By Alyce Collett 16/5/25
Above: Courtney Newbon (left) photo: Impetus
There are many stories every year surrounding the A-League Women’s Grand Final, and this year perhaps one of the most interesting is that of Melbourne Victory’s goal keeper Courtney Newbon.
It has not always been an easy journey in the A-League Women’s for the 24 year old, who has bounced around a number of clubs in the competition before finally settling at the Victory.
Last year was a particularly crazy year for Newbon, starting the year as a temporary replacement player at the Central Coast Mariners before moving down to the Victory and ending the year as the first choice keeper at the Victory.
“I think last year was honestly a bit of a whirlwind” Newbon confessed.
“At the start of the year, I wasn’t playing A-League at all last season. I then turned around and played at two different clubs and played maybe 17 odd games or whatever it was, it was definitely unexpected.
“I almost felt like I was maybe thrown in the deep end a little bit, but I think I dealt with it in the best way that I could have and I guess maybe I used that as an opportunity to get to Victory and now I’m here and enjoying myself and enjoying my football.”
Newbon certainly feels grateful to have finally found a home after all those years bouncing around a number of clubs.
“It’s a great feeling. I think like any player, I would’ve loved to have found this right at the start of my career, eight years ago at Wanderers or whenever it was” Newbon said.
“But to finally get here and finally being a club that has taken me and has believed in me, has actually given me a solid chance, has been something that I’ve been super grateful for and maybe something that I was missing a couple years ago.”
This Sunday’s Grand Final will see Newbon play her old side the Mariners, but Newbon said that she does not have the same feelings facing them that she would have if she had played there for a number of years.
“It’s a bit of a weird one, right?” Newbon said.
“Central Coast was my old club, but at the end of the day I only played four games there on an injury contract. So I was never there for years and years and that sort of thing. So, I still want to go out, I still want to win. I want to get one back on them from last year.”
Looking ahead to this weekend, Newbon is certainly feeling excited about playing in the biggest match of the season.
“It’s awesome. It’s something that everyone would love to do some point in their career and I guess to do it so early on in mine, it’s something that it’s pretty amazing and something that I’m pretty proud to achieve” Newbon said.
Newbon also agreed that because she is so early on in her career that the emotions surrounding making the decider are amplified.
“I think I’m quite good at maybe compartmentalising things, so I’m trying to stay quite calm and cool and relax. But I’m sure the closer we get the more maybe nerves or will kick in, that’s part of the occasion, right?”
Controlling nerves and emotions around such a big game can sometimes be a struggle, but the ever professional Newbon certainly has a plan for what she is going to do.
“I think just maybe treating it as a normal game as best as I can, going through my processes and what I typically do on a normal game day, and try not to stray too far away from that,” Newbon explained.
Melbourne Victory were the first side to book their place in the decider, but as their players watched on to see who they would be playing, Newbon said that there was not a preference among the group as to who they wanted to win the other semi between the Mariners and Victory’s crosstown rivals Melbourne City.
“I don’t think we were too concerned” Newbon said.
“I mean, we would’ve loved a Melbourne Derby just because it’s a Melbourne Derby and we haven’t got one over them this year. That would’ve been nice, but at the end of the day, we weren’t really concerned which team we got. I think we back ourselves and we know what we can do that it wasn’t a huge concern at the end of the day.”
During the first leg of Victory’s semi final win over Adelaide, Newbon picked up a goal assist, a rare feet for a goalkeeper, after her long kick from defence set up Emily Gielnik who then scored the first goal of that match.
“That was awesome. That I think is a career highlight” Newbon said with joy when reflecting on that moment.
“I joke about it with my teammates. I’ll say at training I’m going to get an assist this weekend, and so some may say I manifested it, but yeah it was pretty cool. I was in shock I think.”
Already with a three goal to one lead in the bank heading into the second leg, Newbon said that Victory did not rest on their laurels in the return leg of the tie.
“We really treated that game like we didn’t have the lead,” Newbon explained.
“We treated that game like we had to win, like we treated every other game this year. We’ve had to go in and had to win and maybe had to grind it out and we were prepared to do the ugly stuff if we needed to.
“I think we were quite fortunate that we got that first goal quite early on, and then it leaves Adelaide in a place where they have to score three, so it’s obviously a little bit more of an uphill battle.”
All of this is the culmination of quite the journey for the star goal keeper, who may have never even become a goal keeper if it was not for a successful representative team trials back in the day. Originally an outfield player, she decided to trial in goals at those trials, and backed by the confidence against potential pain given to her by her rugby league days, she made that team as a goal keeper and the rest is history.
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