ESSENDONTwo weeks ago the Royals sat top of the NPLW with the title in their own hands. On Saturday at Avondale, that grip loosened.
A 4-2 defeat, the Royals’ second loss in a row, has dropped Jaiden van der Heijden’s side from first to third and handed the initiative to the two clubs now sitting above them.
Not helped by a gruelling cup-run, which inlcuded a penalty shoot-out win over Alamein midweek that pushed the Royals to the limits of their endurance, the Royals have had a tough lesson in the cut-throat nature of NPLW.
Essendon remain on thirty-eight points, but Bulleen and Box Hill both won to move to forty-one, and what was a share of top spot a fortnight ago is now a three-point deficit with five rounds to play. The margin for error, already thin, has all but disappeared.
The afternoon began with promise. The Royals started well and pressed high as Avondale tried to play out from the back, fashioning a couple of early half-chances that hinted at a good day. That confidence was quickly quashed. Isabella Accardo headed the hosts in front inside ten minutes, and the game took on a shape Essendon spent the rest of the day chasing.
To their credit, the Royals stayed in it. They carried a threat from set pieces and looked to play direct in behind the Avondale defence, but the second goal went the way of the hosts just before half-time, Hannah Wilkinson teeing up Sloane Young to finish from close range. Two down at the break was a harsh reflection of a contest the Royals had been in, and the task got harder still moments after the restart. A slip at the back let Wilkinson in one-on-one, and she finished from an unlikely source, goalkeeper Brooke Bennett the provider, to make it three.
Three down and away from home, most sides fold. The Royals showed the character that has defined their season instead. A lovely team goal, finished by Ayano Koizumi in the fifty-fourth minute, gave them a foothold, and thirteen minutes later the comeback was properly alive when Kelli McGroarty, the competition’s leading scorer, finished one-on-one to make it 3-2 and set up a grandstand finish.
For a spell, the equaliser felt on. Essendon kept pushing, sensing an Avondale side there for the taking, but the leveller never arrived and the gamble at the other end was punished. Wilkinson completed her brace to restore the two-goal cushion and wrap up the three points, a fourth goal that flattered the hosts a little but reflected the ruthlessness the Royals lacked at the crucial moments.
There is no dressing up the position. Two defeats on the bounce, against Bulleen and now Avondale, have arrived at the worst possible time and cost Essendon the top spot they had held for much of the season.
Yet the underlying picture is not a broken one. This is still a team on thirty-eight points, still boasting the league’s leading scorer, still capable of the fight that hauled a 3-0 deficit back to 3-2 on the road.
Five rounds remain, and the equation is simple enough. The Royals can no longer afford to look up and wait for others to slip.
They have to win, and keep winning, and trust that the quality that took them top in the first place has not gone anywhere. It has not.