The Super League returns for Round 7 after a thrilling weekend of Statewide Cup Quarter Final action that saw the top four sides in the league taking each other on in a pair of cup classics. Those matches demonstrated just how slim the margins between the top sides are this season and really hammered home that we have an almightily interesting Super League season in prospect here with a wide-open title race.
We get more of that title race unfolding this weekend with Devonport and Clarence set to renew hostilities in a rematch of last week’s narrow 1-0 Strikers win in what will be the only game of the taking place in the WSL this weekend due to some late re-fixturing.
The Statewide Cup game between Kingborough and Ulverstone will now be played on Sunday instead of Lions v Taroona and Olympia has unfortunately forfeited their clash with Launceston United due to being unable to field a starting XI.
That means that both Launceston United and South Hobart will take a week off after their Cup classic that went all the way to penalties. United ultimately held their nerve and advanced through to the final four but South can take plenty from that showing on the road. Penalties certainly aren’t a lottery, but there is an undoubtedly a much greater element of luck that comes into play from spot kicks and 2-2 after 120 minutes shows how closely matched they are. United continue to get the job done and are rightly the front runners as it stands but that gap is narrow and they will need to maintain their level or risk being caught as the season wears on.
South Hobart certainly showed they wouldn’t dwell on their elimination and drew level on points with United courtesy of their midweek 5-0 win over Taroona with leading markswoman Bonnie Davies hitting another hat-trick. United do still have a game in hand and can now take a breath ahead of a massive month of football coming up that will see them play a Cup Semi Final, South and Zebras and potentially a Cup Final! They’ve been brilliant so far and passed every challenge with aplomb, but those challenges now come thick and fast in the next month for United.
Strikers Look For Repeat Victory
In the only WSL game we get this week, for the second week in a row the Devonport Strikers will host the Clarence Zebras at Valley Road and for the second week in a row the stakes are high. Having bounced the defending WSL Champions out of the Statewide Cup last weekend, they will now look to jump them on the league table and move into outright third place. The Zebras strong goal difference means that they hold sway for now, with both sides currently tied with 2 wins and 2 losses from their opening 4 games but with Zebras cashing in against Taroona and Olympia, they have a remarkable +21 goal differential despite that 2 and 2 record.
Last week it was youngster Mikayla Goss whose lone goal was enough to split the sides after a tight tussle that appeared as though it could be headed to extra time and another close game is to be expected this time around. There really isn’t much between the sides, with the Zebras coming right back to the pack in 2022 after being so dominant last year.
Both sides have lost to South Hobart and Launceston United, with Devonport running those two opponents closer losing both games by 1 goal, whereas Clarence lost them both by 2 goals. Add in last week’s result and the home ground advantage and you’d have to give the edge to the Strikers in this one, but only narrowly. Both teams had their scoring chances to advance last week and ultimately Goss was the one to take hers. It could be a similar affair this time around and any side with Berry and Nichols leading the line is always going to be a good chance of taking one. A loss for either side would leave them 9 points adrift of United, and whilst there is still plenty of football to come, that’s not much margin for error so it’s fair to say this is a vital 3 points up for grabs.
Lions Meet Reds in Cup Quarters
With Ulverstone and Kingborough’s Cup Quarter Final not taking place last week due to the “all-weather pitch” flooding, their Women’s Statewide Cup Quarter Final has now been moved to this Sunday, forcing a postponement of the originally scheduled Taroona v Kingborough game. It was obviously imperative the Cup game got played before the scheduled Semi-Final stage in 2 weeks’ time, so it had to be either this weekend or next, as obviously a Ulverstone v Kingborough game cannot be played midweek. Nor could a Kingborough v Devonport game which was scheduled for the WSL next week, whereas a Taroona v Lions game should be fairly easy to slot in midweek at some point. So this was really the only option Football Tasmania had, the game simply had to be played this weekend and as such we have just the one WSL clash and the Lions taking on the Reds instead of the Pirates.
The Lions season has been a completely disjointed one to date. It has been filled with byes or postponements so far in the opening couple of months meaning they have still only played 4 matches in all competitions since Round 1 kicked off in Mid-March. It’s made it tough for them to build into the season and fix the defensive problems that have plagued them when they have played and seem them win just 1 of the 4 games.
The Reds have also had a massively disrupted season, with multiple covid postponements meaning they have only played the 4 matches themselves. All four have been very comfortable wins, with the closest a 4-0 result. The step up to the WSL is real though and this will comfortably be their toughest game of the year. I feel tremendous sympathy for the players who travelled all the way to Hobart last weekend to ultimately not play and you wouldn’t begrudge them the upset here after copping that, but it will certainly be tough work against a Lions side who aren’t lacking in attacking firepower and should be advancing through to the final four if they bring their best football.
Warriors Forfeit to Launceston United
The final game of the round will no longer go ahead with Olympia announcing they would be forfeiting the fixture. The Warriors released the following statement on their Social Media this morning.
“After many discussions with the WSL Coaching staff and Football Tasmania, Olympia finds itself in a very difficult position.
I can not in good conscience send our ladies with the toll the Club has endured with our injury list to Launceston this weekend. We have a maximum of 10 players available to travel and that does not bode well for us as a Club, especially in a WSL clash.
Our injury list has taken its toll along with other players being mainly Critical Care Workers that are unable to change their work commitments, thus we are unable to fill a full squad of 11 players let alone ideally 15.
It is with deepest regret that if no other solution can be found and this decision is not taken likely in the current climate, that Olympia FC will need to forfeit this weekend's WSL match against Launceston United.
With our deepest regrets
Olympia FC”
Clearly no other solution was found, as the game has been confirmed as a forfeit. It’s certainly a disappointing situation and undoubtedly a tough look for the league. United might well feel a bit aggrieved here too, missing a good chance to bolster their goal difference. A 3-0 score from a forfeit is usually sufficient but given the lopsided results in the WSL so far this year, you’d probably expect at home they might well have done better than that. Ellie La Monte may well have closed the gap in the Golden Boot race too, although good luck to anyone trying to catch Bonnie Davies, and after this that seems even more unlikely now!