Melbourne Victory head coach Jeff Hopkins has earned Westfield W-League Coach of the Year honours after guiding his side to an unlikely Championship in 2020/21.
Hopkins received the honour at the virtually-held Dolan Warren Awards on Wednesday night.
The Coach of the Year award is voted on a 3-2-1 basis by each Westfield W-League head coach at the end of the regular season, with each coach unable to vote for themselves.
Hopkins’ Victory began the 2020/21 campaign on an indifferent run of form. A huge 6-0 win over Melbourne City came after an opening-round draw with Brisbane Roar, and preceded back-to-back defeats which included a 6-0 loss of their own at the hands of the Roar.
But from that moment on, Hopkins steadied the ship. Victory would lose just once after the 6-0 Roar mauling, creeping up the ladder to finish the campaign in third place on the Westfield W-League table. Hopkins’ side got revenge over Brisbane with a 6-2 Semi Final triumph before meeting the heavily-fancied Sydney FC in the Grand Final and defeating the Premiers 1-0 thanks to Kyra Cooney-Cross’ goal scored directly from a corner in the last minute of additional extra time.
Hopkins got the best out of Westfield Matildas legend Lisa De Vanna and helped Cooney-Cross raise her game to another level as the two stars came to the fore late in the campaign to help their team build momentum heading into the Finals Series and ultimately clinch the title decider in a shock result over the Sky Blues.
