Friday, April 28, 2023

Four intriguing quarterfinal ties looming in Women's State-wide Cup tomorrow

Photo:  Nina Daniels (left) of New Town White Eagles and goalkeeper Jenna Farrow of South Hobart at today's media conference. [PlessPix] 

Four intriguing Women’s State-wide Cup quarterfinals are scheduled for tomorrow.

Being cup matches, it is difficult to predict the outcomes.

Southern Championship outfit New Town White Eagles host Women’s Super League leaders South Hobart at Clare Street at noon tomorrow.

Eagles go into this game coming off a surprise 1-0 league win against the highly fancied University last weekend.

The confidence engendered by that result will spur Eagles on against South Hobart, who beat Kingborough Lions United 3-1 in last Sunday’s league match.

Photo:  Jenna Farrow, South Hobart's goalkeeper, has Women's A-League experience with Adelaide United and senior experience in Victoria with South Melbourne Hellas.  She also played in Hobart with Olympia Warriors. [PlessPix] 

“The State-wide Cup is always very important to every club,” said South Hobart goalkeeper Jenna Farrow.

“You want to win as many trophies as possible, but we’re not naïve going into this game as we know Eagles have some ex-Super League players.

“We’re going to come in all guns blazing and giving it one hundred per cent.

“The difference between Super League and Championship isn’t all that big a gap, so we understand we have to be at 100 per cent.

“I’ve never played at Clare Street so I don’t know what the pitch is like, but we’ll just play the way we always play.

“We’re a high-pressing team and we like to keep the ball and so that’s how we’re going to play.”

Farrow said she knew Eagles had a few former Super League players such as Maddy O’Brien, Zoe Nichols and Kate Ollerhead but that South would play their normal style of football.

She said she had played against them in 2020 and knew what they were capable of, but that if South played their style of football they shouldn’t have too many issues with Eagles.

“We know that if we don’t play the way we want to play, we’ll get punished,” Farrow said.  “It’s a simple as that.”

Photo:  Eagles' Nina Daniels is an accomplished footballer and is also academically talented.  She is currently studying for a PhD in a scientific/medical field. [PlessPix] 

New Town White Eagles’ Nina Daniels said it would definitely be a touch match.

“It’s no secret that South Hobart are a really, really tough team to play against, But I think for us at Eagles it’s really exciting to see what we can do against them,” Daniels said.

“It’ll be really exciting to see how we go, especially at home.

“We just had a pretty good game on the weekend beating the reigning champions of the past two seasons, University.

“It’s exciting to see what we can bring to the table in such a good competition.

“South Hobart are probably expected to win, but I guess we have nothing to lose going in to this competition so we’ll just go in as hard as we can and see if can cause an upset.

“We’ve started the season well and are currently four from four and we just beat Uni, who have only lost twice in two years now and have been top of the ladder for the past two years.

“We’ve started well but we still have a lot of room to grow and I think that will come as the season progresses.

“It’s going to be a tough one, but we got our heads held high and it should be a good game.

“We’ll play our own style, which has stood us in good stead so far, and see what we can do.”

The other three ties look quite evenly matched.

Super League sides Devonport Strikers and Launceston United should make it to the semi-finals by beating lower level opponents in Ulverstone and Taroona, respectively.

The all-Super League pairing of Kingborough Lions United and Clarence Zebras looks pretty even.

Both teams have some high-quality performers and the contest on KGV Park’s artificial surface under the superb new floodlights will be an enthralling encounter.

Women’s State-wide Cup Quarterfinals, Saturday, 29 April 2023

New Town White Eagles v South Hobart (Clare Street, noon)

Ulverstone v Devonport Strikers (Ulverstone Showground 2pm)

Launceston United v Taroona (Birch Avenue, 4.30pm)

Kingborough Lions United v Clarence Zebras (KGV Park, 6pm)

 

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Lets hope the changerooms at Clare St are open for the ladies this weekend.

Anonymous said...

Photo of Nina Daniels in action a few threads back. Looks a powerful and balanced player. Didn't look second tier to me!

Anonymous said...

Nina has been netting goals for years at both beachside and new town. Great player!