Melbourne Victory Women’s boss Jeff Hopkins is enjoying the selection options posed ahead of the Ninja A-League Melbourne Derby.
Victory are looking to get revenge over their local rivals when the teams face off at The Home of The Matildas on Sunday, February 15, kick-off 5pm AEDT, after Melbourne City edged the pre-Christmas clash at AAMI Park.
This weekend’s hosts head into the derby rematch boosted by a valuable three points earned in Shepparton against Newcastle Jets last weekend, when Holly Furphy came up with the deciding goal during the closing stages.
The match winner, along with Alana Jancevski, who forced the opener, had to settle for places on the bench, giving the Head Coach genuine selection dilemmas going into the showdown with City.
Speaking during his pre-match press conference, Hopkins talked about dealing with selection headaches and what credence can be placed on beating the Jets.
“That’s one of the difficulties of being a coach. We talk about getting your full squad there and getting all your players ready to play and in good form, and that’s kind of what you want. But it means that every week you have to make tough decisions. I don’t mind making tough decisions.
“It’s just one game, and we can’t get carried away with last week, just like we haven’t been getting carried away with the weeks that went before them. We can only control what’s in front of us, and that’s the game that we’re playing at the time.”
The day before Victory’s ALW fixture, the 2026 NPLW season commences, with the Club being issued a licence to compete for the first time last August.
And Hopkins spoke about how important the competition is for the Club’s player development plans.
“We’ll all be out there tomorrow supporting. It’s been a long time coming, and not just for myself and JD (John Didulica), but it’s been a huge amount of work done by people behind the scenes, Johnno Clemente, Gareth Turnbull. It’s a really important part of our pathway.”
Watch Hopkins’ full press conference below.
