Important Information - Statewide Cup Parking>>>
Statewide Cup Final’s Day is upon us as we reach the Queen’s Birthday Long Weekend. It’s a massive weekend on the Tasmanian Football calendar and usually an annual highlight. With a pair of fascinating Finals set to play out on Monday, this year should be no different.
We return to the traditional host facility of KGV for the games this year after the wild weather we’ve experienced lately forced a switch back from plans to stage the day at Lightwood Park. It draws into sharp focus the manifestly inadequate facilities the game has had to put up with in the state for far too long now and the urgent need for upgrades. I’m not sure what the latest hold-up in construction at KGV is, but I really hope the council gets it sorted soon because the money was secured at the 2019 election, not 2022. It’s quite simply been far too long, and our players and supporters deserve far better than this.
Anyway, putting gripes about the off-field facilities to one side, it certainly promises to be an exciting day on the pitch. In the Women’s Statewide Cup Final we have a pair of teams who have come close in recent years but just fallen short in the Kingborough Lions and Launceston United. Both have previously lost in the decider, but one of them will break through this time and create some history for their club.
Then in the Lakoseljac Cup we have another South Hobart v Devonport fixture to look forwards to. It will be the fourth time in the last 7 years we have seen this clash and if it’s anywhere near as entertaining as the previous three, then we are in for a treat. With the carrot of the Australia Cup Round of 32 qualification that brings with it a spot on the national stage dangled once more, the stakes could not be higher.
So often Cup finals are cagey affairs decided by one decisive moment from one individual player. Who is going to be that person this year to step up and deliver on the big stage? Who will etch their names into the history books and deliver a performance to be talked about for years to come? The opportunity is there for those who would seize it. Best of luck to all teams and may the best side win.
United Warm Favourites in Women’s Statewide Cup
The day will begin with the Women’s Statewide Cup Final between Launceston United and the Kingborough Lions. The Lions are probably surprise finalists given their form this year, but they earned their place on the big stage with wins over a pair of North West sides, beating Ulverstone 3-1 in the Quarter Finals and Devonport 2-1 in the Semi Finals, both at Lightwood Park. United meanwhile held their nerve to edge out South Hobart in a penalty shootout in the Quarter Finals before accounting for Taroona 3-1 in the Semi-Final and set the stage for Monday’s winner take all bout.
Launceston United will enter this one as the warm favourites and be expected to go one further than last year when Olympia overran them in the second half to dash their dreams. The circumstances are very different for United this year. Last year United were the underdogs, playing in their first season in the Super League and coming up against an Olympia team who had been in plenty of finals across recent seasons. This year they are the undisputed top dogs in the Super League, sitting six points clear on top and winning 10 from 10 competitive fixtures they have played in season 2022. The team has some real star power in the form of imports Elli La Monte and Alexis Mitchell who nicely complement a burgeoning collection of local talents such as Madi Gilpin, Laura Dickinson and Dani Gunton. They are firing on all cylinders right now and should be feeling great about themselves after winning massive league games over title rivals Clarence Zebras and South Hobart, with a Semi-Final win over Taroona sandwiched between them over the past 3 weeks.
The Lions meanwhile have struggled mightily in the league, winning just 1 from 6 games with an average losing margin of 4 goals. Big question marks linger over the defensive unit which has conceded 31 goals in just 6 WSL games so far this year with 18 of those coming in their 3 games against the competition’s top 3 sides.
The sides have met once in the WSL this year and it was a comfortable win for United. Ellie La Monte hit a hat-trick as they soared to a 5-0 victory on the road at Lightwood Park. Yet that result and the contrasting league form doesn’t mean the Lions are without hope here. They were in a similar situation heading into their Semi-Final match with the Devonport Strikers and were able to produce a fine effort to turn the tables on an opponent who had beaten them 7-1 just a week prior. It shows what a different beast Cup Football can be and just maybe the Lions are this year’s team of destiny in the cup! They will leave it all out there on the line, as this is their once chance at Silverware this year and having fallen short before, they will surely be extra hungry for it.
