Mid-season review of Women’s League Division 1

We’re just beyond half way in the Illawarra Master Builders Club Women’s Division 1.

Albion Park is setting the pace, having opened up an eight point gap on its nearest rivals and won ten of its 11 matches so far. Second place Wollongong Olympic and Thirroul in third both have a game in hand on the leaders and are still to play them. But those key fixtures are right at the end of the season on the last two weekends, by which time the league title might already be sewn up.

Albion Park’s only defeat thus far has been to Port Kembla, though it’s interesting to note that bottom club Kiama Quarriers’ only victory so far was in Round 1, when they beat Port 1-0.

Other than Port, Wollongong Olympic came closest to stopping the Albion Park juggernaut, keeping the leaders to a 1-0 scoreline. But in their nine other games, the Albion Park women have scored a mammoth 42 goals. It’s no wonder, therefore, that three of the league’s top scorer positions at this stage in the season are held by Albion Park players (Shakiah Tungai – 15 goals; Brittany Ring – 12; Faith Atkins – 8).

With five clean sheets, Albion Park’s defence looks strong, too. Olympic’s defence has the best record, though, with seven clean sheets in 10 games and only five goals conceded altogether.

If last Sunday’s fixture between Wollongong Olympic and Thirroul had not been washed out, we might have had a clearer idea of which team is best placed to challenge the leaders as the season draws to a close. But as it is, Olympic’s superior goal difference (+24) is keeping them above Thirroul (+9), with ten matches remaining.

Tarrawanna, Port Kembla and Fernhill are in the next cluster of teams in 4^th, 5^th and 6^th respectively.

Tarrawanna’s Camille Augustyn has scored almost half the team’s goal, with nine to her name after 12 games. Tarrawanna’s defensive frailties earlier in the season seem to have been sorted out, with an impressive six clean sheets now and if you take away the four goals conceded against Albion Park in June, this is a defence that has let in only two goals in eight games.

Port Kembla’s form has improved markedly since losing its first three matches, including that opening day defeat to bottom club Kiama. Albion Park took revenge last weekend, though, inflicting a 4-0 home defeat on Port. In Kristina Janeska (6 goals) and Brooke Alves (4), they have two goal scorers who can clearly challenge the best defences.

Fernhill and Woonona still have an outside chance of making the top four play off spots, though they’ll need to string a few wins together and hope others above them stumble.

Fernhill will need to turn its own form round first, though, having lost 5-0 twice in recent weeks and not notched up a win since beating Kiama on 7^th June.

Woonona needs to start scoring if it is to challenge for a play off place. Before they beat Kiama last weekend, the Woonona women had only managed to score one goal in five matches and they have failed to score in six of their 12 matches this season, a worse record than the bottom club Kiama Quarriers.

Balgownie, Berkeley and Kiama Quarriers are the three teams that are currently propping up the league.

For Balgownie, the problem has been goals. Like Woonona, Balgownie has failed to score in six of its 11 matches and has found the net only nine times all season, with four of those coming against Kiama. Casey Leigh-Suttle has scored four of those goals so far.

Balgownie has not had any embarrassing scorelines against its name this season, but when 3-0 defeats are the most frequent result (3 matches out of 11), it’s always going to be a struggle.

Berkeley leaked 14 goals in two games against the top two in the league and are up against those two again in the next two rounds. Their form is improving, though, and have not conceded more than one goal a game since Wollongong Olympic thrashed them 6-0 at the beginning of June.

Kiama Quarriers may have lost every game since Round 1 in April, but they don’t tend to lose by big margins and they do score in most games. They have yet to score more than one goal a game, though, so could do with a striker to help them on their way.

Overall stats

55 matches played at 15 July

187 goals scored

Biggest margins of vistory

Albion Park 7-1 win over Tarrawanna and 3-8 win at Berkeley

Wollongong Olympic beat Berkeley 6-0

Only one game has ended in a 0-0 draw: Berkeley v Woonona on 13 June.

Report by Simon Duffin