PARKING THE BUS MATTHEW MCINERNEY

EDGE Hill United’s women’s Premier League side has flexed its muscle recently, producing a margin which simply shouldn’t be seen in football at any level.

The team boasts a +31 goal differential after just four games, which includes a draw, thanks to a 23-0 flogging of Premier League newcomers

Marlin Coast on April 30.

Siobhan Macken scored 10 goals, Ciara Fowler had four, and both Shelley Macaulay and Olivia Gables grabbed hat-tricks in the win.

The clubs are at different ends of the football journey. Edge Hill United has a longestablished and successful women’s football program,

while Marlin Coast is now three games into its first Premier League season in quite some time.

There’s no easy answer. To omit teams would be a risky move, as it removes much-needed game time for developing players, and the decision over which teams to remove is highly emotional and difficult to make — as everyone involved with the currently second-placed JCU Strikers can attest.

And mercy rules are tricky to successfully implement as it

can undermine the legitimacy of a competition, especially in a senior league.

Hopefully Marlin Coast can turn that experience into a positive, and the players aren’t lost to the game.

■ STILL at Tiger Park, and the men’s Premier League side has clearly maintained its strength, establishing a fivepoint margin atop the table after just three games.

Sunday’s 3-1 win against Mareeba United is the closest margin the team has endured since the end of last season,

when it won every game on the way to a second straight treble to earn the title of North Queensland’s best club.

Given the Tigers’ dominance of football in FNQ, it’s tough to predict where and when their first loss may come.

The Tigers face their toughest challenge since the Crad Evans Shield last year when they head to Mackay to face Magpies Crusaders

United in Round 7 of the FFA Cup, which is, according to the website, scheduled for Saturday, June 19.

■ IT IS not surprising to learn the leading goalscorers both hail from Edge Hill.

Macken’s 10-goal effort against Marlin Coast puts her season haul at 13, with a sevengoal advantage on Innisfail United’s Kayla Turner (6). Three players have five goals.

Tigers player-coach Crios O’Hare is a clear leader in the men’s competition with eight goals to his name.

There are eight players tied for second with two goals, according to the Football Queensland North website.