Welcome to Aussiezone 236!

Dear reader,

Welcome back for another edition of The Zone.

It’s our fourth edition since our comeback and it’s probably a bit lighter than the past three due to the season rollover, and personal time constraints. Nevertheless, we’ve got the usual stuff, but a big shoutout to chucky06 on his outstanding A-League preview. You don’t want to miss it!

We cover all things A-League, Div 1, AIHL,  if you’re game enough to up against rubiton111 and his generous U18 bounty challenge, there’s some incentive there to be had. There’s not much going on in the national team of late so we’ve left that off the map for now until there’s newsworthy pieces.

Again, leaving this call out for anyone who’d like to contribute to our wonderful Zone, please just shoot me a message in my guestbook with anything you’d like to write. We welcome all of these contributions across the realm of MZ Australia.

Enjoy the read!
Damo11

https://gph.is/g/EJJQ9oE

 

Division 1 Season 70 Preview

by damo11

There’s not much to report on here as we’ve just seen a number of teams come and go throughout the offseason.

Div 1.1

Dropping down to div 1.1, Close family will have their work cut out for them as they try to get back up to the A-League. The Obscurials were the only team to gain promotion through playoffs, and thus the extra team comes into the league. Rounding out the new teams are a run of div 2 clubs including

Div 1.2

The biggest chopping and changing comes from the middle tier having half the clubs in the league switch divisions. Headed by  Brisbane Roar and Welford from the A-League, this will be one mighty tough competition to play in this season. Excelsior United, Scoffing Down United, Manilla and  Aussie Polo & Gents Club are the other clubs to come up from div 2.

Div 1.3

Just the standard four club changes in this comp as Ayreon regrettably drops down to div 1 again. Melbourne City, Ryde City FC, and Pina Colada FC are all promoted and will face a challenge from relegation survivors Redbacks FC, and HASSELHOFF BABES.

Love the article? Why not leave damo11 some love in this user’s guestbook and thank them for valuable review here in The Aussie Zone.

AIHL Season 62 Preview

by damo11

After a lacklustre season to compare to, most notbale teams are staying up with the exception of Kangaroo Crusaders who are replaced by kernal’s Ravensfield HC from div 1.3.

diesel-7’s Auckland Anvils survived their playoff relegation and will hopefully look to cement their position in the AIHL again with a relatively young squad.

Rounding out the newcomers are the division winners, Aussie Ice Tourist (div 1.1), Kalpowar (div1.2) and Tahmoor (div1.3)

There’s little doubt that The Jugular Vein will be at the top of the ladder again with sustained success still to come, so it’s really just a matter of filtering out the also-rans. I’m happy to be proven here wrong of course, but here’s my unguided predictions on the season and how it may play out.

1 The Jugular Vein
2 Finlandia HC
3 Dunedin Thunderbirds HC
4 Ice Aussies Pucks
5 Harry Cold
6 Polar Bear Club
7 Aussie Ice Tourist
8 Kalpowar
9 Caboonbah
10 Tahmoor
11 Auckland Anvils
12 Ravensfield HC

Love the article? Why not leave damo11 some love in this user’s guestbook and thank them for valuable review here in The Aussie Zone.

Welcome to Aussiezone 235!

Dear reader,

Welcome back for another edition of MZ Australian Zones. We’re doing our first end of season reviews in a long time so bear with us as we take an extra day or two to get things moving again.

As well as our regular contributions from myself and chucky06 covering all things A-League, Div 1, AIHL, all grades of National Cups, and National Teams, we’ve also got a couple of volunteer U18 pieces from rubiton111 in this edition.

Again, leaving this call out for anyone who’d like to contribute to our wonderful Zone, please just shoot me a message in my guestbook with anything you’d like to write. We welcome all of these contributions across the realm of MZ Australia.

Enjoy the read!
Damo11

https://gph.is/g/EJJQ9oE

 

The U21 Socceroos – Season 69 Confederations Cup – Round of 16 + Quarter Finals

by damo11

U21 Confederations Cup 2019

Australia – The Road to Victory

Filling in for grinner again this week (we want you back!), the Aussie U21 squad met expectations and then a little more by bowing out in the Quarter Finals of the U21 Confederations Cup.

Again, with no insight to the Aussie U21 Socceroos whatsoever, I can categorically say that after the group stages, it was always going to be tough for the country to compete against the big wigs.

