Who are the potential candidates to replace or challenge Richard Murray?Leading Footballsouth Premier League coaches are Tim Horner and Andy Duncan at Caversham, Mike Fridge and Tony Martin at Dunedin Technical, and Colin Thom at Roslyn-Wakari.
Then there are University's Luiz Uehara, Green Island newcomer Craig Doble, Grants Braes' Alan Laidler, Northern's Murray Devereux, Queenstown's Steve Henderson and Mosgiel's Mike McGarry. Invercargill Old Boys has Ignacio Sande, and Neil Mackenzie runs the Milk Cup project.
Possibly, this group has remained static in recent years, due to the lack of senior coaching courses in Dunedin, and the interchange of ideas that such courses encourage.
It is understood there are some other coaches interested from outside New Zealand, such as Argentinian Roberto Rodrigas, who played and coached in South America, and had spells in Barbados and Jamaica. He has expressed interest in the United job.
But for the most part, local interest is focused on local football this weekend, with FPL matches today and the opening round of women's football tomorrow.
University leads the league after a resounding 5-2 win over Queenstown. Rupert Mark (two), Jeremy Fong, Josh Jones and the reliable Peter Rae scored for the students, while star futsal striker Carlos Herrman and Tobias Alcacer scored for Queenstown.
Today, University plays Mosgiel at Memorial Park, and the Plainsmen will be keen to get their season back on track after losing 4-1 to Roslyn-Wakari.
If Mike McGarry returns, on his home ground, Mosgiel is capable of securing a win, especially if Regan Coldicott shows true form and Steve Cromb repeats last week's scoring form.
Dunedin Technical and Roslyn-Wakari meet in the main game at the Caledonian Ground.
Colin Thom, the Roslyn coach, has freshened his squad. Midfielder Cam Attwood looks a strong acquisition, while the new Brazilians are still settling in.
Guiherme Melo and Danniel Becheri looked useful additions, with Melo holding a master class in deceptive ball skills, but it was utility strikers Fraser Cameron and Damian Foster who lit Roslyn's fuse last week.
Dunedin Technical is missing ace striker Aaron Burgess, but Fridge still has a strong team that features the dash of French midfielder Victor da Costa and big defenders such as Matt Joy and Liam Lockhart.
Caversham's 3-0 win over Old Boys sent notice that new coach Horner has serious aspirations with his mobile young squad.
Horner was less than happy with his team's play last week, yet there were some near-vintage marauding Cavvy attacks, featuring pace and penetration, which has been the club's mantra in recent seasons.
In the early match at the Caledonian, Northern will have to dig deep against the red machine, and coach Murray Devereux needs maximum effort from his seasoned players, the Wilkinson brothers, Arran and Craig, plus defender Jeff Satterthwaite.
Green Island looked dominant in its 2-0 win over Northern, and there will be great interest in its bid to win in Queenstown.
There was no Joel Stevens or Scott Gannon against Northern, but the energy of striker Taylor McCormack and Nathan Gunn will be hard for Rovers to contain.
Grants Braes always faces an uphill struggle to get started, and after a first-round loss to Technical, faces the prospect of an away trip to play Old Boys. The Invercargill side will miss goalkeeper and captain Chris Marsh, who was red-carded last week.
