Obviously north epping's new signings played well on the wkd to beat thornleigh 2-0. Thorns are a top side this year so thats a great win. Early favouritism must now go out to the rangers with a win like that and a bunch of new gun players. The woodies i still think are the team to beat as they were all just tired from wednesday nites game. Expect a refreshed woods side to come out and thump a scrathy Normo this week. Although penno lost they dominated 90% of the game and theyll still be a top 3 team at least.

From what i'v heard north epping still have the same side as last year, albeit maybe two or three new players of whome are no better than the crop they had last year. May i suggest that thornleigh are in fact not as strong as people think and that some of the posts in talking them up have simply come from their own players who are trying to instill some sort of psycholigical edge into their side and strike fear into fellow readers of this site. I don't see north epping being a force this season. In fact i would predict it may be the same old story for them as their last three miserable years in which they have managed to become famous for just missing out on the semi's!! Top four will be pennant hills - normo - st andrews - NO IDEA! Close contest for fourth. Despite losing on the weekend KFC are still mighty strong favourites.

Mize, Its obvious you are a ranger and you are playing your teams chances down. Good try but we all know batts has you all talking your team down and playing down your new faces. Fear the ranger

Not a ranger mate but i have close links to the club. And as for the supposed "new signings' there was only one new face in the north epping first grade side on saturday and his impact was minimal... i know as i was at the game! The whole new signings business is a bit of a fallacy. Fear KFC. PS it was a great to see some competent ref's down at north epping oval... lets hope it carries through the season.

<> A lot of refs (decent ones) are coming back to GHFA now that Steve McCapigan (scuse spelling) is gone. He was someone important at GHFA refs and one of the worst referees to put on the black and white.

Mize is correct in that he is not a Ranger, although I am unaware of his close links with the club. In fact I don't know him at all. However he is also correct when he says we had 1 and only 1 new face in the starting 11. Yes the ref was very good (for a change), and I have seen Thorns play much better. In fact they played better last year when we spanked them 5-1 at there place. NERds for 5th place !!!!!

FGS, NER will get spanked by the usual by the usual suspects is ezactly what Batts is saying you fool, hence why he is saying they will finish 5th. No one can write off Penno just yet, you don't win the comp on the 1st saturday of April.

BAtts, get you hand off it and stop trying, just stop trying. Ners's for 5th place? We all know exactly what you're doing and the gig is getting a little old and annoying (like yourself). let it go. NER will get spanked by the usual suspects.

NER for top four this year.. I would say it is a good possibility. They defend from the front well, and organise there midfield fast when they lose possession. They do have a large tendency to hit it long to tarrant upfront for him to chase, but hey play to your strengths i say. NRM and STA should shut them down quite easily, with solid defence. Thorns played average, and couldnt break them down when it came to the final pass.. As for good refs.. come one now, that call for the disallowed goal (in ressies) which was supposedly offside, was very wrong..thems the breaks though. Not much to change this year except WPH to not be in the four, NER to be there instead perhaps.. who knows first week doesnt really sort the boys from the men... PEN played average didnt they? NRM strong defence to get them through this year i feel... Nat and Bully are towers of strength..

>> PEN played average didnt they? NRM strong defence to get them through this year i feel... Nat and Bully are towers of strength.. << We played very average compared to our pre-season form but in saying that we still very much outplayed Normo. Our plans went out the window due to frustration of Normos dogged defence lead by the big two stated above in Nate and Bull as we couldnt really get our two strikers in the game. Normo aren't much of a team but there organised but i dont think thatll be enough to get them into the finals this year. As for ressies we totally outplayed Normo but they got 2 goals in the last 20 mins to come from behind and win. They also look to have lost alot of players in ressies and wont be as strong as previous years. Pennos ressies are a team to look out for.

I wouldnt right off WPHC. They picked up a few good players in the off season. The number 7 who played wide on the left was very quick and looked dangerous(write this down opposing coaches). They looked very organised at the back and solid if not slow in the middle of the park. It was interesting to note that they sat very deep and started defending at half way. I think an occasional long ball would have challenged them because often it was very tight between the backs and the strikers when the ball made its way forward. Perhaps WPHC lacked a bit of creativity but that will come with more games and STA looked a bit tired after a midweek game, but i felt the game was slow and a little boring. The big thing that WPHC seemed to lack was depth in the squad, I dont know if they were missing anyone but the bench seemed to be made up of ressies none of which looked like they would be competing for a position in the starting XI this year. All in all from where i sat nestled under a blanket in the shade at the back off the hill listening to the screams of EDDIE, St Andrews looked tired and WPHC look like a new team who will struggle to score a lot of goals this year. But i dont think they will concede many at the same time. I wouldnt put either team down as favourites

Good reffing in the Thorns/NER game? Only half the time. Some calls were head scratching to say the least. Though, he was one of the better refs. The young lines man was one of the worst ive seen, and obviusly had his orange jumper undernearth his reffing gear. How he pulled up that goal for offside is beyond me. NER are the same as the past few years as i saw it. A lot of long ball to their tall striker to chase down but mainly, they play very defensily. The game would of been very boring to watch. Neither team really had any shots on goals (own goal, and a free kick were how the goals came), but i think NER were much more organised. green and golds, normo will go well this season for all the reasons you stated. It's very hard to break down their defence. Their defenders mark the forwards right out of the game, and do frustrate other teams cos of it.

