By Andrew Cooling.
The Friday Forecast: New Season, New Contenders?
Welcome readers to the first edition of the Women’s Super League Friday Forecast, a weekly preview column I will be writing for this website each week throughout the 2022 season. It will forecast all the upcoming weekend action as well as touch on any major stories that might break mid-week. I will also be producing a review piece each Monday morning that will cover all the action from the weekend, which you will also be able to find here in the new MyState WSL News Hub. I will be doing the same thing for the NPL so make sure to check that one out as well.
Having taken a step back from the local game the past couple of seasons after finishing up in my media role with Football Tasmania in 2020, it’s fantastic to be back covering this league on a freelance basis and it’s interesting to see just how much the landscape has changed in the Super League in that relatively short amount of time.
Launceston United have come onto the scene and made an immediate impression, claiming a highly credible second-place finish in just their first season. The Devonport Strikers are providing a coastal representative once more and likewise put a good foot forward in their debut year, whilst Taroona are also back in the top division after a stint in the Championship. Now South Hobart are showing that they are to be considered a burgeoning force in the Women’s game. Enough to catch a Zebras side that romped to the title by 22 points last year? Well, given South just comfortably outplayed them in their Summer Cup victory, having already thumped them 4-0 in the group stage it certainly appears possible! The Zebras will still start the season as the side to beat but it would be a shock if it’s even remotely close to being as comfortable for them as last season was. It sets the stage for what should be an intriguing season of the MyState Women’s Super League. Given there were just 3 points separating the four sides from 2nd-5thlast year and South Hobart weren’t even one of those sides, we have the recipe for a very interesting season indeed and it all gets underway tonight!
Title Winning Duo Returns to Empire Couriers Park
The season kicks off at Empire Couriers Park with a clash between South Hobart and the Olympia Warriors and it represents a reunion for the Warriors with two key figures in their history. Alistair Russell coached the Warriors to the 2020 Super League title with Bonnie Davies the jewel in their crown, scoring a remarkable 30 goals in that title-winning season. The duo now returns in the colours of South Hobart plotting to bring about the downfall of their former side and given the form Davies has looked in over the pre-season, it’s going to be an uphill battle for the hosts.
South will be filled with confidence after claiming their first Women’s Football trophy on Monday with their 3-1 win over Clarence Zebras. It was a real statement performance, this wasn’t a smash and grab type effort where they took their chances, they completely deserved the win and appear to have thrown down the gauntlet and announced themselves as serious title contenders this season. Given they finished just a point from the bottom last year it represents quite the jump, but we have seen before in the Super League how an infusion of talent can help springboard some pretty rapid improvement. The new additions should help push an already talented and developing group that has been on the journey for a while now up to that next level.
The sides met just a fortnight earlier in the group stage of the Summer Cup and it was a closely fought battle, with South just edging out the Warriors 1-0. Other results against their Super League counterparts were not so pretty, falling to heavy defeats at the hand of Kingborough (8-2) and Clarence Zebras (5-0) and every indication suggests this will be a further year of rebuilding for the Warriors as they provide senior experience to younger players and hit the switch on a rebuild project.
Lions and Strikers shapes as tight affair
The action then continues on Saturday afternoon down at the Den as the Kingborough Lions play host to the Devonport Strikers. There was very little between the two sides in season 2021, with just one point separating them on the final table and two of their head-to-head clashes resulting in draws. The Strikers did claim a 4-2 win in the first meeting between the sides, but it was the Lions who ultimately finished ahead of them on the table up in third place. Hopefully we are treated to an opening game as entertaining as those two draws which ended 3-3 and 4-4 and saw some spectacular goals scored.
Goal scoring should be no problem again for the Lions this year, with star striker Laura Davis, the co-winner of the 2021 League Best and Fairest set to lead the line once more. She is the special type of player who can get hot and win a match off her own boot. Her form through the pre-season in attack with the experienced Danielle Kannegiesser and a youngster Cara Lasmar saw the Lions scoring freely and scoring often. Unfortunately, they were also conceding pretty freely when they took on Super League opponents, shipping five to South Hobart and three to Clarence Zebras and that again looms as a potential Achilles heel in any title aspirations they might have.
The Strikers first season in the top division can also be counted as a success, picking up 7 wins from their 18 games and establishing a good foothold in the top flight. Now they will look to build on that and push to become a side who can fight for trophies. We’ve seen what this club has achieved in the NPL side of things, they are very well resourced, very well run and now have the foundations in place to be a force in the Women’s game as well. Their coach Mal Gorrie was the mastermind behind Ulverstone’s remarkable perfect season in 2018, and doubtless, they will be hoping to turn the Strikers into a similar force on the Coast that Ulverstone was. With no Summer Cup form line to gauge them heading into the season, they are still a little bit of an unknown but a trip down to the Den should represent a good measuring stick as to the level they can bring this season.
Last years top two meet at Birch Avenue
If you had to describe Launceston’s United’s first season in the Women’s Super League you might well point to a yoyo. They started off in barnstorming fashion, winning 4 of their first 5 games to become the early pacesetters. Then in the months of May and June they lost five straight games, won their next three, lost the three after that before finally winning their final two to finish the season with an even 9 wins and 9 losses. Ultimately, whilst streaky, it has to be considered a massive success as it was enough to see them finishing in second place. So can they kick on in 2022? The word out of the North is they are quietly confident they can, even despite the loss of star player and League Best and Fairest winner Jess Robinson. In Ellie La Monte and Montana Leonard they have signed some major star power to offset that loss and they should be well set to give the Zebras as much as they can handle in this season opener.
Meanwhile what to make of the Clarence Zebras? Their performance in the Cup final was not quite at the level we have come to expect from this playing group and it makes them 0 for 2 v South Hobart so far in 2022, but let’s not forget just how far ahead of the rest of the league they were last season. They have lost some key players such as Mady O’Brien, Shelley Cook and Selina Steventon and that could well see them drop back to the pack. They will still be a very dangerous side though, because up top they still possess the league’s best strike force in the form of Zoe Nichols and Allie Berry. The dynamic duo remains two of the very best pure goal scorers in the league who will provide nightmares for opponents and a constant source of goals. They might well have to be at their very best because the defence has not been able to keep out South in the pre-season matches and doesn’t look as bankable as years previous. Round 1 will be a good test on the road against this strong Launceston United side and we should learn a lot from it. It’s on the Champions to respond as champion sides generally do.
MyState Financial WSL ROUND 1
Friday 18 March
Olympia Warriors vs South Hobart, 6:00pm, Empire Couriers Park
Saturday 19 March
Kingborough Lions vs Devonport Strikers, 12:30m, Clennett’s Lightwood Park
Launceston United vs Clarence Zebras, 2:30pm, Birch Avenue