National League

Feb 12 2025

Preview: Women's Super League and Division One return from international break

SETU Waterford Wildcats (10-2) will look to extend their lead at the top of the Women’s Super League this weekend, as they face Trinity Meteors (7-5) and Killester (7-4) in less than 24 hours on Saturday and Sunday.

With Women’s Super League adopting the playoff format, ensuring home court advantage for the post-season will be high on the agenda. If Waterford can go unbeaten against the third and fourth placed sides, the path to the number one seed in the playoffs will be in theirs to lose.

Trinity Meteors come into the contest among the form teams in the league. They won six from seven heading into the international break on the back of consistently excellent performance from the likes of Emma Merriweather, Morgan Lenahan and Grace Prenter at the point. With just one game separating third and eighth in the standings, head coach Hillary Netsiyanwa is aware of the importance of the remaining five games of the regular season:

“The team is excited to play against the league leaders after we came up short in our last outing against them. We’ve come together a lot as a team, so we are hoping to come out with a win against Jillian and her team who’ve been in form all season,” said coach Netsiyanwa.

The Address UCC Glanmire (6-7) can end a two game skid and complete a season sweep with victory over Catalyst Fr.Mathews (6-6) in this weekend’s Cork derby. Mark Scannell’s side had twenty points to spare over their local rivals when the sides last met in November. Both teams are fighting to remain in the playoff hunt and any slip up will open the door for Utility Trust St. Paul’s (4-9) to take that spot.

The Killarney based side get the weekend’s action underway when they welcome University of Galway Mystics to Presentation Gym on basketballireland.tv at 1:15pm on Saturday. The Westerners continue to prop up the table at 0-12.

Gurranabraher Credit Union Brunell have been involved in back-to-back one-point games, losing out to Utility Trust St. Paul’s 71-70 before downing The Address UCC Glanmire 69-68 two weeks ago. Their season outlook has been boosted by the return of talismanic captain Edel Thornton from injury. Thornton looked like she was finding her form in Ireland’s 69-60 defeat to Latvia in FIBA Women’s EuroBasket qualifying.

Standing in their way, a FloMAX Liffey Celtics side who must get back to winning ways in the Women’s Super League soon. Karl Kilbride’s outfit have dropped both games since capturing the Paudie O’Connor Cup in January and risk falling back into the chasing pack, with Killester and Trinity Meteors possessing a game in hand on the fish we enter the closing five weeks of the regular season.

Midlands Park Portlaoise Panthers (6-7) have found consistency hard to come by this campaign. They’ve yet to string together three wins in a row, but a third opportunity to do just that presents itself when they visit Killester on Saturday. Despite this they currently sit sixth in the standings and look on course to take a playoff berth when all is said and done.

In Women's Division One, table topping McEvoy's Cavan Eagles welcome Oblate Dynamos to the Virginia Show Centre on Saturday afternoon looking to stay unbeaten this season and extend their winning run in the league to 11 games.

Second place Limerick Celtics will attempt to gain revenge on iSecure Swords Thunder to maintain their grip on second place. The Dubliners took their meeting in November 72-64, but come into the game without Jasmine Walker and on the back of heavy defeat to the league leaders last time out. Elsewhere third placed Limerick Sport Huskies play host to Cleveland Rockets and there's a Dublin derby between Templeogue BC and Moy Tolka Rovers.