The 2017 PS4 NPL Tasmania season is finally upon us and it promises to be one of the competitions most interesting years yet. A raft of new players and coaches are set to add intrigue to a competition that was hardly short of it already. Six new coaches will be in charge of sides and some of those sides will be almost unrecognisable from their 2016 versions. The familiar stars of the Tasmanian game will be back in action, a host of young prospects are ready to become household names and the usual litany of International recruits have now flown into town. The stage is set, the battle for Tasmanian footballing supremacy is set to commence. Let’s take a look at all eight of the competing teams, in reverse ladder order from last season to try gauge what to expect from them in 2017.

Northern Rangers are looking to bounce back after a disastrous 2016 season that saw them finish in last place. The man charged with guiding them back up the table is the former coach of their cross town rivals, Lino Sciulli. Sciulli has teamed up with former Rangers head coach, Dane Hudson to try and get the club back on their feet. Having star midfielder and Captain, Nick Lanau-Atkinson back in the fold, after missing the second half of the season through injury will be a massive help, as will the arrival of some new players, including highly regarded attacker Dylan Rodriguez. Fixing up a leaking defence that conceded a league high 75 goals will be Sciulli’s biggest task and an area his side must improve in. To help address that they have added in American goalkeeper John Connolly. The Maryland stopper has played semi professionally in United States and could prove a major difference maker in net for his side, just as Giantsopoulos, Wright and Grace have as imports their respective sides in recent seasons. After registering just the one win last season, this year will be about steady improvement for Rangers and trying to get back on track ahead of the promotion/relegation seasons on the horizon.

Some what remarkably Clarence coach Alan Jablonski is now the second longest serving gaffer in the league and he will be looking to continue to develop his side after their debut year in 2016 saw them finishing in seventh place. Adding in a pair of star signings in Jamaican/Canadian Centre back Odaine Demar and South Hobart’s Matthew Lewis, who appears set for a midfield role at the club should help produce that improvement.Having striker Paul Bremner available all season should also be a major factor in helping them push themselves further up the table, he is a player who provided a focal point up front that was sorely lacking when he couldn’t play. Clarence struggled against the contenders last year and will be looking to close the gap to those top sides as they continue to adjust to the tougher competition in the top division but if Nick Naden can continue to develop, then they will have a genuine star of the competition on their hands and a player who could help propel the boys from Wentworth Park up into mid table this time around.

Then there is the Kingborough Lions. In terms of the great mysteries you have the Bermuda triangle, Harold Holt’s disappearance and what to expect from the Lions in 2017. New manager Gabriel Markaj has signed some 9 interstate players which will lead to an entirely new starting lineup filled with unknown quantities. The young coach has instituted a heavy training schedule since he took the job last year which he believes will have his side firmly in contention this year. Having kept his powder dry in the Summer Series and not played all of his new players together, the Lions loom as the great unknown heading into the season. They could be absolutely anything. One thing we do know for sure, is that he has a star in Benjamin “Benny” Kovadio, who looks like an electrifying frontman poised to terrorise defences. If his other signings have as much talent as he does, then the Lions could well loom as the dark horses of 2017.

After finishing in fifth place last year, Launceston City are looking to break the top four this year under the leadership of Ben Brookfield. It has been a busy off season for the club including the signing of a new three-year deal to rebrand its Prospect home ground, Buckby Land Rover Park, who have joined the club as a major sponsor. They aren’t the only new additions to the club, with a pair of Dylan’s, Williams and O’Connor arriving as international import players who appear primed to make an immediate impact. Brookfield inherited a team that struggled to score goals last year but through the pre-season they played with an attacking intent that saw them score nearly as many goals as they managed all of last season. He will be looking to keep that attacking style of game going to help his side compete with the major contenders over the course of 2017.

