Now over a year adrift from the 2020 W-League showpiece at Swan Street, the culmination of a season marked by the emergence of Western Sydney Wanderers and the return of the omnipotent Melbourne City, natural order has slowly returned to Australia’s most unpredictable football league as the country’s two biggest clubs contest this season’s Grand Final. 

2020-21’s two winningest teams will lock horns for the second time in three weeks in a match that will again highlight the young players filling the shoes of those veterans departed for greener pastures, while the league’s two most-successful coaches will meet in the Big Dance for the first time.

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For all of the insecurity thrust upon society by this godforsaken pandemic, there has been nothing safer than the bubble in which Sydney and its players placed itself in throughout this season. Having made all bar two signings months before the competition’s opening round, manager Ante Jurić has again surrounded himself with known quantities from around the NSW NPLW, ensuring his charges were comfortable in both their roles and their settings well in advance of any challenges that could befall them.

Remy Siemsen, Natalie Tobin, Clare Wheeler, and club captain Teresa Polias have grown even further from their stellar winter seasons, forming a solid spine to a team as comfortable with the ball as it is without, while players once considered stop-gaps and substitutes such as Mackenzie Hawkesby, Ally Green, and Princess Ibini have grown into their roles as starting players and flourished in a well-organised, counter-attacking team.

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By contrast, Melbourne has somehow avoided the headaches of what could have been an arduous W-League season. Again without a home ground, and with a squad steeled by the rigours of Victoria’s lockdowns throughout the last 12 months, this season has turned into one of comparative success for the Victory, making the finals for the third consecutive year and enjoying watching the struggles of rivals Melbourne City from afar.

Returning club legend Lisa de Vanna, back in Australia after a season with Italian side AC Fiorentina, and her attacking partners Catherine Zimmerman and Melina Ayres have formed a formidable partnership in the front – a bond shown to its fullest extent in the side’s 6-2 demolition of Brisbane last week; at the back, the newly-formed foreign legion of Claudia Bunge, Kayla Morrison, and Gaby Garton have turned Victory into a powerhouse in defence, having kept opponents scoreless in seven of the team’s 13 matches so far this season; and in the middle, the two halves are linked by the tenacity of Amy Jackson, the calmness of Annalie Longo, and the silk touch of Kyra Cooney-Cross.

It is that contrast of styles that makes this contest so fascinating: Sydney, a team comfortable absorbing pressure with defensive discipline and  careful, considered possession before an explosion of forward momentum, will be seeking to blunt and burden a multi-pronged Melbourne attack capable of prying open even the slightest cinch of space; likewise Melbourne will seek to remain steadfast in the face of a quintet of advanced players looking to spring into action without notice or restraint, and able to score from anywhere in their attacking half. Even Polias’ and Mindy Barbieri’s set-pieces present a flashpoint of uncertainty, with both having scored sensational long-range curlers in crucial moments this season.

With Brisbane and Canberra United falling in their semi-finals, these two teams are primed for the W-League’s biggest stage of all: a perfectly-sunny autumn day backgrounded by the cranes of Port Botany and the Tasman Sea beyond. With a season of tumult and tension waiting for its crescendo, nothing short of the W-League’s patented brand of chaos will satisfy a waiting nation. Nature is healing, indeed.

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The More You Know: While Sydney has been exceptional at home this season, losing just once (1-4 vs Brisbane at Leichhardt Oval), the Sky Blues have turned Kogarah into something of a fortress, having tasted defeat just once in their previous seven games since adopting the venue as their own. Ironically, while Melbourne have struggled to win in the Harbour City, Victory’s last three points in Sydney were won at this Sunday’s venue in November 2018, with the now-departed Natasha Dowie notching a hat-trick in a 2-3 win for the Navy Blues.

Beyond90’s Prediction: Melbourne’s defence, as keen mathematicians will have noticed in their semi-final against Brisbane, is not impregnable by any stretch. With goals from midfield and beyond (see: Ally Green), Sydney will pose a constant threat on goal in the attacking half, but Victory will take consolation in the fact both the Sky Blues’ goals came from set pieces in their meeting two weeks ago. Melbourne’s fluid football against Brisbane and superb combinations in defence and deep midfield will likely limit Sydney to opportunities from outside the box or from set pieces. If Victory can keep Siemsen and Ibini quiet and limit opportunities from midfield, Jeff Hopkins’ chargers may catch Sydney napping around their defensive third, and profiting often enough to lift the W-League’s most sought-after prize.
Sydney 1 Melbourne 2

2021 W-League Grand Final – Sydney v Melbourne Victory
Jubilee Stadium, Kogarah – Sunday 11 April, 4pm
Watch on ABC, Fox Sports, Kayo, or the MyFootball app

DALE ROOTS
DALE ROOTS
Dale is a Canberra-born, Sydney-based writer for Beyond90, covering both W-League and NPL competitions, as well as the Australian national teams.
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