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2026 Australia Cup final rounds thread

Monoethnic Social Club said:
If you lose to Olympic then we shoudl ALSO start the conversation about pro/rel no?
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That actually would be a boil over given the state of Olympic at the moment. For those on here who dont followe npl, they’ve basically hit their lowest ebb ever as a club this season. Hopefully they’ve now hit rock bottom and are slowly starting to try to turn things around but still a ways to go and they’ll need to pull something out of their ass to avoid relegation
 
LFC said:
understand patj, my comment was generally for all APL sides not CCM specifically for I know they do it their way compared to others.
Thats a side issue as well, each franchise works differently, each franchise are at different levels comp wise State to State.
Another issue at hand.
Question ? how many in last nights side were Snr's barring Redmayne ?
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I would say Roux was the only other over 23. Then Steele off the bench. Not sure of Mauragis age he might be 24. The rest very young with gqite a few starters under 20 as well as the rest of the bench.
 
ashtongate said:
This cup competition is at the wrong time of year for them. Adelaide haven't even finished building their squad yet. Barely recovered from the too-long off season.
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Not withstanding my thoughts on the draw nonsense.

This is such a cop out by aleague sides. It’s the domestic cup, your season starts now not in October. Plan and act accordingly.

Number of competitions all over the world start just into preseason (Continental qualifiers, Scottish league cup for example) and sides are able to adapt.
 
NR93 said:
Not withstanding my thoughts on the draw nonsense.

This is such a cop out by aleague sides. It’s the domestic cup, your season starts now not in October. Plan and act accordingly.

Number of competitions all over the world start just into preseason (Continental qualifiers, Scottish league cup for example) and sides are able to adapt.
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Good point this, would imagine the clubs in the early qualification rounds for the champions league/Europa league/conference league etc in the middle of the European summer would be in a similar situation. There’s an interesting mentality amongst some fans in this country re their fandom only applying to the a league. They don’t care when their team plays in the ACL, they don’t care when their team plays in the Australia cup, only when they play in the isuzu Ute a league
 
Glenardo said:
Good point this, would imagine the clubs in the early qualification rounds for the champions league/Europa league/conference league etc in the middle of the European summer would be in a similar situation. There’s an interesting mentality amongst some fans in this country re their fandom only applying to the a league. They don’t care when their team plays in the ACL, they don’t care when their team plays in the Australia cup, only when they play in the isuzu Ute a league
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Thats one of the main differences (at least to me) between club and franchise...
 
patjennings said:
I think you have to look deeper. SFC play with a strong academy side that plays against NPL sides. CCM have traditionally played kids up a grade. E.g. academy side is in reality closer to an U20 side. U20 side more like an U18 side. That's how they develop kids when they play a few seasons together. Really more to do with the scale compared to SFC and WSW.
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Fair enough, we are a talent factory with a lot of young players (this extends to the men's and women's sides). Players that aren't young are usually marquees (foreigners) or veterans (Rhyan Grant). That's only becoming even more so the case.
 
Glenardo said:
Good point this, would imagine the clubs in the early qualification rounds for the champions league/Europa league/conference league etc in the middle of the European summer would be in a similar situation. There’s an interesting mentality amongst some fans in this country re their fandom only applying to the a league. They don’t care when their team plays in the ACL, they don’t care when their team plays in the Australia cup, only when they play in the isuzu Ute a league
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100% this

All of us who follow our respective NPL clubs want to win everything, whether it is the state NPL competition, state cup competition, Australia Cup, Australian Championship, (OFC Pro League for South), etc. It is irrelevant what the competition is - we follow our club everywhere and we want to win at every opportunity.

I would love for South to win the Australia Cup (highly unlikely) and qualify for the AFC Champions League Two competition. There would be 50 of us at a drop of the hat that would travel to the first away match (hopefully in a sunny tourist spot in South East Asia).
 
Monoethnic Social Club said:
Thats one of the main differences (at least to me) between club and franchise...
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Not sure you can make that claim. Given what crowds you get for a npl game compared to a cup game. It seems to run opposite in the npl clubs case.

What is probably correct is that the diehards of either a club and “franchise” know how to support correctly (cup,league,CL/OFC etc) but the vast majority of those clubs/franchises suppporters support in a very odd way.
 
LFC said:
understand patj, my comment was generally for all APL sides not CCM specifically for I know they do it their way compared to others.
Thats a side issue as well, each franchise works differently, each franchise are at different levels comp wise State to State.
Another issue at hand.
Question ? how many in last nights side were Snr's barring Redmayne ?
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Nobody 25 or over other than Andrew Redmayne and Storm Roux. Only two foreigners (Scotsman Noah McCann, age 37 and Kiwi Storm Roux, age 33). United actually fielded three foreigners (Japanese Koya Nakano and Tomoki Wada, and Fijian Leroy Jennings). Sofascore says that Lucas Mauragis (CCM) got MOTM based on ratings.

Mariners' starting 11 had an average age of 23.2, which seems reasonable but that doesn't account for two things: A. the obvious outliers (they fielded guys aged 33 and 37) and B. the bench (which was all under-19s except for Harry Steele). In comparison, United fielded an 11 with an average age of 25.8 but without extreme outliers (since there was more diversity in the ages of their players, whereas Mariners had a 17-24-year-olds plus a 33-year-old and a 37-year-old).
 
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NR93 said:
Not sure you can make that claim. Given what crowds you get for a npl game compared to a cup game. It seems to run opposite in the npl clubs case.

What is probably correct is that the diehards of either a club and “franchise” know how to support correctly (cup,league,CL/OFC etc) but the vast majority of those clubs/franchises suppporters support in a very odd way.
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Yes and no, I would say we got the same/similar crowds for NPL finals as Aleague matches in Australia Cup, bigger boost was the Aus Championship though.
 
SMFC1959 said:
100% this

All of us who follow our respective NPL clubs want to win everything, whether it is the state NPL competition, state cup competition, Australia Cup, Australian Championship, (OFC Pro League for South), etc. It is irrelevant what the competition is - we follow our club everywhere and we want to win at every opportunity.

I would love for South to win the Australia Cup (highly unlikely) and qualify for the AFC Champions League Two competition. There would be 50 of us at a drop of the hat that would travel to the first away match (hopefully in a sunny tourist spot in South East Asia).
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NPL on planes baby.....
 
I feel like the standard of players is quite similar. The ultimate differences comes down to fitness levels. Npl clubs are in season and fit but also part time, A league players are professional but in early pre season.

If you made both 100% part time or 100% pro i think the difference these days is minimal.

I also remember in the early years of the cup it would be the foreign/marquee players of the A league teams that would be hard to stop.
 
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Glenardo said:
As a side note, nice to see someone else posting some photos.
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grazie amico - yes others should - I've been lazy and tech challenged unless I have the laptop.
Whatever pic I try to post whilst at the ground from mobile file always too big like the girl said ha.
 
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