Skilleroos Tasmania Begin!

Kurt Reynolds took the Northern Session Yesterday Night.

Yesterday deemed the start of both the North and South Skilleroo squads for 2012. These 2 squads will train from The 8th of February onwards till approximately the start of July. The players that are in attendance to these squads will also have the chance to trial in July for a spot in the Tasmanian u13 State Team, which travels to Coffs Harbour for the National Youth Championships in October.

In the North, Blaise Fagan will be doing a lot of observing over the next 2 sessions, with Kurt Reynolds taking the training duty yesterday at Valley Road and Luigi Gugliotti on hand to take the team at Churchill Park, Launceston on Monday. 16 players turned up and trained with enthusiasm and concluded with a positive outset.

Heading to the South, 21 eager and keen players turned up to Cornelian Bay and were trained by Anthony Alexander and Dean May in what seemed to be a successful training session.

Both Teams were explained to about the expectations they were to live up to at the start of the gathering, and all players agreed and hopefully the program goes to plan to produce a great number of young talented footballers at the end of training event.

For more Information, go to http://www.footballfedtas.com.au/ or http://walterpless.com.au/.

Steve Hudson Cup to Kick-Off Next Weekend

South Hobart v Riverside Olympic at last years Cup.



The proud tradition of the Steve Hudson Cup continues next weekend on the 12th of Feburary. With the competition expanding to 9 teams, it is the biggest participation of teams to be ever held in the Steve Hudson Cup. It will be hosted by Launceston United once again.

The Hudson Cup began in 1980, the year after the tragic death of Steve Hudson, who was a player associated with Launceston United at the time.

In past years entries were received from both North and North West soccer Clubs however, in latter years entries only from Launceston based clubs with the occasional Southern team have made up the participants.

In the last 10 years the cup has been dominated by Launceston City and South Hobart, both teams winning the cup 4 times each. Last years winners though, were South Hobart who have won all their titles in a row from 2008.

Is there any reason that South Hobart cant continue their winning streak? They are clear favourites again this year, but there are teams that are here to upset the Hobart giants and could easily cause a turn around in the clubs history of winning the prestigious cup.

The teams who genuinely have a chance in winning cup, in my opinion would be travelling Hobart team New Town Eagles who challenged South Hobart in last years Final Series only to lose by a narrow 3-1 margin. Launceston teams such as Prospect Knights, Riverside Olympic and Launceston City hope to do well again like in previous years. Prospect were runners up last year but it will be hard to repeat the same success again.

Ulverstone also look good but playing 2 games in 2 days will hurt their chances and it will test their fitness dramatically.

The Steve Hudson Cup look very interesting once again and this year you'll be sure to find a few upsets throughout the whole of the tournament!

The Local Game Returns!

Devonport City look favorites this year after an outstanding performance in recent competitions.

Soccer has officially returned in Northern Tasmania, with the competition rapidly approaching all clubs. Already now Pre-Season tournaments are about to begin and some have already been taken to a conclusion.

For some Launceston based teams and coastal ones the Mies Family Cup proved to be a tough and entertaining Tournament for all watching and all playing. This tournament, for most teams were a run-out and a chance to finally seek tough competition and to exploit different tactics for the coaches on the sidelines.

 Teams such as the likes of Devonport City and Ulverstone were showing there squads were up and running very quickly and early in the pre-season, with fine displays in the group games and a nail-biting penalty shoot-out in the final, which in the end Devonport prevailed. In this case it may look like the coastal teams are preparing better than the Launceston teams this year with Northern Rangers putting on a ''very rusty'' performance bowing out of the group stage with 3 losses. The Ranger Army still seem to be passionate but that passion on the field might have been all but lost and with 4 key players leaving The Rangers soon. It now looks like they might be in a little strife coming into the Season!! Along with Northern Rangers, Prospect Knights performed averagely with a loss to Launceston United and Devonport City and a decent showing against Launceston City team 2.

Northern Rangers weren't at there usual best at the Mies Family cup earlier on this year

For other teams who didn't participate in the Mies Cup, they have there respective cups to look forward to, Somerset, Devonport and co. have the exciting North-West Summer Cup, which always ends in drama for the final 2 teams. In Launceston next weekend at Birch Avenue there is the 42nd annual Steve Hudson Cup which involves 9 teams which means either Southern or Northern teams have to experience the frustrating bye for the first time, but besides that and some other minor changes the competition should still be as fiery as ever with the introduction of 3 southern teams in New Town Eagles, Glenorchy Knights and reining champions South Hobart. Both groups in the competition are as follows;

In Group 1-(A) is; Riverside Olympic, Glenorchy Knights, Launceston City and New Town Eagles.

In Group B is; South Hobart, Ulverstone, Launceston United, Northern Rangers and Prospect Knights.

This year should be great time and soccer should be shown at its best, wherever it is!
Next post will involve a review and prediction on all teams in the competition and any important updates around the North.

Happy Footballing, Daniel.