Ben Gilby has been covering the National Premier Leagues Women’s (NPLW) competition in Western Australia for a number of years now. His coverage of it on the site is consistently among Impetus‘ most-read articles each week. But why is this? Why does this league mean so much to him, and who are the clubs and people that make the competition what it is? (11/9/24)
Above: Perth RedStar’s Olivia Wood (right) prepares to cross against Perth SC in a battle of the top two at RedStar Arena at the end of July. Photo supplied to Impetus by: Rob Lizzi.
It’s the weekend. Hundreds of females from the youngest of ages up to seniors all kitted out and down at the ground to play.
Subiaco AFC provides opportunities for females to play from the age of three all the way up to walking football. Seniors are not just the name for the club’s NPLW WA side. It goes way beyond that. This is a club where no matter your age, potentially there is a team for you.
Whilst not every club in the competition has such a range of ages turning out for them each week, Subiaco epitomises what the NPLW WA competition is – community-driven with volunteers putting in the hours to do jobs as diverse as marking the pitch, ordering the food, putting the nets up, and coaching the teams.
The background and set-up
This season, the fifth in the competition’s history, which is embryonic among other state NPLW competitions, has been the most competitive yet – both at the top and bottom of the table. Whilst Perth RedStar may have been crowned as league champions for the third year in a row, the remaining silverware – the State Cup, and the Top Four Cup (a post-regular season competition for the teams who finished first to fourth over 21 weeks) – could be won by any of the competing teams, not something that has always been the case.
The NPLW is a second tier of state football leagues in Australia, below the A-League Women. The competition is divided up on a state basis. Australia is divided into the states of Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia, and Western Australia. There are additional ‘territories’—the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) with the connected Jervis Bay Territory and the Northern Territory.
There is no promotion and relegation from the A-League to the State NPLW leagues, and, given that, apart from some overlap at the start of the NPLW seasons, a number of players will play in both competitions for effectively year-round football.
The NPLW WA is one of seven state leagues (New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, South Australia, ACT, and Northern New South Wales are the others), and it became the sixth to be set up in 2020. The competitions are overseen by Football Australia in partnership with the state governing body of the sport in each case (Football West for Western Australia), the idea behind the competition is, in the words of Anthony Siokos in the Sports Business Insider, to “monitor and improve elite player development.”
Western Australia’s league has eight clubs, and there are four competitions across the season. There is the pre-season Night Series, which sees the eight clubs divided into two groups of four for round-robin matches followed by semi-finals and a final. Then the main NPLW WA league competition of 21 rounds where each team plays each other three times. This is supplemented by the State Cup (for the eight NPLW WA clubs and eight from the league below – the Women’s Division One), and the Top Four Cup, an end of regular season Finals competition for the teams that finish first to fourth in the NPLW WA.
The eight clubs that took part in the 2024 NPLW WA are Perth RedStar (three-time champions and Top Four Cup winners), Perth SC, Balcatta Etna, Fremantle City, Hyundai NTC (effectively the State U18 representative side), Subiaco, Murdoch University Melville (two-time league winners, one Top Four Cup), and UWA-Nedlands. The latter became the first side to be promoted into the competition as they replaced Curtin University who finished bottom at the end of the 2023 season.
For those overseas, trying to identify what sort of level the NPLW WA would be equal to in Europe is challenging due to the varying degrees of club strength. It would probably be a fair estimate to suggest that a game between the competition’s top sides would roughly equate to an average Championship (tier two) standard in England. Matches between the clubs around the fifth to eighth place in the league can vary from tier three to tier five standard in England, depending on factors such as availability, injuries, and playing conditions.
The unique challenges
Every NPLW competition in Australia has its own challenges – finances, having to train and play matches around full-time work or studies are ones that all have in common. Yet Western Australia has several other hurdles that its players need to clear that their counterparts elsewhere in the country do not have to overcome.
Western Australia covers a landmass roughly the size of Western Europe and is an inherently rural state. Just over 2,000,000 people live in Perth, but after that, the state’s next biggest city is Bunbury with around 74,000 people, followed by Geraldton at just under 38,000. Those population figures plus the huge distances between population areas make it very difficult indeed for any player outside of the Greater Perth region to be noticed.
