A-League 2024/25 A-League Women Thread

[giggler99]

The 2024/25 A-League women thread should be another exciting season can anyone topple Sydney FC from winning back to back to back?

Round 1 Fixture

 

[nobbyiscool]

I'm excited for this season, the Wuck are playing most of their games at the Matilda's Home of Football at Bundoora, which is on my tram line. I hope to get along to quite a few games.

 

[damicky]

The 2024/25 A-League women thread should be another exciting season can anyone topple Sydney FC from winning back to back to back?

Round 1 Fixture

Hmmm …

 

[giggler99]

Hmmm …

View attachment 2155337

Relax the Matildas thread is still open.

 

[damicky]

Relax the Matildas thread is still open.

I saw that … still confused though

 

[stax on the mull]

Sydney is always up there and they've picked up Hannah Lowry and Millie Farrow from the Glory (probably their best two players from last season) and Kyah Simon but Melbourne Victory seem to have the most stable line-up, same coach with some good additions (Flannery, Sakalis) and have kept some players with Matildas experience (Gielnik, Chidiac, Goad) plus two experienced central defenders (Morrison, Bunge) in a competition where goals can leak very easily.

Perth are virtually starting from scratch with a new team, new coach.

 

[giggler99]

I saw that … still confused though

I rollover threads in order to get the watches from the Matildas thread over to the Women's A-League thread.
I do it every week with the weekly men's threads too.

 

[giggler99]

Sydney is always up there and they've picked up Hannah Lowry and Millie Farrow from the Glory (probably their best two players from last season) and Kyah Simon but Melbourne Victory seem to have the most stable line-up, same coach with some good additions (Flannery, Solakis) and have kept some players with Matildas experience (Gielnik, Chidiac, Goad) plus two experienced central defenders (Morrison, Bunge) in a competition where goals can leak very easily.

Perth are virtually starting from scratch with a new team, new coach.

who do you think will win it this season?

 

[stax on the mull]

NEW ARRIVALS

Adelaide United:
Matilda McNamara, Tiarna Karambasis, Erin Healy, Fiona Worts, Abby Clarke

Brisbane Roar:
Danelle Tan, Zara Kruger, Evdokia Popadinova, Emily Pringle, Tanaye Morris, Isabela Hoyos (scholarship contract), Momo Hayashi, Laini Freier, Leia Varley, Olivia Sekany (loan from Racing Louisville)

Canberra United:
Sally James, Elizabeth Anton, Aideen Keane, Jynaya Dos Santos, Darcey Malone, Bethany Gordon, Maja Markovski, Emma Robers

Central Coast Mariners:
Taylor Ray, Jade Pennock, Brooke Nunn, Jessika Nash, Chloe Carmichael, Brianne Riley, Tiana Fuller, Lily McMahon, Leia Puxty

Melbourne City:
Alexia Apostolakis, Mariana Speckmaier, Malena Mieres, Emilia Murray, Lourdes Bosch, Tyla-Jay Vlajnic

Melbourne Victory:
Alana Jancevski, Nickoletta Flannery, Sofia Sakalis, Ellie Wilson, Claudia Bunge

Newcastle Jets:
Bel Rolley, Danielle Krzyzaniak, India Breier, Ava Piazza, Chloe Walandouw, Josie Allan, Mia Green, Claire Adams, Sheridan Gallagher (NRLW)

Perth Glory:
Gabby Hollar, Naomi Chinnama, Ella Abdul-Massih, Sarah O’Donoghue, Tijan McKenna, Ischia Brooking, Onyinyechi Zogg, Kelli Brown, Megan Wynne, Miranda Templeman, Jessica Skinner, Natalie Tathem, Casey Dumont, Miku Sunaga, Ella Lincoln, Charli Wainwright

Sydney FC:
Millie Farrow, Amber Luchtmeijer, Brianna Edwards, Hana Lowry, Faye Bryson, Rubi Sullivan, Kyah Simon

