Devonport cemented their domination of Tasmanian women’s football by completing a third consecutive McDonald's Women's Super League and cup double.
Back-to-back 9-0 wins earned Strikers an unassailable lead with three rounds remaining and completed a three-year league record of 51 wins, two draws and just one defeat.
Bottom-placed Riverside had no answer to Tom Ballantyne’s merciless marauders and would have been more heavily beaten but for their American keeper Monica Hernandez.
For the third time this season Jaz White claimed a hat-trick against Olympic with co-captain Lucy Foote adding a brace and Grace Sims, Madeline Payne, Abbie White and Asuka Doi completing the scoring.
The Glenorchy juggernaut rolled on towards second place with a seventh-straight win at third-placed South Hobart.
Eve Swan and Jemima Brown scored the goals in Sunday’s 2-0 victory.
Launceston United avenged their round-11 5-0 loss at Launceston City with a 7-0 victory on the same ground.
Laura Fulton bagged a couple with Lucy Smith, Maya Mitchell, Willow Avens and Olivia De Moraes also on the scoresheet before US import Liz Fogarty wrapped up proceedings with a long-range strike and kangaroo-hop celebration.
Taroona’s resurgence continued with a rollercoaster 3-2 defeat of Kingborough.
The Pirates stormed ahead with a Casey Bumford own goal and Zoe Maynard backheel. Lions hit back through excellent goals from Hannah Walsh and Hannah Blackman before Emily Funseth poached the winner.
The opening week of the McDonald's NPL Tasmania finals series produced huge drama in both games.
A 2-1 defeat of Kingborough in the Qualifying Final saw Devonport advance to a Semi-Final against champions South Hobart.
Concluding a perfect day for dual coach Ballantyne, Strikers took the lead through Josh Tollervey’s 23rd goal in all competitions.
An own goal from Eli Luttmer doubled Devonport’s advantage on the stroke of half-time but the Lions captain made amends at the right end midway through the second half to set up a nail-biting finish for the Valley Road faithful.
Launceston City and Clarence produced an action-packed 1-1 draw after extra-time in the Elimination Final before City edged the penalty shootout 5-3.
An excellent advert for the post-season finals series saw Maxx Rawlings open the scoring immediately after the break but Ryan Lynch rifled home Zebras’ equaliser with six minutes of normal time remaining.
Extra-time looked like ending goalless until a dramatic climax in which City’s Will Humphrey had a penalty saved by Josh Jones then scored direct from the resulting corner only to see it ruled out for a foul on the keeper.
Humphrey, Rawlings, Charles Reynolds, Max Reissig and Ben Berlese converted City’s penalties with Lynch, Sam Tooze and Keenan Douce doing the same for Zebras. Lachie Clark’s save from Michael Hatcher proved the match-winning moment and earned City a Semi-Final at Kingborough.