Question and answer time

We are 5 rounds in and some great questions are being asked around the clubs and answers would be great.
Here are a few I have heard and a few I have my self.
Should the NPL go independent, saving clubs thousands of dollars and have a ship load of players return due to Regos being cheaper?
Will the V League last after it's 3 years?
Will Devonport last after it's 3 years?
If a club is dominant in the NPL-SPL should they be asked to form a 10 team V League?
Will Kaimon Johmson win the George Dale again?
Will Brendan Litchtendonk line up for Ulverstone next year?

Here are a few, if any one has any topics bring them up!!!

Saturdays Results

Somerset 2 def Ulverstone 0

Launceston city 1 lost to Riverside 2

Prospect 1 def Burnie United 0

Launceston United 0 lost to Dev 6

V League
South Hobart 4 DEF Devonport 0

Live score
Launceston City 3 Tilford Zebras 1
Danny Allslop 2 Toby Omenihue 1
Toby also has the 2 assists to Allslop and is far the best player on the ground.

Final score
Launceston City 4 def Tilford Zebras 2

Round 5 has some interesting fixtures.

Can Launceston United find it's self in the top 4 after this round and also can Prospect jump back into the top 4?
Most of this is courtesy of fft ran out of time sorry.

Launceston United face the Strikers at their home Birch Avenue. Devonport currently sit third on the table with United just two points behind, a result for Launceston would mean they can jump the Strikers on the table.

Top of the table and reigning champions Somerset Sharks host Ulverstone at Cardigan Street. The Sharks have fired so far this season with a win from every outing, in contrast Ulverstone have had an underwhelming start with just a point from four clashes. 

Somerset come into the clash with a strengthened lineup.

“Last week we dominated Devonport but failed to put the goals on the board,” said Sharks President Nigel Brown. 

“This week against the Reds we welcome back Keegan Wells and Astyn Johnson which means just our coach Jeremy DeBomford missing from a full strength squad.” 

Brown said the match would be close despite the reds being in a rebuilding phase.

“Ulverstone are rebuilding after player losses and we should be too strong but our matches last year were always close, they should have beaten us in round one. 

“We have a very strong team through all positions with several under 18 players making the step up this year.

“Keegan Wells and Kaimon Johnson will dominate midfield allowing our forwards, Garry Hamilton , Josh Goodwin and Kyrone Johnson to have plenty of opportunities,” said Brown. 

Prospect face Burnie, the Knights host an improved Burnie, who sit inside the top four after four rounds.

A result would be important for the hosts as they look to make up ground on the top four. They currently are a win outside with a game in hand so a win over Burnie would be a six point result in their favour. They will also come in with the confident boost of a victory over the Rangers.

Coach Ray Heald had this to say"Starting to get a few lads back, first week were we haven’t had to ask players to double up.

Nathan Balym , Rhys Kinslow back in this week  Liam Jarvis  back from injury, Mitch  Duffy started training this week should be back any week now,  new player signed again this week, just moved to Launceston for uni, from Kenya, Roy Bwami, looks promising.

Burnie Coach Raymond Parke is hoping his side will be less wasteful in front of goal this week.

“We dominated possession for most the game but wasted a lot of good chances in front of goal but the last two goal were worth waiting for and satisfying as they were things we worked at in training.

“Prospect weren’t travelling too well until last week they had a good result against Northern Rangers so that should give them a bit of confidence going into this week,” Parke said.

Parke said Prospect is always a tough road trip.

“Their strength is they always make it hard for the opposition to leave Prospect with any kind of result but if we can continue to be patient and hold on to the ball we’ll give ourselves a good chance of leaving with something.

“Key players for us are Connor Parke who’s scoring a few goals and young Ethan Wilmot at left back.

“We are waiting to see the fitness of Brad Ryan our goal keeper and our skipper Andy Gibson who both are carrying injuries,” Parke said.

City host second spot Riverside to close out Round 5 of the Northern Premier League (NPL).

Olympic are fresh off a bye and come in with form their side with three wins from three matches.

Launceston City are at the bottom of the table with one point to their name but will come in with renewed confidence after claiming their draw against Ulverstone last week.

“Coming off the bye we take on Launceston City, who earned their first point of the season against Ulverstone last week,” said Riverside Coach Wayne Penfold.

