Welcome to the Friday Forecast for Round 13 of the MyState Bank Women’s Super League season. Despite just having the two games scheduled, this looms as a particularly important weekend in Season 2022. That’s in no small part due to the season defining showdown on the Sunday between the Clarence Zebras and South Hobart. The other game will see Launceston United taking on the Kingborough Lions in a rematch of the Statewide Cup Final. Taroona and Olympia have already played their scheduled match midweek with the Pirates proving too strong which is where we will start this week.
Parsell Brace Helps Pirates Claim Second Victory
A fast-starting Taroona secured their second win of the season as they accounted for Olympia 4-0 at Empire Couriers Park on Tuesday night. A brace from Daisy Parsell helped fire them on their way as they moved six points clear from the Warriors at the foot of the table.
It didn’t take long for Taroona to take the lead as Mia Fujiura bobbed up for her first WSL goal of the season in the seventh minute. Some pressure from Daisy Parsell impacted the Warriors ability to clear the ball after Cook had made a kick save to keep out Madeline Lane and it fell to Fujiura who placed home the first-time finish.
Five minutes later and it was 2-0 as once again Lane got in behind down the right and this time squared it to Parsell who made no mistake as she passed it into the back of the net to double the lead.
Then on 25 minutes the Lane/Parsell combination struck yet again as the Warriors high line was caught out once more. Lane charged ran onto a wonderful through ball from Bella McGinn, beat Cook to the ball and squared it up for Parsell who made no mistake with another composed finish.
It was beginning to look like it could turn into another ugly score line at that point, but the scoring dried up as the Warriors defence stiffened and the flow of goals halted.
The final goal arrived later in the second half and came via a set piece. A near post corner was fired into Catlin Riley who somehow defied the angle and scored a quite brilliant goal that lobbed in and secured her side the 4-0 victory.
The win provides some breathing room from the foot of the table for Taroona and was their second win over Olympia for the season. Conversely, the defeat almost certainly consigns the Warriors to the wooden spoon as their search for a breakthrough point continues.
Cup Final Rematch at the Den
Sunday’s action will kick off down at Clennett’s Lightwood Park as the Kingborough Lions host Launceston United in a rematch of the Statewide Cup Final. United took out the trophy that day with a 3-1 win and were comfortably the better side, but they were certainly made to earn it by a determined Lions outfit. The Lions will need to bring a similar intent and defensive commitment this week if they are to throw a spanner in the works of the title race and cause an upset here because United have been rolling along nicely.
Whilst held by Devonport a fortnight ago, that remains the only blemish on United’s still undefeated season that has them firmly in the driver’s seat to take out the WSL Crown to go with their Cup victory. They added some further reinforcements this week by announcing the signing of Molly Duigan, joining from WNPL Club West Torrens Birkalla SC in South Australia to further bolster their depth which is always a nice thing to have, particularly in these Covid times. They’ve won comfortably each time they’ve played any of the bottom three sides this year and generally killed the contests off early. They should be able to take of business here relatively comfortably again, but that largely depends on which Lions side rocks up.
What to make of the Kingborough Lions? They’ve been a real enigma this year. In their last 5 competitive games they’ve played the competitions top four sides and whilst they’ve lost all 4, in terms of performances it’s been real Jekyll and Hyde stuff. They’ve had 2 competitive losses, pushing the Zebras and this week’s opponent Launceston United in the Cup Final and then 2 absolute thumping losses to Devonport and South Hobart. So we’ve seen they can trouble the best sides when they’re on, but they’ve been just as likely to implode at the back and lose heavily. Which Lions outfit will we get this week? The same side that pushed United in a cup final, looked organized and hard to break down at the back? Or the side that South Hobart carved to pieces a fortnight ago and looked incapable of stopping anything? Whether we get an interesting game here or not will be dependent upon that factor.
South and Zebras Look to Emerge as United’s Challenger
Whilst United look the likely League champions at this point both South Hobart and the Clarence Zebras remain in striking distance. Sunday therefore looms as a massive game to keeping their title hopes alive. Defeat for either side here would spell an enormous blow and leave them with little to no margin for error moving forwards.
Both South and the Zebras will be aware of how the Lions v United game has gone by the time they kick off at 2:30pm and given the way the way the season has gone it’s more than likely that United will have moved 6 points clear of South and 10 clear of the Zebras, before this one begins. That would be with United having played the same number of games of South and one more than the Zebras. It means a loss here for Zebras would likely leave them 10 points behind United and with just 7 left games to play that would surely be curtains. If the Zebras win and keep the gap at 7 points they’d still be alive, though barely, and it would leave South 6 points back having played an extra game, which would appear similarly terminal. A win for South and the gap stays at 3 points with United still having a game in hand. So basically a loss here for either is likely catastrophic and a draw would be much the same. This is quite simply a must win game for both sides. A real loser leaves town (or the title race at any rate) type scenario.
It means the stage is set for what should be a cracking game. Whilst the Zebras have had some bigger wins against common opponents, South have handled the Zebras comfortably both times they’ve met head to head this year. In the Summer Cup Final they were in firm command and won 3-1. They were likewise dominant in their 2-0 WSL victory back in Round 6. The Zebras seem to have improved since then and are certainly playing better football than they were last time around, but so have South and the recent addition of Madi Chambers gives them another weapon. Her addition and the emergence of Mia Cane as a goal threat give the side another dimension in attack beyond Bonnie Davies, making them much harder to shut down. Previously if you contained Davies, you negated most of their threat but that’s no longer the case. Either way the Zebras are going to need to drastically change things from the previous 2 meetings where their usually potent attack has been utterly blunted. They need their star attackers at their best or the door will be slammed shut on their already slim title hopes.
MyState Bank Women’s Super League Round 13
Tuesday 5 July
Olympia Warriors 0-4 Taroona FC
Sunday 10 July
Kingborough Lions v Launceston United, Clennett’s Lightwood Park, 12:30pm
Clarence Zebras v South Hobart, Wentworth Park, 2:30pm