Premier League Round 12 – Match of the Round Preview

Published Fri 23 Jun 2023

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Round 12 – Match of the Round Preview

Grange Royals Hockey Club v Burnside Hockey Club

Preview by Bevan Jones

Premier League Women

If last time’s meeting is anything to go by, it should be an absolute cracker this Saturday afternoon, in the Match of the Round clash between the 5th placed Burnside and bottom placed Grange.

Despite no wins and just the one draw this year, the Royals have been competitive and last time the sides met in round seven it was Burnside winning 2-1.

Burnside have four wins, one draw and six losses in 2023 but it’s a must win game if they want to play finals.

Burnside will be looking to bounce back after a 3-2 loss last Saturday against Adelaide University and Coach Sanjay Singh, who co-coaches the side with Nick Pannell, said they won’t be underestimating Grange after their last meeting.

“We believe our skill level can match it against any opposition and we look forward to the challenge against Grange who came extremely close to taking the points against us last time we met,” Singh said.

“The upcoming game against Grange is extremely important to the club.

“The team has been executing our possession game plan extremely well over the past month.

“Co-Coach Nick Pannell and I could not question the effort the girls put in last week despite a narrow loss.

“A similar effort will put us in good stead for Saturday's fixture.

Grange went down 4-0 last Sunday against North East and Coach Mark Dedman said they would take a lot from their last performance against Burnside.

“The Grange Royals Premier League women will need to pay close attention to Euleena McLachlan and minimise her impact,” Dedman said.

“We will need to be less wasteful with our attacking opportunities and play a consistent game.

“Our Round 7 fixture was a close battle going down 1-2 in an evenly matched contest.”

Grange will take the fight up to Burnside, but with finals on the line, it will Burnside that will take the win in another close one 3-2.

Premier League Men

It will be a fierce battle this Saturday afternoon when the 5th placed Burnside with a 5-6 record in 2023 do battle with the Grange Royals who are in 6th place with three wins, two draws and five losses in 2023.

Grange will be looking for a better performance this week after they suffered a tough 7-2 loss last Sunday against North East, whilst Burnside built some confidence with a 7-1 victory over Adelaide University.

Last time Burnside and Grange met was in round seven, when it was a high scoring encounter that went down to the wire with Grange winning 6-5.

Burnside Coach Dan Haseloff said it was a very important game for his side.

“This is a do or die game for us, if we don’t win this it becomes challenging for us to play finals this year, so we have that front of mind.

“They have had the wood on us the last four games we have lost three times, they have been averaging just over six goals a game against us.

“Last time we played them we were up 5-3 at three quarter time and lost 6-5 so I didn’t sleep very well that night.

“We need to reduce the amount of opportunities that we giveaway and that will be our focus as well as sticking to what we’ve been doing in the last month or so as we’ve been going okay.”

This should be another ripping contest and if it’s anything like last time when 11 goals were scored between these two sides, then spectators will be in for a treat. I am tipping Burnside in another tight one 5-4.