Once again the Olympia Warriors will enter the season with no shortage of hype surrounding them and significant expectations. This follows a busy off season which included a raft of big signings. The list of new players include Czech striker Jakub Sklenar, Shane Cartwright, Lucas Hill, Sam Conway, Paul Stevens, Alfred Hess and Jakob Cole. Add that to the quality players already at the club and you have a recipe for title favouritism under the management of new coach Ian Shaw. However twelve months ago the Warriors entered the season as defending champions with a similar hype, only to crash back down to fourth, so no one at Warrior Park will be counting their chickens just yet. Games aren’t won on paper, they are won out on the pitch and whilst the Warriors starting line up looks imposing, that means nothing if they don’t have team chemistry. A title challenge will be the expectation and they have the cattle to do it, but can they avoid the pit falls that derailed them in 2016?

South Hobart scored a remarkable 87 goals last season and had a goal difference of +66 and yet their inability to find a way past the Devonport defence proved their downfall. Two years removed from his side’s last title, boss Ken Morton will be eager to reclaim a league title that South Hobart had previously won on a consistent basis. The veteran coach has signed shrewdly, adding in Graham Wright, Adam Gorrie, Jacob Leaman and Eduardo Castaneda to help bolster his side for a title challenge. South were one of the youngest squads in the league in 2016 and they will be expected to take further steps in 2017 as that young core continues to develop and mature. Overcoming an injury to star striker Alex Leszczynski, who will miss the early part of the season with a broken leg looms as Morton’s biggest challenge with a fully fit Ben Hamlett and promising young striker Pajari Sculthorpe looming as the 2 who will need to step up in his absence.

Then there is last year’s runner up in Hobart Zebras who are also under new management, with former Devonport Coach, Peter Savill taking the reins and immediately picking up where he left off by winning the NPL Summer Series. Savill appears to be adopting a similar approach as he did last season, both stylistically and personnel wise with Zebras using their international slots to sure up the back line. They signed Imran Lewis, Nicholas Groenwald as centre backs and Marcelo Mercuri to play goals. With set piece maestro Chris Downes and a man who scores for fun in Matthew Sanders also joining, (which frees up Luke Huigsloot to play midfield where he can influence the play more) he has a squad at his disposal that has the talent to once again push for the title. Depth is the only real question mark over this side, last year they hung tough in the title race but were derailed by a large number of injuries and that squad had more depth than this one. So if the the injuries hit again this year, they might once again fall just short.

Finally the defending champions, the Devonport Strikers. This will be a new look side with only Brayden Mann and Dom Smith left from last years team poised to be regular starters this time around. New coach Chris Gallo is getting rave reviews from those in the know around the coast and in the pre season action he certainly had his chargers playing a lovely style of game with good structure and quick ball movement. The Strikers stunned the league with their performances and subsequent FFA Cup heroics in 2016 yet it would be even more of a shock if they were to repeat the act in 2017, with the bulk of Gallo’s side set to be youngsters. This might be a year where the Strikers take two steps back and one step forward with the development put into the kids set to reward the club for years to come. A repeat title seems unlikely, but they have some prodigiously talented youngsters and with a trio of new international imports, Matt Zaikos, Raph Reynolds and Tyler Fischer they can’t be discounted. With Brayden Mann and Michael Holden playing together up top, if the youngsters do come in and exceed expectations then the Strikers might yet stun the footballing world once more.

So who will reign supreme in 2017? A difficult thing to predict, after all, who would have predicted this time last year that the Devonport Strikers would post a 19-1-1 record on route to a League/Cup double? Sure there was some hype around them, they were nearly everyone’s dark horse, but the domination they produced blindsided almost everyone. It goes to show how fruitless forecasting is at this time of year. So with that said, South Hobart to claim the league title, Peter Savill to bring silverware to Zebras at last by winning the Laka Cup and Nick Mearns to claim the Mitsubishi Medal. I apologise to everyone I just named as that is almost certainly the kiss of death. The one thing that I can say for certain, this is going to be an entertaining year of football!