2023 NSW NPL Women’s Wrap – Round 26

With the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023 completed and written into the history books – on the pitch, if not totally so off it – our focus turns back to NPL Women’s football across the country. With a handful of clubs in NSW still hoping to qualify for the post-season and a pair vying for league survival, the final weekend of this year’s regular season has plenty of storylines waiting for us to uncover.

This season Beyond 90 will take a look at the big talking points across the league every week, all the way up to the Big Dance in September.

Party time at Lambert Park

Since their promotion to the top flight in the COVID-ravaged season of 2020, APIA Leichhardt have made no secret of their wish to attract top-quality talent, foster a positive culture, and eventually become the leaders in state-level women’s football in Australia. After a mid-table finish in their maiden season in the big time, APIA found themselves in fourth before the 2021 campaign was abandoned due to lockdowns in NSW, eventually finishing second in 2022 to guarantee their playoffs bow would be at Lambert Park – only to be unceremoniously dumped out by eventual champions Macarthur Rams on their own patch.

No matter though, APIA must’ve thought, as they picked up right where they had left off last season at the start of this, producing one of the greatest undefeated streaks ever seen in either NSW NPL competition to start the campaign without loss in 15 matches, before continuing that march to claim the 2023 NPLW Premiership and Club Championship. The combination of manager Spencer Prior’s brand of attacking football, a technically skilled midfield, and a 21-goal season from Golden Boot winner Ashlie Crofts were a joy to behold, and having averaged just under 2.5 goals per game while maintaining the second-most-miserly defence in the league, their success was in the end no real surprise.

The argument between the year’s best side being the premiers or grand final winners is an age-old one in this country, and though APIA have been crowned this season’s best club, they’ll be hoping to go one better than 2022 and lift the championship trophy in a fortnight. Before then though is the small matter of the inaugural Sapphire Cup final against Northern Tigers, and with the match taking place at Leichhardt Oval immediately before the club’s men’s side faces off against Sydney United to claim a first-ever treble, there may well be a half-dozen new trophies on display in the Joe Marston Pavilion next week.

The Miracle of Manly

The Club Championship is a funny thing, really; gathering data from across the age groups, it seeks to act as a demonstration of clubs’ commitment to excellence throughout the leagues in which they play. Simple in practice but complicated in reality, its calculations do not require the degrees of advanced mathematics needed to understand cricket’s Duckworth-Lewis System or baseball’s Wins Above Replacement statistic: based on results against non-academy teams – namely FNSW Institute and Emerging Jets – competition points in first grade multiplied by four before, being added to those in under-18s and reserve grade points, with the bottom-ranked team in NPL being replaced with the top-ranked team in League One at season’s end.

And it was this Club Championship that dictated so much of Sunday’s narrative: having watched their reserve grade clubmates be humbled at 5-1 by Manly United and sitting in last place just below Bankstown City, Blacktown Spartans knew that only a win in first grade would afford them any chance of survival, a feat they had achieved just three times this season. With that statistic in mind, the Rooty Hill side would’ve been less than happy with conceding twice in the opening 20 minutes, with Emily Minett adding to her tally while Daisy Arrowsmith finally found her shooting boots.

Whether it was those two goals or some inspiring words from the playing group that changed things remains a mystery, but Blacktown returned fire almost immediately through Amber Luchtmeijer, before Christa Oliva levelled the scores three minutes later. Four goals  in the first 23 minutes was a pace no match could keep, and so after 50 minutes of stalemate Blacktown would realise their dream, again from the boot of Amber Luchtmeijer, whose expert finish with a quarter-hour to play would seal Blacktown’s survival for another season. They say they don’t draw pictures on the scoresheet, but this match might be worth the artistic endeavour.

Missed it by that much

As with seemingly every season, there has to be a side to fall agonisingly short of a shot at the Championship, and this year it was Northern Tigers. Beaten on penalties in the 2022 grand final, the gals from North Turramurra had been there-or-thereabouts for the majority of the NPLW regular season, taking wins off perennial premiers Sydney University and their prior conquerors Macarthur Rams in the early weeks of the season.

And while these victories and others against leading opponents were spread throughout the season, Tigers failed to maintain any through-line of consistency: one week eking out a 2-1 win in Newcastle against an Emerging Jets side destined to finish the season winless, the next falling by the same scoreline to eventual finals qualifiers Bulls Academy. This up-and-down, win-loss-draw-win cycle continued throughout the campaign, with Tigers finishing with over half the total points available – 42 of a possible 78 – and yet still needing a series of results to go their way in order to qualify for the post-season.

So, facing Gladesville Ravens at Christie Park to secure a crucial three points an hour prior to Bulls Academy hosting NWS Spirit across the Northern Suburbs, Tigers took the lead midway through the second half, holding on to a 1-0 victory and ensuring one half of the equation. But despite their best efforts, that result wouldn’t be enough; two goals inside the opening quarter-hour put Bulls Academy in the box seat for finals football, and despite a 98th-minute penalty from Spirit making the scoreline more respectable, a 2-1 home win meant heartbreak for Tigers and yet another first in a season of many for Bulls Academy.

Around The Grounds
Sunday 3 September
Gladesville Ravens 0 Northern Tigers 1 at Christie Park
Sydney University 1 Macarthur Rams 2 at Sydney University Football Ground
Illawarra Stingrays 3 Sydney Olympic 1 at Macedonia Park
Bankstown City 0 Football NSW Institute 0 at Jensen Park
Manly United 2 Blacktown Spartans 3 at Cromer Park
APIA Leichhardt 7 Emerging Jets 1 at Lambert Park
Bulls Academy 2 NWS Spirit 1 at Northbridge Oval

Top Scorers
21 – Ashlie Crofts (APIA Leichhardt), Kelli Brown (Macarthur Rams)
15 – Brinley Gentle (Emerging Jets)
13 – Morgan Roberts (NWS Spirit)