Victory eager to end United's hold over burgeoning ALW rivalry

Zero for two in clashes with Western United across the rivalry's short history, Melbourne Victory know they must start winning these games if they want to be considered amongst the league's best.

Melbourne Victory is well aware of the importance of arresting a winless run in their growing A-League Women's rivalry with Western United if they want to be considered one of the league’s best sides, but know that’s easier said than done against a unit that excels, in the best possible way, at doing the dirty work. 

After falling to back-to-back defeats against Melbourne City and Western Sydney Wanderers in recent weeks, Victory will return to the Home of the Matildas this Saturday in fifth position on the table and at risk of falling out of the top-six entirely if they fall to another defeat. 

The weight of history, though, is tilted against them on this front, with Melbourne’s navy blue contingent failing to beat their local green and black rivals in their two previous meetings since the latter’s entrance to the league, as well as finishing behind them on the 2022-23 table.

“Something that we've reminded [the players] of is that we haven't beaten Western yet,” Hopkins said. “So it's about time; if we want to be seen as one of the best teams in the league, we've got to start winning these games.

“I was at a coaching conference last year and I heard Mark [Torcaso, former United coach] speak about some of the motivations they put in place last year. 

“A lot of that was players that were playing for them last year, when they came to play against Victory and City, [they were] players that had been released by them and players that had maybe been seen as not good enough to play for us. Which kind of wasn't the case but we understand what the motivations might be tomorrow, and we're ready for that. 

“It's only good for the game that we will build a rivalry not just not just with City but make this derby as big as the City one is as well.”

Downed 1-0 at City Vista Reserve in round one of the 2022-23 campaign, Victory suffered another road defeat when they made the trip west in round two of this season: Emma Checker giving her side the lead only for United to come from behind and take a 2-1 win thanks to goals from Melissa Taranto and Keiwa Hieda.

United have experienced a change in coach since that fixture, Torcaso reluctantly standing aside to focus on his commitments with the Philippines women’s national team and replaced by Kat Smith in early December, but Hopkins believes the strengths of the team haven’t wavered. 

“First of all, I’m really pleased for Kat that she was able to jump into another job straight away,” he said. “I've got a lot of time and respect for her. 

“From my observations, she's been quite smart with what she's done. She hasn't jumped in there and tried to change things too quickly. I'm sure she'll over time bring her own kind of [approach] to the team. 

“They're a very, very committed team, a team that's really together. They will work and work and work. They don't mind playing the game in a quite direct manner. 

“And they don't mind doing the dirty part of the game as well. And I don't mean that in a disrespectful way. I mean they win their headers, they fight for balls, they work hard, they tackle; all the things that make up the out-of-possession part of the game, they do that really well. 

“They look like the type of team that enjoys doing that as well.”

Unfortunately for Victory, any attempt to get one over on United will come with, at best, a limited contribution from Matildas’ attacker Emily Gielnik. 

Limited to just two appearances so far this season, the striker has been out of action since aggravating a calf injury in a 4-0 win over Newcastle in November. And while she’s been increasingly ramping up her training activity, Hopkins isn’t inclined to take too great a risk with her with so much of the season remaining. 

"Either a very small role or maybe none,” Hopkins said of Gielnik’s status. “We'll see what she's like tomorrow. We've got to be careful with that. We put her into the squad and we've seen how she's trained this week, when she's been in she's been very very good. But if she does come into the squad, it will be from the bench and for a very, very short time." 

"As much as I want her in, I'm wary that she hasn't had a massive amount of training under a belt. It's something in terms of the medical side of things and my conscience as well, I'm not sure what we can do with her tomorrow yet. She won't start and that's for sure.”

The news is better, however, on the Alex Chidiac front, with the reigning Julie Dolan Medalist in contention to start her first game since re-signing for the club last week and coming off the bench in the Wanderers’ loss. 

“We weren't sure how much she'd done in that period between the last game of her season [with Tigres UNAL in Mexico],” said the coach. “And she hadn't played a lot of full game time for quite a few months. 

“But what we do now about Chids is that she's a very active person. And in those few weeks that she wasn't playing she was doing her own stuff. She'd been going for regular runs, she's always got a ball at her feet and she'd been in the gym. 

“We were careful with her last week and we'll have to be a little bit careful with her this week but she's in contention to start. She's physically good enough to do that.”

Hopkins, meanwhile, can also be added to the list of A-Leagues coaches unaware of the change in league regulations that will now see wins prioritised over goal difference. Indeed, the first the coach — not the most prolific of social media users — heard of the decision when he was asked about it at the conclusion of his pre-game press conference on Friday afternoon.