Impetus NPLW WA Player of the Month – April 2024

by Ben Gilby (30/4/24)

Above: Perth SC’s Ella Lincoln – the inaugural winner of Impetus’ NPLW WA Player of the Month Award. Photo supplied to Impetus by: Rob Lizzi.

To further complement Impetus‘ coverage of the NPLW WA competition in 2024, we’ve assembled a group of people who are watching the competition’s matches especially closely to identify the competition’s most consistent players each month. For the first month of the season, Ben Gilby, Kelechi Osunwa, and Ava-Marianne Elliott produced an eight-player long list from which April’s winner was selected.

The Long List – April 2024

Abbey Meakins (Balcatta Etna)

After being one of many players at Perth SC last season who was hit by their injury jinx, Meakins followed her 2023 head coach Pete Rakic and a host of team-mates up to Grindleford Reserve to join Balcatta’s new look squad for this season. Meakins has found her touch with four goals in four games this season – one of which was a sumptuous long-range free-kick away to her old club. Meakins will be a key part of the Balcatta push for silverware this season, and her growing understanding with her new team mates, alongside the existing telepathy with those who joined her in making the move from Dorrien Gardens is already strong.

Caitlin Doeglas (Perth RedStar):

The former Perth Glory A-League Women attacker is back in Western Australia and is wowing the fans with a series of consistently high-level performances. From Night Series onwards, Doeglas showed not only her class, but an infectious enthusiasm about everything she was doing. Pacey runs down the flank, cutting inside, turning would-be markers, and firing home top-draw finishes. Doeglas was showing it all and did with a huge smile on her face.

Mia Britton (Hyundai NTC):

Maurauding runs along the right flank – footwork, pace, and intelligence way beyond her years, Mia Britton has hit the ground running in 2024. The NTC starlet has the confidence and ability to take on the most experienced opponent and escape with a deft piece of footwork. Additionally, the teen knows the channels to enter, and when to enter them. The influence she had in her side’s Round Four clash away to Balcatta Etna was hugely impressive.

Reina Kagami (Perth RedStar):

One of last season’s stand-out players – arguably the stand-out player, Reina Kagami has picked up where she left off at the end of 2023. The goals are flying, the link-up play is even tighter and impressive, with the assists flowing as a consequence. A hat-trick and an assist in RedStar’s demolition job of Murdoch University Melville showed just what the Japanese attacker can do with space. She will only get better as the season goes on.

Charli Wainwright (Perth SC):

A key part of Murdoch University Melville’s team of young talents last season, Charli Wainwright made the move across to Dorrien Gardens in the close season, and she’s absolutely ripping it up. One of the competition’s most elegant ball players, at the age of 20, Wainwright has taken the captain’s armband in the early stages of the campaign and shone. Showing composure beyond her years, she continues to read the play incredibly well and never gives up on a lost cause.

Lucy Jerram (Balcatta Etna):

Lucy Jerram is back in Western Australia with a bang. A goal-laden spell from the Night Series onwards, the attacker who spent last season in the NPLW Northern NSW came back home to join Pete Rakic’s new-look side at Grindleford Reserve. The impact has been instant. Powerful strikes and driving runs may take the headlines, but Jerram’s confidence and skillset are the things that mark her apart. Her sensational goal against Fremantle City in Round Two when she pushed the ball with millimetre accuracy between two Freo defenders and ran on it to curl a stunning finish past Dayle Schroeder was an absolute joy to behold.

Monoko Sakairi (Perth RedStar):

Coming to a new country with a totally different culture and language is a huge challenge at the best of times. Yet Perth RedStar’s latest arrival from Japan, Monoko Sakairi is, in these early weeks of the season, displaying all the signs of being a potential star of the league. Technically adept with great vision, excellent footwork, and close control, Sakairi is one for the purest. She’s built up a superb understanding with compatriot Reina Kagami – and that spells trouble for the rest of the competition.

Impetus NPLW WA Player of the Month for April 2024:

Ella Lincoln (Perth SC)

Five goals in four games may be an important stat – but even those impressive figures do not come close to telling the full story about Ella Lincoln’s April.

The attacker stayed loyal to the Dorrien Gardens club after a close season that saw a number of her 2023 Azzurri team-mates head for pastures new, and she’s absolutely revelling in her role asan integral player in Danielle Brogan’s class of 2024.

Lincoln’s partnership with Jess Flannery looks almost telepathic at times – their link up both close and over longer-range shows an uncanny knack of knowing where the other will be with devastating effect. Lincoln has stepped up, and there is real confidence in everything she does on the park.

Her all-round influence and consistent form between the latter part of 2023 and the opening month of 2024 is what, in the end persuaded our panel to give Ella Lincoln the honour of being the first ever Impetus NPLW WA Player of the Month.

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