Floorball’s women’s F-league season starts on September 13 with one match, when reigning Finnish champion TPS meets last season’s final opponent Classic. There is a double bet in the match, as in addition to the league points, the Super Cup championship trophy is up for grabs for the winner.
Body kit ends on March 15 and the season culminates on March 16-29. to the finals in April. Will TPS take its fourth consecutive Finnish championship in the 2024–2025 season?
Former national team player who won the Finnish championship five times Katri Luomaniemi go through the layouts of the season that is about to begin.
What is talking about the women’s F-League at the moment?
– Whether the league’s age limit should be changed.
The youngest players in the Women’s F-League are currently born in 2008, i.e. the youngest are 15 years old.
Luomaniemi feels that if the league career were to be extended, could one solution possibly be to raise the minimum age to 18?
– Then the series would really be a series for adults.
– Would there still be such a criterion that if you have been able to participate in, for example, the women’s national team’s camp, you could get a special permit so that you could then play at a younger age, Luomaniemi ponders.
Luomaniemi believes that the levels of the series would also rise in the juniors if the best players played longer in the juniors before moving to the league.
The question is whether, for example, SaiPan would be Miisa Turunen it makes sense to play a top-level talent in the junior leagues, because he has already dominated the league, especially with his attacking skills, at the age of under 18.
Turunen played his first matches in the league at the age of 14, after which the pace of scoring has been incredible. Last season, the 18-year-old won the series with the freezing power of the points exchange. In 22 matches, there were 36 goals, 38 assists and a total of 74 power points. He scored almost 30 points more than the second-placed SSRA Hanna Niemelä.
Which player should you follow?
– SaiPan Elsa from Holopai.
Last season, Holopainen scored a whopping 28 goals and a total of 41 points in 21 matches in the Lappeenranta team. In the end, he was fourth in the points exchange.
In the spring, 16-year-old Holopainen played in the girls’ under-19 World Cup, where Finland lost to Sweden in the final.
Luomaniemi believes that if the 16-year-old Holopainen’s development continues in the same way. He can become the league’s next star.
Which player will surprise you?
– I don’t know if he would be a surprise anymore, but Milla Granlund.
The 19-year-old Granlund, who switched from ice hockey to floorball, played in FBC Loisto last season, but in the coming season the talented player will be seen in the ranks of another team from Turku, TPS.
In the upcoming season, TPS’s attack will have a big notch, because in three consecutive championship seasons, the team’s top players Milla Nordlund moved to play in the Swedish Superliga. So Granlund has big boots to fill in the TPS attack.
– She was already in a big role last season, but I think that now that she gets into a new environment, it may surprise you how good Milla really is, expert Luomaniemi says.
Which team will surprise?
– FBC Loisto.
– There has been talk that Loisto would be weaker, but I claim that they will enter the early season with speed. In practice games, the team’s game has looked good. I say that Loisto is not as weak as it has been predicted.
Loisto’s team has weakened since last season, when Granlund moved to TPS, Ulla Valtola to Sweden and Tuulia Lahti is absent due to an injury at the national team camp.
Which team will win the championship?
– I would say that Tepsi will win again.
According to Luomaniemi, the team from Turku still has the toughest individuals in the series.
– However, the goalkeepers are a question mark. The defense is again so iron-clad that surely the goalkeepers will also grow into their role during the season, Luomaniemi believes.
Which player wins the points exchange?
– Miisa Turunen is sidelined for the beginning of the season due to injury. If he recovers well, then of course there is one option.
Luomaniemi also trusts Classic Summer in Hämäläinen21, who has also established herself in the women’s national team.
He also brings up the third name TPS Meri-Helmi Höynälän. The 23-year-old Höynälä won the point exchange of the playoffs last season, when the LoSB native scored 14 goals in 13 matches and a total of 28 power points.
– Actually, any player can surprise in the coming season, Luomaniemi concludes.