The Goldfields region of the state, around a seven-hour drive from Perth has produced several outstanding players such as Lydia Williams, and now Tanika Lala and the area in the South-West of the state has also developed some real talent – Tash Rigby from Margaret River being just one, but how many superb female footballers have been missed simply because they were not spotted by coaches, or were not able to uproot their lives and move hours and hundreds of kilometres from their families and jobs in pursuit of a footballing career?
To reach the full potential of that footballing career can, for the best of the best, mean international representation. This is another big quandary facing Western Australian players. The national teams and their coaches are based on the east coast (effectively Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane), literally thousands of kilometres and over four hours by plane away.
For a number of years, players in Western Australia have been encouraged to move across to the eastern states to improve their chances of being noticed by the national team coaches. This has had the dual impact of inhibiting the growth of a strong local competition with top players feeling they have to move to the other side of the country – something that also impacts the state’s sole pro club, Perth Glory, as very few of their players get selected for national teams until they move to pro clubs on the east coast.
The one positive of the above situation is the enhanced identity that Western Australians have – there is, to an extent an underlying feeling of “us and them” in relation to the eastern states. It develops a sense of deep pride in where they come from, and what it is to be Western Australian. With the A-League Women competition now having a full home and away season, more players are now considering staying in WA to play their NPLW football.
More of Perth Glory’s players have played NPLW in Western Australia this year, and indeed, Tijan McKenna has come back from Melbourne after a couple of years in the NPLW Victoria, with Ruby Cuthbert returning from Brisbane Roar and Ischia Brooking from Western Sydney Wanderers playing in the competition this year as well. That can only be a big benefit for the league, and it can’t be a coincidence that the NPLW WA has been far more competitive at the top and bottom this year.
Media coverage of any NPLW competition is limited. The NPLW WA has every match available to view online live or on-demand via the website www.streamer.com.au – in terms of other content, it is all driven and delivered by volunteers. The overall quality of the work produced by volunteers covering the competition in their own time is exceptional – but at the same time, it’s disappointing that the competition has to rely on people doing it for their sheer love of the league and its clubs to promote it.
At the current time, in terms of written media, three people/outlets either provide previews or round wrap articles (or both) for each week of the season. Each year that has gone by, I have tried hard to extend the coverage of the competition that I provide – going from a weekly round wrap, to a detailed match report and review of the other games, with weekly in-depth interview features with players, and now a monthly player of the month feature and team of the season piece.
In the spoken word media, there is the weekly Perth Football Podcast which runs an episode specifically focusing on the women’s game, and Radio Fremantle’s World Football Show host Penny Tanner Hoath is a recognised name in the Western Australian women’s football circles and, indeed has appeared on the bench for Murdoch University Melville this season.
But the fact remains that there is a reliance on people supporting the development and progress of competition in their spare time. This isn’t a Western Australia problem, it’s an Australian football problem all around.
Within Western Australia – and indeed several other states – the AFL (Australian Rules) is king – dominating both broadcast and written media time – and bums on seats in stadiums at the same time that the NPLW is in progress. The recent announcement that Perth is going to get a NRL (Rugby League) side again will make that media space even more congested. Any non-Matildas-related mainstream media coverage is very difficult to obtain for the round ball game.
The clubs and players
The NPLW WA has eight clubs in it. This is the first season that promotion and relegation has played a part in the construction of the league with UWA-Nedlands entering the 2024 competition for the first time, replacing Curtin University.
Perth RedStar
The most successful side in the competition – formally Northern Redbacks. In the Redbacks era as a female-only set-up, they enjoyed huge success not only within Western Australia but more widely. Among the headline achievements was the winning of the 2013 Interstate Challenge Cup against Adelaide City on penalties.
They have a track record of huge success with their age group teams competing both locally and overseas. In 2022, the team merged with ECU Joondalup to become Perth RedStar. Since then the silverware has continued to be won with three successive NPLW WA championships and two Top Four Cup victories.
