Trial match results

Victory League Practice Match.
Devonport Strikers 5 (B.Mann 2 (p-1) D.Mcginn (p) B.Eaves, K.Mulrany) def Northern Rangers 3 (S.Nugteren, A.Luate,P.Lanau Atkinson 3-1 ht. .

Northern Premier League practice match,
Devonport Strikers 3 (B.Andrews, M.Blake, R.Murray) lost to Northern Rangers 4 (A.Rigby, H.Thannhauser, M.Christy, H.Vanderveld). 2-3 ht.

Rumours Soon To Be Set Straight

Nathan Bartlett will play for City in the
Victory League.

Just an addition to the Rumour Mill, all a little quiet on western front at the moment, with just a week to go before Victory League Clubs have to name their squads, and the Pre season cups kick off for both Victory League clubs and Northern Premier.

Launceston City have signed Nathan Bartlett and DeZephery Bart in the last couple of weeks from Launceston United, as well as welcoming a few players from over seas.  This should help bulster their squads, with the professor claiming that City have signed Aaron Campbell from Riverside, Pat Farrel from United and Saed bin Sumadi from United also.

Rangers have picked up Ryan McCaragher, Nick Lanau Atkinson and Mark Christy from Riverside and Ayden Rigby from Launceston and Derek Schipper is returning.

The club will also welcome their first UK import early in March, a striker from Coventry.

Devonport have no surprises and its well documented who has joined them, though there was a whisper that at least Jeremy deBomford was going to head over to Valley Road for a kick before the squads have been officially selected.

Down south the big news is Kanakaris is back at South Hobart, while their UK player, Nick Hill has already defected to Kingborough Lions.

Tilford Zebras have signed Jonothan Ladic who has been playing in Queensland.

On the Premier League front, all teams have now nominated for the League One competition which is a compulsory competition.

Somerset have signed the Lions share of players on the coast and should be a tough team to beat in 2013.

Little or no news on Ulverstone and Burnie, while Devonport will be strong again in the NPL on the back of an Under 18 premiership.

Prospect Knights still very tight lipped about what is happening up at Harley Parade.

Wayne Penfold is in charge of Riverside,  Murray takes over at Launceston and Col Nicholson is the new premier league coach at Rangers.

Trial Matches Continue in Pre Season Preparation.

Northern Premier League and Victory League sides continue to fine tune their squads in time for the pre season cups, due to kick off next weekend.

Devonport will host Northern Rangers in a repeat of last week’s set up this Saturday at Valley Road.  The Northern Premier League sides will hit out at 5pm, while the Victory League sides go hammer and tong at 7pm.

Devonport Coach Chris McKenna said a few of his Victory League players are not available, while the NPL side will again feature a young line up.

For Northern Rangers there are a handful of players unavailable in both sides, but the match should give Peter Savill and Col Nicholson a solid look at their make up on the eve of the Hudson and Southern Summer Cups.

South Hobart will host Kingborough on Saturday also at Darcy st, Under 20s at 11:00 and Victory League at 1:30pm.

Round of 16 state wide cup released

FFT have released round of 16 games and times for the state wide cup. The only VL Vs NPL is Launceston City v Riverside.
The winner of Launceston United v Somerset would be rubbing their hands together as the winner has drawn the winner of Taroona v Nelson, In which over the past few years have been weak.
Match of the round would have to be Devonport v Rangers.

	Lakoseljac Cup for Men
	11/03/2013	Round of 16
Match 1	Launceston City	v	Riverside
Match 2	Kingborough Lions	v	Tilford Zebras
Match 3	Taroona/ Nelson	v	Laun Utd/ Somerset
Match 4	Southern FC/ University	v	Olympia FC Warriors
Match 5	Devonport	v	Northern Rangers
Match 6	Prospect Knights	v	Beachside/ Glen Knights
Match 7	South Hobart	v	New Town Eagles
Match 8	Ulverstone	v	Clarence

Winners progress to the Quarter Finals to be played on Monday 1/4/2013 (Easter Monday)

Justin Firth will play a big role for the knights this year

Brennan Signs for Bentleigh Greens and the Steve Hudson Cup tradition continues in 2013

Andy Brennan in action in last year's Hudson Cup, Brennan
has been signed by Bentliegh Greens after the South Hobart
match against Bentleigh Greens.

Andy Brennan of South Hobart SC is the latest Tasmanian player to make the step to the Victorian Premier League, in search of bigger things in football.

Brennan was signed by Bentleigh Greens FC during South Hobart’s tour of Victoria after he had a strong game against the Greens, netting a goal and raising a few eyebrows in the process.

The news will be welcomed with mixed emotions at South Hobart on the eve of the Victory League kick off.

Brennan who is 19 is without doubt one of the finest players going around in Tasmania at present, he would have been a major part of Ken Morton’s plans for the 2013 campaign, but at the end of the day, Morton has delivered on his word to try and push the local talent onto bigger and better things, the trip to Victoria has given Brennan the chance to showcase himself to other clubs and ended up delivering him a contract at the next level above.

Interesting to note that Bentleigh have a fine record with A-League Clubs, developing names like Connor Pain (MVFC) Nick Ansell (MVFC) Paolo Retre (Heart) and Melbourne Victory goal keeper Lawrence Thomas who made his spectacular debut for Victory after Ante Covic was sent off against Brisbane Roar in the second minute back in 2011, Thomas played that match with only 8 players in front of him for more than an hour.  Perhaps Bentleigh will add another player to their impressive list.

