ESSENDONTop of the table has a way of adding a sense of occasion to every fixtuer, and on Saturday the Royals get one of the biggest.
FC Bulleen Lions come to Cross Keys Reserve sitting third in NPLW Victoria, three points back, and arriving in the kind of form that makes this the standout fixture of the round.
Essendon lead the competition on 38 points, a single point clear of Box Hill United, after grinding out a 2-0 win over Alamein last time out that owed plenty to Sophie Dehne in goal and a clinical finish to the contest. Eleven of their seventeen games have ended in wins, and the defensive base, just one goal difference shy of the best in the league, is the platform this title push is built on.
Bulleen will be no one’s idea of a comfortable afternoon. The Lions go into the weekend on the back of a 5-0 demolition of Melbourne City, a result that says plenty about their attacking threat, and at third on 35 points they have the squad to trouble anyone on their day.
Aside from the premiership consequences this fixture promises to hold, there is an individual battle that will prove of peak interest in this one, with our very own Kelli McGroarty and Bulleen’s former A-League star Maja Markovski going toe-to-toe in the Golden Boot race.
Both McGroarty holds a slender lead, having scored 20 goals, compared to Markovski’s 19. What’s truly incredible is that McGroarty holds the lead despite having played three less games than Markovski courtesy of a suspension.
McGroarty has scored six goals in her last five outings.
The other x-factor the Royals boast is New Zealand international Maggie Jenkins, who took the league by storm following her debut. She has missed the club’s last four games across all competitions on international duty but could be back in the squad for this crucial game.
This is first against third with real consequences at both ends of the table, a Royals win stretching the gap at the summit, a Bulleen win blowing the title race wide open.
For the Royals, the challenge is simple to state and hard to do, back up a hard-fought win with the composure that has defined the season and protect top spot against a side with nothing to lose. Cross Keys has been a fortress worth defending, and there is no better stage to show why this group belongs at the top than a Saturday afternoon against an in-form rival.
Get down to Cross Keys and back the women.