Apart from being supremely well coached by Carlos Vega Mena, RedStar can point to continuity in their playing squad with a number of their team having played over 200 (in some cases over 300) matches for the team. Indeed, a look back at the squad for that Interstate Challenge Cup win over Adelaide City 11 years ago reveals three – Carla Bennett, Renee Leota, and Emily Dunn – who have played NPLW WA football for RedStar this season.
This is a team stacked full of outstanding players who are consistently excellent in their pursuit of more NPLW WA silverware. Starting at the back with Gabby Dal Busco, goalkeeper for Perth Glory in the 2016 W-League Grand Final, who remains arguably the best shot-stopper in the league.
RedStar can point to the hugely impressive stalwarts of Andreia Teixeira and Emily Dunn, whose calming presence and ‘been there, done it’ mentality rubs off on the younger faces around them which include the hugely talented young Mischa Anderson. Other members of the squad in the earlier stages of their career include Olivia Wood – a thrilling attacker, who combines excellent footwork with marvellous vision and the ability to score a lot of goals.
Then add in the experience of Sarah Carroll who is so often at the heart of everything that is good about RedStar. Carroll has relentless energy and belief to both support her team through the middle third, take sublime set-pieces, and track back to defend with aplomb. Further up the field is Caitlin Doeglas – another player with A-League Women experience in the past. The former Perth Glory player clearly loves life at RedStar Arena and has used pace, outrageous skill, and quality finishing to light up the competition this season.
No discussion about Perth RedStar is complete without a mention of their Japanese sensation Reina Kagami. The league’s top scorer last season, Kagami, with compatriots Manami Arai and Momoko Sakairi around her, has had another strong season. The goals have still flowed, but crucially, so have the excellent vision and link-up play.
RedStar are the epitome of a champion side – any time their opposition doesn’t take chances in front of goal, they have a habit of going up the other end of the field and punishing those misses to take victory. They have set the bar high – but other teams are starting to really rise to the challenge now.
Perth SC
RedStar’s closest challengers in recent years finishing second in both the league and Top Four Cup. However, the newly crowned State Cup Winners have gone up another level this season with former Matilda Danielle Brogan recruiting extremely well upon her return as head coach.
Coming in from A-League Women side Perth Glory were young stars, Georgia Cassidy and Grace Johnston. A third Young Matilda Tijan McKenna returned from Victoria, and Murdoch University Melville’s impressive pair of Charli Wainwright and Sam Mathers also arrived. Offensively, Ella Lincoln remained at the club to continue her dangerous partnership with Jess Flannery, and at the back, the key presence of Baxter Thew, Kimberley McCartney, and Epril Nossent produce significant ballast.
Any team that could put out a midfield of Daisy McAllister, Wainwright, Cassidy, and McKenna, with the latter thriving in a central midfield position was always going to be a threat.
The Azzurri (the club’s nickname due to their historic connections to groups from the city’s Italian community) have pieced together an exciting passing game this year. Within the squad is a mixture of WA-produced Young Matildas, local players in the early stages of their careers, and battle-hardened experienced NPLW WA players. Another second-place finish has been secured and after clinching a first-ever State Cup win against Perth RedStar last weekend, hopes are high for their Top Four Cup campaign.
Balcatta Etna
A team with a strong-looking squad, who threaten to be a real handful in the Top Four Cup.
With a lot of new faces to mix in with retained players at the Home Group Stadium, head coach Pete Rakic worked well to bring his squad together – there is a real sense of belonging, identity, and sheer enjoyment at being part of the team. Balcatta can point to the likes of dangerous attacking pair Lucy Jerram and Monique Prinsloo, who combine real pace with predatory finishing, backed up by Abbey Meakins, one of several players to have followed Rakic from Perth SC at the end of last season.
