Sydney FC missed the playoffs for the first time ever, but put together a string of positive results late in the season, having lost key players for much of the year due to injuries (see more below). This week, we review the top six playoff sides—Melbourne City, Melbourne Victory, Adelaide United, Central Coast Mariners, Canberra United and Western United, along with seventh place Brisbane Roar.
A-League Women 2024-25 regular season review
Melbourne City (16-7-0 W-D-L, 55 points—First)
Melbourne City won their second consecutive Premiership (regular season title) and fourth overall. City finished the regular season undefeated for the third time in their history, along with the 2015-16 (12 games) and 2019-20 (12 games) seasons while Canberra United was the first team in the A-League Women loop to ever accomplish the feat in 2011-12 (10 games). It is even a more remarkable achievement given that City played almost double the number of matches this season; they set an incredible benchmark for the club and the league. They are also through to the semifinals of the Asian Women’s Champions League (see our column last month: The Week in Women's Football: Part 2 - Off-season ins/outs for NWSL; Linda Pizzuti Boston blow - TribalFootball.com). Their unbeaten run of 23 is a league record that they will take into next season and try to extend further.
City led the league with 56 goals and were second in team goals allowed with 22, one behind Melbourne Victory with 21. Holly McNamara (22) scored 15 goals in 17 matches to win the Golden Boot award after scoring six goals in five matches in 2023-24, with eight of her tallies coming in the last five matches. She seems now fully integrated into the national team lineup this year after struggling with three ACL injuries over the past few years. Marianna Speckmaier (27), who was raised in the U.S. but plays internationally for Venezuela, was second on the team with seven goals in 21 games, followed by Australian midfielder Leticia McKenna (22), with five goals in 23 matches.
In Round 19, they set the league record consecutive game unbeaten streak after a dramatic 4-3 win over Adelaide United, which could be a semifinal or final preview. Forward Holly McNamara scored a hat-trick in the win.
Melbourne Victory (16-5-2, 53 points, Second)
Victory’s season was overshadowed somewhat by City’s unbeaten regular season run, but going through 23 games with only two losses and finishing two points behind their local rivals in the table is also a tremendous achievement.
Matilda forward Emily Gielnik (32) finished second in the league in scoring with 12 goals, tied with Tameka Yallop of Brisbane Roar. Alana Jancevski (22) was tied for second on the team with five goals. Jancevski is an Australian youth (U-17 and U-20) international in her first year with the Victory, after playing with Adelaide and Perth in the league; she compiled six goals in 46 games, prior to the start of the 2024-25 campaign. Nicky Flannery (26) also had five goals in her first season with the club. Flannery scored both goals in a 2-1 win over Adelaide on March 28, including the winner in the 91st minute; she is well-known for her late goal-scoring heroics from seven seasons with Canberra.
Off the field, Melbourne Victory announced that Tony Bloom acquired a 19.1% stake in the club, with an option to increase his holdings. Bloom, who’s wife is from Australia, is the majority owner and Chairman of English Premier League team Brighton & Hove Albion, as well as an investor in Belgian First Division team, Royale Union Saint-Gilloise. Melbourne Victory Chairman John Dovaston said: “We are extremely excited to bring someone of Tony’s caliber not only into Melbourne Victory, but of course, into the A-League. Tony’s wealth of experience and expertise in football is well recognised, with Brighton & Hove Albion being widely regarded as one of the best-run teams in the EPL. While the investment is independent of Tony’s other footballing interests, we are confident that being able to leverage Tony’s network at Brighton and beyond will help propel Melbourne Victory forward with a further strengthened capital base.”
Adelaide United (14-3-6, 45 points, Third)
In eleven games since their last loss on December 19 to Melbourne City 3-1 at home, as of March 8 they had gone unbeaten (8 wins and 3 ties) for a new club record and were arguably the best team in the league during that spell, cruising up the table and ultimately finished firmly in the top three. They made the playoffs for only the third season in their 17 seasons in the A-League.
