Glenorchy Knights will be in action for the first time in the NPL Summer Cup when they travel to Launceston tomorrow to face Riverside Olympic at 2pm at Windsor Park.
Most of the Knights players will already have seen action, however, as they played for the club’s second-string eleven in two of the Southern Championship Summer Cup games.
Knights coach James Sherman has a strong squad this season and his biggest task may well be keeping everyone happy.
Everyone wants to play in the first team, but if the squad is too large, someone will be disappointed.
Sherman’s team should win their first NPL Summer Cup game easily, however, judging from Riverside’s opening performance last weekend when they went down 8-1 to South Hobart away from home.
Clarence Zebras host Launceston City at KGV Park at 2.30pm tomorrow in what could be a close match given the traditional rivalry between these two clubs.
City were outplayed and hammered 9-0 away by Olympia Warriors last Saturday, while Clarence Zebras were unlucky to lose 2-1 to Kingborough Lions United.
This appears to swing the scales in favour of Clarence Zebras, who are coached by Franco Previdi.
Dwayne Walsh is likely to come into the Clarence Zebras line-up after injury. He came through unscathed on Wednesday night in the club’s Southern Championship Summer Cup match and scored his side’s goal from a free-kick.
Kingborough Lions United host Olympia Warriors at 5pm at Lightwood Park tomorrow and both sides go into this game with wins under their belts.
It promises to be an entertaining fixture and Kingboorugh’s Ben Hamlett will be keen to do well against his former club.
South Hobart have the bye.
In the Southern Championship Summer Cup, Kingborough Lions United take on Beachside at 5.45pm at KGV Park, while Hobart United meet Glenorchy Knights at the same venue at 8.15pm.
The scheduling of this second game is playing with fire as floodlight failure is looming as a possibility. Hopefully, the lights have been fixed, but don’t be surprised if the game is abandoned at some stage.
Beachside will have some players missing because of work commitments and the early kick-off.
Coach Romilton Amaral will again introduce some youngsters to see where they are at in terms of development.
He praised the previous Under-18 coaches for the work they have done in developing youngsters.
He expects Kingborough to have a young side that will test his team.
Tomorrow, New Town White Eagles meet South East United at noon at KGV Park.
Eagles will not be at full strength as Ben Whitehall and Rowan Heggie are both suspended after each collected two yellow cards in the two games to date.
Henry Lush suffered a thigh strain at training yesterday and will miss the game, while Andrew Telega is still out with an Achilles tendon issue.
Eagles have signed former Clarence and
Hobart Zebras utility player Paul Palmer and he will probably start on the
bench, as will Mitch Free and Monty Pilkington.
Ronan Longden, James Phillips and Tad Madzikanda will come into the Eagles starting line-up.
"The positive is that we get to take a look at a few more players and see what our depth looks like in a few more positions," said Eagles coach, Tommy Fotak.
"We are still building toward the season proper and this is another challenging step along that path, so it will be interesting to see how we handle it."
South East United have lost their two games to date and it may be asking too much if them to get even a point from this encounter.
Olympia Warriors welcome Clarence Zebras to Warrior Park for a 12.30pm kick-off and the Warriors should be favourites.
South Hobart had a comfortable win over Metro on Wednesday night and they will find the going tougher against Taroona at South Hobart Oval at 2pm tomorrow.
Taroona looked good in downing Clarence Zebras 5-1 at KGV Park on Wednesday and they should give South Hobart a tough game.
Loic Feral, Declan Foley and Sam Tooze played for South Hobart against Metro and their senior experience will be a key factor in this game.
Metro entertain University at North Chigwell at 2pm and the Students should be too strong for the home side.
In the Women’s Summer Cup, Clarence Zebras will be far too strong for newcomers New Town White Eagles at 5pm at KGV Park tomorrow, while the match-of-the-round pits Kingborough Lions United against South Hobart at Lightwood Park at 2.30pm tomorrow.
The Lions slammed 16 goals past Eagles last weekend without reply and although this game will not be as easy, Lions should come out ahead on the lush surface at Lightwood Park.
Olympia Warriors host Glenorchy Knights at Warrior Park at 2.30pm tomorrow and the Warriors should be far too strong for the visitors.
