Note that there have been some enforced changes to the fixtures.

For round six on 12 December, both the Barca Bay and Red Rockers fixtures have been postponed. The Originals will instead play Black Magic - their postponed fixture from round four.

Rounds nine and ten have been swapped. This is due to the Island Bay United extended first team camp rendering most of the teams in the Gold division unavailable for week ten. The planned inter-divisional fixtures originally scheduled for week ten will now take place in week nine instead. The final week of league round-robin play will therefore consist solely of Black division fixtures and all Gold division teams will go into the playoffs using their standings as at the end of the (new) week nine fixtures.

The draw for the Semi Final of Coolmoves Shield Knockout Cup took place this morning.

South Coast Kinas will play Rongotai at 5:45pm
Black Magic will play Bay Athletic at 7:15pm

Note that the semi finals have been delayed a week and will take place on 30 November. Games will be contested over 70 minutes, with penalties if teams are level at the end of normal time.

Even with the last set of changes for the first round of the Coolmoves Shield Knockout Cup, some teams were struggling to collate match squads.

Hence, the match between Barca Bay and South Coast Kinas will now be brought forward to 11am. The other fixtures remain as before, at 12:15pm and 1:30pm.

Due to this change, games will now revert to 70 minutes duration, before going to penalties.

The first round of the Coolmoves Shield Knockout Cup has been forced to undergo more changes.

Games will now be played over 60 minutes, before going to penalties.

Part of the necessity for this change is the inability of some team players to be ready in time for the scheduled kick-off. Please note that if this continues, we will kick-off with your team being down a man - even if it is your goalkeeper.

In addition, the match between AndyCapped and Rongotai has been moved to 2pm Sunday by mutual agreement.
 

After due consideration, the office of the Commissioner released the final details of the First Round of the Coolmoves Shield Knockout Cup yesterday.

In order to allow both time for any necessary penalty shoot-outs and for people to get away in a timely fashion for the All Whites match, games will be played over 70 minutes. Should a game end with level scores, a penalty shoot-out will be held using the usual approach i.e. five penalties per team, with sudden death penalties if required.

The kick-off times for each match will be:

12:15pm Bay Athletic v Red Rockers
1:30pm Black Magic v The Originals
2:45pm South Coast Kinas v Barca Bay
4:00pm AndyCapped v Rongotai
 

On Saturday, as the first week's games were played, the draw for the first round of the new-look Coolmoves Shield took place. This season, the Shield is being contested as a separate knock-out trophy to run parallel with the league.

Overseeing the draw was commissioner Peter Lye, with webmaster/statto Michael Wray and logistics coordinator Colin Reidy witnessing proceedings to ensure everything was conducted above board. Summer League photographer Sharon Wray was asked to draw the teams.

The matches will take place on Saturday 14th November. The provisional kick-off times have been assigned in accordance to the order in which the ties were generated, but the Commissioner will confirm the official kick-off times in due course. Please note it is quite possible for the games to be run in a different sequence.

12:15pm Black Magic v The Originals
1:45pm South Coast Kinas v Barca Bay
3:15pm AndyCapped v Rongotai
4:45pm Bay Athletic v Red Rockers

Summer League veteran Paul Muollo has been honoured by Stuff in their Hand of God blog.

Greatness is subjective, I'll concede that. Wynton Rufer was probably a great player, Ryan Nelsen might be.

But, if greatness has anything to do with commitment and contribution to the game at the grassroots level, loyalty, on-field attitude and, in particular, resilience and staying power, then Paul Muollo is my nomination as New Zealand's greatest club footballer.

Left back and skipper of Island Bay AFC's premier football side (not to forget club President), Paul is less than two seasons from an astonishing milestone - 450 competitive first team games appearances for his club. That is legendary.

Let's be clear. We are not counting friendlies or pre-season matches. We are just talking about league and Chatham Cup fixtures. Again, legendary. Right now, his official tally stands at 414 - 375 league and 39 cup matches.

If you unpick those numbers they are even more remarkable. Assuming Island Bay's premier side plays roughly 20-22 league and cup matches every year (I think they played 20 this year), then to reach 414, Paul, who is 39, has had to play virtually every game for 20 years - without serious injury, without ever changing club, without heading overseas, without getting dropped, without losing interest or running out of time. That simply DOES NOT HAPPEN these days.

If you're familiar with Island Bay's home ground, Wakefield Park, you'll understand that 414 matches is even more heroic (not to mention about 800 cold and miserable trainings on Wakefield No 4). Let's say its not always conducive to the most glorious football - and just damn nasty in a southerly. I recommend - as an act of mercy - everybody gets behind Island Bay AFC's campaign to have the park redeveloped.

Now a quick football bio ...

Paul made his senior debut for "the Sharks" in a glamour fixture away to Moturoa in New Plymouth (the club's website is under construction but it does have a Facebook page - of course). He is still grateful to Kev Romijn, Tony Volcipelli and John Barton for taking him out drinking the night before the game.

Amongst career highlights Paul lists winning Central League Division 1 in 1997 (a season he landed 11 goals) and beating Western Suburbs by golden goal (remember those) to reach the Chatham Cup quarter finals in 2003 (I remember they lost the quarter final at home to Central United in one of Wakefield's most dreadful southerlies because - tragically - I was there).

Paul is pictured below (on the left) holding the Aldo Cuccurollo Memorial Trophy. Like a number of Wellington football clubs, Island Bay AFC has strong contintental European heritage, in the Sharks' case, Italian. The club still has an Italian flavour and Muollo is just one example.

Paul is also one of the good guys. There are a lot of head cases and egos running around football pitches. Not Paul. No bulls**t, no attitude. He just gets on with it. We need more of that.

Testimony to his great approach to the game is the incredible fact that, depsite playing most of his career at the back, he has picked up only a couple of yellow card (one of them a travesty of justice he tells me) and NOT A SINGLE RED CARD in 414 matches. Not one red card ... ever!

I'll confidently state there is nobody of Paul's generation anywhere in New Zealand, let alone Wellington, that has played as many first team matches for a single club.I want to know if I'm wrong. In fact, it's possible nobody of any generation can better his mark.

And 414 is a moving target. Paul assures me he will be at the Sharks pre-season training come January and looking to lock down that starting left back spot for the 21st season in a row.

Finally, staying loosely on the subject of local football, the New Zealand Football Championship (NZFC) kicks off this weekend. You can catch some of Wellington's most talented club footballers, a couple of All Whites (Andy Barron and James Bannatyne) plus a host of others with junior and senior international credentials take the park for Team Wellington against Manawatu 2pm this Sunday at Newtown Park.

Sam Buckle is a New Zealand football fan, pundit and founding member of www.yellowfever.co.nz

Preliminary details of the 2009/10 season have been released today.

For the first time, the Summer League will split into two divisions. The top two teams for each division will go into the Semi Finals for the Jessett Cup.

The Gold Division will consist of:

• Black Magic

• Barca Bay

• Bay Athletic

• South Coast Kinas

The Black Division will consist of:

• AndyCapped

• Red Rockers

• Rongotai

• The Originals

Teams will meet their divisional rivals twice and the teams in the opposing division once during the course of the season.

The Coolmoves Shield is also revamped. For 2009/10 it will be awarded to the winners of a knock-out competition. Cup rounds will be scheduled to fall between league rounds, with some midweek games required.