We present six teams in alphabetical order: Adelaide United, Brisbane Roar, Canberra United, Central Coast Mariners, Melbourne City and Melbourne Victory. In part 2, we will present Newcastle Jets, Perth Glory, champions Sydney FC, Wellington Phoenix, Western Sydney Wanderers and Western United.
A-League Women 2024/25 Season Preview (Part 1)
Adelaide United
The past two seasons, Adelaide finished eighth of 11 sides and then at the bottom of the 12 team league in 2023/24.
At the end of the season, Adelaide United released a number of players who had all joined the club at the beginning of the 2023/24 season, including: New Zealand international forward Hannah Blake (24), Annabel Haffenden (22), American Jenna Holtz (29—who played collegiately at Santa Clara University in California and the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada and who spent time with the Puerto Rico Sol, in Portugal and Spain’s second division), Alana Jancevski (see more below for Melbourne Victory), American Mariah Lee (28—who joined the D.C. Power in the new USL Super League) and New Zealand native Rosetta Taylor (23—who played in Spain for seven years with Valencia CF Femenino and joined the Reds last season from Nottingham Forest in England).
Goalkeeper Grace Wilson (19), who has been with the club since 2021, played in 26 matches last season and is a U-20 international, also left the club in the off-season.
Hannah Blake was the club’s joint top scorer last season with three goals, along with veterans Isabel Hodgson (28) and Dylan Holmes (27), who both are back for 2024/25. Blake moved to Durham in the English Championship and has two goals in seven matches thus far in helping Durham into third place on a 5-0-2 (W-D-L) record for 15 points and are only one point behind joint leaders Birmingham City and London City Lions. She also played a season with Perth Glory, at home with Three Kings United in the National Women’s Premier League and in the States at the University of Michigan.
English import Fiona Worts returned to Adelaide after a season with Sydney FC in 2023/24, winning a league title. She won the Julie Dolan Medal for player of the year in 2021/22 as she scored 13 goals in leading Adelaide to their first ever playoff spot and match. She scored both Adelaide goals in their opening match of this season in a 3-2 loss at home to Melbourne Victory on November 2.
Other new imports include:
Midfielder Abby Clarke (20) from England is on a one year contact; she played with Everton as an academy player before moving to the senior team and last season played with Burnley.
Defender Lucia Leon (27) of Spain was a Spanish youth international and plays at the senior level for Dominican Republic. She spent last season at Watford in London and has also played with Tottenham Hotspur in England and Real Betis and Madrid CFF in Spain.
Forward Erin Healy (23) of the U.S. played at Gonzaga University in Spokane, Washington from 2019 through 2023 and spent last season in Portugal with Clube de Albergaria in the Portuguese top flight, scoring 8 goals in 24 games
A key returnee is midfielder Nanako Sasaki (25) of Japan, who has four goals in 50 matches for the Reds across three seasons. Nanako Sasaki came to Australia in 2017, soon after graduating high school.
Sasaki played soccer as a hobby, after emigrating to Australia following high school at home, as she learned English to achieve her goal of becoming a cabin attendant for Qantas Airlines. She was noticed at the State Level NPL W in South Australia and eventually joined Adeliade United. She is on a new two contract but hasn’t given up on her goal to fly with Qantas. Nanako is currently juggling professional football with a cookery course and a part-time job, in order to obtain the permanent residency necessary to become a cabin attendant with Qantas.
Expectations will be high in Adelaide for Fiona Forts and the new imports to take the Reds back to the Promised Land of the playoffs this season.
Brisbane Roar
The Roar has won two league titles and three Premierships (regular season titles) in the A-League but has missed the playoffs for the last three seasons—finishing ninth in their last two campaigns and hopes to make the post-season in 2024/25.
A very interesting import this season is 19-year-old Singapore international Danelle Tan, who we discussed in our review of Singapore’s league and national team in late September: The Week in Women's Football: Sara Hayduchok exclusive on Singapore football & next move; NWSL transfers - TribalFootball.com.
Tan was the youngest ever goal scorer for Singapore’s national team at 14 and their youngest ever player to win a full cap at 13. Tan has made 22 appearances for Singapore, scoring seven goals for the national team. She also was the first Singaporean woman to play football in Europe, having won the league with unbeaten Borussia Dortmund in Germany’s fifth-tier Landesliga, where she scored 16 goals in 27 matches.
