NPL Tasmania leadership at stake tonight

Photo:  Kingborough's Kobe Kemp (left) is the leading NPL Tasmania marksman at present with 19 goals. [PlessPix] 

Glenorchy Knights, the current leaders in the NPL Tasmania competition, host second-placed South Hobart at KGV Park this evening in a top-of-the-table clash that will either confirm the status quo or produce a new leader.

Knights currently lead South Hobart by 2 points so if Knights win they will extend that lead to 5 points with three games remaining.

If South Hobart win, they will move a point ahead of Knights and it will be their title to lose.

Neither Knights coach, James Sherman, who has announced he is leaving the club at the end of the season, nor South Hobart coach Ken Morton, would be drawn into a discussion of the importance of this game when I spoke to them by phone on Thursday.

Both considered it just another game and said there was still time to make up ground in the coming weeks if their side did lose.

Morton said he was managing the minutes played by players who had been carrying injuries and that’s all that he could do.  He said Japanese defender Musashi Kokubo, who was an unused substitute last weekend, would come back into the team.

Sherman said his side would be at full strength so no changes to the starting eleven would probably me made.

Given this sparsity of information, I consulted South Hobart’s legendary statistician, Keith Roberts, the doyen of Tasmanian football statisticians, in an attempt to bill this game as the most exciting between these two teams in Tasmanian football history.

Keith could not vouch that it is, indeed, this, but he gave me some fascinating statistics which should lead to tonight’s commentators having some things to talk about if they so wish.

The two sides first met in a cup final back in 1960.  That year’s Ascot Cup Final, a competition that has long since disappeared, between South Hobart and Croatia, ended in a 4-4 draw and after extra-time, South Hobart won on corners.  Now that’s one for the history books.

The sides have met in three Summer Cup Finals.  In 2003, Knights won 1-0, while in 2004, South Hobart won 2-1.  The 2010 final was won 4-0 by South Hobart.

Oddly enough, they have never met in any other cup final.

Tonight’s meeting is the 150^th between the clubs.

In the past 16 games between them since 2020, Knights have won only three times.

Well, there you have it.  Are you brave enough to predict tonight’s outcome?

I’m not.  As I often say, football is so popular around the globe because of its sheer unpredictability.

In games on Saturday (tomorrow), reigning champions and current third-placed outfit Devonport City host sixth-ranked Riverside Olympic at Valley Road at 4.30pm, bottom-side Launceston United meet second-last Clarence Zebras at Birch Avenue at 2.15pm, and fourth-placed Kingborough Lions United entertain fifth-placed Launceston City at Lightwood Park at 4.45pm.

The winners may be Devonport and Kingborough, while Clarence Zebras may be held to a draw.  I am not predicting that this will be the case.

It will be interesting to see if Launceston United can earn their first point, or points, of the season.  They will never get a better chance.

Photo:  South Hobart's Nick Morton (left) will become the NPL Tasmania leading scorer if he can notch a hat-trick against Glenorchy Knights this evening. [PlessPix] 

 NPL Tasmania Standings (As at 15 August 2024)

TEAM	P	W	D	L	F	A	Pts
Glenorchy Knights	17	12	4	1	73	18	40
South Hobart	17	11	5	1	53	24	38
Devonport City	17	10	5	2	42	17	35
Kingborough Lions	17	10	3	4	56	32	33
Launceston City	17	7	3	7	30	28	24
Riverside Olympic	17	4	1	12	24	58	13
Clarence Zebras	17	3	1	13	24	51	10
Launceston United	17	0	0	17	12	92	0

 NPL Tasmania Leading Goalscorers

19    Kobe Kemp (Kingborough Lions United)

17    Nick Morton (South Hobart)

16    Noah Mies (Kingborough Lions United)

15    Joshua Redfearn (Glenorchy Knights), Stefan Cordwell                     (Glenorchy Knights)