There will most likely be a first-time Westfield W-League Golden Boot winner crowned in 2019/20 and the race is wide open with three matches left to play.
Only two previous competition top scorers are currently active in the Westfield W-League, Leena Khamis from the inaugural season in 2008/09 and Kyah Simon, who took top honours back in 2010/11.
In a month’s time, there is every chance that a new star will be added to the Golden Boot roll of honour, which features the likes of two-time winners Sam Kerr, Kate Gill and Michelle Heyman.
Sydney FC’s young gun Remy Siemsen leads the way with three matches to play, with seven goals from nine matches, after a rapid rise to the top.
Siemsen’s best campaign was a six-goal debut season with the Sky Blues back in 2016/7 but the 20-year-old went the whole of last season without scoring for Western Sydney Wanderers before switching back across the Harbour City and delivering a stellar campaign for the Champions.
The 2017 Young Player of the Year is far from having the Golden Boot gift-wrapped, with a clutch of Westfield W-League hot shots breathing down her neck as we enter the business end of the campaign.
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Natasha Dowie has played for five seasons in the Westfield W-League, earned the respected role of Melbourne Victory captain and lifted the Premies Plate – but has never claimed a Golden Boot.
The 31-year-old has scored 33 goals in 52 matches in the competition, and is one goal behind Siemsen this season with six strikes in nine games.
Having taken the most shots on goal in 2019/20, with 36, Dowie clearly has the Golden Boot in her sights – but Westfield W-League fans should not write off a debut-season Golden Boot for Western Sydney’s Kristen Hamilton.
After netting nine times in the 2019 National Women’s Soccer League – fewer than only Kerr and Wanderers teammates Lynn Williams – US international Hamilton has five goals in her first campaign down under.
Also on five is Emily van Egmond in her first season in Melbourne City colours, the highest of the league leaders’ seven different goalscorers.
One more player has five goals: Newcastle Jets stalwart Tara Andrews. The 25-year-old has found the net in each of the last 10 Westfield W-League seasons and she leads the penalty charts with three spot-kicks successfully converted.
Chance makers
Departed former Sydney FC forward Caitlin Foord tops the assists and the chances created tables, but it is likely she will be overtaken in the final rounds of the 2019/20 Season.
The Westfield Matildas striker has four assists, while Wanderers’ American dynamo Williams has three in only five matches with the award looking wide open heading into the closing stages of the campaign.
Foord tops the chances created charts with 24, while Brisbane Roar’s Carson Pickett and Western Sydney’s Hamilton are the next best tormentors with 21. City’s flying wing-back Steph Catley and Adelaide United’s wing wizard Mallory Weber have created 20 goalscoring opportunities.
In terms of pure crosses, Catley has whipped in the most deliveries, 66, while Pickett is the closest contender to the Westfield Matildas star with 61. The pair are clear of third-placed Camila of Canberra United on 52 crosses.
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Pass masters
Of the top seven players on the list of completed passes, five play for possession queens Melbourne City. Defender Lauren Barnes has logged the most, 621, ahead of midfield general van Egmond’s 609.
Western Sydney’s Sam Staab and Ella Mastrantonio make an appearance in third and fourth, with 598 and 593 respectively, while Rebekah Stott, Emma Checker and Catley round out the City’s dominance of the top seven.
Dominating defence
Two Westfield W-League defenders have recorded far more clearances than any other backline battlers.
Canberra United’s American stopper Kaleigh Kurtz is head and shoulders above the rest in terms of clearances, tallying up 63, seven ahead of Newcastle Jets’ Cassidy Davis on 56.
Next in line is Westfield Matildas and Brisbane Roar brick wall Clare Polkinghorne and another Jet, Hannah Brewer, with 48, which outlines the defensive dominant of Kurtz.
Safe hands
Only two Westfield W-League teams have conceded more goals than the Newcastle Jets, but that total would be far higher were it not for the heroics of Claire Coelho.
The Jets custodian has made 57 saves in 2019/20, proving to be the competition’s busiest goalkeeper, with 16 more saves than the next highest, Aubrey Bledsoe of Sydney FC (41), while Adelaide United’s Westfield Matilda Sarah Willacy is one further back with 40.
Bledsoe has the second most saves and has conceded the second least goals, with eight in nine matches, behind only Westfield Matildas number one Lydia Williams – who has let only three goals into her net in nine matches.
Bledsoe and Williams are locked in the clean sheet standings with six shut outs apiece with three crucial clashes to play.
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