Other new imports for the Roar for 2024/25 are:
Goalkeeper Olivia Sekany (25) of the U.S., who comes on loan from Racing Louisville of the NWSL, where she has yet to play in a league match. She played collegiately at the Universities of California and Washington.
Defender Emily Pringle (23) is also from the U.S. and played at the University of Pennsylvania and UCLA as a graduate student
Forward Evdokiya Popadinova (28) of Bulgaria is a high profile signing for the Roar and the league. She has played professionally in England, Denmark and since 2020 in Italy, winning the Serie B title last season with Lazio of Rome, scoring four goals in fourteen matches. She also played at Sassuolo and Napoli. She played collegiately in the U.S. at the University of Northwestern Ohio and Florida Gulf Coast University.
Popadinova, who has been crowned Bulgarian Women Footballer of the Year six times, made her senior national team debut at age 16 in 2013 off the bench in a 4-2 victory over Macedonia and has since appeared 10 times and scored four goals. In her A-League Women debut, she scored Brisbane’s first goal early in the second half in the Roar’s 3-2 away loss to Canberra on November 2.
Midfielder Momo Hayashi (29) of Japan has joined the Roar from NPLW Queensland State side Gold Coast United, where she scored 30 goals in 107 games across six seasons. Hayashi won both the NPL Player of the Year and Players’ Player awards in 2023 as well as Gold Coast’s Player of the Year award, earning a place in Football Queensland’s Team of the Season.
Matilda Tameka Yallop (33) appeared in her 150th A-League match for the Roar in their 2024/25 opening match defeat (3-2) at McKellar Park in Canberra to United. She has played 160 league matches all-time (including 10 games with Melbourne City in 2018/19) and surpassed former Roar teammate (and Perth Glory) Kim Carroll to take second place all-time in league appearances behind Michelle Heyman, who played for Canberra in the opener and has 182 league appearances—156 with United while also playing at Central Coast Mariners, Sydney FC and Adelaide United. Yallop is nearing 125 senior caps with the Matildas.
On the coaching side, the Roar extended the contract with their head coach Alex Smith, who replaced Garrath McPherson after four rounds last season. He has also been an assistant at Melbourne City. Smith said: “I am really looking forward to having a full pre-season to implement my principles from the beginning. My aim is to create a brand of football that is enjoyable to watch and effective on the ladder. My team will defend aggressively, control possession, and attack with purpose. Continuing to develop and produce the next generation of national team players is a clear directive from the club’s management and very important to me.”
Canberra United
Canberra United, like Brisbane has missed the playoffs during the last three seasons, despite Michelle Heyman scoring 38 goals, including 17 last season, but the side finished eleventh of twelve teams. Canberra United signed midfielder Emma Robers for the 2024/25 A-League season. Robers joins the Capital city club from Western United, having played in sixteen games last season. She was part of Western United’s expansion roster in 2022/23, coming in from Victoria State league side Calder United. She also played with Melbourne Victory.
Robers said: “I am thrilled to be signing for Canberra United and am looking forward to playing my part in the club’s 2024/25 season. Canberra is a wonderful city, and the club is top-class and has proven to be a successful team to play for in helping players fulfil their potential… I have been lucky enough to make finals (the playoffs) in each of my five A-League campaigns so far, and I hope to continue that run with Canberra.”
Canberra United have also signed exciting young forward Jynaya Dos Santos (19) from Sydney FC, after the Sky Blues released the two-time Championship winning striker from the final year of her contract to allow the Young Matilda to find more regular starting opportunities elsewhere in the A-League. Dos Santos had one goal in seven matches for the Champions last season.
Jyanya Dos Santos practices with her former club Sydney FC. The highly regarded Australian youth international has joined Canberra United for the 2024/25 season. Photo courtesy of A-Leagues.
Canberra United have brought in another former Sydney FC player in Australian U-16 international midfielder Darcey Malone (21) for 2024/25. She started with Sydney FC in 2018/19 at the age of 15. At the State club level, Malone was a major part of the Macarthur Rams squad in 2022 and 2023 that won league titles each season and achieved a remarkable three-peat championship success in the New South Wales National Premier League. Malone also made twenty-one appearances across two seasons for Melbourne City.
Forward Aideen Keane (22) also comes from Sydney FC, scoring one goal in 14 games. She started in the A League with Western Sydney Wanderers in 2020/21 at 18-years-of-age and then moved to Perth Glory. She has three goals in total from 24 A League matches.
