Premier League Round 9 – Match of the Round Preview

Published Fri 02 Jun 2023

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Round 9 – Match of the Round Preview

Burnside Hockey Club v Forestville Hockey Club

Preview by Bevan Jones

Premier League Men

The 6th placed Burnside with a 3-5 record this season will be on a high after one of their best wins of the year last week where they defeated last year’s premiers Port Adelaide 3-1 and this Saturday at Mate Stadium, they take on 7th placed Forestville with two wins, one draw and five losses.

Last time the sides met in round two, it was Burnside producing a remarkable comeback to win 5-4 after being down 4-1 and Burnside Coach Dan Haseloff said his team were happy with their win over Port Adelaide, but fully aware they will need to back up their performance this week.

“Yeah, we are pretty happy, we are just trying to progress an improve as a group and when you get a win like that and you can see that are making progress it puts everyone in good spirits,” Haseloff said.

“Everyone enjoyed it, but life moves on pretty quick to this week against Forestville and we need to win if we want to play finals.

“Our focus this week is trying to be consistent so backing up last week’s result otherwise that win against Port Adelaide means nothing.

“Forestville have been close and a bit stiff that one or two of those games haven’t gone their way and we got out of jail last time we played them.

“It probably speaks to the evenness of the competition and this year if you don’t rock up there’s every chance you don’t win so we have to be on the ball.”

Forestville Coach, Michael Lubcke, said his team has been playing some really good hockey over last month and were looking forward to continuing to development and growth as a team.

“We’re excited for this weekend’s challenge against Burnside. They got the points over us last meeting and have been in good form. The boys are ready for a good contest this weekend.”

Burnside will be full of confidence after last week’s win over Port Adelaide and it’s a must win game if they want to play finals this season. Burnside to win 4-1.

Premier League Women

It will be on for young and old at Mate Stadium this Saturday when the 5th placed Burnside with three wins, one draw and four losses take on the 7th placed Forestville with one win and seven losses in 2023.

The two teams know each other well having done battle in round two where Burnside won 4-1.

In their respective round eight clashes, Forestville went down 6-0 to a very strong Seacliff outfit who have yet to lose a game this season and Burnside went down 4-1 against Port Adelaide.

Forestville coach Damien Christensen said they were remaining positive despite only the one win so far this season.

“It has been a tough start to the season with a number of injuries and unavailability’s stopping us from fielding our strongest side consistently and being able to find our rhythm and form,” Christensen said.

“We have at times played some really good hockey without any reward but continue to remain positive as a group, and push ourselves knowing that a complete performance isn’t far away.

“We have learnt a lot from the first game against Burnside and expect it to be a tight match, knowing if we can put our plans in place, we will give ourselves every chance to come away with the points.”

Burnside Coach, Sanjay Singh, said they took some good positives out of the loss to Port Adelaide which they need to take into the game against Forestville.

“I thought we actually played reasonably well against Port Adelaide and we have to stick to our game plan no matter who we are playing, attacking the goals and free flowing hockey,” Singh reflected.

“If we can perform the same way hopefully, we can come out with the win and we don’t want to lose touch with the top four.

“The key is to focus on our game and maintaining possession and not turning the ball over.

“If we do this and maintain a consistent approach to whoever we are playing then we can match it with anyone.”

I think this will be a bit tighter than their round two contest but I am tipping Burnside to win 3-2.