W-League Week 12 Wrap: Sydney Seize Premiership

Sydney FC seized the premiership while three teams fought for the two remaining top-four spots in what was a thrilling end to the third Westfield W-League season.

Sydney had been poised to snatch the premiership from Brisbane, who had drawn a final round (and non-point-scoring) round. Newcastle Jets put up a valiant effort to defeat Sydney for the second time this season, but Sydney came away with a 2-1 win to claim the premiership for the second consecutive year.

Their victory relegated Brisbane to second spot while Canberra, Perth, and Melbourne, sitting on 14, 13, and 12 points respectively, battled for third and fourth. The latter two were in top-four contention for the first time in the W-League's history.

Both Newcastle Jets v Sydney and Canberra v Perth came down to the wire, with each game goal-less at half time.

Sydney's first goal came from the feet of golden boot leader Kyah Simon, who broke the deadlock in the 55^th. Newcastle's Hayley Crawford leveled the scores in the 62^nd, but Sydney edged ahead again courtesy of a contentious penalty awarded in the 73^rd. Newcastle pushed hard for a second goal in the remaining minutes, but were denied by strong Sydney defence.

Meanwhile Ashleigh Sykes' 88^th-minute goal was enough to see Canberra secure third on the ladder and deny Perth their first finals campaign. The result opened the door for Melbourne to claim fourth, and they did so courtesy of a goal at the open and close of the match against Adelaide. Stephanie Catley gave Melbourne the lead just one minute in, while Caitlin Friend scored the team's second in the 86^th.

Sydney will now host Melbourne at Campbelltown on Sunday for their home semi final. They'll be looking to make both back-to-back Westfield W-League grand finals and history by taking out the Westfield W-League premiership and championship double.

Brisbane will host Canberra at Ballymore on Saturday in the second semi final in a season one grand final rematch. Both matches will be shown on ABC1 in a one-hour highlights package at the prime time of 6pm AEDT.