2023 NSW NPL Women’s Wrap – Round 6

Boy howdy – what a weekend of football! One team claimed its first win for the season, another continues its winning run, while the first Northern Derby of the season saw a big win at Cromer Park. There’s midweek games, the Sapphire Cup, and one of the cleanest strikes we’ve seen in NSW NPL Women’s for years – what a time to be alive!

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.

Finally!

It’s been a long, long run for Blacktown Spartans without a goal – exactly 410 minutes, to be precise – and we can only imagine it feels even longer for the Rooty Hill side. With four straight defeats, Spartans were looking down the barrel of elimination from finals contention before we’d even made it to winter. 

That all came to an end this weekend as Lauren Phelps’ side finally troubled the scorers against Sydney University as they overcame a 0-1 half-time deficit to defeat the reigning premiers 2-1. A brace from Philippines international Eva Madarang shortly after half-time handed Phelps her first win as first grade manager, capping an incredible rise through the ranks and further cementing Phelps’ place as a Spartans legend.

This APIA team can play a bit

Now into its sixth week without a loss, we think it’s fair to say Spencer Prior has his APIA team absolutely humming. With three consecutive wins and just four goals conceded, APIA remains one of the two undefeated teams along with Northern Tigers, and don’t look like slowing down any time soon.

For the longest time, APIA’s problem seemed to be players lacking familiarity with their roles in the team and inconsistency within the playing group. That chopping and changing has been replaced with a starting XI that almost picks itself, as Prior has modified his teamsheet only twice this season – replacing Sarah Urquhart with Gisella Pipino in midfield on both occasions – while the remainder of his side has remained the same across the six matches played. Now sure of their roles from week to week, APIA’s players are looking confident in their colleagues and themselves as they execute Prior’s game plan.

Add to that newfound confidence new signing Ashlie Crofts averaging a goal a game so far this season, and we’re expecting even bigger and better things from the women’s cohort of one of Australia’s proudest clubs. Considering the amount of A-League Women talent present in 2022 with the potential to appear in the claret and blue this season – players such as Tori Tumeth, Princess Ibini, Shea Connors, Rhianna Pollicina, and of course Claudia Cicco – it’s not too extreme to imagine the Leichhardt side might finally break through the grass ceiling this year and match their male counterparts by claiming top-flight silverware.

Rough seas on the Beaches

In the 1930s, American theologian Rev. Reinhold Neibuhr wrote his famous Serenity Prayer, a call for divine assistance to realise both our intelligence and insignificance of our existence: God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. While not a religious man, this author sees a distinct link between Rev. Neibuhr’s prose and the prayers of Manly United coaching staff after their team’s loss to local rivals Northern Tigers.

Having taken a first-half lead at home for the first time since July 2022 through Mid-North Coast native Mia Bales, Manly manager Tom Hopley could only stand and watch in dismay as Tigers levelled the ledger two minutes later through Claudia Cholakian, nodding a looping header over Nicole Simonsen after Jade McAtamney’s sweet show-and-go on the left flank found the Armenian international among a forest of bodies atop the Manly penalty area. Hopley would have been even more aghast when Tigers took the lead with one of the cleanest volleys you’re likely to see from Beth Bernardi moments before the break, hammering her shot into the top corner from 20 yards to ensure the half-time oranges were just a hint sweeter in the visitors’ changerooms. And that sliced citrus looked to be the perfect refreshment for Tigers, who extended their lead through Caitlin Doeglas seven minutes into the second stanza, her perfectly-timed run in behind Manly’s defence found expertly by Lily McMahon, allowing her to toepoke her effort inside the near post beyond the flummoxed Simonsen.

Despite the result – and his near-workplace-accident of an attempt to catch a football just before full time – Hopley and his colleagues can look forward to next week knowing that two of Tigers’ three goals were really no fault of his side, and that areas of play he would consider strengths led to a number of good opportunities left unfinished. Those tidbits won’t earn his side three points, but realising that sometimes the ball just doesn’t bounce your way and learning how to react when it does is a hallmark of successful teams across the sporting world.

Around The Grounds
Sunday 16 April
Football NSW Institute 1 APIA Leichhardt 2 at Valentine Sports Park
Bulls Academy 2 Illawarra Stingrays 0 at Northbridge Oval
Sydney Olympic 5 Emerging Jets 1 at Peter Moore Field
Blacktown Spartans 2 Sydney University 1 at Blacktown Football Park
Manly United 1 Northern Tigers 3 at Cromer Park
Macarthur Rams 1 Gladesville Ravens 0 at Lynwood Park
Tuesday 18 April
Football NSW Institute 0 Blacktown Spartans 0 at Valentine Sports Park
Thursday 20 April
Sydney Olympic vs Northern Tigers – postponed

Top Scorers
6 – Brinley Gentle (Emerging Jets)
5 – Ashlie Crofts (APIA Leichhardt), Emily Minett (Manly United), Leena Khamis (Macarthur Rams), Stephanie Augoustis (Sydney University)