No rest for the wicked (guest post by Manny)

Thanks to Manny of the now in hiatus Blue and White Views for this clear and concise overview of the upcoming fixturing challenge facing South Melbourne in 2026. 

Also, Manny - please upload the Australian Championship fanzine you produced to your website.


Fresh from our Australian Championship title it seems the true insanity is about to begin. This week the NPL Victoria released its fixture for the 2026 season, finally allowing South fans to understand what the club's 2026 season may look like as the OFC Professional League fixtures have also been announced. Well… here are the numbers…

 

South will play at least 43 games in 2026 across the two competitions from the 18th of January to the 29th of August. The final tally may be more though. Including Dockerty Cup games (6) Australia Cup Games (5) and Australian Championship games (9), NPL Finals (3) and OFC Pro League Finals (2) the club could play a total of 68 competitive games next year. I genuinely don't think there are any other clubs in the football world eligible for so many games… maybe teams in the English Championship if they make a run in all comps and some out qualify for Europe? Maybe?

 

But here's where it gets crazier. South is currently scheduled to play in at least five countries next year - and the Australian leg of the OFC Professional League might not even be in Melbourne! That's right, due to a clash with the F1, the Australian Games of the OFC Professional League may be played elsewhere. With these games scheduled to be played in late February, we have just over two months to confirm the venue!

 

The other big question mark for fans was how the team will manage the overlapping competitions, with the OFC Professional League running from January to May and the NPL running from February to August. Well, I've analysed the fixture list to identify overlapping fixtures. I've prioritised OFC Professional League games and marked fixtures as 'disrupted' if they don't allow for three days' rest either side of match day. Using this method, I've identified at least nine disrupted fixtures in the NPL Victoria season with five early season fixtures theoretically contestable by the same squad we use in the OFC Professional League. 12 NPL Victoria games are fixtures for after the OFC Professional League concludes. Note, this analysis does not include the early rounds of the Dockerty Cup which may overlap.

 

Considering the high number of games we need more players. We also probably need another head coach. I don't really see a way around the fact that South will need to manage two separate senior squads. One to play in the Australian Championship and OFC Professional League, and one to play in the NPL Victoria. This will allow the 'summer' squad to play at least 23 games a year, and the 'winter' squad to play at least 26 games a year. But there are issues with even this simplified approach.

 

Firstly, our guaranteed place in the Australian Championship is far from a long-term guarantee. Secondly, even NPL football alone is becoming a 12-month operation, and the additional competition hinders our ability to construct and prepare a cohesive squad. Third, what the heck are fans meant to make of this? Even in the case we play our strongest squad in the back end of the season of the NPL, how are we meant to support the club? We can't go to most (if any) of the OFC Professional League games locally and we won't know if we're watching the reserves in the NPL. There's also the real issue of squad registration rules. If we have limits on squad sizes in either competition we will be forced to manage siloed squads. What does that do for team unity?

 

Pointing out issues is one thing though… based on the initial assessments what would I propose? Well, I've going to simplify the registration issue and assume we need 20 players in the OFC Pro League and 20 Players in the NPL. I think we need to try and manage one single squad of 30 players. 10 will be OFC exclusive (tier 2 players), 10 will be NPL exclusive (tier 2 players) and 10 will play both competition (tier 1 players).

 

A single head coach should run the program and be responsible for the OFC Pro League and part 2 of the NPL season. An assistant coach should be responsible for part 1 of the NPL season. The goals for the year should be to win the OFC Pro League and a finals spot in the NPL - at least for this year. If the OFC Pro League turns out to be a flop, in that it is a lower level of football than NPL Victoria, then in future editions we should fill our OFC Pro League squad with Youth players.

 

I don't know, I'm sure it'll be fun but after this exhausting season a January start, overlapping competitions and potentially 60+ games seems like a headache.