Meakins is a superb striker of a set-piece who weighs in with more than her fair share of goals. Joining her in midfield are the likes of Kat Jukic and Liana Cook who pull the strings linking with the strikers ahead of them well. At the back, Balcatta has the presence of Rebecca Bennett in goal who is a fine shot-stopper with Faye Phillips and Alyssa van Heurck marshalling the defence. In the final month of the regular season, a further squad boost in the shape of New Zealand international Liz Anton and local A-League Women star Izzy Folletta has further added to their stocks.
Balcatta have found their form at the right time, and have the ability to take silverware before the end of September.
Fremantle City
A team who had an up-and-down season, after losing a lot of key players at the end of 2023. The port city side are extremely well coached by Faye Chambers and after taking a while to find their feet, produced an extremely strong middle third of the season, which included an impressive win over Perth RedStar.
Once the club were able to get them on the pitch after a break following the A-League Women season, their potent pair of attackers, Abbey Green and Tanika Lala, at times have been unplayable. Green is one of the most watchable wide players in the competition with searing pace and excellent footwork.
Lala has long been thought of as one of the state’s biggest potential stars of the future after two stellar years with the NTC behind her. A goalscorer extraordinaire who has the dual qualities of pace and power, Lala is a major threat to any team at this level.
Whilst their attacking pair has taken much of the attention this season, elsewhere, Alex Poad and Annabelle Leek have provided consistently high-quality performances and have been hugely influential in the team’s progress. Goalkeeper Dayle Schroeder has been in career-best form as well. The team can also boast the combative and creative flair of Janice Kiama, who plays a key role in linking up with the attackers, and the talented Olivia Trueman who causes defences no end of problems both out wide and when she cuts inside.
However, they suffered the loss of three regular starters – Clara Hoarau, Maya Spatafore, and Anna Powell overseas in early August which coincided with a more challenging run of results. Whilst there is a case in point to consider Fremantle as a team in transition with other sides around them looking stronger, there is a gritty determination and belief to push for honours that mark them out as regular tough opposition. You know you have done well if you can leave Hilton Park with points. On their day, Freo can beat anybody.
Hyundai NTC
A team that provide one of the anomalies for people overseas watching the NPLW. Hyundai NTC is, effectively the state representative under-18 side. They compete each week against the other seven sides who have considerably older players, some with A-League Women and international experience. Regardless, the NTC has had huge success in recent years.
Exceptionally well coached by Ben Anderton, the team has just come out of a golden generation with players such as Georgia Cassidy, Tanika Lala, Grace Johnston, Ischia Brooking, Lilly Bailey, and Ruby Cuthbert all going on to earn A-League Women contracts for 2023/24. A State Cup Final win last season and Top Four Cup Final appearances have been achieved with a team playing, at times breathtaking football.
After so many of their successful side from the last two years became too old to represent the set-up this season, it has taken some time for the new crop to find their feet in terms of consistent results, but there have been some great moments.
The return of Ruby Cuthbert and Ischia Brooking from inter-state has been huge but also has been the presence of the likes of Theodora Mouithys, Mia Britton, Violet Longmore, and Klaudia Houlis.
Mouithys is a powerful attacker with immense upper-body strength who has proved to be a real handful for the league’s experienced defenders this season. Britton is a winger for the ages. The teenager has real pace allied with both fancy footwork and confidence to hit stunning shots from long range.
Longmore is yet another member of this squad with the air of someone far more experienced than her years. A player who always leads by example, she has every chance of being the next elegant ball-playing star to emerge from the NTC setup. Houlis has been an attacker who has played above her age grade for several years and is now in her second year with the senior NTC side and has the ability to score goals from nothing.
Head coach Anderton sets his teams up to play out from the back and move forward with patient, well-structured passing football that is a joy to watch. Occasionally things can go wrong and goals get conceded, but at the heart of this team is the overwhelming focus on player development, risk-taking, and preparing these players for the future. The next generation of Western Australian female footballers look very bright indeed.
Subiaco
A team that has slowly built and stand on the cusp of being a team that can push for Finals football – but needs to solve the conundrum of how to make the jump from being well clear of the bottom two to consistently winning the games that will push them into the top four discussions.
