For one night only, Victory to go purple -- before focus shifts to seizing destiny.
Melbourne Victory will go purple on Friday in the hopes that Perth Glory can upset Melbourne City and give them a shot at an ALW premiership. But after that, focus shifts to shaping their own fate.
Jeff Hopkins is about as navy blue a figure as one can find in the current A-League Women. For one night only, though, he might just mix some Perth Glory purple in there, before the focus lasers back on what he and his Melbourne Victory can control for the rest of the season.
After 22 long weeks, Victory and crosstown foes Melbourne City’s premiership hopes will all come down to the final round of the campaign this weekend, with the Premiers’ Plate – and the Asian Champions League qualification slot that accompanies – the latter’s to lose.
Unbeaten all season with 15 wins and seven draws to their name, Michael Matricciani’s City will take the field against the Glory this evening on 52 points, knowing that a win would give them an unassailable five-point lead regardless of Victory’s result against Brisbane Roar the following day. Given they possess a goal difference of +30, compared to their rivals' +19, a draw that would extend their lead to three points would do the job, too.
With the A-Leagues broadcast-driven practice of staggering its final round of the season still in place, rather than observe simultaneous kickoffs as is common practice around the world, it means that Victory will take the field at AAMI Park on Saturday with nothing to play for – already locked into a top-two finish – or everything.
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“Purple is the colour this week,” Hopkins laughed. “We're obviously hoping they can do us a bit of a favour, we'll just wait and see what happens. But we're focused on our game because whatever happens, we have to win this game on the weekend.”
After City handily defeated the Newcastle Jets 4-1 earlier in the day, Victory took the field against the Central Coast Mariners last week knowing that they needed three points to keep their hopes of a premiership alive and rose to the challenge, with a Claudia Bunge header lifted them to a 1-0 win.
Seeking to keep focus on their own performance, the Victory players had driven an attempt to remain unaware of City’s result against the Jets and, according to Hopins, had done a pretty good job at it – only for a supporter in the stands to yell out from the stands to inform them that Jets were down to nine players and trailing heavily.
This time around there’s no illusions about being able to maintain a blackout of City’s result but, at the same time, Hopkins said that he and his side were united in doing all they could to keep the blinkers on and focusing on what they can control not only this week but also in the finals campaign to come.
“There's bigger things to play for as well,” said the coach. “It's fantastic if we get the opportunity to play for the premiership on Saturday. That's what we're hoping for. But there's a championship to play for, and that's the main aim.
“We'll take things as they come and [Brisbane] comes first. Since halfway through the season, we've won ten and drawn two games by being focused on the next game. The players understand that now, and they understand that what goes on outside the four walls and on the field we can't really affect -- so let's just affect what we can affect, and do it to the best of our ability.
“They've done that really well. They've stayed really focused on their roles within the team, stopping opposition players from playing, exploiting the opposition's weaknesses in that particular game of that particular week, and we'll do the same this week. And hopefully Perth will do us a favour, and we get to play for a premiership this Saturday.”
Hopkins is insistent that his and the side's approach won't change should City get the job done against the Glory, declaring that "nobody's tired" and that there was fierce competition amongst the 24 members of the squad to be part of the 16 named on gameday.
Aside from Lydia Williams, every member of the Victory squad has been in full training this week, with both Paige Zois and Lia Privitelli – the latter’s leadership, physicality and fierce determination a historical weapon of Victory in the cut and thrust of finals – fit enough to make their first appearances of the season if called upon.
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There also exists a strong desire amongst the squad to make amends for the 2-0 defeat they suffered at the hands of the Roar up in Queensland back in round 10 – the 2-0 loss delivered by a Grace Kuilamu brace the last that Victory suffered this season and, with hindsight, a major blow to their premiership hopes.
Losing Matildas’ attacker Sharn Freier to a season-ending injury, the bottom quickly fell out of the Roar’s season following that win – winning just one game in their following 12 games and sliding from second to missing finals – but the impact of just how good Alex Smith’s side was on that day nonetheless played a major role in Victory’s season.
“They're a little bit different from what they were,” Hopkins said. “They were absolutely flying in that game. That game kind of opened our eyes a little bit about how intense we've got to be in the way that we play, how tough we've got to be, what sort of intensity we've got to play the game at. They did us a little bit of a favour then.
“We've been unbeaten since then…they opened our eyes to kind of where we needed to get to.
“For us, it's an opportunity to go back. There are a number of areas where they beat us on that day. The first half was as good as any team has been against us [and] as a coach, I don't like that, and I know most of our players don't either. So maybe there's a little bit of redemption there for myself and the rest of the group. To maybe do my job a little bit better than I did on that night, and the same for the girls as well.”
Header Image: Melbourne Victory