Wellington Phoenix:
Carolina Vilão (Benfica), Olivia Fergusson, Aimee Danieli (scholarship contract), Ella McMillan (scholarship contract), Ela Jerez (scholarship contract), Ella McCann (scholarship contract), Grace Jale, Maya McCutcheon, Lara Wall (scholarship contract), Mebae Tanaka

Western Sydney Wanderers:
Milly Bennett (scholarship contract), Sienna Saveska, Talia Kapetanellis

Western United:
Chloe Lincoln, Sasha Grove, Alana Cortellino, Sara Eggesvik, Isabel Dehakiz, Claudia Mihocic, Emily Roach, Sandra Ibarguen

 

[stax on the mull]

who do you think will win it this season?

I have no idea really because there's so many changes (departures as significant as arrivals) and also because this will only be the 2nd full season where teams play each other twice and the longer season is a bigger test on the squad depth.

Melbourne Victory and Sydney FC are probably the safe picks because they always seem to have good depth, but I don't know the quality of several new players to the A-League that are coming in from overseas and some of it depends on injuries and late additions to squads, and some teams have players leave before the season finishes. Based on last season, Western United, Melbourne City should be in the finals too.

Newcastle and Central Coast surprised by making finals last season with mostly unknown squads, while Perth and Wellington started like a house on fire and both finished in the bottom 5.

Short answer. My tip is Melbourne Victory. Runner up: Western United.

FULL LIST OF INS/OUTS

Ninja A-League 2024-25 Transfer Centre: Your club's ins/outs

aleagues.com.au brings you a comprehensive list of the players coming and going at every Liberty A-League club this off-season.

aleagues.com.au

 

[stax on the mull]

31 Goals in 6 games. 5 winners. 1 Draw.



Good start by Central Coast Mariners beating last season's champions Sydney FC 3-1 at home. Midfield is strong with Taylor Ray, Isabel Gomez (player of the match from me) and Bianca Galic (no relation to recently capped Matilda, Daniela Galic). Jessika Nash has moved there from Melb Victory to play as a central defender.

I think they're going to be a top 6 team again this season, if not higher, even though they've lost three forwards Badawiya, Wardlow and Wurigumula (i'm not including Kyah Simon who has moved to Sydney FC but didn't line up today and was out for most of last season too). Their replacements from the UK, Jade Pennock and Brooke Nunn started well.

My tip for the trophy, Melb Victory away to Adelaide weren't that impressive, and needed an exceptional winning goal by Ava Briedis to get the 3 pts. The home team without 3 of their best players put on a good show which might mean they're better than bottom 3 as I've seen some pre-season previews predict.

 

[Ram-Man]

 

[giggler99]

Round 2 Fixture

Friday 8th November
Western United V Central Coast Mariners 7:00pm ESDT IronBark Filed

Saturday 9th November
Melbourne Victory V Melbourne City 2:15pm ESDT AAMI Park
Brisbane Roar V Sydney FC 4:00pm ESDT, Perry Park

Sunday 10th November
Wellington Phoenix V Canberra United 2:00pm ESDT Pariua Park
Western Sydney Wanderers V Adelaide United Wanderers Football Park
Perth Glory V Newcastle Jets 6:00 ESDT HBF Park

 

[CURVE]

Michelle Heyman has become the first player to score 100 goals for an A-League Women's Club.



No other player has even reached the 100 goals mark in the ALW.

 

[stax on the mull]

Perth should go on to win the last game of Round 2 from 3-1 up in the 85th minute with Newcastle down to playing with 10 players for the last 15 minutes after their GK was red carded saving a shot with her hands way outside of the box.

This would leave Canberra and Melb City as the only 2 teams to have 6 points with 2 wins at the top of the ladder and Wellington and Sydney FC at the bottom of the ladder with 0 points from the first 2 games.

Sydney FC have been notorious slow starters, but didn't seem to have any potency up forward on Saturday up in Brisbane against the Roar.

