Insight Body & Mind Women’s Match Preview: First Home Game at the Top

Top of the table has a nice ring to it, and for the first time this season the Royals women carry it into a home fixture. Saturday at Cross Keys is the chance to settle in at the summit and keep the title race tilting their way.

The view from the top was earned the hard way and then the emphatic way. A difficult start gave way to a five-match unbeaten surge, and the last fortnight has delivered the two biggest results of the season, seven past Box Hill and four away at Boroondara. 32 points, level with Bulleen and ahead on goal difference, and a group playing its strongest football with the business end of the season opening up.

Spring Hills provide Saturday’s opposition, sitting 10th on 17 points and arriving in difficult form. They have managed one win in their last five, a dramatic 1-0 over Avondale sandwiched between narrow losses and a recent 1-1 draw with Melbourne City. Goals have proved hard to come by, and the visitors will arrive at Cross Keys knowing the scale of the task.

The reverse fixture set the tone in a quieter way, a 1-0 Royals win at Spring Hills in Round 3, back when this group was still finding its feet. The rematch arrives with the Royals a different proposition, top of the table and scoring freely, and the Cross Keys crowd expecting another statement.

Essendon will continue to miss free-scoring striker Maggie Jenkins on international duty with New Zealand, but the side more than coped in the Kiwi’s absence last time out – with four different players on the scoresheet against Boroondara. ‘Machine Gun’ Kelli McGroarty’s shootout with Maja Markovski for the NPLW Golden Boot is an intriguing subplot, with both players locked on 18 apiece.

The challenge at this stage of a season is not the fixture in front of you but the standard you hold yourself to. The Royals have set a high one across the last fortnight. With Bulleen in action down the road in a simultaneous kickoff at Keilor Park, the title race is well and truly in full swing.

Kick-off Saturday 3pm at Cross Keys Reserve.

Forza Royals!