NPL Tasmania’s top two sides go head-to-head on Saturday in what looms as the pivotal fixture in this season’s title race.
Lakoseljac Cup champions South Hobart have been the State’s benchmark male team and remain on course for a remarkable unbeaten campaign in statewide competitions.
However, second-placed Launceston City refuse to give up the chase and know that victory at D’Arcy Street would bring them to within five points, with a game in hand.
On a run of four straight wins, City slashed the teams’ goal differential to just six with last week’s 12-3 rampage against Clarence in which the state’s leading marksmen Thierry Swaby and Angus Taylor both bagged four goals.
Coach Daniel Syson could be heard beseeching his team not to let up as the goals were flying in at Prospect Park and believes they are capable of inflicting South’s first loss this season.
“In terms of where we are and our form coming into the game, to us it would not be a surprise,” he said. “Not to sound arrogant in any way, but when you look at both teams in terms of goals scored and conceded, I think we’ve scored six more goals and played a game less.
“With our frontline and the form we’re in, we’re fairly confident we can get something done.”
In addition to established goal machines Swaby and Taylor, who have amassed 41 goals between them, City have welcomed Toby Simeoni back from South Melbourne and the burly targetman also hit a first-half brace against Zebras.
Although Simeoni will soon be heading to Michigan to complete an engineering degree, Syson was delighted with the welcome addition to his squad.
“He got in touch six weeks ago and I was pretty happy,” he said. “Having had him in 2023, he’s a pretty unique centre-forward, so to have him has been excellent.”
South coach Max Clarke admitted City’s three-pronged strike force presents a formidable threat.
“They’ve got super dangerous attackers and obviously brought another one in during the window and we’re conscious of that,” he said.
“But we’ve played them twice this year and they haven’t scored a goal from open play yet, just three set-pieces. So we’re very aware of their threats and pretty good at mitigating them.”
Clarke said his squad was as excited for the fixture as they had been for last month’s Australia Cup clash with Simeoni’s former team, and was hopeful to have their goal-scorer from that match, Kobe Kemp, back in contention following a head knock.
“It’s super exciting for us because we haven’t won the league in seven or eight years so there’s a lot of boys in the squad who have been waiting around. It’s a bit early to get excited because you don’t want to get complacent. We obviously know that they need to come and win but we’re not the kind of team to sit back and hope for a draw, so I think it’s going to be an exciting game.”
Syson welcomed the opportunity to face the champions-in-waiting with a full squad, having been without key personnel in both previous meetings.
“I don’t think anyone is catching them if we don’t win this game,” he said.
“The idea of bringing me in two or three years ago was to get this club to where it’s competing and with the additions we’ve brought in and the boys here having a few more years' experience, we’ve got to a place where we’re consistent.
"It’s great, it’s rewarding but at the end of the day I always want more and winning these big games is when you go from competing to starting to win things.”
The Women’s Super League also sees unbeaten leaders closing in on a double, as Statewide Cup winners Devonport welcome fifth-placed Glenorchy to Valley Road enjoying a six-point lead over closest rivals South Hobart.
Fresh off their first game in a month - an unusually close 1-0 win over Kingborough - Strikers' coach Tom Ballantyne welcomed a return to regular action.
“Having that four-week break did us good in getting everyone back on the park, but we’ve just got to shake the rust off now,” he said.
“We looked like a pre-season friendly when we played Kingborough, so we’re just trying to get ourselves back up to speed.
“There’s still a fair few games to go so still a lot to play for, especially as we play South in the last game of the season - we don’t want to leave it until then. We just need to keep the performances going.”
Knights had a close look at South in a 4-1 loss last week, but centre-back Sarah Bolonja said there was no doubt who had been the standout women’s team this year.
“I think Devonport have proven themselves the best team in the competition consistently this whole year so are definitely the benchmark,” she said. “They’ve got a lot of older bodies that plays into their consistency as a team and that’s where we’re looking to progress next year.
“We’ve been really unlucky this year with injuries so we’re just trying to manage that. We’ve had multiple players out every week, so it’s been really hard putting our best team forward.
“We just want to get all our players back in and see how we really match up against these teams when we have everyone at their full potential.”
NPL Tasmania
Saturday, August 9
2pm South Hobart v Launceston City, D’Arcy Street
2.15pm Kingborough v Riverside Olympic, Lightwood Park
2.30pm Clarence v Launceston United, Wentworth Park
2.30pm Devonport v Glenorchy, Valley Road
Women’s Super League
Saturday, August 9
12.15pm Devonport v Glenorchy, Valley Road
4.30pm Kingborough v Riverside, Lightwood Park
Sunday, August 10
2pm South Hobart v Taroona, D’Arcy Street
BYE: Launceston United