Normo and Penno now have a 5 point gap over St Andrews and WPH but who will be premiers for 2006? With Ravens losing both games on the weekend, are they certain to drop? I really hope YMCA goes, but at this rate it looks like North Epping will be battling it out at the bottom also! Which teams are in form? Thorns have hit their straps, while WPH have dropped off the pace dramatically. Are Roselea are chance for the top 4?? With all 6 goals being scored by ex-prem players for wph reserves, should WPH have kept their squad from last year? And finally... what's going on with North Epping Batts, you guys are poop.

Yeah NER and EEW have been shithouse this year and in recent years, but when i saw them play they had a number of good to great players. NER actually look quite skillful and impressive when playing well. Im not sure about EEW.

I Unfortunately wasted 2 hours of my weekend watching two of the former strong Clubs fight it out. Both EEW and NER would be the weakest squads from thewe two clubs i have seen for 10 Years. Admittedly the pitch was awful for Premier League soccer but i doubt whether it would have made much difference. EEW's Over 35's would beat their Premier League side and NER couldn't beat either. Put them both out of their misery !! Time to go - NER and EEW and The Y.

I think Roselea have a strong chance of making the top 4. A more solid structure and improvement as a squad has really helped them. I think they are the team to watch out for. On their day, they can be tough opponents. With both experience and youth, they should go a long way this season if they come up big against the mighty top teams.

Champs, answer to your question about WPH ex-prem players is probably yes. As AA1 it looks like they already have that premiership won, they could lose all their remaining 4 games and STA could win all theirs, and theyd still probably end on top. A lot of people didnt like the way some of those players werent made welcome by the new coach or for what ever reason they left, it was a premature ending. Yes, we know it was good for some WPH youngsters but it was also convenient for the coach. Its also a fact its not only WPH young guns that have been promoted but theres a a stack of outsiders there also, plus a couple of ordinary former AA lower grade players struggling. Its just not the same team that it was and neither is there much depth as results are now starting to show, however to give them some credit, they are so far not doing as bad as some thought, but then again the tone of the comp has been lowered somewhat this year.

Flash Lightning Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I think Roselea have a strong chance of making the > top 4. > A more solid structure and improvement as a squad > has really helped them. > I think they are the team to watch out for. > On their day, they can be tough opponents. > With both experience and youth, they should go a > long way this season if they come up big against > the mighty top teams. > They struggled yesterday against a depleted WPH, who quite frankly didn't play particularly pretty football...

Roselea are a 2 man team. Butts kicks it long to Adam who tries to score and often does.

No Flasher sometimes I kick it long to Adsy as well.Please can you call us a 2 and half man team. Flash Lightning- We havent got the squad to make the top four. I agree we have got a couple of good young lads but we lack a top drawer midfielder. I thought we could have taken advantage of playing WPH without their real quality players like Mason, Ross, Lawson and Ekklencamp.

Looking back looking forward, you're an idiot. What's this not welcome garbage. The players were not told in anyway they were not welcome. They left under their own steam. A large portion are still good enough to be playing. Some left for personal reasons outside of the game, some left because they felt it was time to play a more relaxing level with friends instead and some, the minority I might add, left because perhaps they may have seen the writing on the wall and maybe even some left becasue they decided to jump on the band wagon. Tell me who this stack of outsiders are by the way? I am most curious. Off hand I can think of three who have not played some junior football with the Lions. Just because you may not have seen them before doesn't mean they haven't been around. Dude, build your bridge... and then blow it up!

Flash Gordon Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > > They struggled yesterday against a depleted WPH, > who quite frankly didn't play particularly pretty > football... Flash Gordon, to be fair Monday was a struggle for wph and roselea. both sides were obviously depleted. before the reserves game i overheard adam and their coach trying to find an 11th man to start for their 1st grade side. seemed they only had 10 fresh starters. Flash Lightening, thats one reason why they aren't in the reckoning this year. Not enough depth. the top 4 will be made of the usual suspects.

So who are they?

Juice, I reckon youve got about 6-7 blow-ins going on your own website profiles, that would be around 20% of the squad and that would amount to a stack

Tye (Mt Druitt), Lawson (Blacktown), Ozcan (?), Vasic, Caisley (?), Walsh (various), Burton (?) = 7. Will stand corrected.

Tye and Ozcan are new to the club (they came with mates), Vasic (this will be his third season with the club, he was injured last season so I wouldn't really say he's new) and Caisley (though has been involved with the PL squad for a while now in an official capacity). The rest have spent time at the club as juniors or have played in AA for a while, hardly therefore 'blow-ins'. So, theoretically, three newbies (Tye, Ozcan and Caisley). Two of which are 1st graders - someone had to replace two of the six positions vacated from last years 1st grade???