A great Round of 16 matchup against MZ Country saw the side win 2-0 in what was a largely one-sided contest. The 4-4-2 formation worked well to provide 17 scoring shots on target, while retaining much of the possession. An early and a late goal to Neville Burmeister did the trick as the Aussies went to the Quarter Finals.

The Quarter Finals saw the Aussies face off against the Brazillians, in what was always going to be a tough matchup. Outclassed by a much larger country, there was little room for any continuity as they peppered in a 0-5 win thanks to 23 shots on target  to 5.

Pearce Hines went from 10th to 12th in the Golden Boot leaderboard after failing to score in the final two matches, however, Neville Burmeister would be equal 15th, had the tables allowed to show all equal scorers on 5 goals.

In the end the Brazillians went on to the final but fell short. To come up against the best along the way is no easy feat and the Aussies should be proud of their efforts.

The future is still bright for U21 Aussies as 20-year-olds Steve Panetta, Eliot Aroege, Brayden Orvad, Andrew Mckay, Aaron Argoud, Martyon Everett and Carmichael Bungaard are all eligible for U21 World Cup Qualifiers next season.

Love the article? Why not leave damo11 some love in this user’s guestbook and thank them for valuable review here in The Aussie Zone.

Division 1 Season 69 — End of season review

by damo11

A follow up to the mid-season review, the race for promotion has gotten even more exciting across the three Division 1 competitions.

DIV 1.1

It all came down the final round as the BES MUDI BANDITS decided to once again choke up and make their manager seat on the final game of the season. The Obscurials were hot on their heals with just the two points behind in the end, as the Bandits threw away a 2-0 game against Green Sheep in Round 21 to ensure there were no easy wins left. The only saving grace for the premiers was a 2-2 draw in the same round to the runner up as they now face Playoffs alongside Darwin Saville FC. Gunyah and Green Sheep can consider themselves unlucky not to be involved in the playoffs but should feature around the mark next season.

Bandits key striker Howie Hogan nailed the Golden Boot with 78 goals for the season, however, Amerigo Rossini from The Obscurials more than deserved the award in runner up thanks to 64 goals from just 11 matches.

DIV 1.2

Harry kept his Cool throughout the final stages of the season, even extending that 8-point buffer out to 10 points by the final round, but had a mishap in round 18 against Duffield United, losing 2-1. Catanzaro FC and Mount Pleasant held on with wins in the final round to take them to the playoffs, as Stone Eagles were forced to draw with the unlikely Selbourne (who managed only the one point in five rounds), giving them no chance of promotion after the result.

The Cool’s Wilson Santana snapped up Golden Boot easily with 63 goals from just 14 games – 17 goals ahead of the next best.

DIV 1.3

Collingwood kept their winning streak going into the final six matches to take the crown. Only Safety Squad proved a threat in the end as Warburn F.C fell away with losses in the last two rounds to cost them a spot in the playoffs on goal difference. The good news story is that Elite FC got the chocolates over them in Round 21 with a 1-2 victory that took them to third place by the last round. At the other end, Redbacks FC climbed out of automatic relegation and into playoffs with three wins from their final five games.

Collingwood’s Gualterio Avellaneda notched the Golden Boot with 70 majors, just 7 ahead of Rodney Lord from Safety Squad.

Six Div1 clubs now look to playoffs for a chance to get to the A-League, while another six try to cement their places inside Div1 for Season 70. You can follow all of those matches in the Div 1 Playoffs tab this offseason.

Love the article? Why not leave damo11 some love in this user’s guestbook and thank them for valuable review here in The Aussie Zone.

AIHL Season 51 — End of season review

by damo11

We follow up on last report of the mid-season review and look at Rounds 18-22  of the AIHL.

In the end it mattered little as The Jugular Vein capped off their perfect season to remain undefeated and win yet another AIHL title. Averaging about a 6-.5 scoreline a match, there was little competition for the 5-time premier as their consecutive streak of league wins shows no signs of slowing down.

Adding to that, the Top Scorer award was capped off with the top three all boasting Browne Tresise, Arneil Busst and Cod Reisz at 21, and 20 points apiece.

The challenge now lays with clubs such as Finlandia HC, Harry Cold, Polar Bear Club, Ice Aussies Pucks, and Dunedin Thunderbirds HC to change up their squads and show some fight to challenge for the title in the near-future.

