A-League Ladies Spherical-Up: Casey Dumont haunts Melbourne Victory as Central Coast and Newcastle Jets make finals historical past

The 2023/24 elimination last have served up all of the drama and chaos that the A-League Ladies has turn out to be identified for, with each video games needing extra-time — in addition to one penalty shootout — to resolve which groups are by means of to the semifinals.

Listed here are the largest speaking factors from the 2 video games this previous weekend.

1. Casey Dumont places former membership Melbourne Victory to the sword

To say that Casey Dumont’s glittering profession at Melbourne Victory ended acrimoniously could be placing it flippantly.

The previous Matildas goalkeeper made greater than 50 appearances for Victory all through her profession, serving to them win a premiership and two championship trophies alongside the way in which.

Since debuting for the Brisbane Roar in 2008, Dumont has made a reputation for herself as probably the greatest penalty-saving goalkeepers within the league, along with her particular person performances between the sticks nearly single-handedly successful her facet silverware.

Sadly, the connection with Victory soured on the finish of final season when Dumont — who was on a two-year contract on the membership — decided to sign with Hawthorn in the AFLW, desirous to push herself to turn out to be a twin athlete.

She was initially “granted permission” to hitch Hawthorn over the A-League Ladies low season, and was anticipated to return to the membership earlier than the present season started.

However that by no means occurred. Victory as a substitute parted methods with Dumont and changed her with Matildas veteran Lydia Williams, which is how the shot-stopper ended up in purpose for the Central Coast Mariners as they took down Victory 4-2 on penalties on Sunday evening.

After a tense and scrappy 120 minutes, the sport got here right down to a penalty shootout, with Dumont supposedly saying earlier than the sport that as quickly as she knew it will be determined that method, her crew was going to win.

And they also did. Dumont herself set the tone by changing the primary penalty for the Mariners earlier than saving twice in opposition to Victory kids Alana Murphy and Paige Zois — two gamers who would have practised penalties in opposition to her after they had been all on the identical facet — with all of the assured swagger of a goalkeeper who has been there, achieved that many instances earlier than.

Of the eight penalty shootouts which have occurred within the A-League Ladies finals collection, Dumont has been concerned in 5 of them. She has received all 5. Victory are little question wishing she had achieved it for them as a substitute of in opposition to them this time round.

The Central Coast Mariners, who re-entered the A-League Ladies this yr, have now received their first finals recreation in historical past, and can face Sydney FC within the two-legged play-off beginning this weekend.

2. Newcastle Jets make historical past as membership teeters off the sphere

Following a mid-season teaching change and years getting ready to chapter, and with finals historical past leaning closely in opposition to them, the Newcastle Jets confronted an enormous process as they took on final season’s grand finalists Western United within the first elimination last on Saturday.

It was a raucous, end-to-end begin to the primary half, with Sarina Bolden’s opening purpose for the Jets cancelled out by a debut purpose for Western centre-back Alana Cerne throughout the first 25 minutes.

United started to swing the sport’s momentum of their favour in direction of the top of the primary half, with striker Catherine Zimmerman — in addition to her complete crew and everybody watching at house — considering she’d put her facet forward after a tidy end of a through-ball.

However when each groups had reset themselves for the kick-off, the referee signalled for a foul as a substitute, with replays displaying Zimmerman had tugged the shirt of a defender whereas racing by means of into open house.

With no VAR in use, and no assistant referees waving their flag, no one fairly is aware of how the choice was made or why it took so lengthy for it to happen.

That saving grace was all Newcastle wanted, with Bolden scoring a brace to offer the Jets a 2-1 lead heading into half-time.

Zimmerman would have her revenge by changing a penalty simply after the hour, however it will require additional time for the sport to be put to mattress, with influence substitutes Melina Ayres and Sophie Hoban delivering a one-two punch to an exhausted, injury-riddled Western facet to win their first-ever finals match 4-2.

It was outstanding resilience, sensible participant administration, and terrific soccer from a Newcastle facet that has suffered the slings and arrows of membership mismanagement off the sphere, having misplaced their head coach midway by means of the season, and has additionally been propped up by a handful of different A-Leagues golf equipment over the previous two years whereas it has searched (and continues to go looking) for a brand new proprietor.

They are going to now tackle Premiers Melbourne Metropolis within the two-legged semi-final with the wind of their sails and nothing to lose from right here. It will be an much more unimaginable feat in the event that they had been to go all the way in which to their first last within the circumstances.

3. Tarneit troubles

It would not be the A-League Ladies with out some completely weird off-field interruptions, whether or not it is a man with a tuba in the background suddenly appearing in the middle of a broadcast, a single digital camera pointed immediately into the afternoon solar that obscured a whole half of Dorrien Gardens, or a giant yellow hexagon floating over the top of a live match for several minutes.

This week’s predominant character was Western United’s much-anticipated house stadium in Tarneit, which had been a part of their pitch to enter the A-Leagues just a few years in the past however which solely simply materialised.

