ESSENDON
A run of six straight league wins ended at Lakeside on Sunday afternoon, and most of the damage was done before the half hour.
Alexis Pantazopoulos put South Melbourne in front on twenty-three minutes and Emily Collier added the second four minutes later, so the Royals were two goals down inside twenty-seven. Kelli McGroarty replied in the thirty-ninth and the sides went in at 2-1, which at least left a full half to work with. The equaliser did not arrive, and Annabel Haffenden came off the South Melbourne bench to restore the two-goal margin in the eighty-second. Three conceded is the most in a Royals league match since Round Nineteen at Avondale on 4 July.
There are worse sides to run into on a bad afternoon. South Melbourne finish fifth on forty-five points with the meanest defence in the competition, twenty-five conceded across twenty-six matches, two fewer than anybody else managed. They had lost 4-1 at Cross Keys back in May, and they spent the second half of the season getting harder to play against, which is the sort of detail that only reads as a warning afterwards.
McGroarty’s goal keeps one thread running regardless. It was her fourteenth consecutive league game with a goal, which extends the NPLW-era record she took from Melina Ayres a week earlier, and it takes her to thirty-three league goals for the season. For a division that saw last year’s golden boot won on eighteen, that number is going to sit in the record books for a while.
The Premiership went the way it was always most likely to go. Box Hill United won their own final match and take the title on sixty points. The Royals finish second on fifty-six, with eighteen wins, two draws and six defeats from twenty-six games.
Look at what sits underneath the finishing position and it is a season without much precedent at this club. Seventy-seven goals is the most any side scored in NPLW Victoria this year, ahead of Box Hill on sixty-seven, Avondale on sixty-five and Bulleen on fifty-nine. The goal difference of plus forty-six is the best in the competition, and by a clear margin over Box Hill’s plus forty and Avondale’s plus thirty-eight. The Royals beat the eventual Premiers home and away, put seven past them at Cross Keys in May, and picked up the club’s first major trophy in the middle of it all. A defeat in the last round does not go back and change any of that.
What it does do is arrive at a useful moment. Second place carries the bye through the elimination round and a home preliminary final, so there are two weekends between Lakeside and the next competitive ninety minutes. Football Victoria has the finals down for the weekends of 13 and 20 September, and the fixture detail is still to be confirmed. Nine wins from eleven at Cross Keys this season is the reason a home preliminary final was worth securing, and it is now the thing the whole year points towards.
Sunday was a reminder that this competition does not hand anything over on reputation, and that the sides waiting in September have been paying attention. Better to hear it now than in a final.
A home preliminary final, and finals footy is here.