Above: Victory celebrate last season. Image: Rob Lizzi for Impetus.
By Isabelle Campbell & Alice de Koster-Kitto (8/11/25)
Western Sydney Wanderers and Melbourne Victory will go head-to-head at Wanderers Football Park this Sunday, in the second round of the 2025/26 Ninja A-League season. Both teams will be looking to collect their first points of the campaign, as they each come off an opening round loss.
Victory began their 25/26 campaign with a narrow loss to Brisbane Roar despite producing an encouraging display, featuring debut goals from Rhianna Pollicina and Kennedy White.
Head Coach Jeff Hopkins said his team took plenty of positives from that performance and is intent on being more ruthless in key moments.
“I think the positive thing was that I thought we played very well for 70-75 minutes of the game. We were on top and probably not clinical enough in the periods that we did dominate.
“They were always dangerous, especially on the counter, and we didn’t handle those moments very well.
“So we’ve definitely highlighted those moments this week, but in general, I thought we were on top for big periods of the game. Our challenge this week is when we get on top of teams, we need to make sure that we just hammer home our advantage with goals on the scoreboard.”
The upcoming fixture will also be a milestone occasion for Hopkins, who is set to reach 200 matches as an A-League Women’s head coach, making him the first to do so.
Turning his attention to team matters, Hopkins confirmed a boost to the squad with midfielder Grace Maher cleared for selection, having missed the season opener.
“She is available. It was touch and go [last week]. She probably could have started the game, but whether she would finish it and made the injury more serious, it probably would have done.
“She’s a senior player. She knows her body pretty well, and we didn’t want to take any risk with her. We had a good substitute there, ready to come on in, Rosie Curtis.”
Victory will now look to build on the foundations of their Round 1 performance, with Hopkins confident that greater sharpness in front of goal and consistency across the full 90 minutes can deliver a winning result in Sydney and earn the Victory their first points of the campaign.
The Wanderers currently sit 10th on the table, following a 3-0 loss to Perth Glory, compared to Victory’s 8th, a disappointing start to their 2025/26 Ninja A-League campaign. Abrahams and the squad are taking the loss as an opportunity to grow and are confident they can put their best foot forward this Saturday, impressed with the overall performance, despite the result.
“You always want to play against the best,” said Abrahams, ahead of what is set to be a tough match for the Wanderers. Although historically, the match would be in favour of Victory, both sides are entering round 2 on a fairly even playing field, as they both come off losses, and with the Wanderers’ home advantage, the game could be anyone’s.
There have been a hoard of new faces in the Wanderers squad, including Korean international Kim Seoeun, whose signing was announced on Thursday.
“(She’s) an exciting player, she’s an attacking player, she’s got that low centre of gravity, she’s sharp, good 1v1,” said Abrahams on what he hoped the forward would bring to the side, adding “she’s been around the national team, and that’s her motivation for being here too.”
There were six debutants in last week’s match against Perth Glory last week, including Nikita Fazari, who had a HSC exam the morning of her debut, a testament to the wealth of fresh young talent in the squad.
“It makes it hard for me to pick a starting lineup each week,” said Abrahams on the number of players at his disposal, and the benefit it has being able to make relevant changes each week, adding, “having a large group of players in an environment where they’re testing each other every day and getting better.”
“They need experience with them as well, players like Amy Harrison and Oliva Price and Holly Caspers, they’re really important to those young players to just be around them every day and see how they work and how they carry themselves”
The added depth to the squad, including the likes of Poppie Hooks, Nikita Fazari, and Alana Cerne, could be exactly what the Wanderers need to improve their play going ahead and produce the results they are looking for, especially heading into a clash as contentious as the one ahead.
Melbourne Victory will travel to Wanderers Football Park to take on Western Sydney Wanderers on Sunday 9th of November at 4 pm AEDT. The match will be streamed on 10Play and Paramount+.
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