Welcome to the Weekend Wash-Up following Round 4 of the MyState Bank Women’s Super League. It has finally happened; we officially have new ladder leaders! For the first time since Round 2 of last season, someone other than Launceston United is occupying the top spot on the Super League table at the conclusion of a round. That side is South Hobart after they produced a quality display to displace United with a 2-0 win. Hot on their heels are the Devonport Strikers, who continued their free-scoring ways by vanquishing Taroona 7-1. At KGV the Kingborough Lions claimed their first win of the season, eclipsing the Clarence Zebras 3-2 to conclude what was an entertaining weekend of Super League action. Let’s take a closer look at the three matches.
Roberts Shines as South Hobart Move Top
South Hobart has moved to the top of the table, as they displaced Launceston United with a highly impressive 2-0 win over Launceston United at Floorworld Park.
In a game that was expected to be a tight arm wrestle South Hobart were completely dominant for the vast majority of the game and fully deserving of their victory. Only some sharp goalkeeping from Jazlin Venn kept the game tight on the scoreboard till late on, but in general play, it was all one-way traffic as South pressed high up the pitch and gave United’s defence a torrid time.
The first half saw South dominating the territorial battle, boxing United in and forcing frequent turnovers. They must have had at least 70% of the possession, but for all their play around United’s penalty area, the best two chances probably fell the way of United on sharp counterattacks, a reminder of the threat they possessed, even if their attack was largely subdued and saw little of the ball in dangerous areas.
It was that occasional threat on the counter that kept things interesting, but as the contest wore on there was a real sense of inevitability that South were going to win this game. The pressure surely had to tell eventually and shortly after the restart they finally got their reward when Pishon Choi rose to superbly head home a cross whipped in with pace from Bridie Cooling. United's defence had weathered the storm well to that point, but the inability to string passes out of the back was starting to hurt them.
South also dominated the midfield battle here with a commanding performance from their star midfielder Lucy Roberts. I’ve said before that to my eye she is the best midfielder in the competition and today was the type of display that really underwrote just why I think that. She completely ran the show and it was a real showcase of her abilities. Her skill to take her first touch into space, or use it to shift past a defender is unrivalled, as she shows a tremendous awareness of what is going on around her at all times, it’s a positional sense that very few players have. Combine that with her ability to pick a pass or fire a long-range shot and she can take over a game, just as she did here.
It was fitting that it was Roberts who finally iced the game by slicing inside of Lohse before firing a stunning shot from the angle that rocketed in near post and gave South Hobart a deserved 2-0 cushion in stoppage time.
If not for some quality keeping from Jazlin Venn and a strong penalty shout that was waved away, that cushion could’ve come much sooner. Venn was strong in goals and twice made brilliant stops to deny Eve Swain, who cut through the defence with mazy runs, but given United's inability to threaten back the other way in the second half, it always felt like South had the game under control.
The win sees South move to the top of the table and perhaps stamp themselves as the side to beat in 2023. With Jenna Farrow making her debut in net here, the side has undoubtedly strengthened since their 3-3 draw with Devonport.
Davis at the Double as Lions Down Zebras
Laura Davis scored a brace as the Kingborough Lions roared to a 3-2 win over the Clarence Zebras at KGV. With the game tied up at 2-2 in the 87th minute, it seemed like the Lions might regret their wastefulness in the second half before Davis fired home her second goal of the afternoon to secure the win.
I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that the goals were surely going to come sooner rather than later for Laura Davis and today it finally clicked for her. She is simply too good of a player to remain down for too long and given the positions she was getting herself into the goals were sure to come. Well, today they did. Her opening goal was a thumping hit from range, a truly top-class strike after dribbling past two defenders in the lead-up.
The Zebras got back on terms on the half-hour mark with a handball decision against Christabelle Moore, who furiously argued the point, but the decision was made, giving Georgia Burt the chance to square things from the penalty spot and she duly obliged.
The Lions reclaimed the lead just prior to the halftime break when Samantha Watkins snuck in from the blind side of an oblivious Pollard and powered a header perfectly into the bottom corner. They would’ve already been 2-1 ahead if not for a simply brilliant save from Kacee Ponting and vital goal-saving block on the line from Louisa Marmion in the moments prior.
The Zebras once more restored parity however, striking in the opening minute of the second half when Eliana Diafokeris beat Erika Mackintosh to a through ball, took it past her and casually finished into the empty net.
From there the Lions had plenty of chances to reclaim the lead for a third time but were left frustrated. On 60 minutes Moutsatsos struck the post in a 1 v 1, before Ponting again came up big to deny Davis four minutes later with a tidy leg save. When Anna Fewkes made a goal-line block to deny Davis in the 78th minute it seemed like it just wasn’t going to be the Lions day.
But two minutes from the end of the 90, Kannegiesser crossed a ball into the box that Ponting parried back into the pash of the onrushing Davis who fired it first-time back past her and secured the 3-2 victory for the Lions.
After a down 2022 season, the improvements have been obvious from the Lions so far in 2023 and now they have a win to back that up. The celebrations suggest the win meant a lot to them and it will be a result they should really be able to build off.
Strikers March On at Kelvedon Park
In Saturday’s lone fixture, the Devonport Strikers continued their strong start to the season as they easily dealt with Taroona 7-1 at Kelvedon Park.
The Strikers did the bulk of the damage early on, scoring six times in the opening 40 minutes to race to a commanding lead. Jazmin White moved into the lead in the Golden Boot race by scoring a hat-trick whilst Maddy Payne continued her strong goalscoring form with a brace of her own. The pick of the goals was undoubtedly Samantha Hardy’s hit from range though, as she slid in and smashed one top corner from long range.
After being blown away early, Daisy Parsell gave the Pirates faithful something to celebrate when she scored Taroona’s first goal of the season by slipping in behind the Strikers high defensive line and producing a classy, chipped finish to cut the score to 6-1 at the break.
Credit to Taroona for their second-half display, it would have been very easy for heads to drop and the score to get out of control but they dug in and battled it out to the end and managed to restrict the Strikers to just one second-half goal, which came via Mia Smith in stoppage time. A final score of 7-1 is still not pretty reading, but without Izzy Ottavi in net against this Strikers side, it was always going to be difficult. Credit too, to Holly Ayton whom I have seen play a number of different positions in her WSL career, but never in goals. It takes a lot of guts to step up and play that position when you aren’t a trained keeper, so she deserves kudos for that.
For Devonport, well bigger games await them, but they are taking care of business nicely so far and looking very sharp in attack. They sit in second for now and appear set to feature heavily in the title race to come.
Round 4 Scores
Taroona 1 (D.Parsell 42’)
Devonport 7 (M.Payne 10’ 42’, J.White 14’, 15’ 27’, S.Hardy 24’, M.Smith 90+1’)
Launceston United 0
South Hobart 2 (P.Choi 52', L.Roberts 90+3')
Kingborough Lions 3 (L.Davis 10’ 88’ S.Watkins 43’)
Clarence Zebras 2 (G.Burt 31’, E.Diafokeris 46’)