Thoughts after first week from what games you watched?

[Louie294]

Unley A's look quite solid and will challenge for the league although perhaps a bit lucky in the end. Pembroke A's will come good they have too much quality.
Unley B's too strong for a poorly put together Pembroke B team. Not enough good skilful players in that Pembroke B team to do anything at this stage. Unley B took there chances really well and will be good.
Unley C's challenged really well for first 30 mins (and will trouble most teams) then were dismantled by 3 quick goals before halftime to all but assure the result. Pembroke C's have 4 or 5 really good players and should win the league.

[ChrisRogers]

Only have the 1 game to comment on, but North City 2a are a shadow of the team they were last year. Will get the 2A wooden spoon unless they are missing 6-7 players.

[Squeezy Cheesey Peas]

Only observation of the weekend...... a bye round for a team in both DIv 4 and Div 5 is rubbish.....
Not playing because of it = no observations!

[crusader]

i have to agree . what is the reason for this . A bye in two divisions WHAT THE ?

[crusader]

I have another idea lets not let some of them enter the cup too even though they pay the same as everybody else

[MickyP21]

North City are the new PAOC, if they even last out this year with two teams I will be astounded.... they were falling apart at the end of last year...

[Ross30]

Crusader, you've raised two very different issues there, neither of which are relevant to this thread. But I'm sure you're not the only person who is thinking along those lines, so here goes:

Cup
- with 69 (or now 68) teams, something had to give. 64 teams is the perfect number. Is it really that unreasonable that the bottom team from clubs with 5 or 6 teams missed out? Try coming up with a solution which doesn't involve any teams missing out and which also does not extend the season.
- in its present format, I can't understand why any div 5 team would be eager to be in the cup when they could be drawn against an A grade team that will destroy them. I bet Westminster C's had great fun losing 11-0 on a Friday night at Burton versus Mercedes A's. Very romantic.
- If there were two cup competitions, say one for 1A, 1B and 2A teams and a separate competition for the rest, I could better understand the eagerness of all teams to be involved. Personally, I'd like to see that format.
- the "we pay the same as everyone esle" argument is flawed. Last year some teams had 18 league games and some had 21 league games, but that made no difference to the affiilation fee paid per team.

Two divisions with byes in them
- I'm from Pembroke. Blame us, not the CSL.
- The CSL Executive Committee was put in a difficult situation on this issue. Had Pembroke known it would have only 5 teams all along then I can almost guarantee that the divisions would have been structured differently, potentially with no byes in any division.
- As it was, Pembroke unfortunately withdrew a team in the week leading up to the league season, once the fixtures had been done and various arrangements put in place. Not our finest hour and not a decision that was made lightly.
- Pembroke was happy to abide any decsion about which division it would no longer have a team in.
- I did not vote on the decision as I would obviously have been conflcited, but I know that Divisions 2B, 4 and 5 were all considered and there were pros and cons for the CSL under any scenario.
- Division 5 would have been the logical option, but the problem was that there was already only 9 teams in there. To reduce to 8 teams would eliminate a bye but would also have required the fixtures to be re-done on the basis of a 21 game season (8 teams playing each other 3 times) instead of an 18 week season. Had the situation arisen say 3 weeks earlier, that could and probably would have been done. But the lateness of the events meant that this option was ruled out.
- From there, once a team was taken out of div 2B or div 4 there was going to have to be a bye in that divsion too. I'm sure there will be different views about which of those divisions should have been affected, but division 2B is regarded as the higher of the two, hence why division 4 got the bye.
- Some clubs have since asked why teams were not shuffled throughout the divisions to leave only an odd number in one division. But it is not as simple as that. You can't just say "team X, you're now in another division and you have team Y's original fixtures". There all sorts of reasons why, but most notably because clubs would then get upset because their teams would not be kept togther in terms of home and away games.
- So, short of totally re-doing the fixtures for several divisions only days before the season kicked-off, whatever option was chosen some clubs or teams would be unhappy.

I apologise on behalf of Pembroke for causing there to be a bye in division 4 in addition to division 5.

[buzzy]

I have another idea lets not let some of them enter the cup too even though they pay the same as everybody else

Crusader, do you also put forward your ideas in a constructive manner to your club or the league or do you simply complain about things on this forum and expect everything to work out perfectly for you? Here's a solution for your team - for next season suggest that the lowest ranked teams play off in a pre-qualifier the week before the season proper to make the 64 team draw. For example, this season the four or five teams that were omitted could have played off against the other four or five lowest ranked teams. It shouldn't be too hard to schedule these games yourself as I'm sure you were organising trial games etc during the same period. This would have been a good solution for Westminster div five who would have at least had a more even hit out before facing an A side in the cup. While on that subject, credit to that team for not complaining at any stage and playing out the game in good spirits.

[INTERISTA]

Its amateur soccer. . . Things like this happen. As I player / coach in these lower Divs I actually enjoy having a few extra weeks off during the season. Plus at least now we know we dont have a game, imagine turning up & being told on the day? Same with the cup it was our clubs preference that our lowest team not compete.

[Squeezy Cheesey Peas]

A bit harsh Buzzy... a forum is open for discussion of these very points and there will be a variety of opinions... all valid.
Back on thread..... A few funny results in week 1 and a shame this Easter stuff has delayed the second stanza for a number trying to right the mistakes and results of that round!
Div 3 looks like it could more balanced this year with a few new teams who are more bottom half than top, making it a tight battle for the mid placed teams I reckon.
2A will be an interesting battle for the top 2 slots:
Windsor will be in one of those slots and it will be a close run thing between Westminster, Norwood and my outside tip for a top 4 finish Thebarton who look tidy for there first season and will take points off a few. Uni SA look very poor for an ex Div 1 side and will do well to place top half.