In their last game of the season, Fiona Worts scored two goals as Adelaide rallied from a 1-0 deficit to win 2-1 at home at Coppers Stadium. Midfielder Dylan Holmes’ made her 100th appearance for the club. On January 31, the club also defeated the reigning champions 3-2 in Sydney with a come-from-behind win. Sydney thought they had pulled off a tie after overturning a two-goal deficit thanks to English import Millie Farrow’s 93rd-minute equaliser at Leichhardt Oval, with Indiana Dos Santos scoring the first goal for Sydney FC in the 65th minute, to cancel out Emily Condon’s two goals for the Reds in the 23rd minute and 54th minute. But Chelsie Dawber gave Adelaide United the win a minute later (in the 94th minute) for the club’s first ever away win over Sydney in their history.
English native Fiona Worts led the team with 11 goals in 18 matches and finished fourth in the league’s Golden Boot race, while Chelsea Dawber (25)—in her eighth season with the South Australian side—had eight tallies and four assists in 17 games, while American forward Erin Healy (24)—who played at Gonzaga University in Spokane and scored 21 goals and eight assists in 67 matches over four years—had seven goals in 19 matches in an impactful first season as a pro. South Australian native midfielder Emily Condon (26)—in her twelfth season with Adelaide—had six goals and four assists from 21 matches. First year import defender Lucia de Leon (27), who plays internationally for the Dominican Republic and played in the WSL and Liga F in Spain, had five goals and three assists in 23 matches. As a team, Adelaide was third as a team with 44 goals and sixth in team defense with 30 goals allowed.
Central Coast Mariners (9-7-7, 34 points, Fourth)
The Mariners again made the playoffs, narrowly, for the second season in a row since re-entering the league for the 2023/24 season. Three losses in a row from Rounds 16-18: 2-0 away to Melbourne Victory and 2-1 at home surprisingly to struggling Western Sydney Wanderers and then on the road again at Adelaide United (1-0), prevented them from moving away from the teams on the playoff bubble and, with four games left, they were tied for the last playoff berth with Canberra. A crucial late season three match unbeaten run to close the season allowed them to finish in fourth and gain a first round playoff home match.
A long-range stunner from then 16-year-old rising star Tiana Fuller ten minutes into the second half helped the Mariners to a 1-0 win over Wellington Phoenix at Woy Woy Oval on NSW’s Central Coast on January 25. The win helped head coach Emily Husband’s side leapfrog the Nix into the top six playoff spots.
Annalise Rasmussen (19) scored six goals in 22 goals this season to tie for the team lead, double her total from last year (three goals in 21 games). U-17 Australian international forward Tiana Fuller (17) also finished with six goals in 19 games while Isabel Gomez had five goals in 11 games but missed some games mid-season due to an injury. English import Jade Pennock (32) added five goals in 23 matches in her first season abroad as a professional, on loan from English Championship (division two) side Birmingham City. She won an English Championship (division two) title in 2016-17 with Doncaster Belles and finished second for the same title with Birmingham City in 2022-23. She played collegiately in the States at Division II (typically smaller programs) school Montevallo in Alabama and a year at the university of North Georgia.
Defender Jessica Seaman signed on with the Mariners for the end of the 2024/25 season, appearing in five games with four starts. She last played for the Mariners in the 2009 Ninja A-League campaign; 15 years later, the experienced defender returned to the club on an injury replacement contract following an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury to Ash Irwin (24), who played in eight matches this season. Seaman’s most recent stint in the Ninja A-League was at Sydney FC in 2023, after a nine-year absence from the competition. Seaman said: “I’m so excited to be back at the Mariners and to be able to finish off the season with this club. I can’t wait to step out onto the pitch, put on the Yellow and Navy and play for the Coast. It is so great to be back in the A-League Women’s competition. I didn’t think that I would be back again, so to get the call from Emily (Husband—head coach) was amazing and I can’t wait to get out there.” She was training in the NPL (state league) and in 2023 was on the FC Bulls Academy team in Sydney that finished second in the New South Wales league.
