A-League 2025/26 A-League Women Thread

[giggler99]

A-League women thread for season 2025/26

Round 1 Fixture

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[stax on the mull]

As per usual a lot of team changes this season.

Think Sydney FC will be back near the top this year after missing finals for the 1st time last season. Hunter (back from France), Galic (from CCM) and Hawkesby - and if they get young Matilda, Hannah Lowry, back in a month or so after missing most of last season with an ACL (arriving last season as their key recruit from the Perth Glory), they could have the strongest midfield in the competition. Their coach also reckons Amelia Cassar, a 17yo from WSW is talent-wise, a cross between Foord & Cooney-Cross. Looking to see how Kirsty Fenton returns having missed almost all the previous season with an ACL. Had been talked about as a possible Matilda prior to injury. And this is without discussing their unknown new recruits from overseas.

Melbourne Victory, Adelaide United, Sydney FC, Melbourne City looking the strongest squads - although there's some key players missing from most teams for the opening round.

Round 1 Ins & Outs: Squads STACKED with Matildas as 2025-26 season kicks off

Catch up with all the team news ahead of Round 1 of the Ninja A-League 2025-26 season.

aleagues.com.au

 

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Lightning delay before the 1st match of the season.

 

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Pollicina scoring a cracking goal at her new club after moving from Melb City off-season.



This is best game of the round so far. Brisbane 1- Melb Victory 2 at Half-time after Brisbane opened the scoring with good solo goal from their Dutch import.

 

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Brisbane have scored twice in the 2nd half to take a 3-2 lead over Melb Victory in the 85th minute, but the players have gone off the ground at the 88th minute because of lightning.

 

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They came back after an hour to play about 40 seconds and 5 minutes of added time without any other score.

Brisbane 3 - Melb Victory 2.

 

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Big win today for Central Coast Mariners at the home of the Giant Sauce Bottles. 3-0 over Adelaide United.

Trimis the star in the 1st half involved in both goals that came in the space of a few minutes. Check the speed on the 2nd goal, which I thought may have been offside but there's no VAR in ALW.



Then Gomez, the leagues' best player from last season, came off the bench in the 2nd half and scored.



Adelaide missing their two strikers Worts and Dawber, and while they dominated early, it did raise some doubts about their new recruits (the Taranto sisters for Western United) - whether they offer a point of difference or if they'll just be more of the same type of player they already had. Prakash from Western United had a very good debut for CCM.

 

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Late winner in Canberra for a Newcastle come from behind win in the last game of the round. Canberra 1 - Newcastle 2.

Wellington bye in the 1st round.

 

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Forgot the mention in Rd 1, there was a new "youngest ever" player to debut in A League Women/W-League. Willa Pearson centre back for Sydney United, also apparently a very good cricketer, played a full game and marked Holly McNamara.

Seen some mixed debate about whether it's too young to be playing against senior women at that age. Natalie Tobin the Sydney captain was injured which probably played some part in her getting the opportunity.

I can't immediately recall all of the other names on the list below and where they are playing now. Some are from way back in the early days of the league start up. Talia Younis started on the weekend for WSW. Ischia Brooking might have been a sub for the Glory on the weekend.

 

[giggler99]

Round 2 Fixture

Friday 7th November
Perth Glory V Brisbane Roar 7:00pm AESDT HBF Park

Saturday 8th November
Wellington V Canberra 2:00pm ESDT, Sky Stadium
Melbourne City V Central Coast Mariners 3:00pm ESDT, City Cyber Pitch
Adelaide united V Sydney FC, 4:00pm ESDT, ServiceFM Stadium

Sunday 9th November
Western Sydney Wanderers V Melbourne Victory 4:00pm AESDT

Bye: Newcastle Jets

 

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Powerful strike from Rola Badawiya to equalize for the Glory only minutes after Grace Kuilamu put the Roar ahead.

 

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Good work from Sharn Freier down the left and keeping it in to cross from the line across goal for a Jansen header. Perth Glory 1- Brisbane Roar 2.

Jansen again 2 minutes later. Shot hits the inside of the right post and bounced sideways a fraction over the goal line before the keeper could get to it. Glory 1 - Roar 3.

 

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Massive chance for Freier to make it 1-4, just shot it past the keeper and just past the right goal post.

Header save on the line by Roar defender Seidl after GK Lincoln couldn't hold the ball delivered from the corner.

All up, 2 goals and 2 near misses in the space of 8 minutes.

 

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Ella Lincoln breaks forward for a 2nd goal for Glory in added time. Still about 3 minutes left Perth Glory 2 - Brisbane Roar 3.

Close to 3-3 with a free header in the box for Zogg that couldn't be directed on target.

Final whistle blows at 2-3. Brisbane get the 3pts away against Perth.

Both of these teams seem better than last season and both missed the Top 6, and both currently have a couple of 1st team starters who are out with injury. Freier returning is a big IN for Brisbane but she's only on loan from Wolfsburg. Jansen the former Dutch international is good recruit for them.

 

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3 Saturday games with the middle game overlapping the 2nd half of the first game and first half of the 3rd game. Don't know why they couldn't just schedule an hour earlier and an hour later for games 1 and 3.

All three games in Wellington, Melbourne and Adelaide played in very windy conditions.

So far 1-1 draw between Wellington at home to Canberra.

