A-League Women delivers historic final day as City steal premiership from Sydney
At the end of its first ever home-and-away season, the A-League Women provided one of the most absorbing and dramatic weekends in the competition’s history, as City stole the premiership from Sydney.
After the penultimate round of the A-League Women season, 21 weeks into the longest campaign in its history, nothing had been settled. Six final games across the Easter weekend remained and with no premier crowned nor the makeup of the top six established, the scene was set for one of the most absorbing and dramatic weekends of football in the competition’s history. Turns out there’s something to be said for putting entertainers in a position to entertain.
Now, as the dust settles, it’s Melbourne City who stands alone, Dario Vidošić’s side finishing the season two points clear of Sydney after a dramatic final day in which the latter fell 4-0 to bitter rivals Melbourne Victory and opened the door for the former to deny them a historic fourth successive premiership with a 2-1 win over Perth Glory. It’s the third plate in City’s history but the first since the changing demographics of the league forced it to move away from being a Death Star of returning Matildas and select international talent. This time around, instead of a Jess Fishlock or Steph Catley saving the day, it was 15-year-old Shelby McMahon netting the decisive 89th-minute strike and rendering Glory’s 94th-minute riposte naught but a consolation.
City entered the day a point back of the summit, their hopes kept alive by a Sky Blues loss to second-bottom Canberra midweek but now in the somewhat juxtapositional position of needing local rivals Victory to do them a favour. Fortunately for them, Victory had their own motivations, fuelled not by altruism (or the desire to ruin the day of their fiercest rivals Sydney, albeit that probably helped) but because they needed at least a point to ensure they would, again, sneak into the finals on the last day of the season.
Sneaking is probably the wrong adjective, though, given that there was nothing subtle about Jeff Hopkins’ side’s mauling win and move to fourth on the table, locking in a home elimination final against Central Coast; Jada Whyman lashing out at Alex Chidiac to give away a penalty and Chidiac responding to (attempted) taunting by the crowd by cupping her ear to the stands as she celebrated scoring can be added to the anas of the bitter feud between sky and dark blue. That Ante Jurić was able to lead the league’s youngest side to even be in a position to lose the league on a dramatic final day was remarkable given their fixture congestion, long list of injuries, and the junior international call-ups they’ve absorbed – Mackenzie Hawkesby has been immense since her midseason return from Brighton – but, inevitably, there will be pangs of regret from a historic opportunity missed.
After beating Adelaide 8-0, Newcastle will visit Western United in the other elimination final, coach Kat Smith going from being sacked by the Wanderers – who, needing Sydney to win on Sunday to play finals, will instead watch from the couch – one week out from the season to leading United into a first-ever home playoff. Elsewhere, while didn’t affect the finals makeup, Michelle Heyman’s goal to lift Canberra to a 2-1 win over Brisbane, in possibly the club’s last-ever game, equalled Sam Kerr’s record for most in a single season and made the 35-year-old Matilda the first to win three ALW Golden Boots.
2023-24 was the first in which the Australian women’s top flight staged a full home-and-away season, a historic milestone introduced in the wake of a highly successful Women’s World Cup but one whose seeds had been planted and tended for decades through the persistent advocacy of those that have seen the women’s game in Australia move from the margins to centre stage. And as it turns out, persistence would be an apt theme for the campaign. Or perhaps attrition. For this was a season in which there was no real stand-out, in which every team went through their peaks and valleys and injuries and international call-ups tested the depth of all the proverbial heavyweights.
City lost Holly McNamara to injury and Kaitlyn Torpey and Lysianne Proulx to the NWSL over the season. America even came calling for the coaching staff, with highly-rated goalkeeping mentor Jordan Franken leaving to take up a position with Portland. They went winless in February. But they persevered. Vidošić has taken great pride in leading a team that remains steadfastly committed to their possession-based principles — look up any meaningful possession stat from this season and City will invariably be atop it, often by a lot — and they have now delivered silverware.
Indeed, City probably wins the league in a canter if McNamara stays healthy but in her absence, 17-year-old Daniela Galić has emerged as a potential superstar. Meanwhile, down back, they possess one of the greatest players in league history in Rebekah Stott. Part of the dominating galactico sides of yesteryear and now, after recovering from cancer, serving as the bedrock of their latest premiership, Stott’s effort to clear a Glory header off the goalline on Sunday and keep City’s lead intact emblematic up her defining contributions to the club.
While the A-Leagues’ off-field travails have dominated headlines in recent months, the dramatic conclusion to the ALW season served as a ringing endorsement of its investments in its women’s competition. 13 of the 15 highest standalone regular season crowds in completion history were recorded this season and now the players just produced one of the best final weekends ever. And with finals that will begin after the international break almost impossible to predict, there’s far more than the inevitable ‘Matildas Effect’ a mainstream suddenly waking back up to the competition will frame things around. There exist storylines aplenty, intriguing matchups, standout players, and rising coaches that stand as worthy of attention on their own merits.