In March, when Melbourne City claimed their record-breaking fourth W-League title, they did so with one of the league’s oldest squads. With an average age of 27.5, City’s starting XI that day included just two players who were 23 years or younger: Ellie Carpenter (19) and Emma Checker (23).
By contrast, Sydney FC – who finished third on the ladder and lost the final 1-0 – started five players in the same category: Ally Green (20), Remy Siemsen (19), Natalie Tobin (22), Veronica Latsko (23) and Taylor Ray (18), with an average starting XI age of just under 24.
This age difference typified the 2019-20 W-League season more broadly, where teams with a larger number of players in older age brackets tended to finish further up the ladder than teams with a larger number of younger players. Newcastle Jets and Adelaide United, who finished last and second-last respectively, each had at least 12 players under the age of 23, while Melbourne Victory and Western Sydney Wanderers, who finished second and fourth, had nine or fewer.
This was the case in 2018-19, too, when premiers Melbourne Victory had half the number of players under 23 than the league’s next best team, Brisbane Roar. There is, in other words, an emerging correlation between league success and opportunities afforded to young players; one, it appears, is coming at the expense of the other.
This data is illustrative of a broader conversation happening within Australian football circles about the identity and purpose of the W-League. As the 2020-21 season approaches – and with the 2023 Women’s World Cup on the horizon – football’s decision-makers must soon choose a path, lest more young Australian players are left on the bench as they watch the game pass them by.
But there has been little indication from above regarding these long-term plans. While Football Federation Australia’s “Starting XI” principles stated that the W-League should aim to become a “top five” global women’s league, there was little information regarding what form such a league would take or how it could get there.
Likewise, Australia’s professional clubs – who will soon be in charge of operating the W-League under an independent model – have released no information about their plans for the league following the blueprint seen by Guardian Australia last October.
In the absence of specifics, other groups within the game have offered their own ideas. Professional Footballers Australia, for example, recently released a white paper offering three possible futures for the W-League: a formal partnership with the NWSL in the United States, a stand-alone, globally competitive league and a development league.
W-League clubs have oscillated between these three paths at random in recent seasons, with some determined to recruit big names and chase titles while others have leaned into local player development, but with little co-operation or shared vision that could help equalise the league’s increasingly-stretched playing field. Most have tried to find a balance, with varying levels of success.
On Thursday, though, Sydney FC took the initiative and offered their version of what the W-League could look like if it were to adopt PFA’s third suggestion – player development – as its guiding principle. Of the 16 players announced by the club ahead of the 2020-21 season, just three are over the age of 23: Teresa Polias (30), Ellie Brush (31) and Liz Ralston (25). Sydney’s average squad age (prior to international signings) is now just over 22, with six of these younger players on national team radars.
This squad list may be a preview of what is to come from other W-League clubs, both this season and beyond. As more senior Matildas sign long-term contracts overseas and with the possibility of fewer international imports due to ever-changing Covid-19 travel restrictions, W-League clubs – much like their A-League counterparts in recent weeks – are being forced to tap into local player pools and accelerate the development of younger squad members who had been kept on the bench by older, more experienced teammates.
While the absence of big names may affect viewership and attendance numbers for the 2020-21 campaign – despite the fact that recent research by Roy Morgan found the W-League is the only football league watched by Australians which is increasing in interest – this short-term sacrifice may be necessary for the longer-term benefit of providing a platform for the next generation of national team stars who may be knocking on the squad door come 2023.
Likewise, this clearer air provides Australia’s wider football community with an opportunity to get to know these emerging talents and build a new network of relationships and narratives to ensure that the current popularity of the Matildas among the general public is maintained.
As the W-League finds itself at a crossroads, Sydney FC’s recent squad offers us a glimpse into its future. Although the vision they present is not filled with big-name Matildas, it is the one most likely to produce the next generation of them.