Forward Maja Markovski (22) won successive crowns with Melbourne Victory in 2020/21 and 2021/22 and makes the move to United off the back of a successful season with FC Bulleen Lions in the Victorian NPLW, which finished as League Champions. Markovski netted twenty goals for the club to win the Golden Boot award for the division and the NPL Women’s Gold Medal for Player of the Year; she was also voted as the Media’s Player of the Year Award in the NPL. She also played at the State league level for Blacktown Spartans.
United’s imports this season are both from New Zealand. New Zealand full international Elizabeth Anton is experienced in the A-League, with 62 matches and two goals for Perth Glory over the past four seasons, as well as internationally, with eighteen caps at senior international level by the Football Ferns. She was named as the winner of Perth’s ‘Most Glorious Player Award’ in her debut season of 2020/21 in Western Australia. Ironically, Anton’s first ever A-League goal came in a match against Canberra United away in January 2021 (a 1-1 tie), with her next goal also coming away versus Canberra United in February of 2022 (a 3-3 tie).
Coming through the New Zealand international youth ranks, Anton was a member of the New Zealand U-17 side at the 2014 FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup in Costa Rica, the 2016 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup in Papua New Guinea, and again at the 2018 FIFA U-20 Women's World Cup in France. Anton made her senior international debut as a substitute in a 5-0 win over Thailand on 28 November 2017. She played at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo and was part of the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup Finals Squad.
New Zealand international forward Ruby Nathan has agreed to sign a new deal with Canberra United that will see her return to McKellar Park for the 2024/25 A-League season; she played in 21 matches last season for the Greens. She earned her first full cap in 2023 against Colombia as a substitute and has played at the U-20 and U-17 levels as well. She played at home for Auckland United.
Hayley Taylor-Young returns to the Greens after missing last season with an ankle injury. She was originally a Canberra United Academy player and scored 39 goals in 46 matches in the NPLW and has made 44 A-League appearances with 2 goals, but now slots into the side as an attacking full back.
Some departures from Canberra before the seasons include Vesna Milivojevic (22), who moved to Norkopping of Sweden after the 2023/24 season, compiling 18 goals in 39 games in two seasons with the Greens. Milivojevic played recently for Serbia in the EURO playoffs, scoring in a 6-3 aggregate win over two legs against Bosnia-Herzegovina; she first joined the full national team in 2022 and has 20 caps (see last week’s column: The Week in Women's Football: Reviewing Euro qualifiers; backing hosts Switzerland - TribalFootball.com).
Two long-time United players also left the club for other opportunities—productive and exciting forward Nikky Flannery (25) moved to Melbourne Victory and Emma Ilijoski (21) joined Hearts in Scotland. Ilijoski (21) debuted in 2021 and went on to play 55 games for Canberra. Flannery (25) departs the capital club having made 87 appearances and scored 15 goals across two stints in Canberra, after debuting in 2015/16 (see more below).
Goalkeeper Sally James (20) was born in Canberra and is returning to her hometown club following stints at Melbourne City and Perth Glory. James was part of the Australia squad at the 2022 FIFA Under-20 World Cup in Costa Rica and began her senior career with the Greens. She also played in Sydney with Illawarra Stingrays and has played in 19 A-League games in total.
Goalkeeper Chloe Lincoln (19) moved to Western United in the off-season and was called into a Matildas camp last month but did not play in their successful European trip, drawing Switzerland 1-1 in Zurich on October 25 and defeating Germany 2-1 in Duisburg three days later (after losing handedly to Germany 3-0 this summer in the Olympic Games Finals group stage).
Defender Sasha Grove (19) transferred to Western United in the off-season and has played 47 games in the A-League with one goal across four seasons. She also played with NSW Spirit and Illawarra Stingrays FC in the NPLW.
Antoni Jagarinec was named as head coach for Canberra for the 2024/25 Liberty A League season, with the club/ACT football association committed to playing for one more season as future investment/owner options are explored (see more from our column last May: The Week in Women's Football: A-League crowds better AFL; ex-Juventus coach Montemurro returns for Allstars; Canberra Utd boost - Tribal Football). He has been with the club as an assistant for the past two seasons and worked for former Canberra head coach Rae Dower on her staff back in 2015/16 and 2016/17. He won multiple league NPLW titles as a head coach of Belconnen United in the Capital Territory. Jagarinec (the ninth head coach in the club’s 17 years—including this season) replaces Njegosh Popovich, who was in charge of the club in 2022/23 and 2023/24 but missed the playoffs both seasons.
