The theme this season for Melbourne Victory will be transition, with the squad going through a rebuild since being decimated by newcomers Melbourne City.
Lisa De Vanna, Brianna Davey, Amy Jackson, Beattie Goad, Steph Catley and Rebekah Stott have all directly switched to their crosstown rivals, while Jess Fishlock will also link up with the team a few rounds into the season.
Both Emma Checker and Ella Mastrantonio have also departed, returning to Canberra and Perth respectively.
The club is now also completely run in-house by Melbourne Victory, ending a seven year association with Football Federation Victoria.
Championship winning coach Dave Edmonson returns with a squad that is almost all youth or experience, underscored by an abundance of NTC girls and former Matildas.
Of Melissa Barbieri, Thea Slatyer and Selin Kuralay, the latter two have been pulled out of playing retirement and they’ll be expected to guide the likes of Adriana and Melissa Taranto, Mindy Barbieri, Whitney Knight and Annabel Martin.
Perhaps Edmonson’s biggest focus in such a short period of time will be getting the team to gel defensively.
Selection News:
Up front, Laura Spiranovic is expected to start as the sole striker.
The wings will be occupied by Hayley Raso – now sporting a blue ribbon – on the right and Kiwi Briar Palmer – one of the few natural left footers – on the left. Fighting for the spots on the wing will be NTC pair Knight and Barbieri.
The central midfield battle will also be an interesting one. Christine Nairn will slot into the number 10 role, while the deeper midfield spots behind her will be occupied by two of Kuralay, Enza Barilla, Jess Pitts, Jamie Pollock and the Taranto twins.
The squad is somewhat barethin at the back. Thea Slatyer is the obvious choice at centre-back alongside Alex Natoli, who is also adept at right-back. NTC’s Annabel Martin will likely be given the nod for one of the fullback positions, while other may just land to one of the natural central midfielders in the team.
The battle between keepers will be between Barbieri and Dimovski, with Edmonson likely to opt for experience at the early stages of the season.
Gulcan Koca, capable of playing at the back or middle, is still in a moon boot for now, but injury concerns also surrounded Jamie Pollock at training at Victory’s Haileybury base in Keysborough.
Although the early mail was that American midfielder Brooke Elby was set to be included in Victory’s 20-player roster, she was left off the club’s official squad announcement last week.
Instead, Ashburton United winger and fellow American Georgia Cloepfil is set to take the fourth international spot, having trained with the squad throughout the pre-season.
This week’s opponents:
The reigning premiers are cutting it fine to announce their full squad for season.
Alas, under Bobby Despotovski they retain key Matildas Sam Kerr, Caitlin Foord and Mackenzie Arnold, while defender Kim Carroll arrives from Brisbane.
Those four alone are an imposing prospect.
Local trio Shannon May, Sarah Carroll and Thia Eastman are retained, while Ella Mastrantonio returns to her home state.
Nikki Stanton is currently the only import on the books, signed from USA side Sky Blue.
With both clubs leaving it late to finalise their squads ahead of the opening game, the season opener could be a scrappy affair.
Key Players:
Hayley Raso
The one current Matilda in the side – on loan from Washington Spirit – will be one of the key attacking sparks in the Victory side this season and will be crucial up front against Perth before jetting off for international duty. Able to tee up a teammate or go at it alone, how she links up with Nairn and Spiranovic could essentially determine how many goals victory scores this season.
Thea Slatyer
With over 50 caps of Matildas experience, Slatyer be one of the experienced heads Dave Edmonson relies on to guide his fledglings through a challenging fixture against the reigning premiers. Will be expected to organise a defence to cope with the threat of Sam Kerr and Cailtin Foord.
Predicted line-up:
Substitutes: Cassandra Dimovski, Georgia Cloepfil, Adriana Taranto, Jess Pitts, Melindaj Barbieri