The North Canberra Fire will be taking aim at the West Canberra Lightning on Saturday evening when first and third collide in what is shaping up to a be a colossal match at Daramalan College as the CFL reaches Round 8.
Both teams have been in good form since the advent of the competition and the meeting promises to be as tight and exciting as their inaugural clash from which the Lightning emerged victorious by three goals to one.
Since then, the Lightning have been imperious. Unbeaten in each of their half-a-dozen matches, and opening up a five-point lead over the second place UC Stars heading into the final round before the Christmas break.
Fire still have only the one defeat against their name, but have also been held by the Stars. They have games in hand, two on those above them and, after an enforced three week hiatus got back to winning ways with a significant 1-0 win over the Stars in Round 7. Repeating that result would throw the league wide open.
UC Stars will be favourites to take advantage of whichever way the Fire and Lightning match goes when they meet Queanbeyan-Palerang Power on Sunday afternoon to conclude the round.
Stars narrow 1-0 loss to Fire could be put down to some of their main goal threats being unavailable, but the return of those players should bolster the squad against a Power side that haven’t set foot on the Futsal pitch since their hammering at the hands of a rampant West Canberra.
Three weekends without any action means the Power are playing catch-up with their fixture list and will need to be at their very best in order to halt the Stars progress. Stars won 12-3 back in Round 3 and will be hot favourites to do so once more.
The round commences on Friday evening with a fixture that will have a huge bearing on the top four as ANU Apex, searching for a first point, meet South Canberra Swift.
Apex have been much better than their results have shown, and they will be keen to get back to goalscoring ways having been shut-out last weekend by the West Canberra Lightning, only the second clean sheet in the short history of the CFL.
Swift meanwhile have been amongst the goals at both ends, scoring 27 but conceding 21 making them an entertaining watch for the neutrals. These two have yet to meet in the competition, their earlier scheduled stoush postponed, so setting a marker will be the order of the day.
WOMEN
Friday 9 December
ANU Apex v South Canberra Swift (20:00)
Saturday 10 December
North Canberra Fire v West Canberra Lightning (19:00)
Sunday 11 December
UC Stars v Queanbeyan-Palerang Power (19:00)
TABLE
| TEAM | P | W | D | L | F | A | GD | PTS | |
| 1 | Lightning | 6 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 53 | 7 | +47 | 18 |
| 2 | Stars | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 33 | 13 | +20 | 13 |
| 3 | Fire | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 24 | 7 | +17 | 7 |
| 4 | Swift | 5 | 2 | 0 | 3 | 27 | 21 | +6 | 6 |
| 5 | Apex | 5 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 7 | 31 | -24 | 0 |
| 6 | Power | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 7 | 73 | -66 | 0 |
LEADING SCORERS
11 Jennifer BISSET (Lightning), Brittany PALOMBI (Lightning)
8 Rebecca KITING (Lightning)
7 Stella DE MARCO (Fire), Amy MCLACHLAN (Lightning), Becky RIZZO (Stars), Reilly YUEN (Stars)
6 Cara CERUTI (Swift)
5 Eliza-Jane NORRIS (Stars), Bessie RIETHMULLER (Fire), Mikayla VAN DEYK (Stars), Dianne WILSON (Lightning), Own GOALS
4 Jamie BERKELEY (Lightning), Natalie DE MARCO (Fire), Krista HAGEN (Lightning), Tayla HAMPSON (Stars), Nicole JALOCHA (Fire), Samantha PRICE (Swift), Sabrina TOUFEXIS (Swift)
3 Isabella HINDMARSH (Swift), Ginger OLIVER (Swift), Sofia PALYWODA (Swift)
2 Justine ARMSTRONG (Power), Talia BACKHOUSE (Swift), Maia CAMERON (Power), Sheridan MCELLIGOTT (Apex), Cassia MCGLASHAN (Stars), Nikita PERRY (Fire), Roxie SWART (Apex)
1 Elke AITOLU (Fire), Leah CARNEGIE (Swift), Kaitlyn COLWILL (Swift), Emily DANIEL (Stars), Grace DAVEY (Apex), Sally KISS (Power), Renee KITE (Power), Stefi LEJINS (Fire), Holly MCPHERSON (Power), Erika PENNYFIELD (Lightning), Alexandra SERRAS (Apex), Shayma TAWEEL (Apex), Kate WALKER (Stars)
