Central Coast Mariners complete fairytale after A-League Women grand final shootout | OneFootball

The weight of the world was on Bianca Galic’s shoulders. After 120 minutes of football, nothing could separate her Central Coast Mariners and Melbourne Victory and the first shootout to decide an A-League Women grand final was needed. Eight successive penalties had rippled the back of the net to that point, with only Alana Jančevski’s initial attempt failing to do so. It meant that the game, a title – a fairytale – all came down to this.

The 26-year-old bent down to adjust the ball. At the end of the third game that had been played on AAMI Park across the weekend, and after rain had blanketed Melbourne the day prior, the penalty area at both ends of the pitch was churned up. Player of the match Isabel Gomez had slipped as she struck her shot on goal, the relief pouring over her as Victory keeper Courtney Newbon proved just unable to get enough of a touch on the ball to keep it out.

Satisfied with the position of the ball, Galic made her way to the top of her run-up and paused, boos from the home fans crashing down on her as she steeled herself. She knew the jeers would come, and she welcomed them. And then she sent the ball straight down the middle. Newbon got a hand to it, but it wasn’t enough. Cue the blue and yellow party.

Central Coast Mariners are the champions of the A-League Women, completing a remarkable smash-and-grab to claim their first title. Two years ago, their program didn’t exist, placed into storage in Gosford by a club that couldn’t afford to operate it. Now, they stand alone at the peak of Australian women’s football.

Their mastermind, Emily Husband, is now the first woman to coach a side to a title since Jess Fishlock in 2017. The Yorkshire native arrived in Australia as a backpacker nine years ago, juggling coaching the various age groups at Sydney University SFC with meeting the requirements of her working holiday on a farm in Rankin Springs. And now she’s a champion.

“I’m speechless,” Husband said. “Coming into this job two years ago, I really wasn’t too sure. I’d either sink or swim. I took the help when I needed it and leaned on really valuable people.”

She has won it with a team that is reflective of the hard work, determination, and intelligence that she has had to show along the journey. Sunday’s decider exemplified a team that works as a unit, battles for every loose ball and puts in the work to lay every tackle. Few gave them a chance heading into the game, just as few had given them much hope of defeating Melbourne City across a two-legged semi-final in the weeks prior.

But proving people wrong has become a mantra of this side, built from players that Husband identified as having the ability to make something of themselves at this level, but just needed an opportunity, or for someone to have confidence in them.

“Momentum is a funny thing,” Husband said. “Everyone talked about how well Melbourne Victory and Melbourne City had come into the final series. It’s great to have momentum in the league, but unfortunately, the final series is a completely different kettle of fish.

“I truly believe that our girls had more heart, more desire and more collective energy between them. That they could overcome anyone when they really wanted to.”

There is no better representation of this than Gomez, who started the week with a call-up to the Matildas squad and ended it by being named a unanimous best-on-ground. The 22-year-old has flourished under the guidance of Husband and through a combination of skill and will turned the midfield into a battlefield on Sunday, ensuring the first half was played on the Mariners’ terms and forcing Victory into adjustments.

Bursting through to capitalise on Claudia Bunge fresh-aring a potential clearance, it looked like her 46th minute goal would be enough to win the game until the New Zealand defender secured redemption with 10 minutes to go, sending the game to extra-time with a header.

Victory will rightly be furious that they weren’t awarded a penalty three minutes into extra-time after the ball bounced off the palm of Taylor Ray as she closed down Nikki Flannery’s run into the box – Emiy Gielnik remarking that she instantly started visualising herself scoring the penalty the moment it happened, such was her view of its stonewall nature. Instead, the absence of VAR again came to the Mariners’ rescue, after Gomez’s offside winner against City the week prior was allowed to stand.

But Victory had other chances to win it, fashioning a series of opportunities in regular time, Sarah Langman making a series of strong saves and Jess Nash and Taren King immense in defence. The story of the extra 30 minutes of football quickly became the Mariners’ grimly holding on to take the game to penalties. But Victory couldn’t deliver a knockout blow.

“I absolutely loved it,” Nash said. “Throughout this whole group, we love it when things get hard for us.”

And perhaps that’s the story of not only this title-winning team but also the Central Coast Mariners as a club. No matter what you do, in the moments that matter, you just can’t seem to keep them down.

Header image: [Photograph: Quinn Rooney/Getty Images]