By Kieran Yap 23/12/24
Above: Beattie Goad drives past Cortnee Vine. Photo: Kris Goman for Impetus
If Round Eight is to be Beattie Goad’s last game in the A-League women, the competition will farewell one of its most popular and most interesting players at the age of 27. She will be irreplaceable at Melbourne Victory, and her career will have been an inspiration for many others to bet on themselves.
A brief history of Goad is that she was a prodigious young playmaker at Melbourne Victory and then City before departing for the U.S College system in a move that simultaneously risked everything but had the potential to delivery anything.
It is still a path less travelled by Australian footballers. Going to the U.S removes players from the professional game and the direct supervision of Young and Senior Matildas selectors. For Goad it was the start of an adventure that took her to SV Meppen in Germany, Tenerife in Spain and three caps with the national team. Along the way she graduated from Stanford University, learned multiple languages and lived on a island that many pay good money just to visit.
Goad remains a humble, slightly enigmatic figure. She announced her retirement by Instagram story, and by many accounts it took the club by surprise even if nobody was really shocked as she leaves to continue her medical degree.
Football has allowed Goad to travel the world, pursue high level academics and represent her country. Repeatedly she has bet on herself and even when things have not worked out perfectly (she probably deserved more than three caps) she has earned more admirers along the way.
On the field, Beattie Goad is an artist. She has a mazy distinctive dribbling style and a first touch that takes her past most opponents, although she is predominantly a left sided player, she can cut inside or drive to the line to cross. This season, from left back she has become an extra midfielder at times to open up space for Alana Jancevski on the wing.
She has enviable individual talent but a strong team ethos, willing to sacrifice her best position for the good of the side. Although she was never a prolific scorer, she was capable of the spectacular and had the ability to send defences into reshuffles on the run.
In 2023, she spent the off-season in the Victorian NPLW with Bulleen and ended that season as premier. To watch her return to where she started was a joy.
Goad had played against Germany and Barcelona but she took the games against the likes of Box Hill and Southern United just as seriously, and showed them respect by showing no mercy. It was spectacular to watch her in full flight at that level, playing for the love of club and the game.
Melbourne Victory cannot replace Goad. She is a player that can fill multiple positions to an international standard and is a player that fans travel these vast lands to watch. She is the humble star of the team, a difference maker on and off the pitch, ever dependable and reliably dangerous.
Beattie Goad bet on herself and inspired thousands. Her career means the world to so many. She will retire as an A-League Women great.
More Reading: A 2021 interview with Beattie Goad before her return to Australia
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