Central Coast Mariners vice-captain and midfielder Bianca Galic (25) started in both matches for Croatia in their April UEFA Women’s Nation’s League campaign, losing two games against Albania (4-0 away and 2-1 at home). The Australian-born midfielder earned her first two appearances for the national team in October, 2024. In December of 2024, Galic spoke to Aleagues.com.au about the decision to commit to representing Croatia after feeling that her dream of becoming a CommBank Matilda would never happen.
She said: “It was a massive dream to represent the Matildas and put that Australian shirt on. But not having my name in the system and not necessarily being a person of interest in the extended squad, I had to weigh up what was realistic. If I declined the Croatian national team opportunity, would it have come again? I was contacted in March this year by the Croatian Football Federation, who connected me with the national team manager. They gave me a call just to understand where my head was at, and whether I was still looking at representing Australia. They’d seen my history and looked at clips, and wanted to gauge my interest in that as a potential pathway, going into the Croatian system. For me, looking at my history, I haven’t been associated with any of the Junior Matildas, Young Matildas or anything like that. I felt I was under the radar and wasn’t picked in any development or Matildas teams. Now I’m 25, so it came down to if I was being looked at in terms of the Australian system, and whether there (is) going to be another opportunity.”
Galic scored three goals in 20 games with the Mariners this season.
Canberra United (9-6-8, 33 points, Tied for Fifth)
This proud and independent franchise—without a men’s A-League club in the city, with two league title and three Premierships in their history—made the playoffs for the first time in four seasons after a late push. They finished fifth—tied on points with Western United—with a better goal difference than the Melbourne area side (-3 vs. -7).
Three points lost from an administrative decision by the league (in their opinion) from their Round 9 match with Sydney FC ended up not keeping them out of the post-season, though at that time it looked devastating to their playoff hopes. The league let a 2-0 second half result stand in favor of Sydney after the match was suspended in the 54th minute with significant lightning spotted within 500 meters of Leichhardt Oval; the storm also caused a power outage. In accordance with the APL’s (Australian Professional Leagues) Lightning Policy, play is suspended when lightning activity is detected within a 10 kilometer radius of the match venue. The APL decided not to reschedule the match and made the 2-0 lead over Sydney an official result. Canberra United issued a strongly worded statement expressing their displeasure, with Canberra United CEO Samantha Farrow stating: “Canberra United is extremely disappointed in the decision to not reschedule the match given the circumstances. While we have no choice but to accept the decision from the APL, we want to make it clear to our members and supporters that we did everything we could to get the match rescheduled.”
The club’s statement continued: As per the APL’s Ninja A-League Women Competition Regulations: “Where a Regular Season Match is abandoned at half-time or during the second (2nd) half of the Match due to a Force Majeure Event (as determined by APL) and is not rescheduled, the result at the time of the abandonment will be deemed the final result.” (That is a pretty standard definition for club soccer around the world.)
The club’s appeal to the APL for rescheduling included:
The entire venue lost power, creating a safety and security risk for teams and stakeholders remaining at the venue waiting for the storm to pass.
When Canberra have scored their goals this season (40% between 61-90 minutes).
When Sydney FC have conceded their goals (53% between 61-90 minutes).
The position in the season where there is plenty of time to arrange a rescheduled game.
A strong argument was also put forward regarding the position of our game on Wednesday night in relation to the three previous matches abandoned. All three matches had a different scoreline and all were abandoned later in the match (earliest being in the 68th minute). In addition, these games were also towards the end of the season with limited time to reschedule the games.
Canberra United strongly urges the APL to make changes in their competition regulations to specify a more reasonable point in the match (i.e. 70% through) for when the result stands, with anything less to be considered either grounds for a reschedule or a nil-all draw.
Canberra United will be making no further comment at this time.”
After the Sydney loss was recorded (Canberra had won two previous games and had a tie before the Sydney match), in Rounds 12-17 the Greens were undefeated (two wins and four ties) before losing in Round 18 away to Melbourne Victory 2-0 on March 8.
