NTFAW premier: Old Scotch face dogfight against South Launceston

The Thistles will host the Dogs at the NTCA Ground hoping to leapfrog Old Launcestonians into second while the visitors will be looking to reduce the gap to the top three as well as provide some breathing room from relegation.

Old Scotch coach Dean Smith was keen to see a more consistent performance from his side following a 31-point defeat against OLs last time out where they conceded five unanswered majors in the third term.

"We've been working on that in training, it's not the fitness - the fitness is there - it's more just making sure it's a focus point in the games, to not lose concentration in each stage," he said.

"Going into finals, it's pretty critical that we can't afford to drop a quarter once during finals. It's the four best teams and there won't be any room to drop a quarter against anyone."

For the Bulldogs, who find themselves in the top four on percentage alone, coach Aaron Viney was encouraged by their recent close losses to Bridgenorth and OLs.

"For [Bridgenorth] to be the competition benchmark and get that close just gives our girls so much confidence going into the Scotch game," he said.

"We've had two pretty good games against Scotch so far, just went down by a few points early on in the season and the 20-point loss came from bad goalkicking from us, but we're confident that we're really a chance."

Each team will make two changes; Sarah Guest and Maisie Edwards return for the Thistles while South Launceston lose Meaghan Volker to a likely season-ending knee injury, with Chelsea Ryan and Georgia Brain coming in.

With the Parrots and Launceston playing their match earlier this season, there is only one other fixture on the weekend with Scottsdale hosting OLs on Saturday.

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