A chaotic state of parity. Tight season a sign of ALW progress - coaches

There are no easy weeks for Dario Vidošić and Jeff Hopkins in the A-League Women, confronting new challenges this week as, even with expansion, clubs keep finding talent to compete.

It can’t be argued that the quality of the A-League Women didn’t take a hit at the end of its 2019-20 season, falling from a level that probably won’t be reached for quite a while yet. You can’t lose players of the calibre of genuinely world-class players like Sam Kerr, Steph Catley, Caitlin Foord, and Ellie Carpenter, to name but a few, and expect to maintain the same level of top-end play as what has previously existed. 

But almost four years on from that talent drain, the coaches of two of the league’s biggest sides believe that the league has reached a level of competitiveness that makes every week a challenge. 

Players such as Elise Kellond-Knight, Chloe Logarzo, and Tameka Yallop have helped in this regard, as have players such as Cortnee Vine, Holly McNamara, and Clare Hunt also thriving in the vacuum created by the departures. But while it may have been accompanied by some initial growing pains, moves to expand the competition and the resulting provision of opportunities to a new cohort of players, Victory boss Jeff Hopkins and City coach Dario Vidošić say, have served to grow the level of talent. 

Now officially heading into the second half of the 22-round home-and-away campaign – the first time in A-League Women's history that a season of this length has been played – there is a decided logjam developing in the race for finals football, barring perhaps Melbourne City, who despite their upset 1-0 loss to Western Sydney last week, are five points beyond second-placed Perth, nine away from the last of the playoff positions, and shaping as the team to beat in the premiership and championship race. 

Glory, however, is just six points north of ninth-placed Melbourne Victory on the table and, with goal difference now subservient to wins in calculating positioning, just a string of bad results away from falling down the table. The gap between third-placed Sydney and Victory is just four points and, while unlikely, should the latter beat Canberra United this weekend, there’s a chance they could end matchday 13 in fourth place on the table. 

“The one the one take out of the league this year, for sure, is that you can see with the results that week to week everyone's beating everyone else,” said Hopkins.  

“There's no easy games. All the teams have got their strengths and their weaknesses as well. But on their day, every team has got enough players and enough of a threat to beat anyone on their day. 

“And that's from top to bottom as well. It makes it quite challenging but it also kind of gives you a little bit of hope as well that that teams aren't going to run away from you because everyone's beating everyone else or drawing with everyone else. So it doesn't allow teams to just run away and leave some teams stranded, further down the table.”

Amidst this traffic jam, expansion side Central Coast currently occupies fourth after defeating defending champions Sydney FC midweek, while sophomore outfit Western United [who made a grand final in their debut season last year] hold sixth and Wellington, in their third season, taking eighth. Meanwhile, it’s Brisbane, Canberra, and Adelaide – three foundation sides of the competition – that bring up the rear. 

Inevitably, expansion carries with it the risks of diluting the talent pool – especially when professional pathways haven’t been made available to multiple generations of players such as is the case in women’s football in Australia. More teams mean more players, and the challenge inevitably is that players previously not considered to be at the top level, or players that aren’t there yet, fill a large number of these slots out of sheer necessity.  

“I think [talent has] risen [to the occasion],” said Vidošić. 

“It gives more girls a chance to play and you can see, if we take Central Coast, a brand new team coming in, and they've got a lot of quality. They beat Sydney FC midweek with a goalkeeper down but they found a way. 

“It's across the board, any team, everyone's in it until the final whistle. It's been entertaining and it gives more players [a chance] to showcase their talents. If we take Central Coast as an example, being the latest addition, similar to Western the year before, I think there is a lot of a lot of talent out there.”

“Maybe at first [dilution] happens, but what it has done is that the next level of players that weren't always getting their opportunity, players that were maybe in and out of the teams or on and off the bench every week now get the opportunity to play and to develop their game in the league,” added Hopkins. 

“For those players, it's really brought those players on. That's the next level of player that's coming through that is going to be challenging for the national teams. 

“In the big picture, I think the league is looking pretty healthy. What you don't want to see is big blowouts every week and you're not really seeing that. You're seeing very close games, games that go for the full 90-plus minutes and no one's ever really that safe. 

“That's how I'm feeling as a coach this year, we've got to do our homework on everyone. There are no easy games. 

“We've got to make sure that we're well prepared for every game because we know that opponents are well coached, well prepared and they've got individuals in the team that can hurt you if you take anything for granted.”

Header Image: Melbourne City