Canberra United central defender and New Zealand international Elizabeth Anton (26) departed Canberra in March for Kolbotn in the Norwegian Toppserien. Anton, who joined United at the start of the 2024/25 Ninja A-League season, made her debut with the club in Round 2 in her homeland in the 1-0 win over Wellington Phoenix at Porirua Park. She made 19 appearances for Canberra, scoring the winning goal in the McKellar Park 1-0 victory over Perth Glory in Round 14. She played in 19 games (with 19 starts) in Canberra and two matches thus far in Norway’s league.
Head Coach Antoni Jagarinec said: “Elizabeth hit the ground running when she joined us at the start of the season and went on to cement herself as an important part of our defensive set-up throughout nineteen games for the club. As a valued member of our playing group, Liz quickly became a firm fan favourite and a real leader within the environment... We thank Liz for her service to Canberra United and wish her the very best of luck in Norway, and in her future football endeavours.”
Iconic Michelle Heyman (36) hit the 200 A-League game played mark in April as she led the team with seven goals, followed by Mary Stanic-Floody (19), who had four goals and Maja Markovski (23) who finished with three. Heyman and Stanic-Floody each scored in the Greens, 2-1 win over Perth in Western Australia, which was their first win over the Glory in Perth since 2016.
Western United (9-6-8, 32 points, Tied for Fifth)
Western United made the playoffs for the third consecutive season since their launch in 2022-23, but their 46 goals allowed was tied for second most in the league with Western Sydney, both behind Newcastle Jets’ 53 goals allowed. In five games since February 4 (Rounds 15-19), they accumulated only four points out of 15, scoring four goals and allowing 11. In Round 20, Western United ended a three-game winless run with an important 4-3 win over Canberra United on March 14.
Matilda Chloe (Logarzo) Berryhill (30) of Australia finished with seven goals and American forward Catherine Zimmerman (31) had five while defender Grace Maher (22) had four. In February, Australian U-20 international at two FIFA WWC U-20 Finals, Kahli Johnson (21), who scored 8 goals in 18 games this season, left the squad to move abroad, and will play in the new Northern Super League this season with the Calgary Wild, joining her former Western United teammate, Philippine international Jaclyn Sawicki, who was born and raised in Canada. Johnson was tied for the A-League Golden Boot this season when she left the club. Johnson was the first women’s transfer that Western United has ever earned a fee for.
Brisbane Roar (8-2-13, 26 points, Seventh)
Five losses in seven matches from January 11 through March 1, along with one win and one deadlock, left them in a battle to make the playoffs, with five teams separated by only three points from fourth to eighth after Round 18—Western United, the Roar, Central Coast, Canberra and Wellington. Brisbane finished the 2024-25 second in the league in team scoring with 46, behind only Premiership winners Melbourne City (56). A string of five consecutive defeats from Round 17-21 doomed their playoff hopes after being in second place after 10 games, one point behind City, they then endured a terrible slide in the second half of the season as in 13 games, they gained only five points out of 39 possible with one win, two deadlocks and ten defeats. They finished seven points out of a playoff spot and missed out on the post-season for the fourth consecutive season.
Tameka Yallop was outstanding with 12 goals from 18 games and Laini Frier had nine tallies and four assists from 17 games (seven in her first ten matches and finished fifth in the Golden Boot race) while her sister Sharn Frier, who is bound for Germany (see below), had two goals and four assists from 11 matches but then was injured and out for the rest of the campaign. Laini was selected by Australian national team head coach Tom Sermanni for the February SheBelieves Cup side in the U.S. and made her debut as a substitute against the Americans (a 2-1 defeat). Japan’s Momo Hayashi (30) had five goals in 18 matches (17 starts) in her first A-League season after playing six seasons with Gold Coast United in the Queensland State League. Forward Grace Kuilamu (18) is another top young talent to watch in the league and she finished with five goals in 18 games. The Roar’s defense was eighth best in the A-League with 42 goals allowed and needs to improve next season for the Roar to make the top six.