Winless in their first season in 2020, Subi has won a minimum of five games from 2022 onwards and has a strong second XI competing in the league below. Whilst Marianna Tabain may take the headlines for her sumptuous touches and ability in front of goal, their squad has a host of players who, on their day, can cause the more established sides problems.
The club’s status as a gradually improving side is matched by the growing number of impressive squad members. Former A-League Women star Marianna Tabain has had a talismanic presence on the team for three seasons now. As well as popping up with a number of goals on a regular basis, Tabain is a calming presence and a key figure in inspiring those around her.
Frankie Murray-Hocking has had another impressive year. She is a player with an eye for the insightful pass, vision to link up the play, and is more than capable of popping up with an important goal. Elsewhere, Subi can point to the poise of Cass Harvey and Stella Zampogna who have scored some absolutely stunning goals this year allied with being reliable presences all over the pitch.
With, perhaps two experienced quality players to add to the mix for 2025, there’s absolutely no reason why Greg Farrell’s side cannot push ever further up the league.
Murdoch University Melville
More colloquially known as MUM FC, this is a club who were the heavyweights of the first two seasons of the NPLW, as most of the hugely successful Queens Park side that were so strong in the pre-NPLW days moved across. MUM FC won the first two NPLW WA championships, one Top Four Cup, and one State Cup, but since then, life has got harder.
Whilst 2022 saw the side miss out on the Top Four by just two points, 2023 saw a mixed bag as a side full of extremely talented youngsters were not able to break into the upper echelons of the ladder, but did make the State Cup Final, going down to the NTC at the Sam Kerr Football Centre.
After losing a lot of their talented squad from last season, MUM FC found it hard at the start of the 2024 campaign, going down to heavy defeats. But as the season entered its last two months, the new faces have gelled, aided by the experienced heads of Ellis Glanfield and Ella Mastrantonio.
Australian international Mastrantonio was a calming presence among young heads and tried to lead by example, and the injection of another former Perth Glory star in Glanfield added important goals at times during the final third of the campaign. Taylor Reid has been a player who has flown under the radar in the competition for a few seasons, but she is someone full of running who offers herself in offensive positions. Elsewhere at MUM FC, Ingrid Gomez Basallo and Luana Ascenzo-Cabella have been explosive at times and key members of the squad.
Murdoch University Melville became much more competitive, picked up results against the teams around them in the table, and produced arguably the win of the season when they defeated top three side Balcatta Etna in a run to the end of the campaign which eventually saw them finish off the bottom.
UWA-Nedlands
The NPLW WA’s newest side may have finished bottom of the ladder, but they have a lot to be proud of. They began the season as a group of players with little to no prior NPLW experience, they have been competitive from the get-go. Whilst they have been on the receiving end of some heavy beatings, it was not on the scale that previous cellar-dwellers have experienced.
UWA-Nedlands can also point to scoring goals and taking the lead against the top sides on a number of occasions this season. They have been consistently well-organised under Lawrence Lewis’ stewardship and have real spirit and belief in their squad. A case in point was their reaction to falling four goals behind at home to Perth SC in early August to hit back and play their part in a sensational second half which saw the final score end 8-4 to the visitors.
The club added some impressive performers to the NPLW WA this season. Emily Dinsdale emerged as an increasingly influential player who took to this higher level of football like a duck to water. Her vision, tracking, and runs have been apparent from the very earliest period of the campaign, and she has also found the net as her team looked to consolidate their spot in the competition.
Andrea Preiato become a dangerous addition to the squad – a player who is not afraid to run at opponents and create chances. Michaela Thawley and Morgan Springer, who came into the club ahead of the season from America have also produced moments of quality. Thawley is a dangerous attacker who also creates for those around her, and Springer has been a good shot-stopper throughout the campaign.
Eventually, it wasn’t quite enough as they finished the regular season bottom of the ladder. The club now face a wait to see who wins the Women’s Division One and whether or not a club from that league wishes to make the step up to NPLW WA football.
Where now..?
With the NPLW WA marking its fifth season this year, the time has come to take stock, look at what is working, and consider what still needs to be developed. Keep an eye out on Impetus over the coming weeks for a major article focusing on this.
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