It’s been a long eight months since the 2021 W-League grand final: New South Wales has suffered through floods, tornadoes, a four-month-long COVID-19 lockdown and losing the NRL Women’s State of Origin to Queensland. With schools and businesses closed, and all sport banned through the majority of winter, many locally-based players – such as Clare Wheeler, Tessa Tamplin and Julie-Ann Russell – have gone abroad to ply their trade, while the remainder stayed cooped up indoors to avoid the dreaded plague.
This cruel twist of fate finds the Sky Blues in a similar conundrum to the one faced by their grand final opponents last season. As the majority of the side are based in Sydney and would usually play through the winter months in the local NPLW, many of Ante Jurić’s squad have been without football since late June. Now, faced with the upside of an early fixture list consisting of little travel, but the dire downside of a shorter pre-season and lack of match fitness, the Sky Blues will likely look inwards, motivated to avenge April’s heartbreaking last-minute grand final defeat.
Ins & Outs
INS
Sarah Hunter (Western Sydney Wanderers)
Kahli Johnson (Manly United – scholarship)
Jessika Nash (Canberra United)
María José Rojas (Adelaide United)
Paige Satchell (Canberra United)
Mary Stanić-Floody (Football NSW Institute – scholarship)
OUTS
Ellie Brush (injured – ACL)
Elizabeth Ralston (Western Sydney)
Allira Toby (Canberra United)
Clare Wheeler (Fortuna Hjørring)
The Boss
One of the most-experienced coaches in this season’s A-League Women competition, Canberra-born Ante Jurić has been at the helm of the Sky Blues since 2017. Having played for Sydney Olympic in the NSL, Jurić has coached the Belmore club’s men’s team for the last three years during the winter months, including a recent showdown with his A-Leagues clubmates in the FFA Cup. Now a permanent fixture at the club, Jurić has continued the Sky Blues’ unbroken streak of finals appearances and guided the side to each of the last four grand finals, lifting the famous trophy at Kogarah against Perth in 2018-19.
A throwback to current @SydneyOlympicFC coach Ante Juric representing the club back in the NSL. #SOLvSYD pic.twitter.com/T3J2vUuvNh
— FFA Cup (@FFACup) November 23, 2021
Key Players
One of the league’s great redemption stories, Natasha Prior will once again feature for the Sky Blues after returning late last year from the serious concussion she suffered in December 2018. Tagged as One For The Future since debuting for the Football NSW Institute in 2014, Prior’s injury looked to have robbed Australian football of a genuinely promising defensive prospect after she was stretchered from the pitch at McKellar Park. Since then, the Leicester-born centre-half has bravely rehabilitated herself – first with Macarthur Rams in NPLW NSW in 2020, then as an injury replacement for Sydney last season – and will be hoping to continue the career most fans thought was cut so cruelly short.
With newly-minted Matildas midfielder Clare Wheeler now plying her trade in Scandinavia and club legend Teresa Polias stepping away from football this season, experienced defender Natalie Tobin will step forward and take over the role as the metronomic middle. Having flirted with the idea of moving west to Perth over the winter, the Northern Suburbs native will be looking to replicate the form of her predecessors, both of whom won national team selection in the previous two years after shining for their club. After several seasons of shuffling positions like an ace on poker night, a more permanent role – coupled with her new role as club captain – will likely benefit Tobin, allowing her time to grow into and control the game in both directions. Her usual calm and collected style of play with allow Sydney to continue the stability it has enjoyed for the better part of a decade.
All of new W-League captain Nat Tobin's goals for Sydney FC!
Top Bins Tobin.#WLeague #SydneyIsSkyBlue pic.twitter.com/MTeBRMDGrd
— .SOTH (@asothdotcom) August 12, 2021
It seems like every season Sydney fans are tantalised with the prospect of a breakout campaign from Princess Ibini. Having made her Matildas debut at the age of 17 in the side’s famous 2017 victory over the United States, Ibini has been in the conversation for further international honours ever since, and talk of her potential once again bubbled up after a brace in last year’s season-opening Sydney Derby. Blessed with a wickedly powerful right foot and the ability to cut back off the left flank to devastating effect, Ibini has served as a key player in wide areas on both sides of the pitch, working in tandem with fellow winger Cortnee Vine to pull defences side-to-side and create space in behind. Ibini’s time with the Matildas will come – it’s easy to forget she’s still only 21 – but until then her ongoing partnership with Vine and Remy Siemsen, as well as newly-signed María Jose Rojas and Paige Satchell, could be something to behold this season.
One To Watch
Young centre-back Jessika Nash impressed throughout her debut season with Canberra United. She started every match for her former employers and earned a call-up to Tony Gustavsson’s Matildas squad for the side’s November friendlies against the United States. Calm on the ball and strong in the tackle, the Blacktown-born defender will be a vital cog in the machine that is Sydney’s defensive quartet, where she’ll likely step into the significant void created by Ellie Brush‘s recent injury. Look out for Nash’s meandering waltzes into midfield and her astute positioning along Sydney’s backline.
The More You Know
It’s often said that playing at home is a huge advantage in sports, especially in a competition as geographically diverse as the A-League Women, but Sydney’s 2020-21 record seems to suggest they were impervious to the toils of travel. Whereas last season’s three other finalists relied on strong results at home – especially Canberra, who maintain an impressive undefeated record at Viking Park – Sydney was able to perform equally as well away from the Harbour City, winning as many games across their four home venues as they did on the road.
Prediction
In truth, only a fool would write off Sydney as a potential championship threat. The most consistently successful team in either the men’s or women’s game in Australia, the club’s unbroken finals streak and appearances in almost two-thirds of the competition’s grand finals speaks to its ability to attract, grow and retain talent across the span of the league. With a strengthened forward line and experienced defence, as well as some fresh faces, don’t be surprised to see Sydney walk out for yet another Big Dance on the last Sunday in March.
