Western eyeing constant improvement as they look to extend hoodoo over Victory

Western United coach Kat Smith is preaching the need for constant improvement from her side as they seek an A-League Women hattrick over rivals Melbourne Victory

As they seek an A-League Women hattrick against local rivals Melbourne Victory, Western United coach Kat Smith is emphasising the need for her side to constantly evolve amidst an environment built around challenging players to improve.

Since arriving in early December, Smith has led United to two wins, a draw, and a defeat across her opening month in Tarneit, including a win over then-table-topping Perth Glory. 

It sees last year's grand finalists sitting in sixth position as the A-League Women enters its eleventh week, level on points with Victory heading into their meeting at the Home of the Matildas this Saturday and able to jump as high as third if other results go their way over the round.

Taking over after Mark Torcaso reluctantly stepped away from the role to focus on his work with the Philippines women’s national team, it represents a solid foundation for the Smith project at Western, but one she wants to see constantly built upon. 

“That project is always going to be evolving because as staff we're looking to evolve the playing group,” she said. 

“You see players improve and develop and we want to put them in positions where they're exploiting their strengths and nullifying some of their limitations. When we do that we can layer the detail and we can add to an overall philosophy or vision. 

“But at the end of the day, we're trying to put players in the best position to extrapolate a plan or apply a plan that gets a result on the weekend.”

Aiding Smith in implementing her plans and vision is her inheritance of a culture she describes as being conducive to growth and competition whilst maintaining continuity and camaraderie. 

Under Torcaso, United reached a grand final in their first season in the A-League Women, fielding a squad largely made up of players largely drawn from the NPLW who either had no experience in the Australian top flight or who had received only sporadic opportunities. 

“I think it comes down to a culture, you can't name that, it's just a feeling,” said Smith. “That comes from the togetherness, that supportive nature of people first and wanting everybody in their positions to do well. 

“There's such a healthy environment to challenge each other in a way where we know that we've got a collective goal and we're doing so to make sure that people are held accountable. And we're holding high standards. So I think that's embedded. 

“I've just tried to describe a feeling there and that's probably not surprising from being able to set something up as a clean slate as the club was able to do so recently.

“It's emphasised and it is a priority from leadership in the office right down to how players behave, and what coaches are trying to hold standards and people accountable to those standards. I think that's pretty clear to see.”

United have certainly challenged Victory since they entered the A-League Women, winning both games the two sides have played since they entered the league and finishing above them on the table in 2022-23. 

On a deeper level, many existing rivalries from the local NPLW Victoria competition have carried over the A-League Women: Western fielding a strong contingent of players drawn from local powers Calder United and Victory featuring several members of their fierce rivals FC Bulleen Lions.

Smith herself has experience with both Victory and Calder, spending six years at the former in various roles, including as an interim coach, and coaching against the latter while the boss at NPLW side Alamein FC. 

For her part, she didn’t think that her players would need to draw any extra motivation from external grievances to fuel their clash with Victory but did admit that “Everybody likes going for a hat trick.”

“From my time there and working with Jeff [Hopkins, Victory’s coach] I've got a pretty good understanding of what he will value,” said Smith. “You can see the players are fairly disciplined, they're structured, they're going to know their roles and responsibilities.”

She’s also backing her side to contain reigning Julie Dolan Medalist Alex Chidiac, who returned to Victory on a two-and-a-half-year deal last week. 

“Collectively,” she said. “We back our individual players but more so we know that collectively we know what we do without the ball. 

“Defensively, we know we've got the right structures and we've certainly got the qualities within individuals to carry out the plan as well.”