On the concrete terrace at the northern end of Marconi Stadium, which hosted the W-League’s premiership-defining match between Western Sydney Wanderers and Melbourne City last week, the home side’s active support group, the Red and Black Bloc, ripped a flare.
Sparks sizzled and danced before a column of smoke rose from within the chanting group and drifted across the stand, conveniently obscuring the nearby scoreboard that read “Home 0, Away 3”. Soon after the bright red had faded, and the fans had been escorted out of the ground by security, a firetruck pulled up to the back of the stand to douse a small grass fire that had been lit by the quickly discarded flaming tube.
It was an absurd yet appropriate metaphor for Western Sydney’s season. Glittering with top-quality international recruits and supported by impressive local stars, their opening games were full of colour and spark and light. But external interruptions have halted their momentum; the loss of key players through injury, suspension and departure have clipped the wings of the once-flying side. Finals are still within reach, but one cannot help but feel the Wanderers’ season has gone from an exciting spark to an accidental fire that others have been forced to put out.
Western Sydney’s end-of-season collapse made Melbourne City’s eventual 4-0 victory against them to reclaim the premiership on Thursday feel inevitable. Indeed, the writing was on the wall when the lineups were announced: while City started all but one of the same XI who have played almost every game this season, the Wanderers’ depleted stocks meant they were forced to hand out three starting debuts – including one to a player whose name had not yet been entered into the official website.
Despite the anticlimax of the result, the game highlighted what has made Melbourne City the most successful W-League club over the past half-decade: consistency. While every other side has struggled through turbulent periods in 2019-20, City have maintained a steady course throughout. A 1-1 draw in the opening round was the only game in which they dropped points and, although it took City until round eight to win a game by more than a goal, it has been a determination to grind out results even when they weren’t at their best that has proved City’s title-winning character.
They won’t achieve the same perfect record as the 2015-16 double-winning side, but there is a case to be made that this City team is, on the whole, better than the one which included the likes of Kim Little, Lisa De Vanna, Jess Fishlock and Jennifer Beattie. Women’s domestic football has come a long way in the past five years and the past two seasons of the W-League in particular have been two of the most competitive in its history. This season four teams enter the final round within five points of each other, while in 2018-19 just four points separated the sides from second to seventh.
In this context, City’s 2019-20 run is all the more impressive: their goal difference is plus-21 – 11 more than the next-best team this season and their second-best in history – while City have conceded just three goals; their last coming against Sydney FC in round four in early December (a league record).
The captain, Steph Catley, is one of three players who have been part of both premiership-winning City sides and says consistency has been key to their success, particularly after the fifth-place finish last season. “Coming in this year, we still had Rado [Vidošić, the coach], we had the same ideas, similar players, just adding a bit more. So I think it’s all just come together a lot quicker and everyone’s a lot more clear on what we need to do … It’s almost like these last two seasons have been chopped in half and now we’re playing the second half of [last] season, because that’s what a fully professional league would be.
“You look at some of our old staples in Lu [Lauren Barnes], [Rebekah] Stott, [Yukari] Kinga, Lyd [Lydia Williams] – you’ve got that core there. And then bringing in the fresh faces like Claire [Emslie], Milly [Milica Mijatović], Ellie [Carpenter] … it’s everything that we were missing and lacking last season, those players have come in and filled those gaps. Experienced players, international-level players, and they bring their own personal attributes as well as fitting into the team perfectly.
“You can see the quality that [the Wanderers] would have if they had those key players but obviously that’s football; it’s hard to keep a squad healthy and that’s the consistency you need to go on and make finals and win things.”
The game on Thursday was the clearest example of why multiseason consistency and planning matters in a league as short as this. City’s fifth trophy in five years is both a statement about the importance of off-field support for women’s teams as well as proof that long-term success in a changing landscape depends upon a slow burn over a bright spark.
