January in the year of competition) must be included in the starting eleven for every game), is a misplaced one. More youngsters in a lower standard of footy is not gonna develop more overseas pros... especially since the bulk of the players who are signing in Europe these days are coming out of private academies. Specifically two private academies: the Wellington Phoenix and the Ole Academy. Both will have their own teams in this new competition though. That’s what’s up.
Finally we’ve got the Northern League... which had to be canned after the ‘rona got loose. However since 85% of the competition was complete, the league standings with three never-to-be-completed rounds remaining were made official. Auckland City had already run away with the title. They were 11 points clear in first with a game in hand. 15 wins from 18 games. Excellent from them and they’re back where they always have been in the knowledge that they’ve been able to keep most of the same squad as they had last summer, maybe
Auckland United were a merger between Onehunga Sports and Three Kings United with this National League eventuality in mind. Eastern Suburbs were already a summer league team. Birkenhead United were the major faction (on the field) of the Waitakere United team over the last couple seasons. Those are the three teams who’ve made it through along with Auckland City.
Conveniently there was a five-point gap between Birkenhead and Western Springs (though Springs had a game in hand) while there was only two points separating these three teams in 2-4 on the ladder. It’s not ideal. It’s not how anyone wanted the league to finish. Springs did still have to play Auckland City again but then so did Suburbs and United. But this was the fairest of a bunch of unfair options. Four quality teams have advanced to the National League... the only regret is that there isn’t a Waikato crew amongst them.
Which... is an issue. Neither Hamilton Wanderers nor Melville United were able to find the consistency they needed for that top four berth. Equally, Napier City Rovers were only mid-table in the Central League so there’s no Hawke’s Bay rep in the new version either. And of course with two Christchurch teams making it out of the Southern League there’s no Otago representative either. Unsurprisingly the regions are suffering from this new way of doing things. The men’s NL has four Auckland clubs, four Wellington clubs, and two Christchurch clubs.
The Northern League is the one conference where we also have women’s qualifiers. The NRFL Premier Division has six teams with the top four advancing. That was pretty easy to sort out. Two rounds were lost but there was a seven point gap ahead of fifth-placed Ellerslie so it didn’t even matter. Hence your 2021 Women’s National League contingent from the north are: Eastern Suburbs, Western Springs, Northern Rovers, and Hamilton Wanderers.
Suburbs had effectively been running the Auckland team last season as a precursor to this change while Rovers had been running the Northern Lights. Each club just qualified in their own right, while Springs and Wanderers will be pleased to have made it after their men’s teams failed to do so. Especially Wanderers who alone get to rep the mighty Waikato.
Tell ya what’ll be interesting to keep an eye out for: will any players from other Auckland clubs that miss out find their way onto other Women’s NL teams? The transfer rules between clubs are pretty stingy but whether that applies to summer franchises... dunno, there could be a loophole there. Quite a few of the Auckland United players were in the 2020 Auckland squad and would likely have been there again but because this conference has gone club-based and others have not it means they miss out now.
The other thing here is that because of the covid delay, the women’s comp has been confirmed as being a single round-robin again same as last time. With one extra team, but still a bummer. It had been planned that they’d have two rounds which equals fourteen games for each team which is more than the men’s National League sides will get. So it goes.
Here we are then, all the qualifiers have qualified. The only thing that still remains to be found out is when the bloody thing will actually happen. The schedule was for games to start on the weekend of October 16 but that’s probably not gonna possible for the Level 3’d Auckland teams. Will they start the season without them and play catch up in the midweeks? Will they find some way of bubble-hubbing the competition? Bit hard to do in a non-professional scene. Will they delay things for another month and accept that they may need to come back after New Years to finish? NZF’s latest update is that:
“A range of models are being looked at for what form competitions could potentially take and an update will be issued later this week following a feedback period from clubs. New Zealand Football remain committed to playing our national competitions and are keen to find a solution that allows them to take place.”
Thus, friends, we wait and see.
Women’s National League 2021: Eastern Suburbs, Western Springs, Northern Rovers, Hamilton Wanderers, Central, Capital, Canterbury Pride, Southern United
Men’s National League 2021: Wellington Phoenix, Auckland City, Auckland United, Eastern Suburbs, Birkenhead United, Wellington Olympic, Miramar Rangers, Western United, Cashmere Technical, Selwyn United
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