Welcome to the Friday Forecast for Round 11 of the MyState Bank Women’s Super League season. We’ve now crossed the halfway mark of the season, each side has played each other once home and away, and they will do so once more as we charge towards the finish line.
Strikers Looking To Launch In Second Half of Season
First up for the weekend, we have the Devonport Strikers taking on Clarence Zebras at Valley Road. The Strikers will head into this one buoyed by last week’s scintillating takedown of Launceston United, a 5-0 victory that was comfortably their best performance of the season.
The sides have met twice this season, with the last meeting one of the bigger upsets of the season as the Zebras hammered the Strikers 5-1 at Wentworth Park. It was night and day from the type of performance the Strikers put in last week that's for sure. The other clash came in Round 1 at Valley Road, with the Strikers etching out a narrow 2-1 win to start their season with a victory.
The Strikers head into the back half of the season, likely out of the title race, though perhaps daring to dream after their dismantling of the defending champions last weekend. They’ve left themselves some major work to do in the second half of the season, with the gap to South Hobart standing at 9 points and the goal difference lagging by 19. It seems extraordinarily unlikely they could chase them down, and yet, after a performance like last week’s the possibility remains there, even if the wiggle room isn’t.
The Zebras meanwhile have continued to be somewhat inconsistent, which is probably no surprise given the amount of youth in their starting lineup. Last weeks’ performance against South was a fairly flat one, and this looms as a difficult road trip, but the big win over the Strikers in Round 6 was somewhat out of the blue, so they are capable of bouncing back here. If they can avoid the pitfalls of conceding early and get their confidence up within a game, then they look a much sharper side. Both these sides have been a bit Jekyll and Hyde this season, so this could be anything, though Devonport should be too strong provided they produce something near their level from last week.
South Out To Avoid Slip Ups
At the Kingston Twin Ovals, the Kingborough Lions will play host to high-flying South Hobart.
Having claimed the Statewide Cup and seen their nearest title rivals faltering last week, things are going rather nicely for South Hobart at present. They remain unbeaten this league campaign and were at their very best as they hammered the Clarence Zebras 6-0 last week, the confidence is clearly flowing through the playing group.
The title is South Hobart’s to lose at this point. They now need to navigate the second half of the season by avoiding banana skins and not dropping unexpected points. They have a bit of a cushion to their direct rivals, but they will want to maintain that buffer for when the head-to-head games with Devonport and United present themselves. Taking maximum points from their other 6 games would leave them with one hand on the trophy and probably ensure they claim it, so long as they didn’t lose all 4 against the Strikers and United.
Kingborough had a narrow escape against Taroona last weekend, sneaking a late piece of magic from the match winner Cara Lashmar in stoppage time to continue their win/loss pattern of the past couple of months. It wasn't their best performance, but the diabolical weather conditions made playing anything resembling attractive football impossible, and they got the three points which is all that ultimately matters.
Both clashes between the two have been tightly contested this season, with South claiming a 1-0 win back in the opening round, before winning 3-1 in Round 6, though it remained at 2-1 for much of the second half.
As such despite the overall results being significantly more impressive from South this year, it’s far from a foregone conclusion. This Lions defence has done a pretty good job of stifling the red hot South Hobart attack and frustrating them in the matches they've played against each other. With attacking threats like Lashmar, Davis and Kannegiesser, they don’t need to dominate matches to take something from them and South will need to be on guard to ensure they don’t hand back the extra buffer at the top of the table they were handed last week.
Defending Champions Bounce Back on the Road
Finally to Kelvedon Park where the defending Champions, Launceston United look to get their title defence back on track when they take on last-placed Taroona.
Earlier in the season this would’ve loomed as a fairly comfortable bounce-back spot after such a crushing loss a week earlier for United, but it now looks considerably tougher and far from a certainty. Indeed, they can’t afford to head into the match with that sort of attitude or they will be caught out by the rapidly improving Taroona team.
After a horror start to the year, Taroona have seemingly righted the ship and put in three competitive showings in their last three matches. That includes a 1-1 draw to the Devonport side who so dismantled United last weekend, and it would’ve been a second positive result in a row for the Pirates if not for a moment of magic from Cara Lashmar right at the death.
United cruised to victory in both of the prior meetings, 5-0 and 8-0 and barely got out of third gear in those contests, but this shapes as a sterner challenge. With the heartbreak of a Cup final defeat followed up by the heavy loss to Devonport, United’s season is now at an inflection point. How they respond to the adversity of the past fortnight in these next couple of weeks will define their season.
The match will also be Taroona Captain, Daisy Parsell's 200th senior women's league match for the Pirates. In that time she has scored 111 goals and been a pivotal player for her club. A skilful player with an eye for goal, it's been a pleasure watching Daisy over the years for her Pirates side. Congratulations on reaching such an impressive milestone.
Round 11
Saturday 24 June
Devonport Strikers v Clarence Zebras, 12:15pm, Valley Road
Kingborough Lions v South Hobart, 2:00pm, Kingston Twin Ovals
Taroona FC v Launceston United, 2:30pm, Kelvedon Park