After pipping an A-Leagues legend to the Liberty A-League Golden Boot, Hannah Keane is now preparing for her first Finals Series with Western United. KEEPUP’s Sacha Pisani charts her journey and speaks to the striker about how she is handling the pressure as the club’s focal point.
The Golden Boot is the reward for a consistent body of work across a season, but Hannah Keane’s reaction to the honour sums up the selflessness of the American striker.
This is a player who puts the team first. It also highlights her refreshing approach, not only to football, but how she dissects her own performances and also that of Western United.
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“I’m happy about it. It’s good. Also I would’ve been just fine not getting it too,” Keane told KEEPUP as Western gear up for Sunday evening’s blockbuster semi-final against three-time reigning premiers Sydney FC.
Only two Americans had won the Liberty A-League Golden Boot previously, and they both came in the 2019-20 season, when Morgan Andrews and Kristen Hamilton shared the award with Matildas attacker Remy Siemsen and Englishwoman Natasha Dowie. All four players had scored seven goals.
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This season, Keane found the back of the net on 13 occasions, to not only pip A-Leagues legend Michelle Heyman to the gong, but lead Western to within a whisker of the Premiership in their inaugural campaign.
“At the beginning of the season, we did some goal setting and my goal had just been to score at least 10 goals,” she reflected. “(The goal was to) get into double digits which was challenging but not going to be too difficult.
“I really couldn’t care that much how many goals I score as long as my team is doing well.
“Also a lot of my goals were right place, right time so I can’t take so much credit in the build-up to them. I’m glad I was in the right place at the right time which is part of my game.”
Shouldering the attacking burden
Jess McDonald was the headline signing heading into Western’s inaugural Liberty A-League season; a FIFA Women’s World Cup-winning striker with an undisputed pedigree that also included three National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) Championships among other honours.
Keane was Western’s inaugural foreign signing, but her 35-year-old star teammate attracted all of the attention, on and off the field.
However, once McDonald’s guest contract wrapped up in January, things changed.
That shift to becoming Western’s focal point in attack has provided Keane with a career-first challenge as she explained so candidly.
To put it into context, of Western’s 38 regular-season goals, 13 came from the 29-year-old. Tyla-Jay Vlajnic and Sydney Cummings were next best with four apiece.
“It has its pros and cons,” she said. “Right now, I feel like not including our win and our losses, it definitely feels like a con because I am alone and the chances we do make, I’m usually somehow involved so I need to be good because there so view chances we do have.
“The pro would be if we are getting good chances, I am involved and maybe I score more. It’s something we’re still working on as a team.
“With Jess McDonald leaving, it moved some eyes that were on her to me. It’s also good – I am happy to step up but then most of the defenders are looking me and it makes it a little bit more difficult for me.
“It’s been interesting. I’ve never been on a team where it’s mostly on me. I’m happy to step up and do what I can. Obviously we can see in our losses that not all the time can I do everything to help us win. It’s more of a team effort in that aspect.”
For all of Keane and Western’s success in season one, it has not been without it’s difficulties.
She went through a challenging three-game scoring drought as Western stumbled at the back end of the season before snapping that skid with a two-goal haul against Western Sydney Wanderers in the final round.
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That scoreless run had left Keane questioning herself. It also put the mental side of football into focus.
“When we weren’t doing well and (were) losing, we were still making some chances but missing them obviously. It’s always very easy to say ‘next one, next one, don’t think about it’,” she said.
“I feel like I was good about not thinking about the chances I missed while I was playing.
“For me it’s definitely more about the regret after a game. I can’t sleep at night because I’m going through every situation in my head that I should’ve done something much better than I did do.
“I didn’t feel the pressure until people started to tell me not to feel the pressure and that’s when I started to think, ‘oh, is there pressure?, is there supposed to be pressure?’ because everyone is telling me not to feel it but now they’re telling me not to feel it, I started to feel it.
“You just have to keep going. I’m nervous about things but as soon as the whistle happens, it all kind of melts away and I try to be more in the moment and that’s when I do my best – when I’m not thinking ahead or behind.
“Getting that goal (against Western Sydney), it was like, ‘okay, I still can score’. Now I do have confidence for the next however many minutes left in the game. I kind of feel it within me but within the team that we can score, can make good chances if we keep going.”
That is where her passion for art and photography comes in.
A quick glance at her Instagram and you’ll get an idea; Keane has her own art page as well as an account showcasing her photography.
She recently released her own colouring book which is available to purchase on Amazon, and it’s that art that helps her switch off from football.
“The art has definitely been there my whole life. My dad is also a very creative person. I would always do drawings and take drawing and painting classes,” she added. “It was something that I thought about doing more in college but my parents said there was no way I could make a living doing that.
“It’s been a great hobby. I do sell some art. I just made a colouring book. I’m not trying to make a living out of it but it’s nice to have on the side. Maybe eventually it’s something I put more time and effort into. “
Keane, who is currently working on a big piece, continued: “What’s interesting is the style of what I draw, I won’t say hypnotic, it’s very tiny details and repetition. Just very small things and I think that helps my mind put laser focus into that.
