It was a big week of football in the west, with a full round of fixtures for NPLW Round 11 over the weekend, plus a rescheduled Round 7 game and State Cup games on Tuesday and Wednesday.
On Tuesday night MUM FC hosted Perth SC. The away team knew that a win would allow them to leapfrog Fremantle City and move into second place. However, MUM FC proved to be resolute in defence and the game ended as a scoreless draw.
There was State Cup action on Wednesday evening with State League side University of WA hosting Perth RedStar and Balcatta Etna travelling to Litis Stadium for a game against Hyundai NTC.
The league leaders proved too strong for UWA and won 5-0 whilst Balcatta recorded an impressive 3-0 win against NTC. Both sides now progress to the quarter-finals, along with fellow NPLW side Curtin University, plus Sorrento FC and Mandurah City FC from the State League.
Round 11 started on Friday evening with the University Derby, as Curtin University travelled to Murdoch University to take on MUM FC. Any hopes of Curtin getting their first win of the season and earning their first points under new head coach Hassan Al-Ahmad were well and truly dashed as the home team ran out 5-1 winners, with two goals from former Curtin University player Penelope Clayton and a hattrick from Meghan Hulsman.
The three games on Sunday saw third placed Perth SC put on a fine display to beat second placed Fremantle City 3-0 and move three points clear of their opponents into second place, whilst Balcatta Etna FC and Hyundai NTC played each other for the second time in four days. The venue was different from Wednesday but the scoreline was the same with Balcatta again beating their opponents 3-0.
The final game of the round was at Subiaco, and the home team was determined to avoid a repeat of the heavy defeat they suffered the last time they met Perth RedStar. Subiaco managed to do this by holding the league leaders to a single goal, but couldn’t find a goal of their own and went down 1-0.
These results saw Perth RedStar maintain its 10-point gap at the top of the ladder, but Perth SC now occupies second spot, three points clear of third-placed Fremantle City. Balcatta Etna are now in fourth spot, just one point clear of MUM FC and Hyundai NTC, whilst Subiaco and Curtin remain in 7th and 8th spots respectively.
Football is a game played for 90 minutes … or more!
With the last minutes of normal time ticking down, the 3-1 scoreline in favour of MUM FC appeared to be the end of proceedings, but Meghan Hulsman demonstrated excellent striker’s instincts to punish some wayward defending by the Curtin backline, scoring her second of the game in the 91st minute.
She wasn’t finished there, and went on to score again in the 92nd minute when she was allowed to run unopposed into the penalty area, finishing high into the net and completing a hattrick that most observers would not have considered likely when regulation time elapsed.
On a side note, Hulsman has some pretty unique goal celebrations, so it’s to be hoped that she gets on the scoresheet again this season, just to see what she comes up with!
Yellow cards are not just for players on the pitch
The Round 7 game that was played on Tuesday evening saw Perth SC and MUM FC play out a keenly contested 0-0 draw. The two teams battled hard and in the process conceded 20 free kicks between them. Based on the free-kick count, it should come as no surprise to learn that there were two yellow cards issued by the referee.
What is surprising though is that neither card was issued to a player on the pitch. Perth SC coach Peter Rakic earned a card late in the second half for protesting too strongly to the referee about the lack of cards, and then promptly earned one for himself.
Whilst it’s not unusual for coaches to get booked, it’s pretty rare for a substituted player to earn a card. This is what happened when Perth’s Emma McMurdo earned the referee’s ire after appearing to join in with further complaints from the Perth bench about the number of challenges not being penalised. It looked as though she had been asked to sit back on the bench by the referee and move away from the technical area, but when she failed to comply she was promptly booked.
Goalkeepers, are they heroes or villains?
Its one of the oldest cliches in football that you have to be slightly mad to be a goalkeeper, and there is no doubt that it is the one position in the team where you can be a hero one minute and a villain the next, depending on whether you have just pulled off a worldie or made an error that would go unnoticed if any other player made it.
The Subiaco vs Perth RedStar game became a battle of wills between Zara Board, the home team keeper, and the Perth RedStar attack. The visitors had 26 shots during the game and 12 of those were on target. Board stood tall during this sustained pressure and pulled off many crucial saves to keep RedStar to just one goal, thus preventing them from scoring three or more for the first time this season.
In the game against Balcatta Etna FC, Hyundai NTC keeper Lilly Bailey displayed the other side of a goalkeeper’s life when she misplaced a pass to a teammate. This sort of thing happens on the pitch all the time, but when a keeper does it the error is often magnified. Balcatta’s Alanah Veroni proceeded to snap up the loose ball and returned it with interest, scoring her side’s second of the day.
When will Perth SC concede a goal again?
Perth SC’s win on Sunday against Fremantle was the eighth time they have kept a clean sheet in 10 games. The only team to have breached their defence so far this season is Hyundai NTC, who have scored five against them in two games.
This defensive solidity is allowing them to earn points in tight games as they have drawn 0-0 twice and also beaten Balcatta Etna 1-0.
The only other team that matches them defensively is Perth RedStar, who have also only conceded five goals. Perth RedStar is also prolific at the other end of the pitch and has scored 45 goals already this campaign, whereas Perth SC is averaging less than two goals per game having scored 19 so far.
Perth SC’s next opponents will be Perth RedStar and the outcome of this game will be determined by which defence will be strongest.
Balcatta are discovering their mojo
In the pre-season night series competition, Balcatta knocked out favourites Fremantle City and took a two-goal lead in the final against Northern Redbacks before losing in extra time.
This form marked them as possible league champions, but a combination of postponements due to COVID and injuries to key players meant Balcatta started the league season slowly – they only picked up one point from their first three games.
In recent weeks Balcatta have slowly started putting results together and are now unbeaten in their last four games, without conceding a goal in this period.
This run has seen them move into the top four, just four points behind Fremantle City in third place, and with a game in hand. The two teams meet in a fortnight’s time and there is a real chance of Balcatta overtaking Fremantle to claim that third spot.
Click here for Round 11 goal highlights
Round 11 Results
MUM FC 5-1 Curtin University FC
Balcatta Etna FC 3-0 Hyundai NTC Women
Perth SC 3-0 Fremantle City FC
Subiaco FC 0–1 Perth RedStar FC
League Ladder
| Position | Team | P | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Points |
| 1 | Perth RedStar FC | 10 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 45 | 5 | 40 | 30 |
| 2 | Perth SC | 10 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 19 | 5 | 14 | 20 |
| 3 | Fremantle City FC | 10 | 5 | 2 | 3 | 24 | 16 | 8 | 17 |
| 4 | Balcatta Etna FC | 9 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 10 | 8 | 2 | 13 |
| 5 | MUM FC | 10 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 12 | 11 | 1 | 12 |
| 6 | Hyundai NTC | 10 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 11 | 22 | -11 | 12 |
| 7 | Subiaco AFC | 10 | 1 | 2 | 7 | 8 | 32 | -24 | 5 |
| 8 | Curtin University | 9 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 9 | 39 | -30 | 1 |
