Matilda-hopeful Morrison at the peak of her powers -- Hopkins

As she awaits confirmation of her switch in international eligibility to represent Australia, Melbourne Victory boss Jeff Hopkins believes that Kayla Morrison has found the best form of her career.

As she continues to await confirmation of her switch in international eligibility, Melbourne Victory coach Jeff Hopkins believes that Kayla Morrison has found the best form of her career amidst her side’s premiership push.

Heading her side ahead in the 47th minute before leading the rearguard action that shut the door on Western United on Saturday evening, Morrison put in a player-of-the-game performance in her side’s 2-1 win, a result that saw Victory complete a season-sweep of the Westgate Derby for the first time.

The three points earned by Melbourne’s navy blue contingent cut the gap between themselves and top-of-the-tree Melbourne City to five points, with the former possessing a game in hand. Morrison, for her part, has played every minute of all of Victory’s 17 games this season, anchoring the A-League Women’s equal-most miserly defence alongside Claudia Bunge.

Becoming an Australian citizen in November, 2023, Morrison has spoken of her dreams of representing Australia and interim Matildas boss Tom Sermanni has previously confirmed that the American-born defender was on the radar of the national team – awaiting the paperwork processing her switch from the United States to be ratified.

And should that come through before April’s friendlies with Korea, Hopkins believes his national team counterpart will gain access to a player at the peak of their powers.

“It’s her best form,” Hopkins told JDL Media. “The good thing about Kayla is she's out to analyze her game and get better. She wants to get better, she's asking questions, how can I get better?

“We're working with her to improve. What we've said to her is we can't make massive improvements in the game, because little improvements are all you can make.

“But she wants to do that and she wants to be as good as she can be. She's a great example to all our young players here.”

Aside from a brief, COVID-enforced stint with Swedish side Morön, Hopkins is the only coach Morrison has ever known at the professional level, signing with Victory in 2020 after two dominant seasons with FC Bulleen Lions in the NPLW Victoria.

Having logged a 19-year professional career as an intimidating no-nonsense centreback that saw him play more than 219 games for Fulham, 70 for Crystal Palace, and 131 for Reading, as well as making 16 appearances for Wales, Morrison couldn’t ask for much more in a mentor from Hopkins.

Nor could she ask for much more in a centreback partner than Bunge, who came straight back into Victory’s backline against United despite only landing back in Australia the day prior — making her 32nd and 33rd appearances with the Football Ferns during the international window.

“Jeff, all he thinks about, sleeps, dreams about, is defence, defence defence,” Morrison told Paramount+. “Rest defence; we could be taking a penalty and Jeff would be screaming at me ‘rest defence!’ So it's all I think about.

“It's the DNA of our team, it's all about defence. You'd hate to be a striker here, because we barely work on shooting. To be a defender [at Victory], it's great.

“Me and Bungy have developed that chemistry throughout the years we've played together, so it doesn't matter who plays alongside us, we're ready to teach them and the girls in this team are ready to learn.”