HOCKEY
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SOUTHS will square off against Parkes in what is undoubtedly the biggest game of their women’s Premier League Hockey season to date in Parkes as part of today’s gala round.
The match offers both teams, currently level on 20 points, the chance to climb four points clear of the other with a victory.
It also gives Souths the chance to make up for their semi-final loss to Parkes last year.
Souths’ superior for-and-against currently has them in third, two points adrift of pacesetters Lithgow Panthers and Bathurst City.
After last week’s 2-0 win over Lithgow Zig Zag, Souths actually have more wins (five) than any other team in the competition, but their three losses mean they sit behind the two frontrunners.
“I believe this is the most important game of the year so far, yes,” Souths coach Melissa Bestwick said.
“Possibly this is a good time to get Parkes after they lost 4-1 to City last week, but we don’t want to read too much into that. Across the entire grade it is always difficult to judge an away team compared to how strong they are at home.
“They are a very formidable outfit when they’re playing at home and they’ll be out to show that last week was just a one-off.”
Souths were rusty last weekend against Zig Zag, struggling to deal with their awkward defensive style and not stringing the sort of passing sequences together that they had been in earlier rounds.
That may have been down to two consecutive weekends off in the lead-up.
Now they take on the best defence in the competition, one that concedes less than two goals per game. Bestwick knows that they have to be more fluent to break down Parkes.
“Last week the rust was a factor, our match fitness wasn’t good and with Zig Zag having 11 players behind the ball we weren’t able to get any fluency, though it was good to win when we were well below our best,” she said.
“Parkes are such a strong defensive side. They also have a tendency to push their second centre-half into attack, so we’ve spoken already about defending that style, and trying to counter-attack off the back of it.
“I was lucky enough to watch them play against St Pat’s in the match they won in the final minutes, and I saw the first half of the match against City last week before we had to head to Lithgow.
“They are a good side, there’s no doubt about that, but it has been fortunate that I’ve had a chance to see them first hand and try to work out a few plans to try and break them down.”
For the first time since the early rounds of the competition, Souths will have their full squad available, leaving Bestwick with the nice problem of who to leave out rather than who to bring in.
Souths will play Parkes from 10.30am in the first of four women’s games being played at Parkes.