The Women’s AIL hits the midway point this weekend ahead of a break for the All Ireland Cup Quarter Finals and the seasonal activities! The league action resumes on 11th January 2020 – where did that year go to!
The current league standings as we go into this weekend is shown below.
The upcoming fixtures are as follows:
As with the men’s AIL 1A and 1B we’ve been tracking the form of the sides in the Women’s league over their last 5 and 3 fixtures. The form table ranks the teams by their last 3 games.
Going into this round UL Bohemian are the form team having picked up 100% of the available points over the last 3 and last 5 rounds.
Old Belvedere are the next form team picking up 93% of the available points and they are followed by Railway and Suttonians who have picked up 2/3 of the available points over the last 3, Railway ahead of Sutts by virtue of their better form over the last 5 games.
Applying the stats to this weekends games give us the following predictions.
UL Bohemian (100%) v Old Belvedere (93%)
For the second week running the two form teams in the league go head to head.
Having disposed of Railway at Park Avenue last weekend the indomitable Bohs welcome Belvo to Limerick as the D4 Duchesses step up as the main challengers, according to form.
Both teams have won their last three, Bohs relentlessly picking up all the available match points with Belvo dropping just one out of 15. It’s by virtue of that dropped point that Bohs are marginal favourites for this one and when you add in home advantage the stats tip further in Bohs favour.
However, if any of the current sides are going to cause problems for Boh’s it has to be the classy Belvo who have four of the leading scorers in their ranks. If they can get a handle on the impressive Boh’s pack, who have also been in free scoring form, then they have a chance.
Despite their being a plethora of big scorers on either side I suspect this one might be decided by the boot, and the in form Jemma Jackson might just be the deciding factor in this one.
Cooke (33%) v Railway Union (67%)
The 3 game and 5 game stats are both firmly in favour of a Railway side that will be keen to get back to winning ways after last week’s defeat.
Cooke will be hoping to go into the mid season break in the top four but with a few key players missing they are going to struggle to buck the stats in this one.
Everything points to a win for Railway.
Blackrock College (33%) v Suttonians (67%)
This is another game where the stats point firmly in favour of the visitors, though this one might not be so clear cut.
Blackrock will be determined to continue their revival, after their free scoring win against Malone, and they certainly have the players to pull this one off.
Suttonians have settled in exceptionally well in their first season, they disposed of Cooke reasonably comfortably last weekend, and will be brimming with confidence as they enjoy their journey.
It will be closer than the stats suggest but Sutt’s seem happy to sit back, strap in and enjoy the ride so we are tipping them to pick up this one.
Galwegians (-13%) v Malone (0%)
One of these teams will be breaking their duck on Saturday, the big question is which one?
The stats point in favour of Malone but the only difference between the two sides is that Galwegians had to concede their match against Cooke. Since then Galwegians put it up to Railway before getting walloped by Belvo and consistency has been their problem. They have the players, they are just not clicking.
Malone have been building steadily and, though they have yet to get that all elusive win, they have been getting some form of improvement out of each match. On last week’s outing against Blackrock they did a lot right but seemed to be lacking confidence and decisiveness at key moments. It’s no coincidence that their best game this season was against the familiar Cooke.
It won’t take much for either side to click and with no other decisive factor we’re going to stick with the stats and tip Malone.
Corrections, comments or questions?