If there are two things round four of season three of the W-League reminded us, it's that the game's not over until it's over and that goals can come from anyone, anywhere, and anytime. Fans who thought results were foregone conclusions—that is, that Sydney was going to get up 1-0 and that Perth and Brisbane were going to remain deadlocked in a goal-less draw—would have been puzzled to hear the final results.
Sydney had seemed unstoppable, drawing comparisons to the Roar juggernaut of seasons past and, although they weren't able to find the four goals per game they had in the preceding three weeks, one goal looked to be enough. Newcastle Jets, although comprising talented players, weren't deemed to have the same depth and experience under pressure and weren't expected to be able to hold out-much less score-against a Sydney attacking onslaught.
Roar dominated possession against Perth, but looked to need just one more pass in that final third to finish things, and Perth, dogged in defence and fast on the break, were cancelling their attacks out. All of us expected the game to end in an evenly matched stalemate, with the teams sharing the point-each spoils. Instead it was the injection of the new and the experienced—both as super subs in the last 20-odd minutes of the game—who turned the games and the final results around.
At just 17 years of age, Tara Andrews is an accomplished up-and-coming player who's not yet, but will be, a household name. She's steadily being selected for representative squads and is emerging as a game-changing player. Her first goal on Saturday might have been termed right place right time, but her second goal, scored just minutes later and which came from a pinpoint-accurate long-range just inside Newcastle's attacking half, proved that she's got that natural goal-scoring instinct.
Lisa de Vanna, who has that instinct in spades, proved that a layoff with a broken bone has only increased her goal-scoring hunger and hunt. She's concentrating hard on rehab these days, relocating to Brisbane to train with the Roar, and working towards full match fitness in time for the Women's World Cup in June.
Speaking candidly after the game, she told me that she had been struggling with confidence—something that surprised me, and I told her so. De Vanna has always struck me as an incredibly confident player, someone who demands excellence from herself and from those giving her service. Although she played just 25 minutes of football in her home debut for Roar and although she's lacking match practice, she looked every bit as fast and on the ball as ever. Even in her rehab phase, she's a player who's a cut above the rest.
It made me realise, though, that even the best of the best sometimes struggle, and never more so than when they're having to battle their way back from serious injury to reclaim their spots in the team or even prove themselves in a new one. While it's brilliant for the Matildas as a whole and for us as spectators to know that there's so much depth in the squad that they can continue on and even win silverware should a player like de Vanna get injured, it would undoubtedly knock her confidence. We all want our teams to do well in our absence, but we all also need to be slightly missed or needed.
Knowing she had a long and potentially pain-filled road back to fitness and to then compete to reclaim her starting striking spot must have been tough both physically and mentally. Hell, just backing newly mended limb in 50/50 challenges would be hard enough. Which is likely why we saw a much-relieved de Vanna after her last-minute goal had turned around the match. Despite scoring in round three from a penalty, with this her first goal from open play, she was very much a player with the monkey off her back.
De Vanna spoke of how she'd had a tough couple of seasons with Perth (my guess is that this is in part due to the fact that many of her teammates were much younger and still developing and didn't perhaps read her play or provide her with quite the service that she as an explosively fast striker needed). To score against her former team, to do so in match-winning form during a home debut for a new club and while she's still undergoing rehab for a long-term, season-ending injury, couldn't have been better scripted or more timely confidence boosting-wise.
As we look towards the rest of the season and the Women's World Cup, we can both know that we need to watch the full 90 minutes of W-League football to truly know a match's outcome and hope that we'll be seeing more than 25 minutes of play from both of these new and experienced super subs.
