Super League Round 9 Preview

A full round of Saturday fixtures is the order of this weekend as Super League heads in to round nine.

And while some clubs welcomed a midweek break, six teams still had their Waratah Cup matches to play, keeping them busy. The opportunity was there though to give some squad players and Under 20s an opportunity for first team football, a chance taken by some.

One of those who played midweek were the new leaders, Macarthur Rams. They had an interesting tie against Canberra FC, and came away with another win, this time 3-1. With Claudio Canosa currently in Fiji with the Fijian national team, Gilbert Yalda took control and kept the winning ways going, the Rams making it five in a row. That surely serves as a warning to all clubs.

This week they travel to Francis Park to face Blacktown Spartans in a difficult fixture. The Spartans went down to Hills Brumbies last Sunday and slipped out of the five as a result. They will be keen to push themselves back into the group of front runners though as they seek to maintain their solid start. The Spartans have three of their next four matches at home and so the chance is there for them to make a further impression.

Hills Brumbies, after finally getting their first three pointer last weekend, travel to St George Stadium where they will encounter the meanest defence in the league. The Saints have only conceded four goals so far this season and so the Brumbies will have to be at their top notch best to breach that backline. But after getting their first win, their confidence levels will be up and they will fancy their chances to get something from this game. They progressed to the next round of the cup too, after defeating Gladesville Ryde Magic 4-3 on Wednesday night so they will be further boosted by that win.

The team who slipped from top last weekend was Spirit FC. They suffered a horrendous defeat, and their first loss of the season, at West Sydney Berries and were quickly into action on Wednesday in their cup game, but their week didn’t get any better, suffering a 3-1 loss at home to Northbridge FC. While the side wasn’t perhaps their first eleven, it is still a surprising result. Spirit will meet Granville Rage at Christie Park next up, but won’t find it easy. Granville moved up to fourth spot with their win over Central Coast, after a period of indifferent results.

Sydney University have been one team who have settled on the edges of the five without gaining too much attention. They are starting to get some good results and are the last team to defeat the Rams. They may not have performed to their optimum level last weekend but still came away with the points, a good sign. They defeated university rivals, UNSW in the cup by 2-1 and will take further encouragement from that victory. It is to Dulwich Hill that Uni travel this Saturday, needing to be wary. Dully have started slowly, just the two draws to date, but they are bound to come good at some stage, though the frustration levels at Arlington Oval must be rising.

Two clubs who both played midweek are Central Coast and Northern Tigers. Thankfully for the Coast, they had a home tie and avoided the need to travel but still stumbled to a 2-1 loss to Fairfield Bulls. Northern Tigers met Fairfield Wanderers away and didn’t fare any better, being stunned into a 0-2 defeat. They weren’t helped by the dismissal of Travis Oughtred, admittedly, although they were already two down by that stage.

Amazingly, the Tigers have only won the one game this season, at Fraser Park, something causing many headaches at Mills. It won’t be getting any easier this round either as they travel to Lisarow. Central Coast may have slipped down the table a little but that is more due to a lack of games than to poor results. They will need to recover this weekend though to make sure they do halt any further slide. This is Central Coast’s first home game in a series of five straight, a good chance indeed to squirrel away some wins.

Alex Augusto was pleased with the performance of his Fraser Park charges last week against Uni, despite the loss. They put on their best football of the season, and coming on top of the cup win last week, confidence may be starting to come back. Robert di Meglio has returned from injury, Tony Faria got on the scoresheet in his first league game and the injury tally is beginning to lessen. Fraser may have lost their past four league games, but one suspects the tide may be starting to turn. They will meet a dangerous opponent this week though in West Sydney Berries. They will be cock-a-hoop after destroying Spirit FC last week in a dominant display and will be seeking yet another scalp.

-By Peter Rowney