The Go Sunny Solar WNPLSA is back for 2023; an absolutely epic year for women's football here in Australia. Renowned WNPLSA commentator, Paul Marcuccitti looks at each team's off-season recruitment and performances, and how their 2023 season may play out.
*Please note, the below preview was produced and written by the fantastic WNPL commentator, Paul Marcuccitti. The below may not reflect the thoughts of Football South Australia.
Adelaide City
A run of seven wins in the last eight regular season rounds saw Adelaide City finish 2nd on the 2022 WNPL ladder and establish themselves as the main title threat to runaway Premiers, West Adelaide.
But in the finals series, City would twice fall short against the team that would be Champions.
Nevertheless, 2022 marked an improvement on the previous year’s 3rd and had looked unlikely when depleted City sides fell to a couple of unexpected losses in the first half of the season, including being on the wrong end of an 8-2 scoreline against Adelaide Comets.
Adelaide City’s depth is set to get a further test this season. The club – which won three straight grand finals from 2017 to 2019 – begins its 2023 campaign without four Adelaide United players who had been an integral part of City’s strong finish last year. Success may depend on how many of them return.
The club has recruited Emily Gale, part of West’s treble-winning squad last year, and its preseason matches have also included Summer Doman (from Modbury Vista) and Mikayla Vidmar, who last featured for the black and whites in 2021. Sadly, star import Hannah Holgersen was injured playing for Adelaide United last weekend.
Perhaps the most important recruit is Tiarn Powell, who returns to the club she won many trophies with as a player, as coach. Powell, who has spent the last two years coaching Football SA development squads, will have no illusions about the task ahead, particularly given the tough encounters her team had in the Pre Season Comp.
Adelaide City will undoubtedly be competitive again in 2023 but winning silverware for the first time since 2020 will be a challenge.
Adelaide Comets
Rarely would you expect a club to be among the competition favourites just two and a half years after finishing bottom of the ladder but that’s Adelaide Comets in 2023.
Last year the team – which debuted in the WNPL in 2019 – reached the finals for the first time having finished the regular season in 4th place. And their recruitment suggests that Comets are aiming even higher with Tasmanian forward Emily Heazlewood and talented midfielder Khal Khan both joining from Salisbury Inter.
Together with Chrissy Panagaris – back to her devastating goalscoring ways in 2022 – Georgie Nicola and Nano and Yuka Sasaki, they will form one of the league’s most potent attacking forces.
But Comets’ challenge may depend on whether they can concede fewer times than they did last season. Only twice were they able to keep opposing teams scoreless and only four clubs shipped more goals in the WNPL season.
Siena Covino, whose marking abilities were memorably showcased by her performance against Chilean international Cote Rojas in the 2021 grand final, joins from West Adelaide to provide some more steel. Comets defensive depth will still be tested, however, if injuries/unavailability hit their back four.
There is certainly plenty of confidence at Comets this year with the team recording some impressive wins in the Pre Season Comp. But the final of that tournament would have given new head coach Tom Monsigneur plenty to think about as Comets were reduced to ten players on the way to falling to a surprising 0-5 loss to Inter.
One thing is certain – this is a team to watch in 2023. Whether they’re flying or crashing, Comets’ season is going to be fascinating.
Adelaide University
Death, taxes and Adelaide University finishing around the middle of the WNPL ladder.
Certainly that used to be the case – Uni finished every season from 2015 to 2019 in either 4th or 5th place.
But the years that followed almost saw the club, with a long and rich history in women’s football, relegated to the State League. The decision, at the end of 2021, to expand the WNPL from eight to ten teams kept Uni in the top division; last season they finished 7th and were never in danger of falling into the battle to avoid the drop.
Uni may again be one of the big improvers this year with a host of impressive recruits making their way to the club.
Goalkeeper Evelyn Goldsmith returns after a season in Victoria while the defence will be boosted by the additions of Michaela Belmonte, who had a fine season with NTC in 2022, and Siobhan Eastham who was part of West Adelaide’s treble winning squad. Versatile forward Alana Fitzsimmons arrives from Modbury Vista.
And one of the greatest coups of the off season is surely Uni signing Natasha Vella and Josephine Trimboli, two players that have been synonymous with Fulham United for many years.
The combination of Vella and Fitzsimmons up forward with the likes of Chanel Todino and Tanaye Morris will be crucial to the team’s hopes; only Birkalla and Fulham scored fewer times than Uni in 2022.
There have been some good early signs in Adelaide University’s pre-season games and if coach Tony Sacca can successfully blend his new arrivals into the side, Uni could reach the WNPL finals for the first time in four years.
Flinders United
The flame might dominate Flinders United’s logo, and provide a nod to one part of the club’s history, but perhaps more noteworthy are the words “EST 2021”.
