Holly Furphy has taken the Ninja A-League by storm since her debut in January. aleagues.com.au looks at the numbers behind the Melbourne Victory sensation.
Rewind back to January 24. Holly Furphy had never played a game of professional football but since then, the young gun has emerged as one of the most exciting talents in the A-Leagues.
She has done it with little game time, too.
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After a couple of years abroad in the United States’ college system, the 21-year-old returned to Australia as an injury replacement player for Victory. She signed her contract the day before the club’s Big Blue against Sydney FC and 24 hours later, she came off the bench to make her debut and scored within nine minutes.
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“I knew I was going to be playing if it all got approved, but it was all a bit of a whirlwind then warming up and hearing them call my name to go on,” Furphy told Impetus Football recently.
“Obviously there’s going to be a bit of nerves and I was like ‘oh this is actually happened then.’
“I think in that moment even though I was nervous I told myself, ‘why am I scared about playing the sport that I love, this is what I want to do!’ – that’s what my mentality was going onto the field.
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“There’s no room to be nervous because I want to enjoy this as much as possible. Scoring that goal was a bit of a fever dream, when I hit it and saw it go in it was unreal to be honest, I was looking at my teammates with ‘what the hell just happened?’”
Furphy, who was a train-on player at Victory as a teenager previously, has not looked back since.
The Victory forward has scored in back-to-back games, taking her tally to three goals in just six Ninja A-League appearances.
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What makes it so impressive is the fact Furphy – who tore her ACL during her first year at college – has only made one start for the Championship hopefuls, amassing 215 minutes of action.
Her three goals to date have come from an Expected Goals (xG) of just 0.50, meaning she is outperforming her xG considerably. It also means she does not need too many opportunities in front of goal.
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“Confidence is a big part of it,” Furphy told Impetus Football.
“But it’s more, the one thing I have been working on in the past year or so is the mental side of my game and not to hesitate.
“To take every shot like it’s the last shot I’m ever going to take. Not thinking, just shoot”
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Furphy, whose two brothers play professional basketball and AFL respectively, is scoring a goal every 71.7 minutes, which ranks fifth in the Ninja A-League this season. If we delve a little deeper, she is actually second behind Matildas star McNamara among players to have featured at least five times since January 24.
Her three goals since debuting are the third-most in the league.
If we hone in on data per 90 minutes since she entered the A-Leagues among those to have played at least five matches, it shines an even brighter light on Furphy, who boasts a shooting accuracy of 83%.
She is first for total carries per 90 (21.35), total carry distance per 90 (269.62) and total carry progress per 90 (122.5), while she is only second to McNamara (1.88) for goals per 90 (1.26).
“Can I say the M-word? (Matildas)”, A-Leagues commentator Teo Pellizzeri asked during last week’s episode of Dub Zone.
“I mean, we said it super early about Laini Freier. Can I say the M-word here about Holly Furphy?
“I mean, if we still have the interim coach in Tom Sermanni for the Korea series (in early April)… we can’t forget, Remy Siemsen has started scoring goals again over in Sweden, their season is back on, and she missed out on the SheBelieves cup, so I think she should be back.
“But in terms of what’s coming out of the Ninja A-League, I think Holly Furphy has got to be in the mix in the conversation.”
