Melbourne City 4-1 Newcastle Jets
by Alyce Collett at AAMI Park for Impetus (11/4/25)
Above: Holly McNamara (Sky Blue shirt, centre) celebrates with Taylor Otto. Photo: Adrian Geremia for Impetus.
Melbourne City’s invincible season is still intact after defeating the Newcastle Jets tonight 4-1.
In an at-times chaotic match, City were too strong for a Newcastle side who was its own worst enemy at times. The home side’s goals came from Rhianna Pollicina, Bryleeh Henry, and a brace to Holly McNamara on her return from Matildas duty. Deven Jackson was the one to peg a goal back for the Jets.
One thing that was really evident from the first moments of the match was City’s intent on the ball, no matter who was in possession. Particularly when they did not have the ball, the defensive pressure was intense, making the Jets turn over the ball on a number of occasions and not giving them much time to think or room to move into advantageous positions.
However, as good as City were defensively, that last pass into attack before a forward could shoot just was not quite working for them in the early stages.
As the half got to its halfway stage things started to open up a bit, the game became more of an end to end spectacle, and Newcastle started to find its way to goal much better.
City’s first goal eventually came in the 20th minute, when McNamara pounced on a week pass Newcastle made it its defence and slotted a goal right into the bottom corner of the Jets’ goal.
Things went from bad to worse for the Jets not even 10 minutes later when Sheridan Gallagher was sent off after picking up a second yellow for the match.
McNamara had her second goal just over the half-hour mark after heading in a Leticia McKenna cross.
The second goal saw the momentum really start to shift in City’s direction, and it almost felt like a metaphorical fog of pressure was lifted off the game.
Things got even worse for the Jets just before halftime when Lorena Baumann became the second Jet sent off after round housing Karly Roestbakken.
Ultimately, the score remained at 2-0 at the break, but there was a sense that more goals could very much be on the way in the second half.
City began the second half much like they played the first, dominating the attacking play and racking up the shots on goal, albeit not racking up many shots on target.
Then, completely against the run of play, Newcastle managed to snag a goal back after knocking the ball into the goal in the middle of a goal mouth scramble. Official reports credited the goal to Jackson, but closer inspection saw that it had perhaps come off the body of Emilia Murray.
Newcastle’s resurgence was short-lived, though, as City scored two more goals within the following five minutes to really put to bed any hopes of a resurgence from the Jets. The goals came from Pollicina and Henry, who both struck beautiful shots from inside the box.
Despite having a comfortable advantage on the scoreboard, City did not take their foot off the pressure pedal at all, continuing to pile on the pressure as any quality side would.
To view more of Adrian Geremia’s images from the game for Impetus, check out our Instagram page – @ImpetusFootball
Teams: MELBOURNE CITY (4-4-2): Mieres, Roestbakken, Stott, Otto, Apostolakis, Henry, Hughes, Davidson, McKenna, Bosch, McNamara. Substitutes: Pollicina, Murray, McMahon, Vlajnic, Barbieri.
Scorers: McNamara 20’, 33’. Policina 69’, Henry 71’.
NEWCASTLE JETS (3-1-4-2): Krzyzaniak, Cicco, Baumann, Wilson, Davis, Jackson, Hoban, L.Allan, Dundas, Gallagher, Copus-Brown. Substitutes: Adams, Breier, Collins, Robertson, Walandouw.
Scorer: Jackson 67′.
Referee: Caitlin Williams.
Attendance: 2,257.
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