ESSENDON
The Royals women have enjoyed a stellar league season – and should results fall their way, this Sunday could bring another piece of silverware.
The Royals head to Lakeside Stadium on Sunday afternoon second in NPLW Victoria on 56 points, one behind Box Hill United, having won their last six league matches and scored 76 goals, more than anyone else in the division. Second place is already settled, which means the bye through the elimination round and a home preliminary final at Cross Keys are secure. The Premiership Plate remains up for grabs.
The route to it is narrow. A Royals win and any Box Hill slip hands the title to Essendon. A Royals draw does the same if Box Hill lose, due to Essendon’s goal difference advantage. Box Hill travel to bottom-placed Melbourne City, who have won just twice all season, so nobody is pretending the odds have shifted. They are simply not zero, and a side that has won six in a row does not need telling to turn up anyway.
There is a reason Lakeside is a fitting place to finish. Akeisha Sandhu captained South Melbourne before joining the Royals for this season, and she returns to her old ground with the league’s sternest defence waiting for her. South Melbourne have conceded 24 goals in 25 matches, fewer than any other side in the competition, and they sit sixth after winning 3-0 away at Melbourne City last weekend. The Royals took the earlier meeting 4-1 at Cross Keys in May, though the numbers say this will be a different sort of afternoon.
Kelli McGroarty arrives with a record already in her name. She has scored in thirteen consecutive league games, one more than the previous NPLW-era best of twelve set by Melina Ayres across 2017 and 2018, and her run sits entirely inside one season with no rounds missed. Thirty-two league goals is the fifth-highest single-season tally the competition has produced since 2016. A fourteenth game would be a fair way to finish it – and against this defence it would be earned.
The Premiership may prove a bridge too far – but with finals on the horizon, the Royals can only keep up their end of the bargain, and let the footballing gods decide the rest.
Sunday 30 August, 3pm, Lakeside Stadium. Forza Royals!