Central Coast Mariners
English native head coach Emily Husband hopes to build on the Mariners fabulous success last season, essentially as an expansion team (though they did compete during the league’s first two seasons and then dropped out for financial reasons) by finishing fifth, then defeating Melbourne Victory on penalties (4-2) after a 0-0 deadlock in the Elimination Final and advancing to the semifinals, where they fell to Sydney FC 2-1 on aggregate over two legs. She is bringing in two imports from her native England and one from America:
Midfielder Brooke Nunn (31) from England but, through parentage, could also play international for Nigeria or Germany. She won two titles at Arsenal in 2011 and 2012 and moved to Australia after two seasons with Hibernian FC, but played on loan for part of last year with Motherwell. She hopes that she will be able to be capped by Nigeria. She did play for England at youth levels. She said about her mother: “She was born in England, as was I, but I lived in a foster home from an early age. I see a reflection of this potential (Nigerian spirit) in me, and I think being part of the team (The Super Falcons) would be an honor and achievement for me as a footballer. It’s something that fulfills you.”
Midfielder Jade Pennock (31) is from England and scored 14 goals in 55 regular season games over four seasons with Birmingham City—three in the Championship and one in the WSL in 2021-22. She scored in her first match in Australia in a 3-1 home win over Sydney FC on November 1, just before halftime from the penalty spot.
Defender Brianne Riley (24) comes from the U.S. and played at UCLA in Southern California; she won the 2022 College Cup national championship. She then played one season at Georgetown University in D.C. She played last season at FC Pinzgau Saalfelden in the Austrian Regionalliga (second tier), a team which has been a liberal importer of players from American colleges in the last two seasons as it attempts to rise from Division 3 to the top flight as rapidly as possible in Austria. We will examine this interesting club more in an upcoming column.
Australian U-20 international defender Jessika Nash (20) is an important signing for this season for the Mariners; she played the last two years at Melbourne Victory, after a year each with Canberra United and Sydney FC. She has appeared in 58 A-League Women matches.
Midfielder Taylor Ray (23) also arrivals and has played 61 matches in the league, with 2 goals, in seven seasons with Sydney FC, where she won three league titles and finished runner-up the other four seasons.
Gone from last season are Matilda forward Kyah Simon (who will play with Sydney FC this season and has scored 53 goals—fifth all time—in 120 A-League matches) and two Americans: defender Jazmin (Jackson) Wardlow—who moved to Galatasaray in Turkey and is in the Group Stage of the WCL—and forward Rola Badawiya, who joined Braga in Portugal after scoring eight goals in 25 games last season for Central Coast.
Melbourne City
Melbourne City has won four league titles and three Premierships—including in 2023/24—and missed the playoffs only twice during their nine years in the league so expectations are always high with this Manchester City Group aligned side. City have signed Young Matilda (U-20 national team) and former Adelaide United attacker Emilia Murray (19) on a two-year deal. She spent the last three seasons in South Australia, scoring three goals in 29 games.
Emilia Murray of Adelaide United celebrates her 94th minute goal to tie Canberra United during the round one A-League Women match on October 15, 2023 in a 4-4 tie at Coopers Stadium in Adelaide. Photo courtesy of A-League Women. Fellow Young Matilda Alexia Apostolakis (18) also joined City after playing 42 games with 2 goals across three seasons for Western Sydney Wanderers.
New Imports this season are former Wellington Phoenix striker Mariana Speckmaier (26), an American who plays internationally for Venezuela (see more from our interview with Speckmaier from earlier this year: The Week in Women's Football: Mariana Speckmaier exclusive - Wellington & Venezuela potential; rejecting CSKA - Tribal Football), American midfielder Lourdes Bosch (23) and Spanish goalkeeper Malena Mieres (24). Bosch signed a two year deal and played for the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and California Baptist University.
She qualifies to play internationally for the U.S. or Mexico. Mieres arrives in Melbourne on a one-year deal after having spent the past four seasons in Spain’s top flight with Eibar and Real Betis. She is a Spanish youth international who won a UEFA U-19 title in 2018. She fills the void left by Canadian international pool player Lysianne Proulx (who first moved to the NWSL expansion side Bay FC but was transferred mid-season to Juventus of Italy) and Brazilian international Barbara (35), who joined the club in February on a short-term contract to end the season and had five shutouts in eight matches at the club.
