ESSENDONEvery title race needs the afternoon that complicates it, and at Cross Keys Reserve on Saturday the Royals had theirs.
A 2-1 defeat to FC Bulleen Lions, the one side to have had the wood over Jaiden van der Heijden’s team all season, has turned the top of the NPLW into a logjam. The Royals remain first, but only just, level on thirty-eight points with Bulleen and Box Hill United and holding top spot on goals scored alone. A cushion that looked comfortable a week ago has gone.
Bulleen arrived as more than makeweights and played like it. They had the better of a first half in which the Royals never quite settled, and they took the lead in the twenty-first minute when Danella Butrus punished a scramble in the home box, the visitors working an opening that Essendon could not clear and finishing it without ceremony. It was the kind of goal that rewards a side willing to camp in dangerous areas, and for long stretches that is exactly what Bulleen did.
The Royals reached the interval a goal down and in need of the response that has defined their season. It did not come quickly enough. Butrus struck again just before the hour, doubling the lead and giving the visitors a buffer their pressure had merited, and for a few minutes the afternoon threatened to get away from the hosts entirely.
That it did not owed plenty to Sophie Dehne. The goalkeeper kept the margin to two with a series of saves as Bulleen pressed for a third, and her work bought the Royals a platform for the finish that briefly flickered into life. Two minutes after Bulleen’s second, Kelli McGroarty pulled one back, the competition’s leading scorer doing what she has done all year and getting Essendon back within touching distance at 2-1.
The closing half hour was spent chasing the equaliser that would have salvaged a point, but the clear opening never arrived. Bulleen defended their lead with the composure of a side that fancied the result, saw out a nervy finish, and left Cross Keys with three points and a statement. Having also won the reverse fixture in March, they have now done the double over the league leaders and sit right on the Royals’ shoulder with six rounds to play.
For van der Heijden there is little to panic over and plenty to sharpen. This was a flat afternoon by the standards of a team that has put four, five and seven past sides this season, and the most useful thing about it is the timing. There are still thirty-eight points on the board, still top spot, and still a forward line led by the league’s leading scorer. What has changed is the room for error, and there is now very little of it.
The chance to respond comes quickly. On Saturday the Royals travel to Avondale, a side sitting fifth and fresh off a 6-1 demolition of Melbourne City, in a fixture that no longer carries any room for a quiet day. The Royals won the meeting in March. They will need that version of themselves again, and the best teams tend to find it the week after a result like this.