GHFA Cup 2019

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Looking Forward
wrote on 25-Mar-19 13:05

Congrats to Hills Hawks on winning the GHFA Cup this year.

Whats everyone thoughts on this years GHFA Cup format? For mine I would prefer the first 2, maybe 3 rounds be held in pre-season with the later rounds (semi-finals/final) held in the first 4/5 weeks of the regular season. I dont think its a great look when the previous seasons PL premiers and PL Grand Finalists dont even enter, plus I know a lot of clubs had trouble getting a squad together for the first couple of rounds. The fact that not all clubs entered and there were a couple of forfeits in the early rounds is a big negative for me. I do like that all PL clubs received a first round bye, but I think that from Round 2 all team should be thrown into a hat and drawn randomly so you could possibly get PL v PL or SL v SL games.

Thoughts?

previous years
wrote on 25-Mar-19 16:04

in previous years teams complained that the ghfa cup went too far into the season and said that it should be a pre season tournament and for once the ghfa listened but I do agree that it was a tad too early they could have had it finishing the week before the season started which would have pushed the whole thing back a few weeks and worked out better

Looking Forward
wrote on 25-Mar-19 17:00

Agree that previous years it has dragged on, though that was primarily because it started after the regular season and games were postponed due to wet weather. With a couple of synthetic pitches in the association now available I don't think it would drag on now like in the past.

difficult
wrote on 25-Mar-19 23:06

Speaking for a club that played one of the first nights... it was VERY early to start. However, you should have 18 registered by then, so the clubs that forfeited should take a look at themselves. We enjoyed it, got knocked out, but a good barometer in preseason to start with, so im a fan.

previous years
wrote on 26-Mar-19 08:08

the problem with having it after the season starts is that you then need to have mid week games and even though Christie is synthetic they have teams training there mid week and I don't think it would be fair kicking them off especially when they probably play thousands a year to be part of the npl2 or whatever they are now

Looking Forward
wrote on 26-Mar-19 10:04

previous years Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > the problem with having it after the season starts > is that you then need to have mid week games > and even though Christie is synthetic they have > teams training there mid week and I don't think it > would be fair kicking them off especially when > they probably play thousands a year to be part of > the npl2 or whatever they are now I don't disagree, but if it was only the semi-finals & Final, we are talking about 3 games total. I think if those games were held during the season then GHFA & the participating clubs might be able to promote the games a bit better. Just my opinion.

Mixed result
wrote on 27-Mar-19 18:04

It's a mixed bag here. A few years i remember watching the cup the week or 2 before the finals series and it was way too late on in the season. Most teams have entered the FFA cup which was meant to start 2nd week of March and imagine trying to schedule a GHFA Cup, FFA Cup, Normal rounds and any other cup that people might be involved in. Most teams were given a bye from round 1, which means they entered straight into round 2. I think GHFA did a pretty decent job of it this year, possibly next year starting a week later and making use of YMCA, ELS Hall, Penno and Christie to play round games all together. All in all a success, but it would be nice to see a full 32 teams enter, inc O35, SL, PL and AA teams, or if they don't get nominations, open it up to U21's Just my thoughts..

Looking Forward
wrote on 29-Mar-19 15:00

You make some great points, hopefully GHFA take some suggestions on board. I think that most players like the concept of the cup, but there is nothing wrong with tweaking it a little. Other association cup comps have been running for years, we just need to find the right format/timeslots for our clubs/players which could take a few years. I believe we are on the right track though. I don't think ELS Hall or West Epping would be available early in the year though, I assume they would both be set-up for summer sport (i.e. cricket). I like the idea of opening it up to O35's, AA & even U21's, though if PL/SL teams struggle to get a squad registered, I imagine it would be highly doubtful the other teams would be able to do so early in the year. An alternative would be an All Age cup played midweek during the year, open to all teams over U18’s. GHFA ran one years ago, but it only lasted 2 or 3 years.

thoughts..
wrote on 01-Apr-19 14:01

The problem with an U18/U21 cup is that the AA teams would flog the youger guys in the physical aspect it.

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