 

[stax on the mull]

Perth Glory 3- Newcastle Jets 2 at the finish. Sheridan Gallagher, who spent the winter playing rugby league for Newcastle Knights, and sometimes seems to get confused as to which code she is playing, came on as a sub, kept up her bad girl reputation by picking up a misdemeanor yellow card for pushing a ball into an opposition players chest when returning it for a throw, but also thumped a 30m+ shot into the GK's top right corner at the beginning of extra time.

 

[giggler99]

Perth Glory 3- Newcastle Jets 2 at the finish. Sheridan Gallagher, who spent the winter playing rugby league for Newcastle Knights, and sometimes seems to get confused as to which code she is playing, came on as a sub, kept up her bad girl reputation by picking up a misdemeanor yellow card for pushing a ball into an opposition players chest when returning it for a throw, but also thumped a 30m+ shot into the GK's top right corner at the beginning of extra time.

wow that's a cracker!!

 

[nobbyiscool]

Of all the friggen wild goals I've seen today, this might be my favourite. It elicited the biggest reaction in my loungeroom!

 

[giggler99]

Round 3 Fixture

Friday 15th November
Brisbane Roar V Perth Glory 7:00pm ESDT, Perry Park

Saturday 16th November
Sydney FC V Western Sydney Wanderers 2:15pm ESDT, Leichardt Oval (Live on 10 Bold, check Local guides)
Melbourne City V Central Coast Mariners 4:00pm ESDT, Casey Fields
Canberra United V Adelaide United 4:00pm ESDT, McKellar Park

Sunday 17th November
Newcastle Jets V Wellington Phoenix 3:00pm ESDT, Maitland Sports Ground
Melbourne Victory V Western United, 4:00pm ESDT, Home Of the Matildas Latrobe University

 

[giggler99]

12secs!!

 

[stax on the mull]

Looks like it is Grace Maher who is WU's dead ball specialist that kicks it across after Khali Johnson's kick off and Beattie Goad's interception getting it forward to Gielnick. 4th touch Goal.

Good win for Victory as I was having some doubts about them after the first two games. They should be better when Lydia Williams gets back in goal. I think Williams would have saved at least 1 of the 3 goals scored against them by Melb City last week to give Victory at least a point from that match, and the Western United goal today spilled out of the Victory Keepers hands over the line.

Ella O'Grady, the young striker who came on as a sub, made a very confident left foot finish on the 4th Victory goal after a perfect through ball from Rachel Lowe.



At the end of Round 3, Melb City are on top of the ladder with a 2W 1 D 0 L record after the 2-2 draw to Central Coast yesterday.

Central Coast in 6th spot are the only other unbeaten team with 1W 2D, which makes the Central Coast vs 2nd place Melb Victory game next weekend the most interesting match up in next weekend's unite round.

 

[Zidane98]

I went yesterday. Very good setup at HOTM. Good atmosphere, good crowd. Reckon with a bit of extensive promoting we can see crowds of 4-5k there regularly which would be fantastic.

 

[Zidane98]

I reckon another 1k seat grandstand on the opposite side to the main grandstand would make HOTM an ideal venue for A League Divvy 2 teams in Melbourne (Avondale, Preston).

 

[nobbyiscool]

I went yesterday. Very good setup at HOTM. Good atmosphere, good crowd. Reckon with a bit of extensive promoting we can see crowds of 4-5k there regularly which would be fantastic.

I havent been yet, but I'm keen to check it out now it's at Bundoora. How far off the tram line is it? Do they even charge for entry these days? Is there beer & food or is it still too small for that?

 

[Zidane98]

I havent been yet, but I'm keen to check it out now it's at Bundoora. How far off the tram line is it? Do they even charge for entry these days? Is there beer & food or is it still too small for that?

Location here:



Is the tram on Plenty Rd? There's access from Plenty Rd I believe so not too far away.


They charge for entry of course. Womens A-Leauge is a professional competition. Family ticket is $45 (2 adults 2 kids) which is pretty cheap. Pretty good hospitality facilities too.

Adult ticket on its own is 20 bucks. Up from $12 last season I believe.


Parking was easy, just over the other side of the playing fields. 5 minute walk.