Round 18 – 10-03-2019 11:15

Auckland Anvils	6 – 3	Pollywaffle
Harry Cold	5 – 0	Telita
Caboonbah	5 – 0	Black Mamba HC
Finlandia HC	2 – 0	Ice Aussies Pucks
Dunedin Thunderbirds HC	2 – 0	Kangaroo Crusaders
The Jugular Vein	8 – 0	Polar Bear Club

Round 19 – 13-03-2019 12:30

Telita	0 – 5	Caboonbah
Black Mamba HC	0 – 3	Finlandia HC
Ice Aussies Pucks	0 – 4	Dunedin Thunderbirds HC
Kangaroo Crusaders	1 – 12	The Jugular Vein
Polar Bear Club	1 – 0	Auckland Anvils
Pollywaffle	0 – 15	Harry Cold

Round 20 – 17-03-2019 18:30

Harry Cold	5 – 0	Polar Bear Club
Auckland Anvils	4 – 0	Kangaroo Crusaders
The Jugular Vein	9 – 0	Ice Aussies Pucks
Dunedin Thunderbirds HC	2 – 1	Black Mamba HC
Finlandia HC	5 – 0	Telita
Caboonbah	6 – 1	Pollywaffle

Round 21 – 20-03-2019 17:45

Polar Bear Club	3 – 1	Caboonbah
Pollywaffle	0 – 14	Finlandia HC
Telita	0 – 5	Dunedin Thunderbirds HC
Black Mamba HC	1 – 6	The Jugular Vein
Ice Aussies Pucks	1 – 3	Auckland Anvils
Kangaroo Crusaders	5 – 0	Harry Cold

Round 22 – 24-03-2019 16:00

Caboonbah	5 – 0	Kangaroo Crusaders
Finlandia HC	5 – 0	Polar Bear Club
Dunedin Thunderbirds HC	8 – 0	Pollywaffle
The Jugular Vein	5 – 0	Telita
Auckland Anvils	4 – 1	Black Mamba HC
Harry Cold	5 – 0	Ice Aussies Pucks

Love the article? Why not leave damo11 some love in this user’s guestbook and thank them for valuable review here in The Aussie Zone.

MZ FLASHBACKS — Part 1: How to manage your Hockey team

by damo11

Remember back in the day when there were screens like that? I’m talking 2003 here when a few of us first started playing MZ. Yes, we feel like fossils, but that’s what the theme is here for MZ Flashbacks. What we do is regurgitate content that you may have forgotten, sometimes relevant, sometimes effective in today’s game. Other times it’s just interesting to see where the game has gone.

In saying that, this article below is from Zone 222 with a guide on How to manage your Hockey team (part one).

That’s enough from me, so enjoy the nostalgia that comes with the read!

Welcome to Aussiezone 234!

Dear reader,

That’s right, we’re back! Two editions in two weeks! It’s not 957 days like the last one – it’s just 15 days instead.

A new era in MZ Australia has begun and we’re looking at sharing an article from chucky06 this week with a great look at the A-League over 10 seasons as our special feature.  We have a look at the race for promotion for the div 1 competitions, the finals across the U23/U18 national cups, and of course to round out the zine are a wrap of hockey, a flashback and a review of the A-league today.

I’ll keep this Editorial short, sharp and sweet, but again leave the callout for anyone who’d like to contribute, to please just shoot me a message in my guestbook with anything you’d like to write. We welcome all of these contributions across the realm of MZ Australia.

Enjoy the read!
Damo11

https://gph.is/g/EJJQ9oE

 

The U21 Socceroos – Season 69 Confederations Cup – Game 4 + Playoff Stages

by damo11

U21 Confederations Cup 2019

Australia – The Road to Victory

Filling in for grinner this week, I’ve got a classic one-match review to go here. With no insight to the Aussie U21 Socceroos whatsoever, I can categorically say that a 3-1 win over the U21 Panama side was a great relief for the nation as they took out an undefeated campaign and went to the top of Group 3 without too much drama.

https://gph.is/g/aergXqZ

Pearce Hines has gone into 10th place of the leading scorers for the U21 Confederations Cup 2019 tournament thanks to his 6 goals from all four games.

The final 16 sees Australia facing the traditional rival of U21 MZ Country, who ended up placing 2nd after three matches in Group 8.

You can follow the match here on Sudnday morning at 6am AEDT.

Love the article? Why not leave damo11 some love in this user’s guestbook and thank them for valuable review here in The Aussie Zone.