Welcome to Made With Mitre Moments, where aleagues.com.au brings you all the biggest talking points from each round of the 2024-25 Ninja A-League season.
Brisbane Roar are the talk of the competition after Sunday night’s 8-2 mauling of Western United, while league-leaders Melbourne City kept their impressive unbeaten run alive and reigning champions Sydney FC continued to struggle in their title defence.
Catch up with all the biggest talking points from Round 8, thanks to Mitre.
BUY TICKETS TO THE NINJA A-LEAGUE!
GOAL OF THE WEEK: Pick your winner today!
Statement made as twins make history in Roar resurgence
Brisbane Roar are on track to end the club’s three-season finals absence as Alex Smith’s side surge up the Ninja A-League table, with Sunday’s 8-2 win over Western United considerably enhancing their pedigree as a genuine title contender.
The Roar were dominant in Round 8, putting five first-half goals past Western to set up the eye-catching result; only five times in Ninja A-League history has a team won by a greater margin than six goals.
Biggest winning margins – Ninja A-League history
- 11 goals: Sydney FC 11-0 Perth Glory (Dec 11 2011)
- 9 goals: Western Sydney Wanderers 1-10 Perth Gory (Oct 5 2014)
- 8 goals: Adelaide United 10-2 Western Sydney Wanderers (Jan 14 2017)
- 8 goals: Adelaide United 0-8 Newcastle Jets (March 29 2024)
- 7 goals: Newcastle Jets 0-7 Melbourne Victory (February 23 2020)
BRISBANE BLITZ! Roar equal record as Brisbane gun scores back-to-back hat-tricks in unprecedented feat
At the heart of the 8-2 win were twin sisters Sharn and Laini Freier who both had a night to remember in Tarneit.
In just her third Ninja A-League game, Laini Freier scored a hat-trick to continue her remarkable introduction to the competition.
Freier came into Round 8 having scored a hat-trick the weekend prior in a 6-1 win over Newcastle Jets; the 23-year-old is the first player in Ninja A-League history to score a hat-trick in back-to-back games, and has a remarkable eight goal involvements (six goals, two assists) through her three league appearances to date.
Laini’s sister Sharn came into the new Ninja A-League season as a bona fide star of the competition, having enjoyed a breakout season in 2023-24 to earn a spot in the CommBank Matildas squad and make her international debut.
A representative of Australia at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, Sharn Freier picked up right where she left off to start the 2024-25 season and has joined her sister Laini in excelling through December.
Freier scored two goals and assisted one more in Sunday’s 8-2 win, and contributed five goal involvements to Brisbane’s cause throughout the month.
According to Opta, both Laini (8) and Sharn (5) Freier had the most goal involvements of any two players throughout December in the Ninja A-League.
Brisbane sit second on the Ninja A-League table after eight rounds and will begin 2025 with a busy stretch of fixtures, facing Canberra United (January 4), Melbourne Victory (January 9) and league leaders Melbourne City (January 11) all within a seven-day stretch.
Smith’s side are shaping as one of the early title favourites and, thanks to their early-season form, are in a great position to finish the campaign in the top six and end a three-season run without finals football.
Can Melbourne City be stopped in the Premiership race?
League leaders Melbourne City have gone eight games without defeat to start the 2024-25 Ninja A-League season, winning six games and drawing two to sit on top of the Ninja A-League table on 20 points, two clear of Brisbane Roar.
City’s unbeaten record might have ended in Round 8 if not for a blistering comeback against Wellington Phoenix; trailing 1-0 in the second half, an own goal to Phoenix defender Alivia Kelly sparked a surge from the league leaders and within two minutes of equalising, City went 2-1 up through CommBank Matildas midfielder Laura Hughes.
PREMIERS DO IT AGAIN: Two-minute blitz keeps City’s unbeaten start alive
Hughes’ header proved the difference in a 2-1 win that kept City on top of the table and extended the club’s unbeaten run to 12 games (excluding finals).
STALEMATE: Canberra and Jets share points as Matildas team-mates go head-to-head
PREMIERS DO IT AGAIN: Two-minute blitz keeps City’s unbeaten start alive
SYDNEY FC 0-1 VICTORY: Retiring Victory star receives fitting send-off in Big Blue triumph
One player heavily involved in City’s Round 8 win over Wellington Phoenix was captain Rebekah Stott. The New Zealand international put her fingerprints all over City’s 2-1 comeback, playing 129 passes and having 144 touches at ctrl:cyber Pitch.
According to Opta, Stott’s 144 passes and 129 touches were the most recorded in both categories by a player in any Ninja A-League game since Opta began collecting data in the 2016-17 season.
Champions reeling amid four-game losing streak after controversial penalty decides Big Blue
Sydney FC’s championship defence has begun with six defeats, one draw and just one win from eight games as Ante Juric’s side ended Round 8 on the back of a four-game losing streak.