Melbourne City at home had a big 4-0 win against Central Coast Mariners with 2 goals in each half and goals shared - 2 to Holly McNamara and 2 to 17yo Shelby McMahon.

Adelaide 0-0 at home to Sydney FC at half-time.

and 0-0 at full time.

 

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First hattrick of the season 50min into the final game of Rd 2 comes via Melb Victory's US signing Kennedy White giving her side a 2 goal lead after Western Sydney Wanderers scored the opening goal. WSW 1 - Melb Vic 3.

 

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Almost a 4th goal to Kennedy White @ 84 minutes - a header into the cross bar which was followed up from the rebound by Zoe McMeeken to make the score WSW 1 - MV 4...and that's how it ended.

 

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[giggler99]

Round 3 Fixture

Friday 14th November
Adelaide United V Canberra United, 7:00pm AESDT, ServiceFM Stadium

Saturday 15th November
Sydney Fc V Perth Glory, 2:45pm AESDT, Lechhardt Oval (Live on 10 Drama, Check local guides)
Melbourne Victory V Central Coast Mariners, Home Of the Matildas (Live on 10 Drama, Check local guides)

Sunday 16th November
Wellington Phoenix V Newcastle Jets, 2:00pm AESDT, Parirua Park
Brisbane Roar V Western Sydney Wanderers, Spencer Park

Bye: Melbourne City

 

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First win of the season, (first goals as well) to Adelaide at home over Canberra in the Friday night Rd 3 game and deserved on the balance of chances created.

Canberra scored in the opening minute through Kiara De Domizio, who went off in the 1st half with a hamstring injury.



Adelaide hit back with a half equalizer from Emily Condon at 24min and a winner headed goal from a 78 min corner by Matilda McNamara (who made up for a miss with a similar chance last week).

 

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Bunch of "nothing special" games so far this round. With two Sunday games to come the emerging pattern is that some of the teams predicted to finish in finals (Adelaide, Sydney, Melb Victory) have picked up the 3 points at home. (Melb City with the bye, though they won 5-0 in the Asian Championship Cup on Thursday).

A 2-0 win at home to Sydney over Perth Glory in a game delayed by lightning.

Sydney FC's Panama international striker Riley Tanner providing the assist as well as scoring. Grace Johnston Glory's best.

Looking at this assist play by Tanner again, it's also very good long ball switched to the other side by Sydney #7 Amelia Cassar (the 17yo Young Matildas player/future prospect much touted pre-season by Sydney coach Ante Juric).



A 1-0 win at home by Melb Victory over Central Coast.

A well timed run from Rachael Lowe, a good first up save from Sarah Langman, then the decisive follow up from Rhianna Pollicina, scoring her second goal of the season for her new club.



Isabel Gomez subbed on at approx 60 min after missing last round looked the most creative CCM player, but despite a couple of half-chances Victory defended their lead well sending the opposition wide with stop/start play (balls sent out of play, injury breaks, subs on/off) in the last 15 minutes that prevented Mariners having any meaningful chains of possession. Victory still have 3-4 regular starting players out with injury.

Brisbane have the chance to be the only team to be 3 wins from 3 games taking on bottom side WSW at home tomorrow.

 

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Bit of an upset with Brisbane going down 0-1 to WSW. WSW first clean sheet since March 2024 and first points of the season. Veteran Olivia Price coming on as sub slotting it home in the 87th minute after some persistent play from Ella Buchanan in the box. Danika Matos's dogged defending probably the player of the match snuffing out most of Sharn Freier's runs down the left side that have caused opposition sides problems in the first two Brisbane wins.

WSW debuted a new striker, Kim Soeun from South Korea, that made them look more competitive up front, although their goal came after she was substituted. Brisbane drop their first points of the season. Next game they get their Japanese midfielder Momo Hayashi back from a 3 game suspension from last season for dissent with a ref.




Earlier Sunday game in NZ between Wellington Phoenix and Newcastle Jets ended in a 1-1 draw. A goal from Brooke Nunn in the opening minutes to Wellington Phoenix cancelled out later in the first half by a penalty taken by Melina Ayres. Both sides undefeated after 2 games. Wellington with their new coach Bev Priestman (ex of Canada national team) yet to win have dropped points with 2 draws in their 2 home games.

 

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[giggler99]

Round 4 Fixture

Saturday 22nd November
Newcastle Jets V Western Sydney Wanderers 3:00pm AESDT, No.2 Showgrounds
Canberra V Perth Glory FC 4:00pm McKellar Park

Sunday 23rd November
Wellington Phoenix V Melbourne Victory, 2:00pm AESDT, Porirua Park
Sydney FC V Central Coast Mariners, 4:00pm AESDT, Leichhardt Oval

Melbourne City V Adelaide United Rescheduled for December 2017 2025

Bye: Brisbane Roar

 

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Melbourne City vs Adelaide game is rescheduled to Wednesday Dec 17 5:30 AEST, because Melbourne City have been playing the first stages in the AFC Champions cup - where they've won convincingly (5-0, 7-0, 3-0) in 3 games played over 9 days over their bye week.

Not sure if they'll change some more fixtures because their A-League schedule now means that have games on the 13th, 17th and 19th. Only the middle fixture of those 3 games is a home game between games in Canberra and Brisbane. Seems a bit of a rough schedule.