Post-season finals football will be high on the agenda when Clarence host Ulverstone in McDonald's NPL Tasmania this weekend.
With the top five teams set to extend their campaigns through an additional four-week series, Zebras find themselves sixth, level on points with Riverside but behind having conceded one more goal.
With an away fixture at Lakoseljac Cup champions Kingborough to follow, coach Brian Murphy knows Sunday represents a golden chance to get the edge over Olympic who face tough away games at South East United and South Hobart.
Murphy is good friends with Riverside coach Helder Dos Santos Silva and said they have exchanged plenty of messages about who will claim the fifth finals spot.
“We’re good mates and our families are close,” he said.
“We’ve both been in the game over in the UK with long stints at various levels and know similar people. We are rivals at the end of the day but when we come off we always shake hands.
“I think it’s going to come down to goal difference and it’ll be an interesting end to the season. It’s exciting having finals and relegation - everyone has something to play for. Let’s see what happens come Sunday and take it to the last game. It doesn’t get any more exciting than that.”
Meanwhile Ulverstone have the incentive of knowing victory could be enough to climb off the bottom of the ladder and potentially avoid the wooden spoon in their maiden Statewide campaign.
Ulvy sit one point behind seventh-paced Launceston United who are also two better off on goal difference.
Coach Michael Amos said the club will review its season before setting goals for 2027 and beyond.
“We'll have a good look at every aspect of it across the whole club,” he said.
“We do that on a regular basis. We continue to look at how we can improve, how we can get better in every layer of football.
“We’re really happy with our growth in the club, and that's really all we can judge it on at this point.”
Elsewhere, defending champions South Hobart will wrap up another title and become Football Tasmania’s representative in the Australian Championship if they beat Launceston City at D’Arcy Street.
In the McDonald's Women's Super League, Riverside will be looking to pick up more points when they host Launceston City.
Olympic’s only two points this season have come against their local rivals courtesy of 0-0 and 3-3 draws in previous meetings.
Riverside defender Amy Littlechild admitted it had been a challenging season at Windsor Park.
“We've not had, from the outside, probably the best season, as some people can probably tell from the results, but as a team, instead of looking at the end result, we try to look at the small wins that we have throughout the game,” she said.
“Especially with having such a young team, it's going and saying, look, you put your heart and soul into that. If you went out there and played your heart out, that's all you can do.”
In contrast, City’s maiden season back in Statewide competition has yielded three wins and four draws with coach Alex Aylott aware they could still finish in the top half of the ladder.
“There's so many unknowns going into the season,” he said. “We're still a very young squad and anyone that coaches a young team knows there's going to be inconsistencies.
“I think it's just keeping that in perspective in the course of the year. We've had some really, really good patches, and we've also had some pretty inconsistent patches, but that gap will close the more we play together.”
This weekend is the Play in Purple round with players wearing purple socks to help reach a $1 million fundraising milestone to tackle pancreatic cancer.
The national community awareness initiative, run by the Pankind Australian Pancreatic Cancer Foundation, seeks to spark conversations about one of Australia’s toughest common cancers.
McDonald's NPL Tasmania, Round 17
Saturday, August 1
2pm South Hobart v Launceston City, D’Arcy Street
2.30pm South East United v Riverside Olympic, South East Complex
2.30pm Kingborough v Launceston United, Lightwood Park Kitchen Centre Park
4.45pm Glenorchy v Devonport, KGV
Sunday, August 2
2.30pm Clarence v Ulverstone, Wentworth Park
McDonald's Women's Super League, Round 16
Saturday, August 1
2.30pm Riverside Olympic v Launceston City, Windsor Park
2.30pm Glenorchy v Devonport, KGV
4.45pm Kingborough v Launceston United, Lightwood Park Kitchen Centre Park
Sunday, August 2
2pm South Hobart v Taroona, D’Arcy Street