“Maybe if I’m drawing sometimes I’m listening to a book or music, and it’s a big and good separation of thinking about anything else. I still have to be very focused but very relaxed.”
Proving a point
There were a lot of layers to Keane’s move to the Liberty A-League at the start of 2022-23.
She had just come off a memorable season with Sporting de Huelva in Spain, where she played UEFA Women’s Champions League football and came up against Ballon d’Or winner Alexia Putellas and star-studded Barcelona in the 2022 Copa de la Reina final.
“The level was good but it wasn’t as crazy as people think,” Keane said. “We put them on a pedestal as being the best in the world but when you’re out there, you kind of realise they’re smaller then me, I can just be just as fast as them if I want to. I can still tackle them and get the ball.
“That’s what all of our players realised in that game, they’re not Gods. They’re just normal players too and if you try hard enough, it’s a lot closer game than people think.
“At least for a time until they really start to play.
“Speaking about regret and trying not to look back, I think in the first 10 minutes of that game, I missed a chance that was probably three metres from the goal and I kicked the ball over. We would’ve been winning if I made that.”
But her Liberty A-League signing was six years in the making.
The American had been on the verge of joining a Melbourne City team coached by Joe Montemurro at the time. However, the move did not materialise as the club turned to another foreigner.
Keane, who spent time with Alamein FC in NPLW VIC where she scored 15 goals in 18 matches back in 2016, went on to experience football in Germany (FF USV Jena), Portugal (Braga) and Spain via Huelva.
It was something that fuelled her.
Asked if she had a point to prove, Kean responded: “Definitely, that was a part of it.
“Having gotten so close to playing in the league before, it’s always sort of been there in the back of my mind everywhere else I’ve played.
“We will never know if I would have done well at the time. The places I’ve gone and played since then have made me so much better. Maybe I would’ve done terrible that season and nothing would’ve come of it and I would’ve ended my career after one season. Who knows? We will never know.
“It does feel good to know maybe I should’ve got a chance then but I’m also happy with where I’ve gone. A little bit of revenge but not so much.”
The secret to Western’s success?
Keane’s breakout season has formed a big part of the Cinderella story that is Western United.
The new girls on the block went toe-to-toe with the league’s best and almost snatched the Premier’s Plate from Sydney FC, finishing just a point adrift.
Western re-wrote the expansion blueprint ahead of Central Coast Mariners’ return in 2023-24.
It has been a journey built on the club’s partnership with NPLW VIC champions Calder United – a pathway established from juniors all the way to the A-Leagues, and it came to fruition this term.
Look no further than Western head coach Mark Torcaso and players Alana Cerne, sisters Adriana and Melissa Taranto, Emma Robers, Julia Sardo, Aleks Sinclair, Natasha Dakic, Alyssa Dall’Oste, Stacey Papadopoulos, Raquel Deralas and Harriet Withers – who all arrived from the NPLW VIC juggernaut.
Keane, though, feels there is more to it.
“I know everyone has been saying because we’ve had so many of those players come from Calder United, and the chemistry they already have and where it’s more like they were the team and a couple of us players decided to join them,” she explained.
“I do think it’s been a factor in it, but I also feel like when I got here I could tell they were hungry for something better.
“All those players who hadn’t got a chance to play in the A-Leagues, they knew they could. They weren’t nervous or scared about it. They were confident in their abilities and what they could do all together.
“I also think it did help to have the players who did come in like Jess McDonald. That was a really big factor into moving forward and winning games at the start of the season.
“The coaching staff too. The way that they approached the season and the way they just coach is really good for a lot of the girls on the team. It’s what they know from Calder United too. They were very comfortable with that. They’ve had a lot of experience with him before. It’s been a factor of a lot of different things.
“Hopefully the finals is something we can keep going into. Even if we don’t do as well as we want I still feel this season has been a really big success and a jumping pad into the next.
“We know what works and what doesn’t. What players need, what’s a little bit unnecessary. They’ve probably learned so much now.
“I’m really excited for next season to kind of see the little tweaks and changes into everything, and how even better can be.”
Standing in the way of Western and a Grand Final berth are Sydney FC.
The Sky Blues are the team to beat on the back of their historic third consecutive Premiership and they head into the Allianz Stadium showdown having beaten Western 3-0 in their previous meeting last month.
The two teams have split the honours heading into the Semi-Final after a Keane brace lifted Western to a 2-0 triumph on home soil back in January.
“Even when we just lost again them, we still did have some chances. If we had finished those chances, it would have been a different game. We definitely think we can,” she said.
“They didn’t smash us 10-0. They didn’t have 90% ball possession. It’s not so one-sided as it may seem right now. We do believe.
“I’m pretty confident we will give them a very difficult game, or two. Everyone is really excited for it. Another chance to prove we deserve to be there.”
