We often have a gripe about not receiving enough defender nominations, but with only two games seeing at least one clean sheet, it’s probably fair enough to say the scorers had the better games on the weekend. With that, we also received plenty of central midfield/attacking midfield nominations, making setting a formation for this week difficult.
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GK: Ingrid Phillipe (Bayside United)
Nominated after a week in which, despite going down to Alamein, Phillipe played a crucial role in keeping her Bayside team in the clash against their fast-finishing opponents. Made numerous saves to try keep Alamein at bay for as long as she could throughout the 90.
RCB: Annabel Martin (Galaxy United)
Has been knocking on the door of a TOTW spot and gets in for a stellar defensive performance that saw her keep the league’s most prominent team scoreless for the whole contest.
CB: Rachel Binning (Calder United)
She’s becoming one of the league’s premier centre-backs and her qualities were all on show this week across both games. Strong, physical but also with an eye for goal, if she wasn’t keeping clean sheets she was scoring a brace. Too easy.
LCB: Hayley Richmond (Senior NTC)
A strong performance by the right-back (yes, we’ve had to squeeze her on the left). Couldn’t do much about the height of her opponents, while she did do well to get forward and contribute to her side’s attacking forways, including bagging a goal to her name.
CM: Kristina Hall (Box Hill United)
While Box Hill continue to struggle to win points, Hall was one of her side’s standouts even though they struggled to unlock Calder’s defence. Showed good vision and passing in midfield.
CM: Melissa Taranto (Galaxy United)
The usual midfield duo with sister Adriana was super effective against Bulleen, with Melissa in particular having a great day out, including scoring to open her season account.
AM: Julia Nicolaci (Heidelberg United)
A fine display in the middle of the park which saw Nicolaci slice up the Southern defence, toiling hard to pull back the deficit and then push for a winner, which just didn’t come for the visitors.
AM: Annabelle Gibney (Alamein FC)
A clutch effort for the dramatic late winner was Gibey’s day in a nutshell. Picked the right time to net her first Alamein goal, a 93rd minute effort to seal a hard-fought three points for Alamein against an unlucky Bayside.
AM: Emma Robers (Bayside United)
A fine effort from the youngster, who played an outstanding role in midfield. The 17-year-old more than matched it with a more experienced opposition, linking well with teammates to make life difficult for Alamein.
LF: Melina Ayres (Alamein FC)
Another game, another goal for Ayres, who makes a second consecutive Team of the Week appearance. Was a handful for her opposing defenders and took her goal well.
RF: Laura Spiranovic (Galaxy United)
While she’s played minutes before in her return from a long knee injury layoff, this contest marked a first season goal for Spiranovic, who was a key reason for her side’s eventual win against the previous league leaders.
Substitutes
Annie Remman (Southern United)
Was one of the main threats for Southern United in a result that gives the side something to cheer about, even if it’s not a full three points. Started the play that ended in the penalty which Saphri Lines put away.
Gulcan Koca (Calder United)
While Binning’s form takes the plaudits recently, Koca has also been her trusty partner at the back, and like her fellow centre-back, she enjoyed a clean sheet against Box Hill and a goal against NTC.
Rachel Alonso (Calder United)
Noted for her for her performance against Box Hill, a bright spark for her side, even though the goals just didn’t go in. Has continued to be a dangerous attacking outlet for her side even when not scoring goals.
Aneta Komijat (Galaxy United)
The goals don’t come from nowhere, and it was Komijat doing lots of the providing on the day, assisting one and causing lots of havoc up front for Galaxy.