Watchin NER V THL it was obvious Thornleigh played well below their potential while NER were gifted two very scrappy goals which were at best off thornleigh legs rather than NER feet.

Excuses excuses. You lost.....

Batts, the linesman call i was reffering to was in the reserves game, when we should of equalised in the last 5mins but somehow the linesman saw our guy offside when he was about 5metres on...

Their token ex-NSL player (everyone has one these days) is Steve Hickman alias Hickey. It was he supposedly that scored a gem (fluke) and removed his shirt in celebration (yellow carded for it). And rightly so !! He is older and fatter than I. He last weighed in at 108 kgs and rising. He could out pie-eat Ben Seale and myself put together. (that's impressive). I can feel a 'pie off' coming at North Epping Oval this sat.

Its a bit hard to win when you don't have a shot on target in the entire game. Although I spent a lot of time at the canteen I can't remember our looney goalie making any kind of save whatsoever. It was a very boring game (no mind games there). Damo,I don't know about the linesman being that bad. How can you be bad if you never lift your flag in 90 minutes. You can't say he did anything wrong as he didn't make a decision at all. At least you have finally made some sense about all those new faces at the NERds. People get so paranoid when I say anything these days. FGS just cannot get his mind around it. Why are people so unkind ??

I was at the Roselea game on the weekend.I tell you what the Ymca will come last.Roselea where all over them and should have won by 5 or 6 goals. Roselea looked very strong with afew ex state league players and one or two ex nsl players. My tip is not to take Roselea lighty this season they look alright.

Yeah I know Damo. Didn't you see me standing near him next to your old man. Lets just say he didn't even make that decision on his own.

Correct me if i am wrong, but doesn't that make Butts and ex-stateleaguer if he used to play 12 years ago???

Batts The pie off might have to be against our man mountain "Shrek" he is twice the size of Hicky. He will be looking for something do after being red carded for ressies after 20 minutes!!Tell your canteen to stock up this weekend!! Mick I would like to know which of our blokes are ex state leaguers!!! Butts played in it 12 years ago and Hicky last game in the NSL was nearly ten years ago!!!

Yeah your right Can you tell I was born in Ireland?

No bite here pal. Its getting tiresome.

The word around the league is that NER is now the clear favourirtes after the first round. They have gine from equal second/third to top spot. They are looking strong, look out.

Son your off ya rocka... i dont know how anyone can be clear favourites after one round! No ones taking your bait so go to bed. And make sure you feed the dogs before you skip off to school tomorrow morning.

ok, but dont forget to put your teeth back in in the morning. Dont want to go through that again dad..... Batts, from what i heard you do a little too much biting in your own time anyway. How are the pillows anyway? Continue your past time and let the real boys talk. After speaking with several players from several teams, thats the conclusion we came up with, NER are the team to beat. It doesnt matter if you care or not, its a warning for the rest. Dad, if you can have favourites before the season starts then you can certainly have them after round one. Here's a good site for you: http://www.BettingForIdiots.com.au/howFavouritesWork

You can have favourtites you nit wit. Just not clear ones. Get your hand off it lad

_______________________ clear ( P ) Pronunciation Key (klîr) adj. clear·er, clear·est Plain or evident to the mind; unmistakable _______________________ Around 8 of the 10 or 11 poeple I spoke with during the weekend stated NER were their choice of team to beat. 8 out of 10, or 80% maybe 0.8 if you like decimals. That to me seems to be a CLEAR favourite, maybe your definition is different than mine (or the english language). There are clear favourites after the first weke of all sports, didnt you read the article on the website i sent you? I'm suprised you even know how to work this website. Time for a new home dad.

Admin, Poll?

Tote, You need a bigger sample size for it to mean anything... There is much more than 10 or 11 people in GHFA Premier League

Well bugger me Tote. Who were those 2 idiots that didn't think NER were outright favourites ?? I need to know who they were. Blind Freddie and Stevie Wonder perhaps ?? Ridiculous

Son its good you can read a dictionary and your learning but i didn't bring up a tool did i? maybe i influenced you to well. Seriously though id love to know these 10 people you decided to talk to. Your mates at north epping primary dont count.