Bulleen Lions coach Bob McGuinness is expecting an interesting battle this Sunday evening as his side take on Boroondara Eagles at Knox Regional Football Centre.
Currently sitting on top of the Sportsmart Women’s Premier League ladder with 15 points, McGuinness will be hoping Bulleen can extend the gap over Boroondara, who sit in third place, two points adrift of the Lions.
“[I’m] looking forward to that one,” McGuinness said.
“I think it’ll be a big test for us, we haven’t really played anybody other than South Melbourne in the top half of the table and that was the first game so I think that will be an interesting battle.”
Newly promoted Boroondara have enjoyed an a red hot start to the season, dropping only four points in six games.
Adelaide United recruits Alex Gummer and Racheal Quigley have been particularly influential for the Eagles so far this season, but McGuiness’ main concern is his sides ability to finish.
“It’s disappointing we are still missing too many chances,” McGuinness said after his sides 7-0 drubbing of Eltham Redbacks in Round 3 of the Women’s State Knockout Cup.
“But at the end of the day you keep making them and something is going to happen.”
Leading the way up front for Bulleen has been the combination of Emma Coppock and Lia Privitelli, and the pair have scored a combined ten out eighteen goals for their side, with the latter leading the Sportsmart Women’s Premier League goal scorers tally with seven of her own.
Both players received limited game time against Eltham with the State Knockout Cup’s interchange rule but McGuinness evidently saw the game as preparations for their round seven clash.
“We were hoping to make it as realistic as possible and keep our shape and play at our pace,” he said.
“I thought for a lot of the game we did that, but for other parts of it we certainly dropped our intensity a little but I thought the chances we created were great.”
With impressive performances right across the board on Monday, especially in regards to the Lions fringe players such as Alyssia Blewonski who was a standout on the night, team selection could perhaps be more difficult than first thought for McGuinness.
“Theres a lot of girls in and around our squad who haven’t had a great deal of game time who really need to keep the intensity levels high and I thought the girls who came in tonight did really well for us,” he said.
“Certainly I think the intensity level was as high if not higher when they were on then not.”
Kick off is scheduled at 6pm on Sunday evening.