Good Morning Punters,

As Round 9 comes to an end (although only 1 team playing the full 9 games) it comes time for the mid season Sportsbet premiership odds update.

Favs:

$1.92 - Epping FC

What a first half of the season from the newly promoted kids, unbeaten after a full round with a league best 30 goals scored and 5 points clear. Will be interesting to see if the second half of the season shows the same fortunes, held to draws by both Penno and Tigers - both of which I’ve heard could easily have been losses, but that is the fight you need to stay on top.

Massive fixture against WPH this weekend, the result could fluctuate these odds massively.

Chasing Pack:

$2.10 - WPH

You can never write off the modern giants of the GHFA premier league, and since their Round 1 loss to Epping it has been smooth sailing bar against Woodies. With key players returning from injury in recent weeks I can see WPH continuing in a positive fashion second half of the season, again this weekend is a massive game for their season - a win would put them 2 points off the top with a game in hand.

$2.55 - EEW & STA

Sitting fourth 7 points off the top, Tigers are quietly putting together a solid campaign. With recent strong performances undefeated in 5 including a 6–2 win over Dragons and a draw against Epping, they’re a team to watch. Maybe if that Number 4 spent less time making TikToks and focused on finding a yellow shirt instead of the sideline, they’d be a bigger chance but hey, who am I to judge. St Andrews boast one of the league’s strongest defences, conceding a league best 7 goals. These two sides are in strong form and could pose a real threat in the second half of the season - both making the top 4 at least.

Mid-Table Fodder:

$4.50 Penno & Rovers

The 2 under fire coaches Ebs and Habib see their squads sitting mid table, struggling for consistency. We know of West Ryde’s quality and back to back wins suggest they might go on a run but I think it’s too little too late for the reigning champs. Likewise the culture shift at Penno seems to have caused more issues than benefits with rumours of fights and self sabotage on the forum, save your money and stay away.

$9 - Macquarie Dragons

Dragons started strong, although it’s clear they played the retards first and moved up, losing 3 on the spin. A decent run of games now could boost confidence but I can’t see them finishing any higher than 6th or 7th - definition of mid.

Relegation Odds:

$1.90 - HFC and Normo

It’s been a season to forget for Cantscoremanhurst. Somehow, they’ve only managed 8 goals all season (6 coming against HFC), and every single one has come courtesy of own goals from the opposition! If you can’t score you can’t win games, simple. HFC, on the other hand, really try to play football and I’ve seen them come good in patches, but surely there’s only so many times you can get caught out playing out from the back before you give up. Both these are in danger but should survive the drop.

$1.25 - Putney Rangers

It’s hard to sugarcoat Putney’s season thus far - it’s been nothing short of disaster. We haven’t heard from the Putney Ranger in weeks, the Candyman has betrayed his boyhood club, and a staggering 35 goals conceded in 8 games. Even their solitary win against Normo feels more like a fluke than a sign of life. Unless there’s a miracle turnaround, they’re staring Super League right in the face.

I swear to god that number 4 for tigers has the worst passing completion I've ever seen. He wouldn't get a spot in our team. Surprised he is in Prems let alone 1st Grade. I like finishing my game then watching my local prem team play but going to stop coming now cause that bloke can't pass a ball to save his life. Something has to change at my club, or else I'm fucking off to West Penno under 12's really soon. 

Tempted to have a punt on Normo to be relegated at $1.90. Incredibly average side who are not up to PL standard this season.

Also heard a rumour that many of their training sessions consist of small sided games of "Next Goal Wins", and because of this they are still training at 3am.

They've been the worst "technical" team in years. Even when they won the comp was down to their tenacity and never stop running attitude. They've always trained like a track team and that method isn't sustainable. They've always trained can barely string passes together. Seems like they've finally been worked out to the point they're rubbish and probably only safe because of how bad Putney and hfc are. 

Normo wrote:
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>

>They've been the worst "technical" team in years. Even when they won the comp was down to their tenacity and never stop running attitude. They've always trained like a track team and that method isn't sustainable. They've always trained can barely string passes together. Seems like they've finally been worked out to the point they're rubbish and probably only safe because of how bad Putney and hfc are. 

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Define technical but Putney have got to the be the worst technical side (attack, midfield and defence) in the comp that we have had since the inception of PL.

I doubt Putney, HFC and Normo even get a team next year. Both Putney's and HFC's reserve grade sides are terrible as seen by the table. Can't see many of those players staying around next year. Normo have a good ressies side this year but after the mass exit of all their first graders, I can see them struggling for numbers next season as well. Could we see three new teams come up?

At the moment that would be Ravens, Hawks and North Ryde  

apparantly Ravens / Hawks with all new squads so surely can't be worse than the abysmal performances we've seen so far from the bottom 3