Melbourne Victory head coach Jeff Hopkins expressed his pride despite suffering an agonising penalty shoot-out loss to Central Coast Mariners in the 2024-25 Ninja A-League Grand Final.
Battling back from a goal down after Mariners star Isabel Gomez had given her side the lead early in the second half, Victory defender Claudia Bunge scored the equaliser in the 80th minute.
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Despite dominating in extra-time, Victory couldn’t find the all-important third goal in the game and so it went to penalties at AAMI Park, where one kick would prove to be decisive.
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Having won the coin toss, Victory – in the midst of a club-record 15-match unbeaten streak – opted to shoot first in a bid to gain the upper hand but it was a decision that would ultimately go against them as the usually reliable Alana Jancevski slammed the opening penalty kick against the crossbar and the Mariners never looked back.
Despite Emily Gielnik, Alex Chidiac, Holly Furphy and captain Kayla Morrison all scoring, the Mariners remained flawless from the spot as midfielder Bianca Galic converted the winning penalty to seal a first ever Ninja A-League Championship for Central Coast.
“First of all I’m really proud,” said a defiant Hopkins when addressing the media in the aftermath of the Grand Final loss.
“Looking back over the season, (I’m) extremely proud of the efforts of the team, how the team’s progressed, individuals have progressed, how some of the younger players have done over the season.
“Obviously, today’s very disappointing to lose in that manner, but it kind of shows what we’re all about as well. We go a goal down, which I don’t think we’ve been a goal down for a very long time.
He continued: “Just the way that we reacted, it took us a little bit of time, but we we started to take the game to them, and got back into the game. We spoke about at the end of the game about what we wanted to do in an extra time, we wanted to go for the game, and I was really proud of the way that we went about trying to win the game, although it didn’t happen.
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“Obviously, congratulations to Central Coast. They kept their nerve in the penalty shootout. It becomes a little bit of a lottery then, but that’s the way it goes.
“I guess what I’m feeling now is more pride in the team and the individuals in the team, and how they how they’ve reacted today.”
When asked about the decisive moment in the shoot-out, Hopkins was steadfast in his belief that Jancevski should receive his praise, rather than criticism, for being brave enough to put herself forward.
“I think anyone that is brave enough to stand up and take a penalty and put themselves in the position to miss a penalty, that’s all they can do,” said Hopkins.
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“To be honest, I think it was a little bit of going first, there was a little bit of a rush of adrenaline there.
“Because we’ve been taking penalties for the last three weeks or so, and she’s most probably taken 10 or 15 a week and I’ve never seen her miss one.
He continued: “She just just leaned back a little bit, hit it a little bit too hard and, yeah, fine, margins because a few centimetres or so down, and that would have hit the bar and gone in.
“So I’ve got no problem with with anyone that misses a penalty. She was brave enough to stand up and take it and and I’m sure that I know the whole team feel the same way.”