In less than two years, the combined entity which brought Cumberland United and Flinders Flames together, is a WNPL club – a remarkable beginning which will bring the competition its first team based in the southern suburbs since Cumberland’s relegation in 2018.
While it could be argued that Flinders United were likely candidates to win promotion from the State League last year – Flinders Flames only finished behind WNPL-bound Modbury Vista and Birkalla in the previous season – the mission was completed emphatically. The new club won 13 of 14 matches, conceded just eight goals, and wrapped up the title with a round to spare.
If ambition and enthusiasm were enough, you’d back Flinders to maintain their WNPL status beyond the 2023 season; such is the positivity emanating from the club.
Flinders United coach, former Socceroo Joel Porter, has said that he has higher expectations than just trying to fight relegation. And he’s largely backing the group that won promotion for the upcoming campaign with few new signings and even fewer players that have previous WNPL experience.
That places plenty of responsibility on the stars of the 2022 season including captain Anastasia Willoughby, who was nearly an ever-present for the NTC’s WNPL side in 2020 and 2021. Eliza Macdonald-Hall, Claudia Addicott and Chloe van de Water are unlikely to near the combined tally of 43 goals they scored in last year’s State League but, with Flinders’ defence showing good signs of adapting to the higher level in the Pre Season Comp, the team’s success could depend on its efficiency in attack.
Football SA NTC
The nature of the NTC program means that change – and lots of it – is a constant theme.
In recent years this hasn’t given the team too many headaches as it finished 5th in the 2020 WNPL, 4th in 2021 and 5th again last season.
Last year the program also produced a shock in the WNPL and WSL Cup with the NTC Reserves reaching the semi-finals, defeating a senior WNPL side along the way. That should give the team confidence in replacing, what is almost, a full starting eleven of departures.
The talent in last year’s NTC squad delivered: 55 goals in the regular season (second only to champions West Adelaide) scored, remarkably, by 14 different players; a draw with defending champions Salisbury Inter; and a win over Adelaide City. Emilia Murray, Grace Wilson and Sasha Coorey were called up to Young Matildas camps.
Defence might be the area that will be most difficult to cover in 2023 with Michela Belmonte, Abbey Burns and Victoria Costanzo all finishing their stints in the program. The loss of Lily Di Cola leaves a hole in midfield but coach Michele Lastella still has Maddie Wright, Lily Barber and Stella Dracopoulos for the heart of his lineup.
A few of the promoted players – such as Ilah Soroush and Stella Wieczorek– have already debuted in the first team and retaining star forwards Camila Madriz Figueroa and Claire Scarpin should ensure that goals continue to flow.
It might be a little harder for NTC to reach finals this year, however, the team is still likely to be competitive and will undoubtedly continue to unearth and develop players that will go on to reach higher levels.
Fulham United
It’s difficult to find any positives from Fulham United’s WNPL campaign in 2022 other than narrowly avoiding relegation.
Fulham spent the season locked in a battle with the two newly-promoted clubs – Birkalla and Modbury Vista – to avoid going down to the State League. The result was survival by just one point, despite a horror end to the campaign in which the western suburbs outfit failed to take a point, or score a goal, in the last four rounds.
Top flight status had to be confirmed through victory over South Adelaide in the WNPL & State League Playoff; Fulham has now featured in that last-chance fixture three times in the last five seasons.
The off season saw two club legends depart: Natasha Vella and Josephine Trimboli. Vella scored three of Fulham’s 13 goals last year including the crucial winner over Birkalla – the team’s only WNPL victory in 2022.
If there is a reason for optimism, it’s that Fulham has managed to keep most of the younger players from its 2022 squad together, which will allow them to keep developing as a unit. And there were certainly passages of play last year which saw midfielders Hannah Doyle, Elizabeth Cufari and Laura Niejalke link up effectively with top scorer Angela Mills.
Fulham has also retained regular starting defenders Charlotte Waters, Georgina Toome, Hannah Freer and Sarah Mills. They will be tested again but now have the benefit of two seasons together in the back four.
Without some additions, however, Fulham are likely to be battling for survival again.
Metro United
After many years as one of the competition’s frontrunners, recent seasons have seen Metro United come back to the field finishing with ladder positions of 5th, 4th, 6th and 6th from 2019 to 2022. That run, however, included a memorable Championship win in 2020 following a string of upset finals victories.
While last season was perhaps a little better than 6th suggests (only four points separated 4th-placed Comets and Metro), off season recruiting has been necessitated by some high-profile departures; forward Victoria Mansueto moves to Birkalla while Roxy Dodd, Annie Green and Jessica Signoriello join former Metro coach Tony Scalzi at Salisbury Inter.
Some of the new arrivals have already made an impression. Kirsten Pett and Jasmine Biddle – both among a host of signings from Modbury Jets – helped themselves to four goals each in the Pre Season Comp. Biddle was Jets’ top scorer last season. Amy Butler (ex Salisbury Inter) has also made a promising start in the red and black.
