A Three-Horse Race?

Six rounds in and staring down the barrel of the seventh and final round of football for 2010, the W-League table is starting to open up. Well, open up if you're talking a difference of one point, which is all that separates first from second and second from third.

The question is whether it's coming down to a three-horse race.

Though Brisbane might not have started the season as strongly as we've come to expect over the past two dominant seasons, both they and Sydney were always going to be serious league-leading and premiership-winning contenders. But with Canberra, Newcastle, Perth, and Melbourne recruiting strongly during the off-season, there was always that element of will-there-be-an-upset doubt.

Canberra, undoubtedly, have got the team mix right, with game changers Sally Shipard, Caitlin Munoz, and Michelle Heyman (the latter whose prolific goal scoring efforts have only been aided by the solid service of the former two) adding depth and experience to an already talented line up.

Such depth and experience ensures Canberra on-pitch performance consistency, which is precisely what makes the Roar and Sydney perform so well season after season.

It's also what Newcastle, Perth, and Melbourne need to find. Although they can pull out surprise wins such as the 2-1 trumping Newcastle issued to the then league-leading Sydney in round four courtesy of a late and spectacular Tara Andrews brace, they haven't yet been able to find such winning form week in, week out.

Sure, I'd expect all three of them to trouble Brisbane, Sydney, and Canberra in the coming three weeks, but I'm not sure they can snatch a grand final spot from them (and yes, I'm aware that those are probably famous last words and they'll storm the ladder starting now).

But the team that worries me most is Adelaide United. Winless after seven season-three, they're following on from equally dire first two seasons. They're now also without their experienced captain and goalkeeper, Sian McLaren, who's out for the season with a knee injury.

Not every team can win every time, but I'd really love to see the Lady Reds get up sometime soon. Judging from the comments and support on Football Federation Australia's Girls FC Facebook group [link to: http://www.facebook.com/girlsfc], so too do plenty of others.

I mean, the W-League is a competition, but no one wants to see a team go down week in week out by massive margins (this season has yielded a few 0-4 results for them; previous seasons were in the vicinity of six-goal margins).

It's not that the team is without talent. It actually has plenty; it's just taking time to gel. That's partly because not all of its players are based in Adelaide (it's a funding challenge that the W-League faces daily) and they haven't got the key consistency of training and playing together that the other teams, such as Sydney and Roar, do.

It's a tricky issue and one that's difficult and chicken-and-egg-like to overcome. Without funding, they can't get the consistency of training and playing together in Adelaide. But without results in the league, they can't get the funding.

Is season three all but over for the Lady Reds as we pass the halfway mark? If we're talking finals contention, then probably. They're sitting on zero points and league-leaders Roar are on 13, closely followed by the also-consistent performers Sydney and Canberra in what I think will turn out to be a three-horse race.

But in terms of development opportunities, it might be just the start. After all, when better to come out with some brilliant goals and upset victories than when you're playing with nothing to lose? Go the Lady Reds!