Final Series Round 3 – National Premier Leagues 2 Womens Preview
Preliminary Semi-Final: Central Coast Mariners vs SD Raiders, Sunday 26 August, 4:15pm, Valentine Sports Park #3
Let’s do this one more time. Central Coast Mariners and SD Raiders tangle for the fourth time this season, with the final spot in the NPL2 Womens Grand Final on the line, Sunday afternoon at Valentine Sports Park.
Bogey side? Hoodoo? Whatever you call it, SD Raiders have the wood over the Mariners this season. The sides have met three times with the south-west outfit taking all three decisions, the latest in the first week of the finals where thanks to Kasia Wojtowicz and Elizabeth O’Reilly goals.
During the season, SD Raiders triumphed 2-1 and 4-1, the latter being the Raiders best performance in the second half of the season. Since then though, their side has resembled a hospital ward, although they have battled bravely with spare parts coming together to this weekend’s huge contest.
Speaking before the game, Raiders coach Matt Constantini is happy to take the underdog tag headed into the weekend: “Once again, we’re happy to be the underdogs, we have our plan in place which we need to execute and take our chances this week. Finally, we need to defend well against a deadly attacking team like [Central Coast Mariners].”
Crucial to their execution of the plan is Logan Garard. The striker buzzed around the park last weekend, her pace and touch caused the stoic Olympic defense some problems, she’ll need to reprise that role again in a fruitful partnership with O’Reilly to fight fire with the Mariners varied attack.
Across the other side of the park, the Mariners have shown more heart than Winx in the final few stretches of a Group 1 race. They recovered from their first weekend loss, also the dramatic loss of Candice Phelan after 15 minutes to score a 90th minute winner against APIA Leichhardt Tigers to get to this weekend.
Whilst they will miss Phelan and her 44 goals, youngster Iona Snape fitted into the talisman role like a glove, the diminutive striker battled well against the APIA defense and against a wily SD Raiders defense, the youngster is in for another big test.
Mariners coach Dan Barrett admitted “there will be changes this weekend due to injuries. Saying that, the squad is excited and ready to hopefully be fourth time lucky against the bogey team.” Barrett has a wealth of options at his disposal.
The aforementioned Snape, also speedster Jordan Evans and the choice that he used against APIA, Melissa Swinfield played up top with aplomb meaning Barrett has a smorgasbord of choices as he looks to combat SD Raiders, break the hoodoo and possibly take the final spot in the Grand Final.
Throwing all that together makes for a wonderful, entertaining and mouth-watering contest between two of the heavyweights of the NPL2 Womens competition as they battle to take the final spot in the Grand Final against Sydney Olympic FC.
By Justin Davies
