WITH the Australia Day match just around the corner, preparations for Round 15 of the Northern Territory Football League Women’s (NTFLW) are beginning to ramp up. The competition had the weekend off due to the annual Australia Day matchup, so the players will be fresh and ready to go by the time proceedings kick off. To make things even more interesting, finals are just around the corner, and the top four is far from locked in at this stage. With just four weeks of the home-and-away season remaining, there are plenty of stakes heading into each clash heading forward, and this week, the biggest clash is between two finals hopefuls.

St Mary’s vs. Southern Districts

Saturday, January 29 @4:30pm
TIO Stadium

In a matchup that could shape the landscape of the standings moving forward, the Southern Districts will travel to TIO Stadium to take on St Mary’s on Saturday afternoon. The two sides are both looking to secure one of the finals spots up for grabs, so this should prove to be a thrilling contest.

St Mary’s have been slightly out of form lately, having not won a match since Round 11. Their last two matches have resulted in some pretty significant losses, and one of these was at the hands of the opponent they take on this week. They will certainly need to improve their performance this week, but will have the benefit of knowledge from the last match against the Districts. In that match, they allowed their opponents to run rampant with the ball and hit the scoreboard with ease. This has been a common problem for them in losses, so their defensive work across the ground will need to lift. In the Round 12 loss to the Southern Districts, Eliza Shannon was named St Mary’s best player, so expect her to be amongst the action again this week.

The Districts should be heading into this clash with fresh legs given they had the bye in Round 14 and the break over this past weekend. They may take some time to warm up into the pace of the match, but heading into their bye they were in some impressive form. In their most recent outing, they pushed the ladder-leading Tigers to the limit, only falling by nine points in a thrilling clash. They have shown in the back half of the season that they can do some damage in the finals, but their current objective remains the same and that is to push themselves into the top four, and that quest continues this weekend. They got the win over St Mary’s a few weeks ago, and that was boosted by a three-goal haul to Abby Hewett, so if she can make the same impact this week, it will go a long way in securing the victory.

AROUND THE GROUNDS:

Moving across the grounds now, the Wanderers will kick things off for the round when they take on Waratah in the traditional Australia Day clash at Gardens Oval on Wednesday. The teams are in the midst of contrasting season, with Waratah sitting nicely in third position on the ladder, while the Wanderers have won just two matches this season. However, Waratah’s spot on the ladder is highly sought after at the moment, and they are far from locked into a finals spot, so if the Wanderers can cause an upset, then things will certainly be shaken up.

A few days later, the Darwin Buffaloes will be looking to get back on the winners list when they take on the Palmerston Magpies at Cazaly’s Arena on Saturday afternoon. The Buffaloes were undefeated for the first 12 rounds of the season, but have now sustained back-to-back losses, and are considered a beatable opponent amongst the league. They face a struggling Magpies side this week, but they will need to improve their recent form if they are to get their record back on track.

The final match of the round will see PINT play host to Tracy Village when the two sides go head-to-head at DXC Arena on Saturday night. The reigning premiers currently occupy the final spot in the top four, but there are a number of sides looking to steal this by the end of the regular season. However, PINT have been in red-hot form of late, and they take on a Tracy Village side that is yet to win a match in the 2021/22 season, so they will be heavily favoured in this clash.