United are flying right now and on exposed form, this looks like their final to lose. Whilst they should win this game and claim a breakthrough trophy, any side with the likes of Laura Davis, Danielle Kanegiesser and Amy Ollington in their ranks is going to a carry a significant goal threat about them. That gives the Lions a chance if their defence can replicate their efforts from the Semi-Final. I don’t doubt their ability to hit the scoreboard, it’s just whether they can keep United out at the other end. If they can, then the Lions could cause the boil-over, but it is going to take a better defensive effort than we have seen from them this year. United’s attacking weapons run deep and keeping them out looms as a very tough prospect indeed.
Déjà vu as Strikers and South To Meet Again
Then for the fourth time in seven years, it will be South Hobart taking on the Devonport Strikers in the Lakoseljac Cup Final. It’s a testament to the strength of both these clubs that they just keep on ending up here against each other on the big stage. The Strikers are the current Cup holders after their dramatic penalty shoot-out win over the Glenorchy Knights in last season’s decider which gave them a third Lakoseljac Cup triumph in that time frame. The most recent time these sides met in the final was in 2019 when South Hobart avenged their 2016 and 2018 defeats by claiming a 2-0 win to pull the ledger back to 2-1 in Cup Finals. So will South square that up this year? Or will the Strikers become the first side since South Hobart in 2014/2015 to defend their crown?
The only league meeting between the sides came back in Round 5 of the NPL season in April. The Strikers claimed a 1-0 win that day thanks to a lone Roberto Fernandez Garrido goal, but South arguably shaded the contest and it certainly points to there being very fine margins between the sides. They seem quite evenly matched on paper and whilst the Strikers undoubtedly deserve to be considered the favourites heading into the match, I don’t think anyone would be surprised if South were to claim the win.
That won’t be easy for them, because this Devonport side is quite simply a winning machine. They are a ruthlessly efficient side when it comes to the art of winning football matches and after dropping their Round 2 match to Knights, they’ve now won their last 9 straight. Even when they haven’t been at their best they just find a way to win and have bred a culture of success in recent years that is evident upon watching them play. The depth this squad has is simply incredible, Joel Stone has been coming off the bench at times this year such is their depth, with new players like Dulleh, Mohammadi and the clinical Fernandez Garrido who has 16 goals in just 12 games, adding new dimensions to their attack.
South Hobart has certainly enjoyed the easier path to the final. They cruised past Taroona 3-0 in the Round of 16 before thumping an undermanned Riverside Olympic 11-0 in the Quarter Finals. A semi-final against a struggling Olympia side was about as straightforward of an assignment as you will ever get at that stage and they duly won it 6-1 to punch their ticket to the decider. You can only beat what’s in front of you though and this side is certainly good enough to have progressed even without the cushy draw. Still, there’s no doubt the Strikers path has certainly been the tougher of the two. They began with a 6-0 win away to the Clarence Zebras before a cup final rematch with Glenorchy Knights in the Quarter Final stage saw them winning a thriller 4-2. The Semi-Final win over the Lions was a real grind, but they got the job done and progressed with a 1-0 victory and yet another clean sheet to boot.
Clean sheets have been a feature for the Strikers this year, registering 8 in their 12 matches and conceding just the five times in total for the season. It’s an imperious unit at the back marshalled superbly by the State’s best centre-back in Kieran Mulraney and is going to be a tough nut for South to try and crack. For all their possession they simply couldn’t find the goal they needed in the Round 5 clash, though the wider surface of KGV and slicker artificial surface should aid them here and give the likes of Morton and Divin some more room to operate in. KGV is a home away from home for South, it arguably suits them more than D’Arcy Street and aids their speedy wide players like Van Doorne and Berezansky who are going to be key if they are to breach the Strikers defence.
This should be a great game with very little between the sides. With the coveted place in the Australia Cup (Formerly FFA Cup) Round of 32 and a chance to impress on the National stage awaiting the winners, there is an argument that this trophy is even more desired than the League title. Whilst the league crown is a fairer indicator of who the best side is and winning it the bigger achievement. The potential rewards from winning this game may just outweigh that and there is no doubt both sides will be desperate to return to that National stage with a win on Monday.