American defender Taylor Otto (27) has extended her stay at the club by penning a new one-year deal after scoring twice in 25 matches. She played at the University of North Carolina, then with Racing Louisville and Celtic of Scotland before coming to Melbourne last season. Australian trio midfielder Laura Hughes (23), forward Bryleeh Henry (21) and 2019 WWC Finalist Defender Karly Roestbakken (23) have all signed on until the end of the 2025/26 season, for two year deals.
Hughes was crowned City’s Player of the Year in her debut season and Roestbakken received the inaugural Melissa Barbieri award after a strong campaign, while Henry (21) played a key role after being moved to full-back. Henry and Hughes represented Australia’s Under-23 side at the Four Nations Tournament in Sweden in late May/early June. Australia’s U-23’s lost to Sweden (3-0), Germany 3-0) but defeated Poland in the last game 5-3 on penalties after a 2-2 deadlock.
City did lose their all-time leading goal scorer in New Zealand international Hannah Wilkinson (32) who retired from the sport, much acclaimed young talent Daniela Galic (18) to 2023-24 reigning Netherlands champion FC Twente and American attacker Emina Ekic to the Spokane Zephyr of the USL Super League. Many fans of City were saddened that Ekic is no longer with the club as she was widely popular in her two seasons there—one which was cut short because of an ACL tear. Ekić, a Bosnia and Herzegovina international, made 27 appearances and scored 12 goals for City across two stints at the club. Ekić had exercised a clause in their contracts to explore overseas opportunities. (See more about Emina Ekic’s thoughts on joining the new Super League and Spokane in our column last month: The Week in Women's Football: Spokane Zephyr in focus; how the USL Super League franchise exceeding expectations - TribalFootball.com). When this reporter asked her about her time playing in the A-League, she was very positive about the league and her time there. Ekic felt that, regarding the quality of the A-League, “I rate it very well. The physicality is the biggest difference because we do breed athletes in the U.S. and that our style of football is transitional. As far as technical, ball movement, tactical, I would rate it up there. (In Melbourne) I personally loved our training sessions. I loved being on the ball a lot. I loved possessing the ball. I loved the tactical variations that we had. We knew where everyone was supposed to be. We knew their role and I think that’s why we were so successful.”
For Galic, last season she won A-League’s Young Footballer of the Year Award and the club’s Rising Star Award after the 2023/24 season. She has been called: “The future of Australian football”—no pressure there—and made 39 appearances for City and scored nine goals to go with nine assists in two seasons. In 2023/24, Galic scored a career-high seven goals and added six assists for City. She was called up by the Matildas for the first time as a training player in February and won her first cap as a substitute as Australia’s WNT tied Switzerland in Zurich on October 25. She signed a two year deal with Twente of the Netherlands and also qualifies to play internationally for Croatia.
Also leaving the 2023/24 Premiership winners are American defender Julia Grosso (25) and Young Matildas defender Naomi Thomas- Chinnama (20). Grosso signed with the NWSL’s Utah Royals on September 1 but did not play in a regular season match. Like Ekic, Grosso had exercised a clause in her contracts to explore overseas opportunities. Grosso played two seasons after finishing at the University of Kentucky; she won City’s Player of the Year award in 2022/23 and was a key contributor to the Premiership in 2023/24. Chinnama joined Perth Glory for the 2024/25 season after making 43 appearances in four seasons with City.
Meanwhile the club had to find a new head coach following the departure of Dario Vidosic after almost two seasons as head coach. Fresh off capturing the Liberty A-League Premiership and guiding his side to the Grand Final, Vidosic was recruited by Women’s Super League (WSL) club Brighton and Hove Albion. Thus far this season, Vidosic has been a revelation to the south shore club who are in third place and will qualify for next season’s UEFA Champions League berth if they can retain that spot or higher; they have a 4-1-1 (W-D-L) record for 13 points after six games. He inherited two players who had experience in the A-League Women: forward Madison Haley (26), who won a league title with Sydney FC in 2022/23 and is in her second season with Brighton, along with Australian full international Charlize Rule (21), who is also in her second season in the WSL at Brighton and also played at home with Sydney FC for three seasons.
