Since several players from last year's team are not available, it looks as if the majority of Southern's senior and youth squads will be be selected from local teams.
Heading north and unavailable are striker Tom Jackson, midfielder Eder Franchini, defender Cam Attwood, striker Taylor McCormack, keeper Liam Little and midfielder Victor da Costa.
In fact, Scoullar's youth side, which starts before the senior competition, has already started training and had a series of selection trials. The final trial will be next week at Tahuna.
The senior ASB Premiership started last year on October 25. Pre-season matches were played in Invercargill and also in Timaru, against Canterbury United.
Also in preparation is the women's national league side under coach Hayley Stirling, which started its competition against the Northern Region in early October last season.
Today, Football South premier matches feature Dunedin Technical against Northern at Tahuna Park, and University plays Mosgiel at Logan Park at 2.45 pm.
The matches will decide whether University or Northern gets the wooden spoon as the FPL's bottom side.
An auspicious curtain-raiser, however, will be the Chinese Charity Cup match between Caversham and Dunedin Technical, which may have potential players especially for the youth side. The game is scheduled for 12.45pm at the Caledonian Ground, or Tahuna, depending on ground conditions.
First contested in 1924, the extremely valuable silver trophy has a high profile in Otago and is played for by the top two teams in the Fletcher Cup competition.
The Cup was won last year by Caversham, but has an engraved recent history of 2003 Roslyn Wakari, 2004 Roslyn Wakari, 2005 Roslyn Wakari, 2006 University, 2007 Roslyn Wakari, 2008 Roslyn Wakari, 2009 Roslyn Wakari, 2010 Roslyn Wakari, 2011 Dunedin Tech, 2012 Dunedin Tech, and 2013 Mosgiel AFC.
