Jeff Hopkins' grand final obsession
No coach in A-League Women history has been to more, nor won more, grand finals than Jeff Hopkins. And ahead of his seventh decider, the Victory boss admits it's all he's thought about this season.
No coach in A-League Women history has been to more grand finals than Jeff Hopkins. He’s obsessed with being part of them. And he’s got no qualms about making the hard decisions that are needed to win them.
In his 13th year as a coach in the Australian women’s top flight, Hopkins will coach in his seventh grand final this Sunday, his third with Melbourne Victory after previously leading Queensland Roar into four straight in the competition’s first years in existence. In other words, across a near two-decade-long career in women’s football, the Welshman reaches the season’s final day at a just over 50% clip.
Additionally, four of his six visits to the decider have seen him lift a title, including both of the occasions that he’s led Victory into the game, recording back-to-back wins over Sydney FC in 2021 and 2022. That sets him apart from any other coach in the league’s history, one trophy clear of Sydney coaches Ante Juric and Alen Stajcic.
“I haven't smiled for all season,” said Hopkins. “It's all about this game. This is all that I've been thinking about all season. I might have hidden it a little bit and talked about the next game and the next game -- but this is the next game for us. It's what I've been waiting for all season.”
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Handily defeating Adelaide United 6-2 across the two legs of their semifinal, Victory enter this Sunday’s decider with Central Coast in near irresistible form. They’ll head to AAMI Park unbeaten in their last 15 games, with the last ten of that run producing wins as they staged an unsuccessful attempt to chase down Melbourne City for the premiership.
They’ve scored more goals and recorded more wins and points than any other side in club history throughout the season, with going down as the best side in Victory history one of the main points that Hopkins has hammered home as the season winds down – the coach knowing that, to do so, his side would need to win silverware.
It’s a form guide that suggests they should comfortably account for the Mariners, whom they finished 19 points clear of at the end of the regular season. But the same could have been said for City heading into their two-legged semifinal with Emily Husband’s side - and we all saw how that turned out.
“We've got to hold our nerve,” Hopkins said. “I think I know what type of game it's going to be; it's going to be a tight game. It's going to be a game where there's not going to be a lot of difference between winning and losing.
“It's going to be small margins and that's what we've been good at all season, doing the little things, doing the sometimes, the unpopular things, the dirty things that people, people don't always equate with good teams. But the really good teams get everything done, not just the nice things out in the park.
“And I think if we can hold on there and make sure that we look after those things, then we'll come through and think we'll win the game.”
Boosting Victory’s chances in the game is that not only do they possess arguably the deepest squad in this year’s A-League Women, they also field arguably its most battle-tested. Six members of the starting XI that beat Adelaide 3-1 at the Home of the Matildas have previously won titles – four at Victory, Emily Gielnik at Brisbane, and Rachel Lowe at Sydney – while five of them are capped senior internationals.
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Hopkins confirmed in his pre-game press conference that, bar the long-term injured Lydia Williams, he would have a full squad to choose from and that, while it’s not his favourite part of the job, he knew that part of his job involved looking players and telling them that they wouldn’t feature in the season’s biggest game.
“It's obviously a great time for everyone at the club but it's also a tough time as well for the players that are going to miss out,” he reflected. “I get the final decision on that, and I bear the brunt of that.
“But it's something that the team, the squad, accepts when they take a position at this club, that it's going to be very, very competitive to get into the side and very competitive to stay in the side. It's the ups and downs of football.”
And while Alex Chidiac may believe that the work Victory’s squad has put in this season and the milestones they’ve reached would make a title a “deserved” one, Hopkins would countenance no such notions until the final whistle was blown.
“No, they'll deserve it if they play better and score more goals than Central Coast,” he adamantly declared. “No one deserves anything. It's an even game this weekend. That's the message that we're going to send to the players.
“Everything that's gone before doesn't matter now. It's all about that 90 or 120 minutes plus. We're in it to win it and we're there for the duration, however long it takes us.”