Round 4 Match of the Round: Taroona FC v Launceston United
Pirates On Right Track Ahead of Stern Launceston United Test
The Game of the Round for this weekend pits Taroona FC against Launceston United. The match will take place at Lightwood Park, with the currently nomadic Taroona unable to play games at their usual home base of Kelvedon Park due to its present unavailability.
After some heavy defeats across the opening weeks of the season, Taroona put in a much-improved showing against the Kingborough Lions in their last start, which is a performance they can build from according to their captain Daisy Parsell. Speaking at a Friday media conference, Parsell suggested they were on the right track to getting a positive result.
"We were excited to display some quality football because we knew we had it in us, and for some reason it wasn’t working," she said.
"So to be able to do that and look a little more competitive against one of the better teams was really reassuring and lifted our spirits massively. Even though it was a loss, we are on a bit of a high from that so hopefully we can just carry that on and we know what we have to do, to get it to work for the full 90 minutes.”
Parsell said she was looking forward to the weekend’s clash, although she suggested there were some unknowns about the opposition.
"We love playing Launceston United, we always have a lot of fun and good competitive games too," she said.
"I am not sure what changes they might have made, so that will be a surprise to me, but I think that most squads have had lots of changes this year, including ours. We've got new players and returning players so it's just a wait-and-see and hopefully, it’s a good competitive game as it usually is.”
Whilst the defence tightened up against the Lions, the Pirates are yet to score a goal, something Parsell was optimistic would change this week.
"It would be nice to score and hit the target a bit more, we’ve been working on that," she said.
"Building confidence in defence has been key and now we are just building up that confidence to go forward.
"Heading into this weekend we are all a lot more hungry to get those goals and we are excited to finally get one in the back of the net, so hopefully that’s this weekend."
Launceston United will enter the game as warm favourites but speaking at the media conference, Captain Katie Hill said her side were not going to be taking Taroona lightly.
"You definitely can’t underestimate any of the teams in this competition," she said.
"I think the league has started with a real bang this year and there are a few surprises coming out of a lot of teams. I don’t think anyone should underestimate Taroona ... they’ve got quality players and they’re a good team, definitely not one to be underestimated."
United almost pulled off a remarkable result the week prior, scoring three times in the final 15 minutes of an eventual 4-3 defeat to South Hobart, their second narrow defeat this season to a title contender. Hill said that despite the end score, there was plenty for the side to take away from the games.
“I think there are a lot of positives we can take out of our first few games in the league, we’ve been extremely close to Devonport and South in the past couple of games," she said.
"The results didn't go our way, but the fightback against South last week was phenomenal and it showed a massive work-rate and massive heart after going 4 goals down to come back in the last 15 minutes.
"To really pull out all the stops and prove that we’ve got that in our locker was a massive positive that we can take out of it despite the final result. I see us being very competitive across the whole league this year.”
When asked if this season was shaping as one of the tighter title races in recent years, Hill suggested it was a bit soon for anything definitive, but it was trending in that direction.
"It's probably too early to tell for sure, but it's definitely tight," she said.
"There are going to be competitive results across all of the clashes and we’ve definitely seen that. Teams have got players in and out, we’ve lost players to injury already, we know South Hobart have lost players to injury so that sort of stuff has been happening across the board and I think that adjusting to those initial changes early in the league is going to make for a pretty tight playing field, especially in these first few rounds. I think it's going to be very tight and very competitive throughout the year."
Hill said they were not focussing too much on either the first 75 minutes or final 15 from last week but instead looking at all aspects of the 90 minutes.
"Our focus hasn’t necessarily changed, we’ve been working on structure, we’ve got to work on finishing as we haven’t scored as many goals as we’d have liked, but we’ve also been a bit leaky at the back," she said.
"So we have the full 90 minutes to work on and that’s what our focus has been on."
Competition Newcomers Facing Last Year's Top Two
Round 4 will get underway the night prior with a rare Friday night fixture, as Riverside Olympic plays host to the Devonport Strikers. Fresh off claiming their first point away to Glenorchy Knights, the challenge ramps up here for the Roos against a Devonport side who won both their first two fixtures before sitting out last week with the bye. The early signs have been positive from the Strikers under Tom Ballantyne as they look to go one better than their second-placed finish in 2023 and they will be expected to maintain their winning ways here to keep the pressure on at the top end of the table.
Then on Sunday, the defending champions South Hobart will look to maintain their hold on top spot as they take on the Glenorchy Knights. South endured a late wobble last week but given the drastic reshuffle at the back they were forced into, they will be glad to have banked the points from a tricky away match. Defensive lapses have cost Knights so far, but their general play has been solid and they have shown some quality in the final third which could test out the makeshift South Hobart defensive unit. South have plenty of firepower of their own however, with Josie Mamic looking sharp leading the line and they will fancy themselves to score enough goals to win even if they were to ship some at the other end.
Round 4
Friday 12 April
Riverside Olympic v Devonport Strikers, Windsor Park, 7:30pm LIVE STREAM
Saturday 13 April
Taroona FC v Launceston United, Lightwood Park, 12:15pm, LIVE STREAM
Sunday 14 April
South Hobart v Glenorchy Knights, Darcy Street, 2:00pm, LIVE STREAM