At the close of another dramatic year for Australian football, Matt Comito picks out the memories that mattered in the Liberty A-League.
Australian football fans, you’ve been waiting for this moment. Finally, in a matter of days, you can start referring to the FIFA 2023 Women’s World Cup as the showpiece event on this year’s Australian football calendar.
But as much as this is a moment to look forward, it’s equally a moment to reflect on 2022, and the many fantastic moments created throughout the calendar year in the Liberty A-League Women.
In no particular order, here are the 10 A-League Women moments of 2022 that endured in the memory.
Season extended, expansion confirmed
As fans, you held the banners aloft. You campaigned for change. You heard the stars of the league echo your sentiments: as soon as it felt like an A-League Women season was in full swing, it was over. Fourteen games per season was simply not enough.
In June of 2022, the call was answered: the A-League Women would experience a two-season expansion to a full home-and-away, 12-team league by 2023.
Western United are in the midst of the club’s first A-League Women campaign. Next season, it’s the Mariners’ turn to join the fray. It means more games, more teams, and an amount of match minutes set to bring the league onto a level playing field with the rest of the world.
The sentiment following the announcement was to rejoice, but not to sit back and marvel at a job well done. It’s one major step for a league in need of taking many more long strides forward on a journey shared by fans, players, media and administrators pushing for one positive innovation to be followed by another.
READ: ‘A DREAM COME TRUE FOR SO MANY’: THE HUMAN IMPACT OF ALW EXPANSION
Gorry’s iconic moment shared with daughter Harper after comeback banger
On just the second day of 2022, Katrina Gorry went BANG – and the A-League Women took notice. The Matildas gun was back.
A long-range bomb against Melbourne Victory at AAMI Park was the Roar midfielder’s first goal of the 2021-22 season. But not only that, it was Gorry’s first goal since returning to the A-League Women after giving birth to her first child, Harper.
Gorry dispatched a shot from range and into the back of Brisbane’s net, before running to the touchline and cradling her arms in celebration. Gorry’s mum held baby Harper aloft in the stands in a special moment between three generations of one of the favourite families of the A-League Women.
Tears flow as Morrison confronts the emotions of Grand Final absence as Victory captain
Tears of joy mixed with a touch of anguish rolled down the cheeks of Melbourne Victory captain Kayla Morrison as she stood on the Grand Final dais.
Her team had just become A-League Women champions, but Morrison – sidelined by a season-ending ACL tear – had watched them earn that title in a tracksuit from the sideline.
Before raising the trophy aloft, matchday captain Lia Privitelli invited her onto the stage, took her champions’ medal off her own neck to drape it around Morrison’s, leant into the microphone and said: “Kayla has been our rock this year, she deserves this more than anyone.”
The tears flowed freely as mixed emotions swirled inside a player who learnt new ways to lead in a season defined by personal challenges faced in the shadows of team success.
Holly McNamara introduces herself to the world
In December of 2021, an 18-year-old debutant bent a long-range strike into the top corner to give Melbourne City a 1-0 win over Canberra United in Round 1 of the new A-League Women campaign.
You may not have heard of Holly McNamara before then, but one thing was for sure: you were about to hear a lot more about the electric young winger bound for Matildas stardom.
On the cusp of the new year, McNamara notched three assists in one game as City mauled Victory in a Melbourne Derby. Then came a call-up to the Matildas squad for the 2022 Asian Cup.
McNamara returned from Australia’s shock quarter-final exit with a bang, scoring three goals in two games in February for City – before disaster struck. A dreaded ACL injury against Sydney FC on February 20 curtailed the youngster’s breakout season – and we’re yet to see her again since.
McNamara won the A-League Women Young Player of the year off the back of just eight appearances in 2021-22. With the turn of the year comes hope for an imminent return for a prodigious talent with the world at her feet.
Stotty’s special return to the top of her game
Rebekah Stott’s world was flipped on its head in early 2021 when a cancer diagnosis cut short a dream adventure into European football.
Almost two years later, the esteemed central defender is back at both Women’s Super League club Brighton and Hove Albion, and back amongst the New Zealand international squad – but to get there, Stott made incremental steps through the National Premier League, and then the A-League Women with Melbourne City.
Stott is now the club’s all-time women’s appearance record holder, taking that mantle on her return to the club in December, 2021 after ending her previous stint locked on appearances with best friend and Matildas gun Steph Catley.
January 10 marked her first 90-minute shift for City. February 18 marked her return to international football. July 20 marked her return to Brighton and a fresh start in Europe.
