Walsh excited for new opposition, apprehensive on new finals fixture

With more teams coming into the competition again this year, Walsh said he has mixed feelings ahead of their round one game.

The competition will run with four pools of four clubs, with geography being a key component in how the pools were formed.

Walsh said he is concerned with how finals will look as less experienced pools force teams into finals they may not be able to compete in.

In 2023, Walsh's side defeated Coolamon in the grand final, a club they had never played.

"It's kind of exciting in terms of having different pools and coming together, last year I was nervous and excited coming up against Coolamon in a grand final having never played them before, it was a new concept," Walsh said.

"I like that this year we'll play Jets, Leeton, and Marrar, we haven't played any of those teams before. We also play Temora and Narrandera, who I think we've only played once in our three or four years.

"It's good to play different sides so from that point of view, I'm excited.

"On the other hand, a lot of the teams that made finals last year, we won't play them unless we all make finals again."

Acknowledging that in a 16 team competition with just eight rounds there is no way to play all teams, Walsh said it will be hard to plan come finals time if they're again facing teams they have not played before.

Two sides from each pool will play finals and Pool C was of concern to Walsh.

The pool features two clubs in their first year of competition (Leeton and Northern Jets), and two who did not make finals (Narrandera and Griffith).

Ganmain, who sit in Pool D, has crossover games with all Pool C clubs.

"Those eight teams all play each other once, so the top four teams might be in our pool or their pool, but two of the weaker teams are going to automatically make finals," he said.

"I don't want to be critical, it's an impossible job to keep everybody happy, and I think overall they've done a decent job, but it is a little anomaly that I picked up on the draw, that you're going to have teams from weaker pools that might only win a couple of games but are going to make finals because they're the best of a weak pool."

Pool C is the only pool that does not feature at least two finalists from the 2023 season.

This year's competition has been extended to include additional round games following the introduction of two new clubs.

It is also the first year the league is trialling the new location-based pool system in a bid to minimise travel for clubs before Friday evening games.

Southern NSW Women's League fixture, round one (February 2)

Pool A

Collingullie-Wagga v Charles Sturt University at Crossroads Oval.

East Wagga-Kooringal v Brookdale at Maher Oval.

Pool B

Mangoplah-Cookardinia United-Eastlakes v North Wagga at Mangoplah Oval.

Wagga Tigers v Turvey Park at Maher Oval.

Pool C

Griffith v Leeton at Griffith Ex-Servicemen's Fields.

Narrandera v Northern Jets at Narrandera Sportsground.

Pool D

Marrar v Coolamon at Langtry Oval.

Ganmain-Grong Grong-Matong v Temora at Langtry Oval.