ESSENDON
Two weeks of frustration can settle heavy on a side chasing the top of the table, and the only cure is a performance that answers every question at once. On Saturday at Cross Keys Reserve, the Royals gave exactly that answer.
Essendon Royals beat Keilor Park 3-0, a controlled and professional home win that ended a two-game losing run and reminded the competition why Jaiden van der Heijden’s side belong in the title conversation. After a 1-2 defeat to FC Bulleen Lions at home in Round 18 and a 4-2 loss away at Avondale a week later, this was the reset the Royals needed, and they went about it with the composure of a team that knew a job had to be done.
Kelli McGroarty set the tone and then settled the contest. The competition’s leading scorer opened the account on fifteen minutes to put Essendon in front, and just before the interval she added her second on forty-three to make it 2-0. Both goals arrived inside the first half, and by the time the sides went in at the break the game already had the shape of a home win. A striker in this kind of form is a luxury, and McGroarty is carrying the Royals attack with the sort of consistency that wins seasons rather than single afternoons.
Ava Groba made the margin safe on fifty-eight minutes, and there was a milestone wrapped up in the goal. Saturday was Groba’s 100th game in the NPLW, and fifty-four of those hundred have come in Royals colours since she joined from Calder United for the club’s inaugural NPLW season in 2024, an ever-present through that first campaign.
To bring up the century with a goal, on an afternoon the side needed a response, was a fitting way for one of the group’s constants to mark it. Her third settled the game and gave Essendon the cushion to manage the closing half hour on their own terms. Three goals, three points, and a comfort in the result that had been missing across the previous fortnight.
For all the attacking quality, the number that will please the Royals most is the one at the other end. Keilor Park did not roll over. They came to Cross Keys with the form of a side that had beaten league leaders Bulleen only last month, and they carried a threat that the Essendon defence and goalkeeper had to earn the right to shut out. Chances came, and each one was repelled. After conceding two to Bulleen and four at Avondale, a clean sheet against a live opponent was the clearest sign that the steadiness at the back is returning. It was not comfortable throughout, but it was earned, and that matters more.
The context around the result sharpens it further. The win keeps Essendon third in NPLW Victoria on forty-one points, three behind leaders Box Hill United on forty-four and one behind second-placed FC Bulleen Lions on forty-two, with barely anything separating the top sides on goal difference. Six rounds remain and the Royals sit right in the middle of a title and finals race that could turn on any weekend. A slip here would have opened a gap that is hard to close this late in a season. Instead, Essendon stayed in touch and did it convincingly.
Keilor Park arrived eleventh, a lower-half side that the Royals were expected to beat, and there is real value in beating the teams you are supposed to beat. Doing it 3-0 with a clean sheet, straight off the back of two defeats, is the mark of a squad that has not let a difficult fortnight loosen its grip on the bigger picture. This is a season with plenty already banked, from the 7-1 win over Box Hill in Round 14 to the 4-0 at Boroondara in Round 15, and Saturday steadied all of it.
The run-in now asks the Royals to keep this level and press the sides above them. Top spot is still on, the finals place is secure, and the response Essendon needed has been delivered in full. On to the next one.