Melbourne City will be seeking redemption following their 1-0 loss to Western Sydney Wanderers last time out, as they prepare to face the team in red and black once again this Thursday.
The Wanderers last faced Melbourne Victory, this time on the receiving end of a 1-0 result which mathematically ruled them out of Finals contention.
With no notable ins or outs to speak of, this is normally where we’d say something along the lines of “Here’s our thoughts on the major talking points heading into the game”, but this week’s a bit different.
With Finals out of the equation, we’re choosing now to talk about the only talking point that we think matters heading into our final games. Here goes:
Hold our coaches to the same standard of accountability
It’s a precarious topic to navigate, so we’re going to be careful about this, realising that we’re often guilty of forgetting how easy it is to criticise a human being from behind a keyboard.
With four games left to play, our W-League side are second-last with just a single win to their name.
We’re well and truly out of finals contention.
We’re mathematically guaranteed to record our lowest points tally ever (and unless we win all of our final four games, it’s going to be our lowest by a LONG way).
There has never been a lower point in the history of Melbourne City’s W-League team, of which our supporters have always been immensely proud.
The issue for us isn’t that we’re recording such poor results, it’s that our team is capable of so much more.
This is not a bad squad. Not even close.
Our imports are class – Chinatsu Kira has arguably been our Player of the Season, Sam Johnson has brought leadership and an unprecedented defensive tenacity, and Noor Eckhoff’s introduction to the team has coincided with a series of inspired performances (all for no result, however).
Though they mightn’t be of the same pedigree of our full-blooded, first XI Matildas of previous years (with all respect), we have five top-class individuals who’d also have to be categorised as Matildas in Micah, Allen, McCormick, Checker and Chidiac.
Even further to this, we’ve been fortunate enough to recruit some exciting young talents this season. Whilst we could name them all, we especially want to highlight Tori Tumeth, who has had a very respectable maiden W-League campaign, and the more seasoned Hollie Palmer, who might have been expected to perform a little better given her wealth of starting experience at the Roar.
With this squad, we shouldn’t be anywhere near our current flirtation with wooden spoon candidacy – and we as fans should be expecting better.
That’s why, with four games against bottom-half opposition remaining and enough time to see things turn around, we want to see one of two things from the club:
A drastic improvement in our performances,
Or…
For our coaches to be held to the same level of accountability for poor performances - by fans and by the club.
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