Vidosic’s replacement was named in mid-August: Michael Matricciani (38) was hired and he had coached for seven years in South Australia’s National Premier League, where he held roles as both Head Coach and Technical Director at Adelaide City and Campbelltown City, winning the 2024 Federation Cup with the latter.
Prior to working in the NPS, he was the Head Coach of Football South Australia National Training Center (NTC) Girls team, where he won the WNPL Coach of the Year award in 2018. He has also coached as an assistant in the A-League Women with Adelaide United. So far so good for the new coach as, under his leadership, they sailed through the group stage in Thailand in the Asian Women’s Champions League with three straight wins to advance to the quarterfinals (see more in: The Week in Women's Football: Review of AFC Champions League; exclusive with Cloepfil about new book - TribalFootball.com).
Melbourne Victory
Jeff Hopkins returns as head coach and hopes to guide the Victory to its seventh straight playoff berth, having won two Grand Finals during his eight campaigns at the club. New signings this season for the Victory includes New Zealand international Claudia Bunge (24), who returns to MV after playing for a season with HB Koge in Denmark. She made 45 appearances for the Victory across three seasons and won two league titles. She had 28 caps for the Football Ferns and was with the side at the 2023 WWC Finals.
New to the club this season is English youth international defender Ellie Wilson (27), who played last season with Wolverhampton Wanderers in the English Championship (Division 2), where she scored four goals in 12 games. Wilson has played for Reading, Bristol City, London Bees and Sheffield United throughout her career, and for England at the Under 19, 20 and 23 levels.
Australian youth international midfielder Sofia Sakalis (22) is also a new addition for 2024/25. She played in 41 games with Perth Glory over the past three seasons and played with Box Hill United in the Victorian NPLW in the off-season, where she won Victoria Football’s Gold Medal Award as the top player in the NPLW in 2022. She has played for Australia at the U-17 and U-20 level.
A massive signing for the Victory is W-League Women veteran attacking midfielder Nickoletta ‘Nicky’ Flannery (25). She played for Canberra United for eight seasons, scoring 15 goals in 87 appearances across two stints, while missing the 2022/23 season due to an ACL tear. She first started playing in the league as a 16-year-old and been capped at youth level.
Flannery said about her signing: “I am very excited to be joining Melbourne Victory for the upcoming season and can’t wait to get started. This is a new chapter and (a) pivotal move for me in my career. I’m incredibly grateful to be given the opportunity to work towards lifting some silverware with Jeff (Hopkins) and the team this season. I’m looking forward to working hard and adding value to the already incredible team in the hope of achieving everything we set our minds to both collectively and individually this season.”
Melbourne Victory also signed forward Alana Jancevski (21) in late August. She played the last two seasons with Adelaide United and before that at Perth Glory for two seasons, scoring five times in 25 appearances. She is a native of Victoria State. She also played with the club for briefly in 2019 in their AFC Women’s Club Championship campaign (where Melbourne finished fourth on one point behind winners and host side Nippon TV Beleza of Japan with nine points, second place Jiangsu Suning of China with seven points, and Incheon Red Angels of Korea Republic on three points) but will make her A-League Women’s debut for the side this season. Jancevski has also represented her country at the Junior Matildas level (U-17) level and most recently lined-up Heidelberg United in the NPL W (Victoria State League).
Returnees to MV this season include goalkeepers Lydia Williams, a long-time Matilda, and Courtney Newbon along with defender Kayla Morrison (an American who has been playing in Australia since 2018 and is now a naturalized Australian), Matilda midfielder Alex Chidiac, American Sara D’Appolonia (who played 21 games last season and started out professionally in 2023 with Peninsula Power in the Queensland State League where she scored 17 goals in 26 games after school at the University of Delaware), along with Matilda forward Emily Gielnik.
Defender Emma Checker (28) retired from professional football in the offseason. She also played in Korea Republic, Iceland, Sweden and France and played seven games for the Matildas. Australian international defender Jamilla Rankin (21) was transferred for an undisclosed transfer fee to Hoffenheim in Germany’s Frauen-Bundesliga. She joined Victory ahead of the 2023/24 campaign and made 10 appearances, having spent four years with Brisbane Roar.
Tim Grainey is a contributor to Tribal Football. His latest book Beyond Bend it Like Beckham on the global game of women’s football. Get your copy today. Follow Tim on X: @TimGrainey