Whereas the sphere, the followers, and the angle for the published had been all nice and dandy, not all was nicely behind the scenes. Fifty-three minutes into the sport, all the facility was plunged into darkness due to a stadium-wide energy outage.

The blackout lasted about quarter-hour, throughout which period the one broadcast commentator was pressured to improvise, throwing again to highlights of the sport and relaying no matter info he was gathering on the bottom, whereas match-going followers tweeted their dismay at one more bungle within the competitors wherein these kind of occasions have turn out to be comically frequent.

Theories about the reason for the outage circulated: Was it the terribly shiny promoting hoardings ringing the sphere which Jets striker Melina Ayres mentioned had been so shiny she could not even see the ball? Was it revenge for the Taylor Swift stadium karaoke sing-along achieved because the half-time leisure? Was it merely that the A-League Ladies was cursed?

Regardless of the purpose, the lights finally flickered again to life, with each groups — which had by then begun to chill down — given 5 minutes to heat again up and resume play.

In alternate, followers bought some bonus soccer within the type of half-hour of additional time, wherein the Jets powered their strategy to the win. So it was sort of value it.

4. Field-office Sarina Bolden proves her value

When the 2023/24 A-League Ladies season kicked off, Philippines striker Sarina Bolden — who had made historical past by scoring the nation’s first-ever purpose on the Ladies’s World Cup final yr of their first win in opposition to New Zealand — was unemployed.

Regardless of displaying her qualities for the Western Sydney Wanderers final yr after which occurring to star for her nation in the course of the World Cup, the centre-forward — who’d had abroad presents, however selected to remain in Australia to be near her nationwide crew — was clubless.

“It was sort of slightly little bit of a limbo,” she told Optus Sport in January.

“Ideally I wished to remain one other season within the A-League, however soccer’s a bit loopy and looking for a crew was not going my method.

That “one thing” was former Jets boss Gary van Egmond, who supplied Bolden a contract with the membership 5 rounds into the present season. She repaid the religion instantly, scoring 5 objectives and helping two extra in her first six video games, earlier than occurring to complete second within the Golden Boot race with 14 objectives (simply three behind winner Michelle Heyman).

One wonders whether or not Bolden would have claimed the gong herself had she had 5 extra video games to play in, however there’s hope but for the 27-year-old, who may drive her facet all the way in which to their first grand last in the event that they defeat Melbourne Metropolis in a home-and-away semifinal over the following two weekends.

The Julie Dolan Medal — awarded to one of the best participant over the course of the season — in addition to the Participant of the Match for the grand last are two particular person accolades nonetheless up for grabs, and with Bolden displaying no indicators of slowing down, there’s each likelihood she may win one, if not each.

5. The most important season ever, however how a lot larger may it have been?

Within the week main as much as the elimination last, the A-Leagues revealed statements and statistics celebrating simply how huge the 2023/24 season had been.

Memberships have soared greater than 600 per cent. The native outbound switch file for gamers have been smashed — twice. Social media engagement has risen, whereas match-day crowds have doubled. With three weeks to go, the competitors is predicted to turn out to be the highest-attended ladies’s sports activities league in Australian historical past.

And but, this previous weekend begged the query of simply how a lot additional the league may have reached had it been given all of the bells and whistles of the lads’s league, together with being made accessible on terrestrial tv.

Forward of the present season, as a part of the league’s broadcast deal, it was determined that all the league could be proven on a mix of 10Play — Community 10’s streaming service — and Paramount+, the league’s pay-walled broadcast companion. Not like the A-League Males, which has two video games proven on tv per spherical, not one of the ladies’s video games — not even the finals collection — could be on the telly for informal viewers to observe.

Whereas the A-Leagues has boasted about its elevated “broadcast viewership hours”, that are up over 130 per cent from final season, one wonders what number of extra followers would have tuned in had they been capable of merely activate the tv at prime-time hours and located it prepared and ready for them.

Past their accessibility, there have been additionally questions concerning the broadcast remedy each video games bought on the bottom. Only one commentator was allotted for every recreation. Each males’s recreation receives two (in addition to a sideline commentator).

There was no pre-game, half-time, or post-match dialogue from a panel or group of specialists. There wasn’t even a chance to listen to from gamers or coaches afterwards, with debriefs and quotes as a substitute filtering out by means of the written media who had been on the bottom on the time.

So whereas the A-Leagues must be praised for the work its achieved to develop the ladies’s competitors and get it to the purpose the place it could possibly boast about breaking information, this elimination last weekend confirmed there was nonetheless a lot extra work to do.

A-League Ladies Semi-Last Leg 1:

Sunday April 21: Newcastle Jets v Melbourne Metropolis (3pm AEST)
Sunday April 21: Central Coast Mariners v Sydney FC (5:45pm AEST)

A-League Ladies Semi-Last Leg 2:

Saturday April 27: Sydney FC v Central Coast Mariners (3pm AEST)
Sunday April 28: Melbourne Metropolis v Newcastle Jets (1pm AEST)