At the conclusion of Round 1 of the Westfield W-League, Perth Glory and Adelaide United are on top.  I repeat, Perth and Adelaide are on top of the ladder.  For those of you who follow the W-League, it was an opening weekend of unexpected results. 

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Here are some of the taking points:

1.  Sarah McLaughlin: The Kiwi attacking midfielder is one of Adelaide coach Dave Edmondson's former charges when he was the New Zealand U17s Women's coach.  Since then McLaughlin has found herself in the senior national side and on Saturday at Burton Park she demonstrated why. 

With the Lady Reds 1 - 3 down, the 21 year old produced a sensational hat trick in just 11 minutes to see the home side win 4-3.  These goals were not the tap in type.  Instead each were quality strikes with the third probably the pick of the lot.  What a way to announce your arrival in the W-League!  

2. Match coverage: We have resigned ourselves (for the moment) to the new match coverage (live streaming followed by a 1 hour highlights package on ABC). However, there is one issue; once again the stream is geo-blocked.  This would be understandable if the W-League was a product that would be subject to rights agreements and had on-sale capability but, being brutally honest, it doesn’t.  So why not get as many eyes as possible watching the game and, in particular, overseas eyes. 

The W-League teams have begun to build a following thanks to the export of players.  These fans now want to watch Brisbane Roar because of Tameka Butt, Brooke Spence and Katrina Gorry, Sydney for Kyah Simon and the Wanderers for Servet.  And after the good showing on US soil, they want to see Steph Catley and Caitlin Foord.  In the US and Europe, having seen it first hand, there is greater fan base for women's soccer so we should open it up and encourage them to watch. 

3.  Nine months is a loooong time: You think the A-League off-season is long? Well this weekend demonstrated that nine months is a loooong time off.  While some of the players did get a chance to play in overseas leagues, a majority didn’t. 

That was evident in the first round of matches with a lot of the teams rusty.  Tempo was slower, passes were misplaced and communication wasn't quite there.  Of course that will get better with more game time but it does highlight how long a off-season it is and how it impacts even the most prepared teams.   

4.  No easy beats: Also demonstrated this weekend is that there will be no easy beats.  With the introduction of the Western Sydney Wanderers, there have been more player movements than ever before in the W-League.  The re-distribution of talent has seen several teams have almost completely new squads while others have had to re-stock after their talent was plundered. 

What it does signal is that this season will be a close contest.  The difference between the best side and the worst will not be as vast as it has been in previous years and, if you were thinking betting on the W-League would be easy money, forget it! 

Top 5 Best Players for Round 1

1.  Sarah McLaughlin (Adelaide United) for her quick fire hattrick to give the Lady Reds all three points. 

2.  Servet Uzunlar (WS Wanderers) who also produced two wonderful goals of her own in the same game with one already a contender for Goal of the Year.  Uzunlar was also a strong creative force for the Wanderers in their inaugural match. 

3.  Sam Kerr (Sydney FC) debuted in style with her brace salvaging a point for the Sky Blues.  In the absence of captain Kyah Simon, Kerr showed real maturity in leading the Sydney forward line. 

4.  Marianna Tabain (Perth Glory) caused havoc on the Perth right wing on her 20th birthday.  The Young Matildas' pin point crossing created several chances for her teammates before she went it alone with an 88th minute top right hand corner curling strike to seal the game. 

5.  Caitlin Munoz (Canberra United) was the spark for Canberra in a match where they struggled to find their famed fluidity.  Playing in an advanced midfield role, Munoz played link woman for many of Canberra's chances and went close to stealing the game late when her superb free kick was just denied by an equally superb save from Hoshima Kishi. 

 

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