National Premier League

[Stuckey]

The interstate games have now kicked off with Sydney United accounting for Canberra FC 2-1.

SA's entrant Campbelltown plays next week in Hobart.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_Natio ... er_Leagues

I encourage everyone on here to get behind this as best we can. Give this the legs it needs to go from this start up tournament to hopefully in the future something that could become a 2nd division nationally.

[shinAUFC]

Wish they would stream matches online

[Stuckey]

Wish they would stream matches online

True. I reckon foxtel could whip up a heap on budding media students pay them peanuts and stream it online for free.

[shinAUFC]

http://sportingpulse.com/comp_info.cgi? ... 6-0&pool=1

this sunday is the big day, would have loved to watch it this weekend in anticipation for the Aleague next weekend

[EdDog]

I'm a little confused as to how this works? Why are there only a few teams and what is this finals seres??

[shinAUFC]

The premiers from each confederation ( in SA's case the champion ) goes into the NPL which is basically a knockout competition.

its not quite a league that the name suggests just yet

[Stuckey]

The premiers from each confederation ( in SA's case the champion ) goes into the NPL which is basically a knockout competition.

its not quite a league that the name suggests just yet

Just like the champions 'league'

[Interloper]

The 'League' in this case encompasses every state competition in the country (eventually), with the playoffs/final series at the end of the season with the premiers of each competition.

It's a similar structure to the ABA in Basketball, which has worked well there and by worked well I mean it continues to exist.

[blahblah]

A pity I am not in town as I wouldn't mind wandering down to give our reps in the NPL some support.

[Stuckey]

Sydney United 58 FC are the inaugural National Premier Leagues (NPL) Final Series Champions, defeating South Hobart FC 2-0 in front of a strong crowd of well over 1000 at a wet KGV Football Park in Hobart.

http://www.footballaustralia.com.au/new ... ions/77119

In case anyone missed it. Would have loved to see South Hobart win it to give the game a few more legs down there, but I think for the integrity of the comp it's good a big club like United won it.

[Stuckey]

Football Federation Australia (FFA) today launched the 2014 National Premier Leagues (NPL) season for the semi-professional state-based competitions in Australian football.

The second edition of the NPL see clubs from eight (8) of FFA’s member Federations participate with clubs from Northern NSW Football, Football Federation Victoria and Football West competing for the first time .

http://www.footballaustralia.com.au/new ... gues/85707

National Premier Leagues 2014 Finals Series – Match Schedule

The National Premier Leagues 2014 Finals Series shall be staged between the weeks of:

National Premier Leagues 2014 Elimination Finals - 20/21 September 2014
National Premier Leagues 2014 Semi Finals - 27/28 September 2014
National Premier Leagues 2014 Grand Final - 4/5 October 2014

The National Premier Leagues 2014 Finals Series draw is as follows:

National Premier Leagues 2014 Elimination Finals (First named team shall be the host)

Game 1 Northern NSW Football vs Football Queensland
Game 2 Capital Football vs Football NSW
Game 3 Football Federation Tasmania vs Football Federation Victoria
Game 4 Football West vs Football Federation South Australia

National Premier Leagues 2014 Semi Finals (hosts to be confirmed)

Game 5 Winner of Game 1 vs Winner of Game 3
Game 6 Winner of Game 2 vs Winner of Game 4

National Premier Leagues 2014 Grand Final (hosts to be confirmed)

Game 7 Winner of Game 5 vs Winner of Game 6

Discussing that players graduated from the NPL to HAL last season is a pretty lame statement to make.
Still this comp is very exciting and the idea of an SA club playing off against the other best clubs again will be interesting.

So I guess the play off will be in Western Australia?

[Stuckey]

FFV and its clubs have buried the hatchet: last Friday, FFV issued a list of 30 clubs that met the criteria for entry and will form two divisions in the state's section of the NPL.

''One day we will want to look at the expansion of the A-League and we will be looking at these clubs to be part of that structure,'' FFA boss David Gallop said at Tuesday's launch.

But expansion of the A-League and the inception of a genuine second division, with the sort of promotion and relegation commonplace in other parts of the world, is a long way off.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/sport/soccer/alea ... z2t3QthZ1C
Regardless if it is a long way off or not it is an exciting prospect to know this is in the pipeline. Personally I feel unless a prospective HAL club ticks all the boxes by a mile I would rather see the FFA focus on this comp. Get it to a level where it could easily become a 2nd div. I know that is a long way off as the article says but I think the game would be better served focusing on that then trying to get another city involved only. I feel WSW was the only massive hole in the reach of the HAL and that is taken care of now.

[Stuckey]

NPL SA kicks off tonight with old rivals West Adelaide taking on Adelaide City.

Anyone heading down? They are apparently expecting a big crowd!