by Emma Burke (13/10/26)
Above: The A-League Women’s two Melbourne teams will both be looking to take it up a notch this coming season. Photo: via the A-Leagues.
Ahead of the A-League Women’s season, Melbourne City’s Rebekah Stott and Melbourne Victory’s Angie Beard spoke to the media about their respective sides’ goals for the season and what the future may hold for the League.
“We want to win three trophies and that’s our goal,” said Stott.
After finally winning the elusive Championship trophy last season, as well as the Premiers’ Plate, Melbourne City will be returning to the Asian Women’s Champions League (AWCL) for the third successive time.
City’s signings for the season headline with the return of Matildas fan favourite Cortnee Vine, who has spent the last few years in America with the North Carolina Courage in the National Women’s Soccer League.
“She can bring her experience and obviously on the field, her speed down the wing is going to be great for us. Her hitting in crosses to [Melina Ayres] is going to be unreal for us,” said Stott on Vine’s return to the league.
Other new signings include Jessika Nash, Melina Ayres, Avaani Prakash, Momo Hayashi, and more, making the losses of Holly McNamara, Leticia McKenna, Leah Davidson, and more again seem much less scary.
Even with the huge offseason turnover, Stott is confident in her side and backs the work they’ve done so far to set them up well for the season.
“We’ve built a lot of cohesion in the team already and I think we’re in a good place,” she said.
On the other side of town, Melbourne Victory are looking to improve on last season’s tumultuous place.
One person that’s hoping to help them do that is the returning Angie Beard.
“At the end of the day I think I made a fantastic decision, I’m here at Victory again, I love it here,” she said.
Beard last played for Melbourne Victory in 2021, before departing to play in Europe.
“I’ve been away from the league for a while now… so hopefully now that I’m back with Victory we just get back to winning ways.”
She wants to see her side’s success win them a spot in AWCL, which can only be done through winning the Premiers’ Plate.
“Trying to be the fittest and strongest team in the league is paramount,” said Beard.
Both players however, do have a shared concern regarding the lack of a Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) between the Players Union, Professional Footballers Australia (PFA) and the Australian Professional Leagues (APL) who run the A-Leagues.
“We want a CBA deal done and we’ve put it out there for the APL to come to the table and we hope that we can start the season with a CBA,” said Stott.
Currently the players are happy to start the season with the CBA unsigned, especially with the Women’s World Cup happening next year, no one wants to lose any available playing time.
“It’s still in negotiations. The playing group have been in a really close relationship with the PFA leading into the season and I know they’re in constant communication with the APL to try and get terms agreed upon,” said Beard.
“The PFA are very thorough so they’ve definitely got plan A, B, C, W, Y, Z,” she said.
Female footballers in Australia do have a precedent of taking industrial action if it comes down to it. Back in 2015 the Matildas went on a two-month long strike to push for better pay and conditions, which was ultimately successful.
Both Stott and Beard are hopeful that the best possible outcome will be reached regarding the CBA through the PFA, however, contingency plans still look to be in place.
Follow Impetus on social media:
@ImpetusFootball on Threads, Instagram and TikTok.
