In Round 8 of the Super League, Launceston United inflicted a body blow on the defending Champion Clarence Zebras, maintaining their perfect start to the year and taking an enormous stride towards the title with a 5-4 win in the game of the year. Elsewhere Jazmin White raised the bat on a significant milestone at Valley Road as the Strikers routed the Lions and South Hobart had a nice goal differential boost as they smashed the Warriors.
United Fight Back To Score Enormous Win
When Georgia Burt put the ball in the back of the net early in the second half to extend the Clarence Zebras lead to 3-1 it appeared as though Launceston United’s bubble was finally about to burst. A disappointing first 45 minutes could be explained away somewhat by a wind advantage favouring the far end of the pitch, but to concede at the other end so early in the second half certainly boded well for the Zebras’ hopes and suggested that United’s run was set to come to an end. What followed was a stunning response as United firmly stamped their title credentials in emphatic style.
In the unfamiliar position of having to chase a game, United showed that’s also something they are more than capable of delivering by digging deep to score four straight goals to overrun the Zebras and claim a win 5-4 on the road. Make no mistake, league titles are won from these sorts of performances; this was a seismic result. They lead the defending champion Zebras by 12 points, albeit having played one extra game, but they now sit firmly in the driver’s seat of the title race and it appears only South Hobart can seriously challenge them now.
The first half saw the Zebras largely dominating the contest and doing the bulk of the attacking. They earned 8 corners in the first 25 minutes of the match, eventually scoring from one as Stalker poked home from close range.
That was then cancelled out somewhat against the run of play by Ellie La Monte, who showed her sharp goalscoring instincts by reacting quickest to get to the loose ball after a free kick was deflected into the crossbar by Kacee Ponting in saving Dani Gunton’s free kick.
But the Zebras deservedly restored their lead before halftime as Zoe Nichols scored from the top of the box with a casual swing of her left boot, putting it in as easy as you like and it was 2-1 Zebras at the break.
Given the clear wind advantage at play, 2-1 actually seemed a reasonable result for United and the Zebras probably should’ve been ahead by at least 2 at this stage of the game.
They soon would be when they then scored again to start the second half. Georgia Burt fired home at the third time of asking after Carnie had denied Berry and then Stalker’s follow up shot was cleared off the line in the buildup. It made it 3-1 and given how badly the Zebras needed the win, from there they opted to sit back and try hold onto that lead.
But they simply could not hold back what was about to come at them as United’s stars shone and sparked the fight back.
La Monte pulled the first back on 55 minutes with her second of the day, a clever looping header after a flick on from the long throw into the box before ten minutes of madness turned the game on its head.
On 73 minutes United drew level when La Monte turned provider, storming down the left, drawing a crowd before squaring it up for Alex Mitchell who took one touch and then picked out the far corner to square the game up.
A minute later Mitchell would set up the go-ahead goal, feeding the marauding Dickinson who took advantage of Ponting staying on her line to run onto a ball and blasting it home from a tight angle.
Five minutes later and Madi Gilpin then made it 5-3 as she volleyed the ball just over the line from a corner despite a desperate last effort on the line from Georgia Burt to keep it out.
The madness didn’t stop there though as a suddenly reeling Zebras managed to pull one back almost instantly with Lou Marmion reacting quickly in the penalty area to give her side a glimmer of hope by cutting it to 5-4.
Given it had just gone from 3-2 to 5-4 in the space of just 10 minutes of play, I don’t think anyone was prepared to call the game for either side at this point with 6 more minutes of regulation time remaining, but that would be all the scoring that was done. United saw the game out and claimed the enormous victory that surely has them starting to believe this could be a special season for them.
This was a gripping match from start to finish, a genuine contest that could’ve gone either way. The league has some problems with imbalance at the moment certainly, but whenever the top sides are playing each other we are almost guaranteed a gripping clash and this delivered on everything you’d want from a game. It may well also prove to be one Launceston United look back on at the end of the season as a defining day in season 2022.
White Tons Up As Strikers Hammer Lions
At Valley Road it was a far less gripping contest, but certainly, a dominant one as the Devonport Strikers hammered the Kingborough Lions 7-1. A week before they are set to meet in a Statewide Cup Semi Final, the Strikers ensured they will be red hot favourites for it and dealt a potentially big blow to the psyche of the Lions in the process.
The star of the show was Jazmin White who added another 5 goals to her tally, tearing the Lions defence to shreds with her pace and scoring instincts. The five-goal haul also brought with it a huge milestone for White, scoring her 100th Super League goal to become the first player in league history to reach a century of goals. She has done it at an absolute rapid pace, scoring them in just 65 games! That’s a clip of 1.55 goals per match, an absolutely incredible return. She scored 71 of the goals in 42 games across the 2018 and 2019 seasons at Ulverstone, before continuing her goalscoring at the Portress by adding another 30 goals in her 24 starts for the Strikers in 2021 and 2022. These are otherworldly numbers and show the impact White has had on her sides leading the line, a truly brilliant goal scorer and a fine achievement in such a short window.
As for the Lions, well they have had a disrupted season this year, but have so far hovered in fifth place, falling in between what seems a fairly tight top 4 and a clear bottom 2. The Lions were looking to push into that top 4 group, but on the evidence of this display, they might be closer to the bottom 2 than they are the top 4. They continue to leak goals against strong attacks and this is a fairly alarming result for them given they largely outplayed the Strikers back in Round 1. Goldfish memories will be required if they are to turn the tables in next weekends Semi Final, although they will at least have home ground advantage for it this time around.
South Batter Warriors
The Olympia Warriors rough season continued as South Hobart hit them for double figures at Darcy Street on Sunday in a 10-0 win. Bonnie Davies continued her strong form in front of goal by scoring four times, Mia Cane chimed in with a hat-trick and Talia White bagged a brace as they coasted to victory against an opponent that started the game with just 10 players.
There’s not really too much to say about this one. Clearly things are pretty dire at the Warriors at the present time and I can only hope they pick up. To only take the field with 10 starters practically meant that this was only ever going to end one way. Credit to Shelley Cook who had a very good game in goals doing all she could to limit the damage, and you can’t question the endeavour of the players they are putting out there, but they are on a hiding to nothing right now and this was only ever ending one way. The Second placed side was looking to boost their goal difference and they duly did just that. Last week Launceston United only got the 3-0 result with Olympia forfeiting, so South essentially made up +7 on them in the space of a week and now have a +22 edge, with United now 4 goals back of them on +18. With just three points between the pair that could yet prove vital.
The good news for Olympia, is next week is a cup weekend so maybe in a fortnight’s time they can get some more players back and try to gain a foothold in the season. The bad news is that return game is against a Zebras side that put 11 past them earlier this year.