Highly publicized new acquisition for the season forward Danelle Tan (20) of Singapore only played for 45 minutes across three league games (see: The Week in Women's Football: A-League preview P1; signings, sales and predictions - TribalFootball.com). She did play and score in Brisbane’s 7-1 win over Singapore’s Women’s Premier League (WPL) All-Stars on April 4 in front of 2,108 fans. After the game Tan said: “You look up in the stands, all these young girls and boys. So supportive, so willing to come down, take time off their Friday night to come and support and watch a game like this. Just looking around and seeing the support we get, it’s been amazing.” The Roar players held clinics with youth players during their five day tour.
Brisbane Roar head coach Alex Smith believes that Sharn Freier’s (23) transfer to German league powerhouse Wolfsburg is the “blueprint” for Ninja A-League players to move abroad in the future. The transfer will net the Roar a club record transfer fee for women from the seven time Frauen-Bundesliga champions. Sharn Freier debuted for the Roar in December 2020 and played in 58 leagues games for Brisbane, scoring seven goals and 11 assists at the time of her signing on January 25. She signed through the 2028 season but would move to Germany only after the A-League season was over for the Roar. She wanted to help the Roar win the league title and finish the season with her sister Laini.
Roar COO Zac Anderson told reporters at the time: “The bigger story here for Australian football is we have one of our own, a Brisbane product, a young Brisbane girl who’s come through the NPL system, who’s come through FQ (Football Queensland) and QAS (Football Academy QAS—the elite football development program for women and girls in Queensland) and into the professional ranks,” Roar coach Alex Smith said that he was: “Extremely proud” that Sharn received this contract, adding: “These are some of the moments as a coach you live for. As I showed up 18 months ago, the talent was already pretty obvious. I could not be prouder of someone who came through the ranks in Queensland, grew up here and played (for) local clubs. Then to get a move to a club like Wolfsburg, it’s a really big thing. I don’t know if people really realise how big it is. I know how much work she’s put in.”
Smith also felt that Freier’s transfer to Germany set a “benchmark,” in the Ninja A-League. He told A-Leagues.com: “We certainly have a lot of fantastic young players coming through. It’s a testament to all the hard work being done over the past few years in the QS as well, with linking the programs. But there’s definitely three or four who could turn heads. There’s a lot of hard work that goes into it. Sharn’s been on a long journey to get to where she is right now. But for me it’s the benchmark. It’s the blueprint of what the next group can do. I don’t know if there’s been a better move from a young player in the league in the last 10 years or since the league’s been formed. To go to a club like Wolfsburg is fantastic and should be a blueprint for the rest of the young players in the league.”
Frier said: “If my last season with Brisbane Roar can be with a trophy with this bunch of girls, that would be a dream move for me… It would be very special. The season we’ve had so far and the team we have at the moment is very special… Touching on my sister as well, I get to play with her for the first time and I didn’t really want to cut that short. Hopefully we can go all the way and I want to be part of that. I’m really grateful that I get to stay and make the move after.”
During the press conference, Freier revealed she had interest from Italy following the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris but “it wasn’t the right time for me”.
Wolfsburg is currently in second place in the German top league with a 13-3-3 record for 42 points, one point ahead of Eintracht Frankfurt but eight points behind league leaders Bayern Munich; there are three games left in the season. The top three finishers advance to the 2025-26 UEFA Women’s Champions League.
Sharn made her Matildas debut in April of 2024 and was on Australia’s Paris 2024 Olympic Games squad. Unfortunately, just days after her signing, she suffered an ankle injury in the Roar’s 3-2 loss to Perth on January 26. Freier had previously suffered an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury in mid-2021. No doubt her absence from the team was of the contributors to Roar’s drastic slide down the table in the second half of the season.
Tim Grainey is a contributor to Tribal Football. His latest book Beyond Bend it Like Beckham on the global game of women’s football. Get your copy today. Follow Tim on X: @TimGrainey