The Sky Blues remained planted to the foot of the Ninja A-League table after a 1-0 loss at home to Melbourne Victory in Saturday’s Big Blue – a result defined by an early penalty awarded to Victory and scored by Alana Jancevski as the visitors came away from Allianz Stadium with all three points.
SYDNEY FC 0-1 VICTORY: Retiring Victory star receives fitting send-off in Big Blue triumph
The decision to award the the visitors a penalty came after contact between Sydney striker Millie Farrow and Victory star Alex Chidiac in he box.
Farrow and her Sydney teammates argued she had successfully cleared the ball before colliding with Chidiac but referee Rebecca Mackie thought otherwise. Jancevski stepped up to the spot and buried her penalty into the back of the net to give Victory a one-goal advantage they held to full-time.
Post-game, Sydney head coach Juric expressed his view on the penalty call, claiming he didn’t believe a spot-kick should have been awarded. However, the Sky Blues boss did commend his players for their performance in the Big Blue and, despite recent results, is adamant that his side’s form is sure to improve.
“It’s sad to lose, especially on a penalty that probably wasn’t a penalty,” Juric said.
“But all in all again, it’s the girls that perform like that and have that attitude, I walk away happy.
“On a game like today, I was happy with their performance and if they continue like that, we’ll start to find the road.”
Sydney are next in action against league leaders Melbourne City at home on January 5.
Phoenix undeterred by City setback as coach labels his side the team ‘nobody wants to play’
They might have lost 2-1 to Melbourne City in Round 8, but Wellington Phoenix head coach Paul Temple believes his side remain one of the teams to beat in 2024-25.
The ‘Nix lost three-straight games to begin the campaign and looked set for another challenging season but have since launched an unexpected attack on the top six.
Wellington went unbeaten through four games (three wins, one draw) ahead of Round 8 and, holding a 1-0 lead against City on Saturday afternoon, momentarily broke into the finals standings on the live table before succumbing to a 2-1 defeat that has left Temple’s side one point outside the six.
BUY TICKETS TO THE NINJA A-LEAGUE!
With their next two games against Perth Glory (ninth) and Western Sydney Wanderers (11th), the time is now for the Phoenix to make their move. Temple believes they are ready to do just that after giving first-placed City a genuine scare at ctrl:cyber Pitch on Saturday afternoon.
“We were really frustrating them and we created a number of opportunities from turnovers high up the pitch,” Temple said post-match.
“We got a goal and perhaps could have had a few more if we’d maybe taken our opportunity to shoot earlier, but I felt deserved to be in the lead at the break.
“It was going to plan really and just a real unfortunate moment for an own goal and then all of a sudden the whole perspective changes and all of their frustration that they were feeling goes away and the pressure’s off I guess.
“We need to improve on our ability to respond to those mistakes after putting so much effort in. We got caught quickly again.
“But proud of the way we finished and the energy that we showed to really make a go of it.
“I think they were pretty happy to get to the final whistle and come away with one because it was a game we deserved some points from.”
“Some people will look at possession and some people will look at the fact we didn’t have a huge amount of the ball…but we were in control of that game for a large period.
“All that showed me is we can take it to the big teams. We’ve shown this against Victory, we beat Sydney, and we came here and have given a really good account of ourselves.
“We’ve proven to ourselves that we’re capable of taking on anybody in this league and we’ll give everyone a good game and be super competitive. Nobody’s wanting to play us right now.”
Farewelling a legend: Retiring Victory star’s special send-off
After an 11-year Ninja A-League career, 27-year-old Melbourne Victory midfielder Beattie Goad has called time on her playing days to focus on her medical career.
Studying a doctorate of medicine at the University of Melbourne, Goad has elected to bid farewell to the Ninja A-League at the end of 2024, and capped off her stellar 11-year stint in the competition with a 1-0 win over Sydney FC in Saturday’s Big Blue.
Capped three times by the Matildas, Goad won a Ninja A-League Championship at both Victory and Melbourne City and won Victory’s Player of the Season award in 2022-23.
A college graduate after four years at Stanford University in the United States, Goad enjoyed a three-year footballing journey in Europe with SV Meppen in Germany and UDG Tenerife in Spain which coincided with her Matildas debut in 2021 against Germany.
BUY TICKETS TO ROUND 8 OF THE NINJA A-LEAGUE!
GLORY 0-1 MARINERS: Late Pennock strike seals all three points for Mariners in Glory road trip
In 2022, Goad returned to Victoria both to complete her medical studies at Melbourne University and to continue her football at Victory. Midway through her third season back at the club, Goad has called time on her playing career.
“Thank you, Melbourne Victory,” Goad said in a club statement before her final game in the Ninja A-League.
“I’ll always look back ever so fondly.”
