NSL

[chileman]

:lol: I think it still exists, only just though!
Anyway, here is the first round!

Fri 19 September 2003 Wollongong Wolves - Sydney United 7:35pm WIN Stadium
Sat 20 September 2003 Parramatta Power - South Melbourne 6:30pm Parramatta Stadium
Sun 21 September 2003 Football Kingz - Newcastle United 12:15pm Ericsson Stadium
Sun 21 September 2003 Northern Spirit - Brisbane Strikers 5:00pm Pittwater Park
Sun 21 September 2003 Melbourne Knights - Marconi Stallions 6:00pm Knights Stadium
Perth Glory - Bye

Important Notice: Adelaide City Force withdrew from the competition, although a new Adelaide team is in place, subject to final confirmation from Soccer Australia.

Please Note: Pittwater Park (Northern Spirit), Arena Joondalup (Perth) and Perry Park (Brisbane) are still subject to final inspection approval being granted on meeting the NSL ground criteria minimum requirements.

 

[incredible_holc]

what happened to the Olympic Sharks????

 

[chileman]

what happened to the Olympic Sharks????

Amigo, Olympic are still in it...apparently their first game in round 1 is against Adelaide and if you read the footnote in my first post "Adelaide City Force withdrew from the competition, although a new Adelaide team is in place, subject to final confirmation from Soccer Australia." which means I guess they have deferred Olympics game against them....so Olympic won't start their campaign till round 2!

 

[Stevo_G]

every year the nsl barely just survives
any news that the team that comes last will have a playoff with the national states champion to see if they get relegated or not

 

[Dean Moriarty]

what happened to the Olympic Sharks????

Amigo, Olympic are still in it...apparently their first game in round 1 is against Adelaide and if you read the footnote in my first post "Adelaide City Force withdrew from the competition, although a new Adelaide team is in place, subject to final confirmation from Soccer Australia." which means I guess they have deferred Olympics game against them....so Olympic won't start their campaign till round 2!

They have also reverted to the name "Sydney Olympic", as they have moved into enemy territory (Oki Doki Stadium). 8)

Seriously, it wasn't working in the Shire, but then the occasional ad in the local paper wasn't going to enthuse people new to soccer to go along. The Olympic Sharks identity was pretty dumb IMO and completely confused - the kind of thing that seems as though they thought it up over five minutes in the bar. Having taken the challenge to try to bring Anglo-Celtic Sydney into the game, they never seemed to have the stomach to embrace it.

And with Politis taking his money away, the new owners went for the conservative safety of the traditional Greek fan base - safer for the club but hardly the right move for Australian soccer as a whole.

 

[Once Dead]

what happened to the Olympic Sharks????

Amigo, Olympic are still in it...apparently their first game in round 1 is against Adelaide and if you read the footnote in my first post "Adelaide City Force withdrew from the competition, although a new Adelaide team is in place, subject to final confirmation from Soccer Australia." which means I guess they have deferred Olympics game against them....so Olympic won't start their campaign till round 2!

They have also reverted to the name "Sydney Olympic", as they have moved into enemy territory (Oki Doki Stadium). 8)

Seriously, it wasn't working in the Shire, but then the occasional ad in the local paper wasn't going to enthuse people new to soccer to go along. The Olympic Sharks identity was pretty dumb IMO and completely confused - the kind of thing that seems as though they thought it up over five minutes in the bar. Having taken the challenge to try to bring Anglo-Celtic Sydney into the game, they never seemed to have the stomach to embrace it.

And with Politis taking his money away, the new owners went for the conservative safety of the traditional Greek fan base - safer for the club but hardly the right move for Australian soccer as a whole.

Its not Olympic's fault the people of the Shire didn't support them.....they freakin brought the Shire a premiership but they still didn't come.....a successful team which the Olympic Sharks were can overcome the barriers........fact is, the people in the Shire don't give a crap about soccer, and if they did - they would have filled the joint......Olympic Sharks practically killed themselves trying to reach out to the mainstream people.....everyone keeps telling us to keep tradition and cultural bases out of the game - but the fact is, without them you have jack.........

Smaller grounds which don't look empty are better than bigger grounds that are speckled with what seems 200 supporters.......soccer shouldn't be professional......we can't sustain it and we must go back to smaller grounds and refocus..........this season shouldn't even be starting until next year......i think this season will be a huge mistake.........