“There is one enforced change with Taylor Neilson out suspended, which provides Steven Gulbransden with his first start of the year. This will mean a slight tweaking of player positions, but otherwise it will be status quo.

“City are a young fit side from all reports, so we will need to match their intensity and curb their enthusiasm. Roger Mies has re-joined their team and his added experience in the back line will make them hard to breakdown.

“But we have taken confidence from our positive start to the season and will be looking to impose ourselves on City and we believe that our experience and hunger will deliver us the right result.” 

In the Northern Women’s Premier League, Somerset face Ulverstone in match of the round.

Both teams are equal on one win but the Sharks hold the top through superior goal difference. 

Somerset President Nigel Brown expects the reds to have their number.

“I expect Ulverstone to win by at least 10 as they are a very good team.

“We are rebuilding and have lost Shannon Best to Devonport which really weakens our attack.”

Launceston City will be looking to make it two from two in their title defence when they face Riverside, a side they trumped in the statewide cup.

“We played well against Devonport but missed a lot of chances in front of goal, and have been working on that the last couple of weeks,” Launceston City Coach Col Nicholson said.

“This week we again play Riverside after playing them in the state wide cup on Monday. 

“We have lost Sarah Campbell for this week’s game after she sustained a knee injury on Monday, but hopefully she will be back in the squad in the coming weeks. 

“Riverside has a very good centre forward who caused us a few problems on Monday, so we will want to keep an eye on her and try to minimize her influence on this weekend’s game.

“Overall I am very pleased with how we are progressing at this stage of the season, although we still have a lot of room for improvement,” Nicholson said.

NPL – Round 5

Launceston United vs Devonport 2:30PM/Saturday 26 April (Birch Avenue) 

Somerset vs Ulverstone 2:30PM/Saturday 26 April (Cardigan Street)

Prospect vs Burnie 2:30PM/Saturday 26 April (Prospect Park)

Launceston City vs  Riverside 3:00PM/Saturday 26 April (Mitsubishi Park 1)

Northern Rangers BYE

NWPL – Round 2

Prospect vs Burnie 12:30PM/Saturday 26 April (Mitsubishi Park)

Launceston United vs Devonport 12:30PM/Sunday 27 April (Birch Avenue)

Somerset vs Ulverstone 12:30PM/Sunday 27 April (Cardigan Street) 

Launceston City vs Riverside Olympic 12:30PM/Sunday 27 April (Mitsubishi Park)

Launceston City Allies vs Northern Rangers 2:30PM/Sunday 27 April (Mitsubishi Park)

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Rangers Down Devonport To Go To The Semis

Rangers have beaten Devonport at the NTCA today in wet conditions. It was an even contest to start off with but the rangers went to another gear and coming away with the goods. An shout out to Shane Brassington who was the man to beat today. Scoring 2 of his own an one was a classic individual performance.
The Rangers are the only northern team left after south Hobart narrowly beat Launceston City 3-1 at Mistsubishi Park.

Results
Rangers 4 def Devonport 1
Launceston City 1 lost to South Hobart 3

Somerset Sharks Go A Game Clear At The Top

Another great game at Valley Road today with both sides locked at 1 all at half time. Kyrone Johnson turned it on in the second half finishing with a hattrick and 1 to josh Goodwin to make it 4-1. Prospect showed they have what it takes and holding off a late surge from the Rangers to win 3-2 and Ulverstone even if they are battered and bruised would be happy with a 2 all draw against city.

Somerset 4 (kyrone Johnson 3, josh Goodwin 1 DEF Devonport 1

Prospect 3 (Matt Heald, Josh Harnett, Lacchie Farell) def Rangers 2

Ulverstone 2 drew with Launceston City 2

Burnie United jump to 3rd

After being 1 all at half time. Burnie United come out firing on all cylinders to make it 2 from 2 at home winning 3-1
Goals to Connor Parke 2 and Ethan Willmott 1

Easter Football

Round 4 is played over the Easter weekend starting tomorrow with a Good Friday game being played at Montello. Burnie United host Launceston United in which should be a cracking match. Both teams have improved from last year and on their day may even compete with the tops sides.
Burnie will be looking to make it 2 from 2 at home and turning Montello into a fortress this year.
Burnie will be seething at the teeth after going down to cross town rivals Somerset and would have worked hard on the track this week to fix their mistakes from last week. Marque player Peter VanEk will play this week after coming down from Brisbane Roar for the week.
With VanEk and Moores in the back line Launceston will find it hard to get behind the lines.