A legend of the A-League Women, a favourite amongst all fans and adored by teammates and opponents alike, Stott’s return to the top of her game is simply impossible to ignore as the standout moment of 2022.
‘Nix choose the long, rewarding road to historic first win
They went 10 games without a win through their inaugural A-League Women campaign. It only served to make that first victory all the more sweet.
Wellington Phoenix became the A-League Women’s 10th team in 2021-22. Gemma Lewis was named head coach, assembling a squad bereft of professional experience. For many of her Phoenix players it was a first taste of top-flight football, and although points were hard to come by, those who watched along would have seen their commitment to an attractive brand of football, when it would have been so easy to sit deep and slog for points.
On February 11, that incessant effort culminated in a club-first win, with the ‘Nix dispatching Canberra by three goals to nil with style and substance. Grace Jale’s emphatic finish on the counter attack was a genuine highlight and a punctuating moment on a pulsating night at Viking Park.
Premiership double to Sydney, Championship double to Victory – a titanic rivalry comes to a head
If you were to ask anyone involved with Sydney FC and Melbourne Victory what means more, the A-League Women Premiership or Championship, you are guaranteed to receive a very different response from either side.
Over two seasons, Sydney FC played 26 regular-season games, winning 20, losing just three and conceding just 17 goals to stand head and shoulders above the rest on their way to collective consecutive Premiers Plates.
But in both campaigns, the post-season belonged to Victory. Jeff Hopkins’ side stunned the Sky Blues on Grand Final day in 2020-21, and repeated the heartbreak in Kogarah on a wet and wild afternoon in March to go back-to-back at Sydney’s expense.
Across two seasons severely impacted by Covid, these two clubs served up the epic rivalry the competition desperately needed.
Generation next shows guts on the world stage
If Australia’s performance at the 2022 FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup is anything to go by, the future of the Matildas is in safe hands.
A total of 17 players from clubs around the A-League Women descended on Costa Rica as part of Leah Blayney’s 21-player squad, and despite their campaign ending at the group stage this group of young talent showed promising signs of what’s to come as they aim to follow in the footsteps of a golden generation of Matildas.
The likes of Sarah Hunter, Hana Lowry, Kirsty Fenton, Ella Tonkin and Sally James were superb; they’re the names becoming synonymous with the A-League Women as the nation’s future stars emerge in our domestic league.
But no player took to the big stage with more grace and style than 16-year-old Daniela Galic, a teenager playing out of her skin amongst players venturing into adulthood. Galic returned home to sign for Melbourne City and has since proceeded to light up the A-League Women. A potentially generational talent is developing right before our eyes.
Logarzo, KK embark on the comeback trail
Sometimes it feels as if every other day brings news of another injury capable of curtailing a player’s hopes of competing at the 2023 Women’s World Cup.
Now more than ever, it’s of utmost importance to celebrate each and every successful comeback story as a triumph in the face of tragedy.
For two of Australia’s most experienced competitors, the A-League Women is providing the perfect environment for a comeback. Elise Kellond-Knight and Chloe Logarzo are both looking to find their rhythm after respective ACL injuries which threatened to keep them out of the Matildas’ World Cup squad.
With Logarzo at Western United and Kellond-Knight at Melbourne Victory, the two central midfielders are perfectly placed to build vital match fitness in a familiar environment to ramp up a push for a spot at the World Cup. They’ve both returned to action in green and gold in the latter stages of 2022. It’s exciting to ponder what the near future might have in store for two of our greats.
Vine time in the Matildas as A-League Women stars make the jump
Cortnee Vine began 2022 on the fringes of Matildas selection. The Sydney FC star ends the calendar year as a regular starter, with her spot in Australia’s Women’s World Cup squad a near certainty.
A year, as they say, can be a very long time in football.
Vine became Matildas cap #220 in 2022, headlining a star cast of players forged in the A-League Women to earn their first appearance under Tony Gustavsson including Matilda McNamara, Taylor Ray, Jamilla Rankin and Holly McNamara.
Vine joins current Matildas favourites Katrina Gorry, Elise Kellond-Knight, Chloe Logarzo, Larissa Crummer and Alex Chidiac along with a raft of Australian players – both capped and uncapped – in the A-League Women heading into 2023 eager to use the domestic league to bolster their respective bids for a spot in Matildas head coach Tony Gustavsson’s World Cup squad.
As we tick into the new year, we turn towards the final stretch. Expect competition to intensify as next year turns to this year, and that dream draws ever closer.
