Welcome to the Friday Forecast ahead of Round 16 of the MyState Bank Women’s Super League. The Round will get underway tonight as South Hobart looks to secure the league title against the Lions, before the Clarence Zebras host the Strikers and Launceston United takes on Taroona across the remainder of the weekend.
South Out To Seal WSL Title
South Hobart can officially seal the 2023 WSL title tonight as they take on the Kingborough Lions under lights at Lightwood Park. Whilst the title race has basically been wrapped up for a few weeks now, this would be the mathematical confirmation that would allow the celebrations to begin. With the lead currently at 14 points, they are just 2 points away from becoming unreachable by Devonport in second, so a win tonight puts them over the threshold.
South has won all three of their league clashes with the Lions this season so will be eyeing a season sweep here. The victories have grown steadily in margin, from 1-0 to 3-1 and then 4-0 in the most recent clash between the two. As such they will be heading into this one feeling confident of once again taking care of business and this time wrapping up the title in the process.
It’s been a brilliant campaign from South who continue to sweep all before them in 2023 and they stand now on the precipice of having that all rewarded with the trophy. It’s a trophy they have appeared set to claim for some time now, emerging early in the year as a growing force and they’ve only gotten stronger as the year has worn on.
They once again extended their remarkable clean sheet run to eight matches by blanking the Clarence Zebras last week. Whilst the Lions have some weapons to potentially bring that run to a halt, containing South’s dangerous attacking lineup at the other end appears more challenging. They had no issues scoring last week against Taroona, but fell to a defeat for that very reason.
Zebras Hosting Strikers
On Saturday the Clarence Zebras will take on the Devonport Strikers at Valley Road in a big game for their respective aspirations for the remainder of the season.
The Strikers are looking to finish in second place and need to avoid dropping points in games such as these to hold off Launceston United leaping them. The Clarence Zebras are looking to hold onto fourth place from the Lions and with a 3-point gap and game in hand appear well set to do just that, but points here would make them very hard to catch.
The past two clashes between these two sides could hardly be in starker contrast. Most recently at Valley Road, the Strikers scored a thumping victory, as they overwhelmed the Zebras defence in a comprehensive 7-0 victory. That was somewhat a slice of revenge for the prior clash at Wentworth Park where the Zebras claimed their most impressive victory of the season as they hammered the Strikers 5-1! That was a largely an unexpected result, though Devonport have struggled a couple of times on their road trips South this season. The first meeting between the pair was also at Valley Road and was a much tighter 2-1 win for the Strikers, so we have had a bit of everything so far when these two have met this season.
Recent form suggests the Strikers will be expecting to make it 3/4 against the Clarence Zebras this season, but they will need to be more clinical than they were last weekend against United. The Zebras meanwhile need to focus on seeing out matches, three of the four goals they conceded last week came late on in halves and whilst they've pushed some of the best sides in the league for patches, sustaining that for 90 minutes still remains a challenge for the youthful side.
United Face Improving Pirates
On Sunday Launceston United welcome Taroona FC to Floorworld Park to complete Round 16 action. Earlier in the season, I would have projected this one as a very comfortable win for United, but things have changed somewhat and this now appears a much more challenging fixture for the third-placed side.
Whilst the first two meetings were one-way traffic, with United winning 5-0 and 8-0, they needed a last-minute winner in the most recent clash at Kelvedon Park to sneak away with a 2-1 win. Whilst United will still be expected to win this one, we can expect a match much more akin to that most recent clash than the two from earlier in the year.
United were impressive last weekend against Devonport, holding out for a 0-0 draw despite playing most of the match with 10 players. That was in no small part due to an outstanding display between the sticks from Jazlin Venn, who made a series of brilliant saves. She is unlikely to be worked as hard this week, but it’s a nice safety valve to have for those times when the on-field players are being outplayed.
Taroona have worked through a difficult first couple of months of the season to become a much more competitive side and they got their reward for perseverance last weekend when they downed the Lions 4-3. Whilst the improvements had been noticeable in the month prior, the addition of Jessie Williams really helped put them over the edge, she scored two incredible goals and looked like the player we all remember. There was no signs of rust from her and United are going to have to be very watchful of her, because as she showed last week, she is a player who can still swing a game off her own boot.
Round 16
Friday 12 August
Kingborough Lions v South Hobart 7:00pm, Lightwood Park
Saturday 13 August
Clarence Zebras v Devonport Strikers, 12:15pm, Wentworth Park
Sunday 14 August
Launceston United v Taroona FC, 2:00pm, Birch Avenue