Ulverstone v Launceston City 2:30 Ulverstone Show Grounds
The Reds will be looking to get their first win at home this week against City. Both sides are depleted this week and a lot weaker than last year.
Ulverstone have been hit the hardest after loosing another 8 starting senior players from last year and Adam Conkie hanging up the boots after being sent of in the first round. Kiren Meannie who missed last week is back from injury and will give the reds more strength in the midfield.
City are much unknown and look to be up and down after the first 3 rounds.
With City's V League team carrying injures will only make their NPL team weaker. The Reds should take the points this week.

Devonport v Somerset 2:30 pm Saturday Valley Road
The Strikers host the inform sharks and will struggle to contain them. The Sharks are 3 from 3 and will be looking to keep their perfect record. Kaimon Johnson started for the Sharks last week after missing the first three round and looked as dangerous as the George Dale medal winner did last year also finishing with 2 goals. Also Jeremy DeBomford will start this week after coming off the bench last week against Burnie. Somerset seem to be going from strength to strength every week. Last year premiership player Ross Smith has also been included into the squad after making a late return to the club.

Prospect v Rangers 2:30 pm Saturday Prospect Park
This is another rival game and both teams will be out to flex their muscles earlie to stamp their authority on this game. With round 4 being sheduled over Easter a lot of the Knights players had already had plans, plus add injurys to some of their key players.
Liam Jarvis is out with a broken hand and top defender Gregg Duffy has injured his ankle.
Coach Ray Heald is still up beat about this weekend and has had a few players from last year to rejoin the club and ready for this week.
Rangers will be out to redeem them selves after late 3 all draw against Launceston Inited lay week.
Coach Brendan Litchtendonk had this to say"

“I was really happy with our game last week with Launceston, not everything went our way, but we stuck to our game plan in a tough situation and pulled a result out of the fire.

“Through all of this, whilst we are never happy conceding 3 goals, we did move the ball around well, we had to make numerous positional changes to cope with ten men, but we never really dropped our team tasks which was good. 

“The trick now will be to do that all again against Knights with 11 men for 90 minutes.

“We have a lot out this week, Victory League is on Friday for us, so we wont know our final make up until that game has finished, as any player who steps on the park for us against Zebras can't play on Saturday, and I expect Tim Lunnon to make all of his changes to nurse the team through for the State Cup match with Devonport on Monday.

“We also have captain and vice captain in Jim Ower and Josh Burk out, and Chris Collins would have got a chance to re-connect himself into the starting XI this week but is away on Holidays, so we are down on personnel but plenty of depth will still see us put together a strong side.

“Issa Dumbuya will get his first start for the year in midfield, and I was really impressed with Alex Fulton and Daniel Sparshott last week, who goes to centre-back is yet to be determined as yet, and that is the only real question mark at this point.

Prospect come in fresh off a BYE in round 3.

“I don't know that much of Prospect this year, but they have had a few injuries early on this season and I am not sure how they will line up, Im sure the BYE has come at the right time for them, but we can only control our own game, and we will have to do that this week if we are to get a result away from home.

“It is a must win after a couple of disappointing results for us.”

In the last match of the round, Ulverstone host Launceston City. Neither side has recorded a victory this season so both teams will be out for a result on the weekend.

Results Saturday 12th April

Round 3 is all sealed up with 2 clubs still undefeated . Somerset and Riverside are off to dream starts and will hope to continue the trend until they meet each other.
A few comments after talking to the respective coaches and the same topic always seems to rear it's ugly head. Before the V League had started fft had promised that the NPL would have quality referees just like the V League but at the moment some clubs do not feel the same way. Over the last 3 rounds there has been at least 10 red cards. That has to be a record for some years!!!

NPL
Somerset 4 def Burnie 1
Launceston United 3 drew with Rangers 3
Riverside 3 def Ulverstone 1
Launceston City 1 lost to Devonport 5

V League
Launceston City 3 lost to Devonport 7

WNPL
Somerset 13 def Burnie United 1
Northern Rangers 4 def Launceston Utd 0

Sunday 13th April
V League
South Hobart 1 lost to Rangers 3 (nice work lads)