Two of Tasmania’s well-established women’s teams are hoping to celebrate Female Football Week by continuing recent revivals.
Launceston United and Taroona head into their McDonald’s Women’s Super League clash in fifth and seventh places respectively but on a high following some encouraging results.
Having lost their opening two matches, United have banged in 42 goals in their last five with the only blemish being a narrow loss to all-conquering defending champions Devonport.
A Dani Gunton hat-trick, brace for Brazilian striker Olivia De Moraes and singles for Liz Fogarty and veteran captain Katie Hill earned a 7-0 win over neighbours Launceston City on Wednesday and US import Fogarty is loving a form reversal which coincided with a welcome run of home matches.
“We’ve now got our feet in the water a bit,” said the centre-back from Florida.
“We’ve got a bit of a young squad and bringing in two to three imports introduces new characters to the plot and I think that took some time to gel.
“Players are learning from each other and once you find a bit of that spark you want it again. That’s what we’ve found and 42 goals? That’s ridiculous, but it’s been a lot of fun and I’ve had to do a lot of sprints from the backline to go up for all these goal celebrations!”
Meanwhile, Taroona scored just once as they lost their opening six matches but kickstarted their season into life last weekend with a 5-1 win over fellow strugglers Riverside Olympic with goals from Lara Scholz (two), Madi James, Olivia Bekeleski and Alice Riley.
“I think we've finally started building some momentum and results,” said James, who plays up front for Jason Hay’s side.
“We always have a good time up at United, so it'll be a good test for us to see how our momentum's been building, how we've finally gelled as a team and where we really are at now.”
Both players said Female Football Week, which runs from May 8-17, was valuable for keeping their sport in the spotlight.
Fogarty said she had benefitted from a US program called Soul Sisters which partnered newcomers with senior players.
“It was so cool to watch them play at the next level, and some of those players have turned pro so I'm like ‘I can't believe I knew her!’ So I think that Female Football Week allows us to have that within the club and our communities.
“We have this opportunity to put emphasis on that, share love, and give girls the opportunity to see themselves in the future if they have a passion for it.”
James added: “Taroona manages to gel all their programs really well (and) Female Football Week is really great to endorse all our volunteers and all our coaches and it's just great for the community to be doing that across the whole football scene.”
In the men’s competition, Devonport and Glenorchy are preparing for League and Cup encounters which could go a significant way to defining their seasons.
The teams are scheduled to meet twice at Valley Road with Saturday’s round-eight McDonald's NPL Tasmania clash to be followed a week later by a Lakoseljac Cup semi-final.
Strikers won back-to-back League and Cup doubles in 2022 and ’23 with Knights following suit a year later, but both had disappointing 2025 campaigns, finishing outside the top three and failing to reach the Cup final.
Second-placed Devonport will start favourites as they look to bounce back from a 3-2 loss to reigning league and cup champions South Hobart.
Having won their previous six league games, and recorded 7-0 and 3-0 scorelines in the Cup, assistant coach Cam Heazlewood said the team are not getting hung up on the D’Arcy Street result.
“I think we were competitive throughout the game,” he said. “Obviously a disappointing end result, but at the same time we view them as the benchmark so I think we've got to go around again and see what happens when we meet them again.”
With their only two League wins this season coming at home against newcomers South East United and Ulverstone, seventh-placed Glenorchy will be keen to make a statement against NPL Tasmania establishment.
“It's been a bit of a challenge for us this year (with) a lot of new faces in the squad,” said captain Jack Glover.
“We just haven't really seemed to find our stride yet, but we've got two wins on the bounce now so hopefully we can continue that into the next few weeks. Devonport and South Hobart are probably the two best in the league, we're fortunate enough to get them two weeks in a row so it’s going to be a real test for us, but we're excited.”
McDonald's NPL Tasmania, Round 8
Saturday, May 9
2.30pm Riverside Olympic v South East United, Windsor Park
2.30pm Launceston City v South Hobart, Prospect Vale Community Bank Deloraine & Districts Park
2.30pm Devonport v Glenorchy, Tassie Care Valley Road
4.45pm Launceston United v Kingborough, Birch Avenue Kemlec Park
Sunday, May 10
2.30pm Ulverstone v Clarence, Westside Park
McDonald's Women's Super League, Round 7
Saturday, May 9
12.15pm Devonport v Kingborough, Tassie Care Valley Road
12.15pm Launceston United v Taroona, Birch Avenue Kemlec Park
4.45pm Riverside Olympic v South Hobart, Windsor Park
4.45pm Launceston City v Glenorchy, Prospect Vale Community Bank Deloraine & Districts Park