 

[incredible_holc]

did you know the shire is one of the biggest and strongest soccer junior bases in NSW

 

[SP]

Go Perth!!!

make it back to back

 

[Once Dead]

did you know the shire is one of the biggest and strongest soccer junior bases in NSW

And? This manifests itself how? If there's so many soccer lovers there then why didn't they support a powerhouse playing great football?

 

[Dean Moriarty]

did you know the shire is one of the biggest and strongest soccer junior bases in NSW

And? This manifests itself how? If there's so many soccer lovers there then why didn't they support a powerhouse playing great football?

LOL. No one in their right mind would call some of the games served up in the last two seasons great football. I enjoyed watching Ishida and Milicic; Clint Bolton's an exciting goalkeeper and Juric and Pondeljak were a cut above the usual, but some of it was painful - and having spent years watching lower division English football, I've seen painful football.

For me, the name "Olympic Sharks" sums it up. It's a messy hybrid of a name and doesn't mean anything. It was a small token effort at becoming a broadly-based club. They would have been better off keeping the name Sydney Olympic and actually embracing the community they were supposed to be tapping into. Admittedly they weren't helped by the way Seven treats the NSL - not getting the TV coverage doesn't help in promoting the game, but their PR was useless. The local press was incredibly supportive but the coverage just dried up. You can't just turn up on the doorstep of a community and expect people to flock to the games - if that's the way soccer is planning to grow there are some very dark days ahead.

I do agree with you, though, that this season is a waste of time and money - they should be focusing their resources on getting a viable league format up and running for the future.

 

[Nevcost]

Bloody hell the Lions still aren't playing and us Brisbaneites have to support the stupid Brisbane Strikers, why are they stupid:
- The Club is losing money fast
- The club is selling its best, guys like Fernando Rech

Kind of like what leeds is going through in the EPL

 

[MEE]

C'mon Spirit!

 

[Stevo_G]

i saw the Parramatta Power will be out of the league at the end of the season
seriously the Australian Premier League has to be launched soon to save the national league

 

[Once Dead]

i saw the Parramatta Power will be out of the league at the end of the season
seriously the Australian Premier League has to be launched soon to save the national league

The APL is just as flawed an idea as the NSL........simply changing the idea and paying players MORE will do more damage than anything......the APL as far as i'm concerned is hype and nothing more - another Players Association grab at attention..............Parramatta said they would be pulling the plug before the start of last season so its old news - funny thing is, since they want a buyer, they've bought half of the classy players in the NSL......Gumprecht, Milicic, Bolton, Rech and other former Olympic Sharks.......why didn't they try that last season and simply sit on their hands?

 

[Once Dead]

Marconi actually has some decent players this season........Harris, Carle, Maloney (although old-er) and pinball Renaud is back too.....lol....gotta love it - TOP SIX THIS YEAR BABY!!!!!!!!!!! COSTANZO TO HAVE HIS BEST SEASON YET!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[pennywisealfie]

Bloody hell the Lions still aren't playing and us Brisbaneites have to support the stupid Brisbane Strikers, why are they stupid:
- The Club is losing money fast
- The club is selling its best, guys like Fernando Rech

Kind of like what leeds is going through in the EPL

my heart will always be with the strikers as ive been a huge fan of them forever but the way those idiots run that club is a joke and as i hate to say it, lions is the way to go for sure.

i thought it was so stupid that they hired stuart mclaren as the coach only because the owners want to go back to there glory days of 96/97 and back then they had a player coach so they want to go back to the player coach system. i mean the damn coach back then was frank farina! and the strikers side was awesome then, unlike now.

 

[Azkatro]

I realise that this competition's not in the best shape, but we've setup a picking comp over at www.footypicks.com. Footypicks is free to join and it's pretty much a small knit comp with not many users (100 would be a real stretch for the NSL this season), plus there's no prizes this time around so it's all for glory.

We're hoping to do Champs League later on though which should be a bit more popular so if you register an account you can join it no worries.

 

[Craig]

I saw a mate of mine from school about 3 weeks ago and is a quite a decent goal keeper and apprantly he has a contract with the Brisbane Strikers and at the time, he was first on the list.

 

[Stevo_G]

some big crowds in the nsl this week, the favourites the power got 1800 odd
another reason this should be the last year of the nsl

 

[southern warrior]

the kingz will come dead set last!!!!!!!!!!!