 

League	Round	Date	Team	City	Country
OFCPL	Circuit 1	18-Jan-26	Tahiti United	Auckland	New Zealand
OFCPL	Circuit 1	21-Jan-26	Solomon Kings	Auckland	New Zealand
OFCPL	Circuit 1	24-Jan-26	PNG Hekari	Auckland	New Zealand
OFCPL	Circuit 2	1-Feb-26	South Island United	Port Moresby	PNG
OFCPL	Circuit 2	4-Feb-26	Bula FC	Port Moresby	PNG
OFCPL	Circuit 2	8-Feb-26	Vanuatu United	Port Moresby	PNG
NPL VIC	Round 1	14-Feb-26	Avondale	Melbourne	Australia
NPL VIC	Round 2	19-Feb-26	Hume City	Melbourne	Australia
OFCPL	Circuit 3	21-Feb-26	Auckland FC Youth	TBA	Australia
OFCPL	Circuit 3	24-Feb-26	Tahiti United	TBA	Australia
OFCPL	Circuit 3	27-Feb-26	South Island United	TBA	Australia
NPL VIC	Round 3	28-Feb-26	Altona Magic	Melbourne	Australia
NPL VIC	Round 4	7-Mar-26	Bentleigh Greens	Melbourne	Australia
NPL VIC	Round 5	13-Mar-26	Green Gully	Melbourne	Australia
OFCPL	Circuit 4	15-Mar-26	Vanuatu United	Honiara	Solomon Islands
OFCPL	Circuit 4	19-Mar-26	Solomon Kings	Honiara	Solomon Islands
NPL VIC	Round 6	21-Mar-26	Dandenong Thunder	Melbourne	Australia
NPL VIC	Round 7	30-Mar-26	Dandenong City	Melbourne	Australia
NPL VIC	Round 8	11-Apr-26	Preston Lions	Melbourne	Australia
OFCPL	Circuit 5	12-Apr-26	Auckland FC Youth	Ba & Suva	Fiji
OFCPL	Circuit 5	15-Apr-26	Bula FC	Ba & Suva	Fiji
OFCPL	Circuit 5	18-Apr-26	PNG Hekari	Ba & Suva	Fiji
NPL VIC	Round 9	19-Apr-26	Oakleigh Cannons	Melbourne	Australia
NPL VIC	Round 10	24-Apr-26	St Albans Dinamo	Melbourne	Australia
NPL VIC	Round 11	1-May-26	Melbourne City	Melbourne	Australia
OFCPL	Playoff Stage*	6-May-26	TBA	Auckland	New Zealand
NPL VIC	Round 12	8-May-26	Heidelberg United	Melbourne	Australia
OFCPL	Playoff Stage*	10-May-26	TBA	Auckland	New Zealand
OFCPL	Playoff Stage*	13-May-26	TBA	Auckland	New Zealand
NPL VIC	Round 13	18-May-26	Caroline Springs George Cross	Melbourne	Australia
OFCPL	Semi-Final*	19-May-26	TBA	Auckland*	New Zealand*
OFCPL	Final*	24-May-26	TBA	Auckland*	New Zealand*
NPL VIC	Round 14	25-May-26	Avondale	Melbourne	Australia
NPL VIC	Round 15	30-May-26	Hume City	Melbourne	Australia
NPL VIC	Round 16	7-Jun-26	Altona Magic	Melbourne	Australia
NPL VIC	Round 17	19-Jun-26	Bentleigh Greens	Melbourne	Australia
NPL VIC	Round 18	28-Jun-26	Green Gully	Melbourne	Australia
NPL VIC	Round 19	5-Jul-26	Dandenong Thunder	Melbourne	Australia
NPL VIC	Round 20	10-Jul-26	Dandenong City	Melbourne	Australia
NPL VIC	Round 21	19-Jul-26	Preston Lions	Melbourne	Australia
NPL VIC	Round 22	24-Jul-26	Oakleigh Cannons	Melbourne	Australia
NPL VIC	Round 23	2-Aug-26	St Albans Dinamo	Melbourne	Australia
NPL VIC	Round 24	15-Aug-26	Melbourne City	Melbourne	Australia
NPL VIC	Round 25	23-Aug-26	Heidelberg United	Melbourne	Australia
NPL VIC	Round 26	29-Aug-26	Caroline Springs George Cross	Melbourne	Australia