Queens Park to again fly Southland flag in big league
“It’s difficult really because the second season can be harder than your first, everyone has figured you out a wee bit.”
Queens Park coach Paddy Murphy has set a pretty simple goal for the 2023 ODT Southern Premiership.
Well simple in the terms of explanation, not so simple in achieving.
It’s to score more competition points than last year.
Queens Park is again the sole Southland-based club taking part on the Southern Premiership which caters for clubs from Timaru south.
The Invercargill club decided to enter the league last year, the first Southland team to do so since 2013.
And after a slow start, Murphy’s lads impressed to finish fifth in the 10-team competition with 24 competition points.
“I’m expecting it to be tough again and the aim for us is to just try and better that 24 points,” Murphy says.
“It’s difficult really because the second season can be harder than your first, everyone has figured you out a wee bit.”
“We know the level now; we just want to see growth and improvement.”
Barring a couple of players Queens Park has managed to retain the bulk of its 2022 squad for the 2023 campaign.
They’ve also picked up five or so handy recruits and Murphy feels they have more depth in 2023 which will help if injuries do strike.
Included in the new recruits are Dylan Hawkes and Jeison Martinez who were part of Thistle’s Donald Gray Cup-winning team last year.
Hayden Douglas has also transferred from Old Boys, while new Southland Football development officer Ryan Gardiner has joined the club.
One of the concerns heading into last year’s campaign was how Queens Park would handle the arduous travel schedule competing in a competition made up mostly of Dunedin clubs.
That however did not prove to be too much of a problem.
“We picked up more points away from home than we did at home. We had six wins away from home and only two at home, so we really want to address our home form this year.”
Queens Park will get an opportunity to do just that in round one this Saturday at the ILT Turf in Invercargill.
They will take on Dunedin club Northern with kick-off scheduled for 2.45pm.
There were only three teams Queens Park did not beat last year and Northern was one of them.
“In three games we never really tested them enough. It will be a good measure of where we are at and how far we have come from last year,” Murphy says.
Queens Park will again field a team in Southland’s senior competition this year as well.
That competition is set to kick-off on April 15.