Melbourne Victory striker Melina Ayres is fit and firing again ahead of Liberty A-League Preliminary Final against the Sky Blues, writes Tom Smithies.
You can measure the goals of Melina Ayres in quality and quantity, but either way the outcome is an X-rated experience for Liberty A-League defenders.
Six years after her debut as a raw but rambunctious teen, Ayres looms as Melbourne Victory’s biggest hope of crashing Sydney FC’s Preliminary Final party and stymying the three-time reigning premiers’ passage to the Grand Final.
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It’s also a wonderful stage for the 23-year-old to show that persistent injuries are behind her, and that she is ready to parlay her powerfully direct talent into the Matildas – even if the FIFA Women’s World Cup will come too soon.
If that seems an outlandish claim for a player yet to even make her full international debut, there’s also been a sense for some time of waiting for Ayres’s ability to propel her onto that stage.
Ever since she was identified by now-Juventus boss Joe Montemurro as a thrilling young talent when he assembled Melbourne City’s first ever W-League team in 2017, the ability has seemingly been there – the trouble has been the injuries that too often have sidelined that talent.
So far this season Ayres has 12 goals in 12 games and clearly is in peak form – but also missed seven matches between late December through to February due to a hamstring injury. Victory’s season might have looked rather different if she had managed to stay fit right through.
Her hat-trick last weekend in the Semi Final against Melbourne City was proof of how quickly she can regain top form, and had been eerily foreshadowed by her captain Kayla Morrison just hours before.
“When she’s on (the pitch) we’re more likely to win, 100%,” Morrison noted. “She’s battled through injury, she was rehabbing with me last year and now it’s like she’s taking that anger out on other teams, which is exactly what we want to see.”
As City learnt anew last weekend, and Sydney FC are planning for, knowing what Ayres can do and doing something about it are very separate processes. Much of the early excitement around her came from some spectacular strikes; among them, winning the ball just inside City’s half and instantly lobbing the goalkeeper in January 2018, then shooting from 30m out into the top corner against Newcastle late in the same year.
For two seasons previously Montemurro had been managing the load on Ayres as a hugely promising teenage striker, content for her to learn and grow in the company of some seasoned internationals.
“I was lucky to have insight from (working at) the NTC previously, and she’d always had an amazing eye for goal in the box; her positioning in the penalty area was excellent,” Montemurro recalls for KEEPUP.
“She had power there too, and the ability to find space and be proactive, to make things happen. She was equally happy with the idea of receiving the ball in midfield and running at players, always confident in those one on ones. She’s always had all the attributes of a modern forward, not just as a reference point for the attack but with the ability to drive from deep.
“Even when she was younger there was a power there coupled with a maturity; that fed into a humility, a willingness to learn and a desire to improve.”
When Montemurro was appointed to set up City’s new W-League team in 2015, he sought to build a sqad with both pedigree and promise.
“We had to hit the ground running in that first season but at the same time one of my main tasks was to put structures in place for the long term; that included the identification of young talent that could grow over the longer term, after I’d moved on,” he said.
“Being surrounded by the likes of Kim Little, Jess Fishlock, Lisa de Vanna, a young player like Melina would be learning all the time.”
In fact Victory became the ultimate beneficiaries when Ayres, months after Montemurro’s role at City changed, switched teams to sign for Jeff Hopkins in late 2017. Again Ayres was absorbing from those around her, particularly English veteran Natasha Dowie; finally, when Dowie signed for AC Milan in 2020, Ayres became the focal point of Victory’s attack. She responded with eight goals and five assists, winning Victory’s Golden Boot that year.
To the frustration of coaches at club and country levels, the following season was decimated by more hamstring issues. It’s instructive to compare her progress with that of Remy Siemsen at Sydney FC, born just a few months after Ayres in 1999.
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Siemsen’s statistics in 2020-21 were very similar to her Victory rival’s, and in September 2021 earned her a Matildas call-up; Siemsen has been in and around the national team squad since. Ayres wasn’t sighted again until the final round of the following season, bedevilled by injury.
“She absolutely has all the qualities to be a top striker in Australian football – the only thing holding her back is consistency of playing because of injuries,” says KEEPUP columnist Rhali Dobson who played against Ayres in Melbourne derbies.
“That’s not a criticism or something she can control necessarily, it’s just how her body has reacted so far. But as a striker she’s so dangerous because she can score from anywhere, literally.
“She can have a quiet game and pull something out of the hat; it feels like every single one of her goals this year has been decisive for Victory in keeping them in contention.
“What’s refreshing, from having played against her, is that she doesn’t seem to get involved in the politics or the hype of a game, she actually comes across as quite humble. What’s important now is that everyone works out how to facilitate her staying fit and on the pitch because she has such talent.”
After spending last year’s Australian winter on loan in Iceland, Ayres will be off contract at the end of this season, and career decisions will be vital for what happens next.
“There seems to be a perception that she’s still young and something of a development player,” says Montemurro. “For whatever reason she doesn’t have that glitz or shine which is amazing when she was identified so young.
“It wouldn’t be at all beyond the realms to see her make that jump (to the Matildas) if she keeps fit and keeps playing. There’s likely to be cyclical change (in the national team) after this World Cup, logic says the squad will renew and that’s when her chance will come.”
