Casey Dumont adds to her shootout legend with win over Victory.
If shootouts are a ticket to keeping immortality, then Casey Dumont has drunk from the A-League Women cup of life. The goalkeeper now five for five in this crucible after downing Melbourne Victory.
The penalty shootout. The agony and the ecstasy of sudden death football and the outcome the months or even years that have gone into getting to this point, distilled into a battle at 12 yards. For goalkeepers, in particular, they’re an opportunity to seize or define a legacy; 120 minutes of keeping their opponent at bay wiped away, replaced by a one-on-one battle between themselves, and a penalty taker.
Mackenzie Arnold at the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup the most obvious example of this phenomenon in an Australian context but also the likes of Bárbara for Brazil at the Rio Olympics or Danijel Subašić and Dominik Livaković in back-to-back World Cups for Croatia.
In the A-League Women, no player has come close to drinking from the cup of shootout immortality in the same way that Casey Dumont has. Five times now, the 32-year-old has stared down her opponents and on all five occasions she has emerged triumphant, the latest chapter in this legacy coming on Sunday evening at the Home of the Matildas, as she stood tall for the Central Coast Mariners in a 4-2 shootout win over her former club, Melbourne Victory.
The two sides had been unable to be separated in the two hours of football that had preceded that shootout, creating chances but unable to find that last killer pass, proper contact with a shot, or angle towards goal in a game that desperately needed one of these moments.
The Mariners had stretches throughout their game where they were clearly on top, pressing with intensity and cutting down their opponent's attempts to play balls in behind. They outshot Victory nine to one in the second stanza but despite golden chances to the likes of Kyah Simon and Wurigumula, were unable to even get a shot on target.
And by the time extra time rolled around, they were increasingly on the back foot. Victory outshot the Mariners ten to seven across the added football, with eight of their attempts coming inside Dumont’s penalty area. Thrown on in the 105th minute, Kurea Okino brought a new level of energy to Victory and Isabel Gomez was forced into a herculean effort to deny Rachel Lowe on the goalline in the 109th minute.
And yet, when the final whistle blew and spot kicks were needed, there was something of a pall that fell over Bundoora. They knew what Dumont could do in these circumstances, they’d been the beneficiaries of it at this stage last season when she spurred their elimination of Melbourne City. But now they were on the wrong side of things. And they knew what that meant.
Telling her coach Emily Husband that she’d take the first or the fifth penalty, the Mariners coach informed Dumont that she was going to open proceedings, opting to save Simon for a potentially decisive fifth spot-kick. That suited her just fine, an opportunity to set the tone.
“I knew we had it from the minute we went to penalties,” Dumont said. “I just have a belief that whatever team I'm with, we just make sure that we have that inner feeling that you just pick a site and you go and you do it and that's what works.
“I'm a veteran of the league, but also a veteran of penalties now. I think if you have that person that you can have belief in and they do the job, it really helps for like the younger ones to step up.
“But I also use it as my own momentum. I think that's the first time I've actually had to be in goal first. Usually, I'm the actual first [penalty]. So that was a change, different but I knew that once I sunk it then I got in my mind mojo of 'okay, I've sunk it - now it's time to start saving' and that's what happened which is awesome.”
And save she did. After Lowe, Dumont, Alex Chidiac, and Faye Bryson all converted their attempts, Alana Murphy was denied by Dumont, with Wurigumula subsequently converting her attempt.
With the pressure on, Paige Zois then stepped up for the hosts only to also be denied by Dumont. Then, with the game on the line, Bianca Galic converted for the Mariners and won the game.
“Casey came up to us and said I'll take one or five, so we gave her pen one,” Husband said. “It shows you what confidence she has in herself. It's fantastic. You need players to back themselves in these big moments. And Casey did and we're super proud of her.
“I'm not gonna lie, I was very confident [when it went to penalties. They've got a lot of quality though. That's something you've always got to consider, the quality that Victory has got is unreal. You saw that in flashes today. But ultimately, Casey's a quality keeper and she's good in the pens.”
Inevitably amongst all this, the circumstances that led to Dumont wearing a Mariners’ badge, rather than a Victory one, added a layer of narrative to all this. The keeper departed Victory in acrimonious and still unclear circumstances amid her move to desire to play in the AFLW with Hawthorn and, with Victory quickly signing Matildas custodian Lydia Williams as a replacement, she ended up on the Coast.
Just exactly what went down during this period is not public knowledge. Maybe we’ll never know what led to the separation of what had been one of the A-League Women’s great double acts in Dumont and Victory boss Jeff Hopkins. But while all the parties involved did their best to be magnanimous post-game, it was apparent in the aftermath that there is still a depth of feeling there.
“She thinks she's got a point to prove. But she actually has got no point to prove,” said Hopkins. “Casey believes her truth, not the truth. So, I'll leave it at that.
“I've got nothing but admiration for the Central Coast. I think they've been great for the league. A really good side. Very well coached. Together as a team as well. So I wish them all the best. I think they were very, very good throughout the game. It was a very competitive game. I wish them all the best."
Now, the Mariners will host Sydney FC next week in the first game of a two-legged semifinal. This underdog side, that few anticipated even getting close to finals in their best season back in the league in over a decade, let alone winning a game, is now just two games away from a grand final. And they’ve knocked off one of the competition's standard bearers to get there.
“It's good to play against your old club because my first game in the league this season was against them and…I was a bit rusty and unfortunately, we copped a loss,” said Dumont. “But to come back when it means the most elimination finals, it feels pretty bloody good. Victory's known to dig deep and pull through in finals but it's good to show that they are still beatable. Our team stepped up when it counted the most.”
“I love playing players against their old club, to be honest,” added Husband. “It gives them that little bit of extra drive behind themselves. So there probably was [a bit of extra feeling for Dumont]. Sometimes that sort of pressure on a player can make them dive [in performance] but she shone today, she was fantastic."