Monday, August 19, 2019

Devonport City are all but NPL Tasmania champions with three games remaining


Photo:  South Hobart's Jack Bowman deals with Clarence United's Lachie Burt [PlessPix]

Devonport City all but secured the 2019 NPL Tasmania title on Saturday with a 4-2 home win over second-last Riverside Olympic at Valley Road.

City can be caught by second-placed Olympia Warriors, but Devonport’s superior goal-difference (+58 as opposed to +41) would see them retain their title.  The Warriors have no chance of making up this leeway.

Both Devonport and Olympia have three games remaining, but Olympia could still be docked 3 points after playing an ineligible player in the 3-1 win over South Hobart.

It beats me why Olympia’s appeal hearing has not yet been held.  I asked Football Tasmania president Bob Gordon when it would be held and he told me he had no idea.

If the hearing had been held and if Olympia lost and were deducted 3 points, the title race would be over.

Now it remains for Devonport to make certain of the title when they host Riverside Olympic again on Wednesday night at Valley Road in a catch-up game.

Having beaten Riverside 4-2 at Valley Road on Saturday, they are unlikely to lose any sleep about this meeting four days later and they can crack open the champagne after this game.

I don’t know if they will be presented with the trophy on Wednesday night or if they will have to wait until the last day of the league season on 7 September, when they are away to South Hobart.

On Saturday, Mile Barnard netted twice against Riverside, with the other goals coming from Joel Stone and Todd Hingston, the latter with a penalty.

Riverside’s marksmen were Nil Sanz and Will Coert.

Photo:  Kingborough keeper Kenneth Perkinson parries the ball [PlessPix]

The weekend program had got off to an exiting start on Friday night at Lightwood Park, where home side Kingborough Lions United beat Hobart Zebras 3-2.

A curling chip from range by Keenan Douce in the first minute if stoppage time at the end of the match proved the winner for the Lions.

Horacio Gutierrez Jr had given them the lead two minutes after the break from a Cameron Steele corner, but Mathew Sanders equalised for the visitors two minutes later.

In the 52nd minute, another set-piece by Steele was nodded home by centre-back Nick Cuthbertson to restore the Lions’ lead.

An own-goal by Chris Downes midway through the second half made it 2-2 before Douce came up with the late winner for the home side.

Photo:  Knights' Alex Leszczynski controls the ball ahead of City's Matthew Oh [PlessPix]

Glenorchy Knights took the lead against the visiting Launceston City after just 13 seconds through Nick Naden and they never looked back after this terrific start.  The move involved Tyler Harrison, Alex Bellini and Alex Leszczynski, while Naden finished superbly.

An own-goal by Matthew Oh in the  9th minute made it 2-0, while Naden hit the third in the 71st minute following a brilliant piece of skill and an out-side of the right-foot cross by Bellini.

On Sunday, South Hobart annihilated bottom-side Clarence United 13-1 at home at South Hobart Oval, with Ben Hamlett netting five goals.

Siyar Kurdistan scored his first NPL goal in his first start, while Nick Morton and Sam Tooze each grabbed a brace and Adam Gorrie and Bradley Lakoseljac netted one goal each.

Romolo Moynihan scored a consolation goal for Clarence.

Latest NPL Tasmania Results

Kingborough Lions United 3 (H Gutierrez Jr 47, N Cuthbertson 52, K Douce 91) beat Hobart Zebras 2 (M Sanders 49, C Downes 66 og)

Glenorchy Knights 3 (N Naden 1, 71, Matthew Oh 19 og) beat Launceston City 0

Devonport City 4 (M Barnard 15, 39, J Stone 70, T Hingston 75 pen) beat Riverside Olympic 2 (N Sanz 41, W Coert 86)

South Hobart 13 (B Hamlett 10, 42, 66, 84, 86, 87, S Kurdistan 35, A Gorrie 36, N Morton 46, 71, B Lakoseljac 58, S Tooze 80, 85) beat Clarence United 1 (R Moynihan 65)

NPL Tasmania (As at 18 August 2019)

TEAM
P
W
D
L
F
A
Pts
Devonport City
21
18
2
1
77
19
56
Olympia Warriors
21
15
2
4
68
27
47
South Hobart
20
12
4
4
73
27
40
Hobart Zebras
21
10
6
5
63
41
36
Glenorchy Knights
21
8
2
11
52
40
26
Kingborough Lions
21
8
2
11
39
44
26
Launceston City
21
6
4
11
31
41
22
Riverside Olympic
20
4
2
14
20
53
14
Clarence United
22
1
0
21
7
148
3

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Apparently the Olympia appeal is still on hold because they are waiting for Mamacas to come back from overseas. Apparently he "represents" the club on these matters. Hearing set down for the 28th August.
What piffle - they broke a pretty black and white rule, they pay the penalty. Wouldn't surprise me if Devonport sew up the title on Wednesday night, that Warriors withdraw the appeal, knowing they can't delay the inevitable any longer.

Fredrick Forsyth said...

Dying to know what they are appealing on. The rules are straight forward. It's the clubs responsibility to make sure their players are eligible. Please let the appeal happen and please let us know what their argument is...we need some late-season humour! Merry Christmas all

Anonymous said...

Surely Olympia will be penalised for dropping back five players to the Challenge when the maximum is three.
Does anyone at Olympia know the rules and laws of the game?

Anonymous said...

Fft are toothless when it comes to player movements.
Look how they did nothing about Kobe Kemp. A South Hobart player that transferred outside of the transfer window.

Anonymous said...

That's a restriction for two teams in the same league. There is no rule against stacking in the challenge league. I agree it should be a rule that exists but every team has stacked during the course of the competition and all teams have lost points because of this.

Anonymous said...

This rule doesn't exist. Challenge league has no rules related to the stacking of players as it's considered a senior or championship competition.

Olympia did not break any laws in playing their players and most clubs have done this at some point during the competition particularly with the introduction of byes. In the end every team has dropped points as a result of other senior teams having byes and it's a fault of the league not having rules, even South Hobart have done this.