*************************************

Derek Schipper controls the ball in the 2011 Hudson Cup,
Rangers have resigned the George Dale medal winner and
he should be on show in the 2013 campaign.

The Launceston Soccer and Sports Club Committee organising the 2013 Steve Hudson Cup proudly continues the fine tradition of the pre-season competition from Sunday, 17^th February at their Birch Avenue, Newstead grounds for its 33^rd consecutive year.

We have received seven senior men’s entrants for 2013, Tilford Zebras, Prospect Knights, Devonport City (six time winners), Riverside Olympic, Northern Rangers (one time winners), South Hobart (defending title holders, five time winners), Launceston City (eight time winners) and entered our team of Launceston United (one time winners). Given the return of state league football, the LSSC Committee consulted with the participating clubs for general consensus in setting the competition’s fixtures with an aim to ensure all clubs achieve their objectives in the five week competition.

Football followers will be treated to an excellent showcase of full ninety minute games of competitive football with a lottery draw Group A and Group B format of four teams to play three weeks of round robin games with Northern Premier League club teams mostly facing the challenge against the Victory League club teams and a sneak peek of Victory League club teams going head to head at a neutral venue.

Weeks 4 and 5 of the competition will then replicate the 2013 season with a two tier group crossover 1 v 2 semi-finals competition of Victory League and Northern Premier League teams. The winners of the semi-finals go through to each play finals to win the SHC and prize money winners and runners up in their own right. Consolation finals will be played to give all teams five weeks of competitive games to tune up for the regular season.

The five week roster below outlines the competition fixtures giving football followers the opportunity to watch each of the four full games at the one venue over each of the five weeks and the prospect of seeing some of the best football talent in the state.

Week 1 - Sunday, February 17th,

GROUND 1

11.00am          Group B          Launceston City (VL)           v          Riverside Olympic (NPL)

1.00pm            Group A          Tilford Zebras (VL)             v          Launceston United (NPL)

3.00pm            Group B          Northern Rangers (NPL)     v          South Hobart (VL)

GROUND 2

2.00pm            Group A          Devonport City (VL)            v          Prospect Knights (NPL)

Week 2 - Sunday, February 24th,

GROUND 1

11.00am          Group B          Riverside Olympic (NPL)     v          Northern Rangers (NPL)

1.00pm            Group A          Devonport City (VL)            v          Launceston United (NPL)

3.00pm            Group B          South Hobart (VL)                v          Launceston City (VL)

GROUND 2

2.00pm            Group A          Prospect Knights (NPL)       v          Tilford Zebras (VL)

Week 3 - Sunday, March 3rd,
GROUND 1

11.00am          Group A          Launceston United (NPL)    v          Prospect Knights (NPL)

1.00pm            Group B          Launceston City (VL)           v          Northern Rangers (NPL)

3.00pm            Group A          Tilford Zebras (VL)              v          Devonport City (VL)

GROUND 2

2.00pm            Group B          South Hobart (VL)                v          Riverside Olympic (NPL)

Week 4 - Sunday, March 10th

GROUND 1

11.00am          NPL Semi 1 No 1 NPL Team Group A       v          No 2 NPL Team Group B

1.00pm            VL Semi 1 No 1 VL Team Group A            v          No 2 VL Team Group B

3.00pm            VL Semi 2 No 1 VL Team Group B            v          No 2 VL Team Group A

GROUND 2

2.00pm            NPL Semi 2 No 1 NPL Team Group B       v          No 2 NPL Team Group A

Week 5 - Sunday, March 17th

GROUND 1

11.00am          NPL 3 & 4 Loser NPL Semi 1                      v          Loser NPL Semi 2

1.00pm            NPL Final Winner NPL Semi 1                    v          Winner NPL Semi 2

3.00pm            SHC Final Winner VL Semi 1                      v          Winner VL Semi 2

GROUND 2

12.00pm          VL 3 & 4 Loser VL Semi 1                          v          Loser VL Semi 2

Prize money will be for Winners and Runners-up for both the VL and NPL. There will also be individual

player awards as in previous years.

The LSSC Committee endeavours to minimise the competition entry cost to clubs and subsequently has a daily gate admission flat fee of $5.00 (including players and club officials) to cover operating costs of the competition. (Concession $2.50, Children Under 12 are free.)

The LSSC kiosk and bar facilities are well stocked and will be operating throughout the competition.

On behalf of the LSSC Committee, best wishes to all players and clubs for a successful competition.

Yours in football

Maurie Krushka,
2013 LSSC Secretary

Launceston Soccer and Sports Club

Hobart Olympia just shade Devonport in Victory League trial match.

Devonport hosted Hobart Olympia today in a trial match at Valley Road.

Both team fielded strong teams, as you would expect considering Olympia made the three and a half hour trip for the match.

It was Devonport early in the game who led the scoring through Daniel Mcginn and new signing Ben Foote and Devonport held the lead until about the 70th minute mark.

Late in the game Devonport experimented with the line-up and it seems to have cost them the game, with Olympia Warriors running over the Strikers in the last 15 minutes to score three late goals and eventually win 3-2.

Devonport assistant coach Nick Owen was pleased with the hit out, and said “ We were two up with 15 or 20 to go and changed it up a bit late in the game and conceded some soft goals.”

In the earlier kick off, Devonport’s Premier League team played Olympia Warriors Premier League team and another close game was fought out, but again the visitors came away with a narrow 1 goal win, getting over Devonport 3-4 by the final whistle.