Metro coach Paul Morris has also been boosted by the return of club legend Rochelle Draper who will help guide the younger crop alongside fellow Metro greats Ebony Kyriacou, Laura Stockdale, Lauren Steer and Isabella Scalzi.
The biggest challenge for Metro is likely to be in defence. Only the clubs that were battling to avoid relegation let in more goals last year and in pre season matches Metro conceded five times against Salisbury Inter and six times against Adelaide Comets.
If Metro can shore things up at the back, they might be in contention for a first WNPL finals appearance since their famous 2020 season.
Salisbury Inter
The treble win of 2021 was always going to be a hard act to follow for Salisbury Inter but the defence of those three trophies was made even more difficult by the immense talent the club lost in the off season that followed.
Inter’s 2022 season suffered further blows with prolific goalscorer Cote Rojas grabbing an overseas opportunity while injury ended star defender, Chantelle Ryder’s campaign.
Nevertheless, the Salisbury club showed plenty of resilience and achieved some impressive results against the odds. They included coming back from two goals down to draw with rampant West Adelaide and stunning Comets with a 2-1 win in the finals.
There are plenty of changes for Inter ahead of the 2023 season and none are bigger than the appointment of Tony Scalzi as coach. Scalzi, who guided Metro United to the 2020 championship, replaces the architect of Inter’s 2021 success, Simon Catanzaro.
Joining Scalzi at Underdown Park are Roxy Dodd, Annie Green and Jessica Signoriello – who were all with him at Metro – while Brooklyn McIver and Nicola Scalzi arrive from NTC.
And with that, Inter already look refreshed. Few observers would have picked them to win the Pre Season Comp but the new look side undid Comets with an emphatic 5-0 win in Sunday’s final, a match in which they were notably inspired by a combination of existing players (such as Nicole Calder and Mina Nishitani) and new signings (McIver and Dodd).
Returning to the summit in this year’s WNPL might be a step too far for Salisbury Inter but the club is again likely to be one of the season’s frontrunners.
West Adelaide
After grand final heartbreak in 2017, 2019 and 2021, West Adelaide finally clinched their first WNPL title last season and that capped off a near-perfect year which saw the club win all three major trophies.
The West Adelaide side of 2022 was arguably the most dominant in WNPL history. In 25 league, finals and cup matches, West recorded 23 wins and one draw; the only loss came in the first round of the season.
But, like the 2021 treble winning Salisbury Inter side, West Adelaide will have to defend their trophies without several players that were crucial to their triumphs.
After seven seasons with West, Nicole Blackett heads to Victoria to join Heidelberg along with defender Olivia Bramley. Maddie DuRieu retires having completed her final season with selection in the 2022 WNPL team of the year.
West moved quickly to recruit players that will help the club challenge for honours again. Erin Hood and Sharni Tansell join from Salisbury Inter, Victoria Costanzo (possibly earmarked for DuRieu’s midfiled role) arrives from NTC and former Adelaide United player Gaby Bentley will also wear the blue and white in 2023.
Perhaps the biggest signing is that of Leah Noto who starred for Modbury Vista in 2022. Like the departing Blackett, Noto brings the type of x-factor that can turn games.
The one area where West might be vulnerable is in defence. Along with the loss of Bramley, Siena Covino left to join Comets, while Siobhan Eastham will play for Adelaide Uni in 2023.
West might not be as dominant as they were in 2022. But count them out at your peril.
West Torrens Birkalla
The story of Birkalla’s final game of the 2022 WNPL season will be told for many a year.
Going in to the match – against the previous year’s champions, Salisbury Inter – Birks were bottom of the ladder with no wins and just four points (two behind Modbury Vista and three behind Fulham). Relegation seemed certain.
But Birkalla took the lead through a 40-metre Sarah Chappel goal and headed to the half time break with a 3-1 lead. While that became 3-2 in the 55th minute (and more than 10 minutes of injury time were played), Birks held on bravely to record a famous victory and secure their top flight status.
The off season has brought more good news to Jack Smith Park. Having only managed 14 goals in their 18 league matches last year, Birkalla will have their attack boosted by the arrival of forward Victoria Mansueto from Metro United. Ruby De Pieri (NTC in 2022) will also be a welcome addition.
In defence, Birkalla were probably a little better than last year’s numbers might suggest as the 50 goals conceded included a couple of blowouts. The signs so far this year are promising with the club defeating Adelaide City 2-0 on the road to a narrow 0-1 loss to Inter in the Pre Season Comp semi-finals.
This is likely to be seen as a year of consolidation for Birkalla. After last year’s drama, incoming coach Chris Goddard immediate aim might be keeping his side out of the battle to avoid the drop. But the experience of last season combined with a strengthened line up could see Birks push for more.
