We have arrived at the final stretch of the season, with teams set to play each other for a third and final time over the next seven weeks to determine the 2024 league title. With just five points separating the top four sides, it's officially the most open NPL title race in history. A big game in helping sort it all out is the Match of the Round for Round 15, when the third-placed Kingborough Lions take on second-placed South Hobart at Lightwood Park on Saturday night.
Lions coach Alfred Hess agreed with the assertion that this was a must-win game for his side.
“I think that’s fair, it's quite close so we probably need to look to win everything from here,” Hess said.
With the NPL having had a bye weekend last week, the Lions have used the fortnight break to freshen up the squad but Hess admitted it also came with drawbacks.
“It’s an interesting one to manage - is it an opportunity to maybe manage the squad and de-load training contents a little, or do we consider other things? We have tried to refresh the group to lead into the last seven matches; it also gave us maybe a bit more opportunity to prepare for this match,” Hess said.
“We’ve been getting some traction and getting a bit more stable in our performances, we had a good result away at Valley Road, so maybe some elements of the performance are coming together and we hope that we can continue that performance into the last seven games.
"So it will be interesting to see what the week off has done to that consistency."
The Lions' boss felt the victory away to Devonport could be important for his side moving forward.
“I think the victory at Valley Road was important, we had to weather a bit of a storm up there and whilst we maybe rode our luck at times, I think the performance, mechanisms and behaviours were all there, so performance-wise, I think it was a really good showing from us,” he said.
Hess felt improvements at the back had been the most important reason for their recent form of four wins from their past five games.
“I think our defensive organisation has been a lot better since the Knights match, which probably illustrated some deficiencies, so we had to have a look there, but I think of the last couple of weeks we’ve got back on the right track and move forward with that detail,” he said.
The Lions will start the final run-in four points off the top spot, but they stormed home in 2023 and took more points than any other side over the final 8 weeks, something Hess hoped to replicate this year.
“We certainly had that run of eight last year in the last round to finish off very well, we needed that within the context of that season, but we head into it in a better position this year, so that energy and achievement we demonstrated last year, we are looking to do something similar again this year for sure,” he said.
His South Hobart counterpart Ken Morton felt it was an important game, but wasn’t quite a must-win match, given the ability of sides in the league to take points from each other.
“There are a lot of teams in the mix, so is it a must-win? Well, it’s a must stay alive is probably the important thing," Morton said.
"A lot of teams are running into good form at the moment, so I think there are going to be some results that are going to change things over the next few weeks."
South hit the top of the table after defeating Knights in Round 11, but have gone winless in their past three outings to fall 2 points behind Knights in second place, a factor Morton put down to second-half performances and improvement from sides outside the top four.
“Certain things have worked well, we have started games quite sharply and got ourselves in front, but we have had some hiccups defensively, so we need to improve there, and certainly our second-half performances haven’t been as good, we’ve looked a little vulnerable on the break, so I think we need to control the game in a better manner,” he said.
“There have been improved performances from the Northern sides, certainly Riverside got about us, their key players dominated and got on top of us, and Launceston City are underestimated, they’re a very strong side, their forward line is free-running, they get in behind teams and I think they will cause some problems for other sides too in the coming weeks.”
When asked if the week off had come at a good time due to his side’s downturn in form, Morton felt there were both positives and negatives to having had last weekend off.
“Yes and no, it probably came at a good time to give one or two players a rest, but we maybe had too much rest, because it has been difficult to get out on the training track due to rain and weather, so we’ve had to do some indoor sessions, which helped boost morale, but hopefully it's been a good little period for us,” he said.
Morton said the weekend had also provided extra time to dive into the footage and prepare for the Lions.
“I think every game you take now, you have to study the footage and try to find out the strengths and weaknesses and then look to exploit the key weaknesses to win the game - so yes, we have been doing our homework," he said.
In other games this weekend, things will kick off on Friday night at TassieCare Park with Launceston City looking to make it a clean sweep of Derby wins over Riverside Olympic in 2024. Both sides enter the game in good form with 2 wins from their past 2 and both unbeaten in their past 3.
At Wentworth Park, the Devonport Strikers will look to bounce back against the Clarence Zebras, knowing that with games against 5-8th on the table over the next month, they can pile the pressure on the top sides by getting on a winning run.
Finally, it will be a battle of top v bottom at Birch Avenue as the title front runners Glenorchy Knights take on Launceston United, who are still looking to get off the mark.
Round 15
Friday 26 July
Launceston City v Riverside Olympic, 8:15pm, TassieCare Park LIVE STREAM
Saturday 27 July
Clarence Zebras v Devonport Strikers, 2:30pm, Wentworth Park LIVE STREAM
Launceston United v Glenorchy Knights, 4:30pm, Birch Avenue LIVE STREAM
Kingborough Lions v South Hobart, 6:30pm, Lightwood Park, LIVE STREAM