Big Rivalries On Display In Round 13

The NPL action resumes this weekend with four games after a weekend off for the Cup Semi Finals, amongst them are some good rivalry games that are sure to give the players that little bit extra to play for. It starts on Friday night where the Glenorchy Knights will take on Clarence at KGV, with the game now kicking off at 7:15pm, an hour earlier than originally scheduled. Last time they met, the Knights dominated the game by rattling off some 27 shots to 2 en route to a comfortable 5-0 win that probably should have been by more. Certainly Clarence have improved since that clash back in March, but they will still enter this one as significant underdogs. Ganga Mangar is the latest recruit to join the Reds, just in time too, with the local transfer window now slamming shut overnight. They have done a good job bringing new players in after their horror start to the year but the departure of the talented, but oft injured Odaine Demar does sting. Knights will be lacking some of their usual firepower with Matt Nowicki and Declan Brown set to miss due to an accumulation of yellow cards, but that might pave the way for a first start for the recently acquired Alex Leszczynski. He would be a like for like replacement for Nowicki and against a team that has leaked goals, could be a good confidence booster for him. On Saturday, the second Launceston Derby of the NPL Tasmania season will see Riverside Olympic welcoming Launceston City to Windsor Park, with City keen to exact some revenge on their neighbours after last time around. Riverside claimed the first edition of the Derby on enemy soil back in March, when Rhys Kinslow fired home a late winner to claim a 2-1 victory, which was the Roos first victory since returning to the top flight of Tasmanian Football. Both sides had last weekend off due to the Cup Semi Finals giving the players a break to rest up, but that break has become an eternity for Launceston City who have now not played for four weeks, having fallen out of the cup at an earlier stage and also had their NPL bye in between Cup rounds. The last time they took the pitch they recorded a convincing 4-0 win over Kingborough, so the period without a fixture has cost them a chance to try and build some momentum. They will welcome back Noah Mies who returns after a short stint in Melbourne to fill that period of no games, so he should be sharp and as always, he looms as the key to their victory hopes. Riverside conversely are coming off a defeat in the league, having fallen 4-2 to Glenorchy Knights in their last league fixture. They finished strong in the final 15 minutes of that game, bagging both goals so they will need to look to pick up where they left off in that match. Their coach Alex Gaetaini has stressed the importance of buidling this rivalry up, so expect a fired up Roos side, just as we saw back in March. [caption id="attachment_11624" align="alignnone" width="547"] Noah Mies will return for City- Jamie Richardson[/caption] Elsewhere on the Saturday, the Kingborough Lions host the Devonport Strikers in a rematch of their recent Lakoseljac Cup Quarter Final. It will be a tough first up test for Jez Kenth, who was appointed to the top job earlier this week. Kenth has an impressive managerial record but he won't have had any time to implement much in the way of a new style. This season will largely be about assessing who is in his plans for next season, and performing against the top side in the league is a good way for the Lions players to make a positive early impression in that regard. A win would leave the Strikers a massive eight points clear on top of the table, as Rick Coghlan has been keen to highlight, but they will want to avoid the sluggish start they produced in the quarter final. A more clinical side may well have bounced them from the Cup on that day, and they can't afford to rest on their laurels. The Strikers haven't been turning in their best performances over the past month, but the crucial thing is that they are still managing to grind out results. That is the mark of a champion team and whilst there would obviously some concern, if you are winning games when you aren't playing well, it does bode well for when you do snap back into form. [caption id="attachment_11623" align="alignnone" width="611"] The Lions nearly toppled the Strikers in the Cup- Solstice Photography[/caption] Finally on the Sunday a big game at Warrior Park as the Olympia Warriors look to bounce back from their disastrous cup Semi Final when they host their traditional rivals the Hobart Zebras. It's now the league or bust for the Warriors and they can ill afford to drop points at home to fall further behind the Strikers. The Warriors have played good football on Warrior Park this season, and with a 8 of their final 13 games still to be played at the venue, if they can maintain that form and make it a real fortress then they have the chance to come home with a wet sail down the stretch. That starts this weekend against a Zebras side for whom three point are probably even more important. They simply cannot afford to fall further behind their title rivals by dropping points, and a loss would mean the epitaph on their title charge can probably start getting engraved.