Match of the Round: South Hobart v Devonport Strikers
With three weeks to go in the NPL Tasmania season, just three points separate the top three sides, and another massive game will take place this Saturday at D'arcy Street to decide the title.
South Hobart, having seized top spot last week with their 3-1 win over the Glenorchy Knights, now play host to the defending Champions Devonport at D'arcy Street, the biggest obstacle remaining in their bid to claim the league title.
Speaking at Friday morning’s press conference, South Hobart Assistant Coach Josh Dingjan said the group was focused and ready for the task that lies ahead.
“We’ve known for a few weeks that it was always probably going to come down to these final four games, so we are treating each one like a final," he said.
"The boys are very up for it, very motivated, so we are just going to truck along.
“With the slip-ups we had earlier in the season, we’ve put ourselves in the position where it is just down to winning every game now, so the focus is pretty high.”
Dingjan said they weren’t going to change things up too much and instead back in continuity.
“We’re not going to change much in terms of preparation from how we prepared last time, we will focus more on us than anything else," he said.
"They are going to come how they come, and we will just need to deal with that on the day."
Dingjan acknowledged the challenge the Strikers presented given their winning history.
“They’ve been at the top of the table for the last few years, they grind hard and they’re one of those sides that know how to push through for a win in tough circumstances," he said.
"I think they will come with a lot of fight and heart, so we’ve got to match that energy to get us over the line.”
Dingjan felt last week’s superb performance in their 3-1 win over the Glenorchy Knights had given the group plenty of belief ahead of the next big game, with their fate now in their own hands.
“Last week, getting to that point was really big for us, we needed to know that we could grind out those big games, those big moments and really stand up as a group," he said.
With South not having won the league title since 2017, Dingjan agreed there was an extra hunger around the group to get the job done.
“Definitely - a few of the boys were part of the group that won in 2017, you can sense that around the people who have been here for a while, that this is where they want to be, where they’ve wanted to be for a while, because of being second or third on the ladder for the past few years, it's stuck with them and we’re now at a point where they know it can happen and I think they will throw caution to the wind and get the job done,” he said.
With heavy rain forecast on an already heavy pitch, conditions will certainly be different this week for South Hobart from their game against Knights, with Dingjan admitting it wasn’t ideal for his side.
“The ground isn’t doing us any favours with the football that we play; KGV, it certainly made it easier for us to play our style, but I think we will try to do the same thing regardless of the pitch,” he said.
The state of the ground was clearly at the forefront of Devonport coach Tom Ballantyne’s thinking, with the Strikers boss suggesting his side had alternate plans ready to go based on what the conditions threw up.
“I think part of it is going to be dependent on what we see in the 21s game beforehand and the state of the pitch," he said.
"I look back on the last time we played them at this ground and the quality of the pitch massively impacted the game.
"In hindsight, we would’ve probably picked different players based on how poor the surface was.
"So we have come up with two game plans that we’ve worked on and to be able to adjust based on what we need to do.
"If it's really bad weather and a horrendous pitch we will roll out a different plan with different players, but if it’s a reasonable surface we will roll out a different system.
"They are very different, one probably involves Miles Barnard, they’re very different styles of play.”
The Strikers boss felt his side was fortunate to still be in the title race given their uneven performances, but mused that it had been a bizarre season.
“We’ve spoken about it a few times with our group, it has been a league where we shouldn’t really be in the title race in the slightest, given how we have performed in a few games, but then on the flip side of that, if we had of converted the opportunities we had in other games we could also be six points clear," he said.
"It’s a completely odd season, in that we’ve played as poorly as we have at times but are still right in the title race."
With Devonport having won their past four matches to haul themselves back into the race, Ballantyne felt the side was starting to solve the issues that led to them dropping points earlier in the season.
“We’ve found solutions to the problems that we weren’t expecting at the start of the year," he said.
"Losing Robbie (Garrido), we knew were going to lose goals, but I don’t think we anticipated how long it was going to take for our new front line to click.
"Over the last few months, it’s started to click and we’ve got the reward of that with the goals that we’ve scored lately.”
In other Round 19 action, the Glenorchy Knights will have the opportunity to move back into top spot and pile the pressure onto South Hobart ahead of Saturday, when they host the Kingborough Lions at KGV on Friday night.
It’s one of two Friday night fixtures, with Riverside Olympic and Launceston United also facing off in the Derby, with United riding high after breaking their drought last weekend.
Elsewhere on Saturday, the Clarence Zebras will look to snap their losing skid as they welcome a Launceston City side who could potentially close within 3 points of the top four with a win.
Friday 23 August
Glenorchy Knights v Kingborough Lions, 8:15pm, KGV LIVE STREAM
Riverside Olympic v Launceston United, 8:15pm, Windsor Park LIVE STREAM
Saturday 24 August
South Hobart v Devonport Strikers, 2:00pm, Darcy Street, LIVE STREAM
Clarence Zebras v Launceston City, 2:30p, Wentworth Park LIVE STREAM