Melbourne Victory visit Newcastle Jets in Round 8 of the Ninja A-League on Friday, December 19, kick-off 7pm AEDT, at No.2 Sportsground.
Back on the road after a run of three home matches in a row, the trip to the Hunter Valley begins a hat-trick of away trips dotted around Christmas to round out 2025.
After visiting the Jets, Victory are back to familiar surroundings for the ‘away’ Melbourne Derby at AAMI Park on Tuesday, December 23, kick-off 4:30pm AEDT, before making another journey to New South Wales for a meeting with Central Coast Mariners on Saturday, December 27, kick-off 5pm AEDT.
These fixtures follow an Original Rivalry triumph over Adelaide United last weekend, with the Women’s 1-0 win backed up by a 2-1 success for the A-League Men’s team in the double header.
The Girls in Blue
Melbourne Victory boasts a commanding head-to-head record over this Friday night’s opponents, having won 19 of their 26 clashes, only failing to score in three of these occasions.
It was also against Newcastle Jets that they recorded their biggest winning margin in ALW competition, beating them 0-7 in February 2020.
A similar outcome, let alone a repeat scoreline, would be the perfect early Christmas present, as well as eliminating the pitfalls of holding a narrow lead that have challenged Victory in recent weeks.
At the start of December, an early advantage proved to be a red rag to a bull, with Canberra coming from behind to win 1-3 at the Home of the Matildas. Then, last time out, a mean defensive effort was required to keep Adelaide United from snatching a share of the spoils.
The performance versus the Reds did, though, showcase a determined week of work on and off the training track, where players took it upon themselves to right the wrongs of the Canberra loss.
Adelaide may have edged the possession stats, but recorded fewer goal attempts than Victory, who took charge of the metric that matters most, thanks to Rachel Lowe’s second-half strike. The 25-year-old’s arrowed effort was her 17th goal for the Club, and was a lesson to any young midfielder when it comes to sensing an opportunity to get on the scoresheet.
Round 8 squad: 1. Courtney NEWBON, 3. Claudia BUNGE, 5. Sofia SAKALIS, 6. Taylor RAY, 7. Ella O’GRADY, 9. Holly FURPHY, 10. Rhianna POLLICINA, 11. Nickoletta FLANNERY, 16. Kennedy WHITE, 17. Poppy O’KEEFFE, 18. Kayla MORRISON, 23. Rachel LOWE, 24. Laura PICKETT, 27. Rosie CURTIS, 30. Payton WOODWARD, 41. Jessica YOUNG, 66. Alana JANCEVSKI, 81. Grace MAHER
Ins: N/A
Outs: 14. Fiorina IARIA, 20. Leyla HUSSEIN
Unavailable: 4. Chelsea BLISSETT (injured), 8. Sienna SAVESKA (medical), 19. Zoe MCMEEKEN (injured)
The Jets
Newcastle Jets sit just two points and one place behind Melbourne Victory on the A-League Women’s ladder, occupying third place and averaging two points per game from their first five outings.
They started the season unbeaten in three matches, beating Canberra United and Western Sydney Wanderers, either side of drawing 1-1 away to Wellington Phoenix.
A third win of the campaign was picked up on Saturday, when they dismantled a Brisbane Roar side, who had taken the spoils from three of their first four ALW fixtures, thanks to a tiro of unanswered goals.
The first of these came from the left boot of Melina Ayres, the Jets’ joint-top scorer alongside Lauren Allen.
Allen’s most notable effort was the matchwinner against the Wanderers in Round 4. She also put Newcastle in front away to Central Coast Mariners, but this proved in vain as the defending champions roared back to claim a 4-1 victory and the F3 Derby bragging rights.
The Jets are being guided this term by the newly appointed Stephen Hoyle. He replaced Ryan Campbell during the off-season, bringing experience from leading New Zealand’s Under-17s Women, a role he dovetailed with being in charge of National League club Napier City.
Run it back
Melbourne Victory left it late to take maximum points from an extraordinary meeting with Newcastle Jets in March.
Jeff Hopkins’ side were three goals to the good by the midway point of the first half, with two penalty-box finishes from Emily Gielnik followed by Alana Jancevski’s long ranger.
Remarkably, by the interval, this advantage had been cut to one, as Lauren Allan’s header and Sophie Hoban’s charge down changed the game’s direction.
Sheridan Gallagher levelled during injury time to seemingly split the points, only for Victory Captain, Kayla Morrison, to slam in a 96th-minute winner from a corner.
Last time out
Melbourne Victory got the better of Adelaide United 1-0 on Saturday afternoon as they bounced back from their loss against Canberra United.
At AAMI Park, the Girls in Blue threatened a first-half opener when Rhianna Pollicina let fly from distance, but also had goalkeeper Courtney Newbon to thank for a sequence of big saves that kept the scores level.
It would, however, be her opposite number, Claudia Jenkins, fetching the ball out of the net in the 50th minute.
Holly Furphy persisted down the right, and her cutback was lasered in by the unmarked Rachel Lowe.
Newcastle Jets put their F3 Derby defeat behind them thanks to an impressive win over Brisbane Roar.
The hosts went ahead at No.2 Sportsground shortly after the half-hour mark, when Melina Ayres picked out the bottom corner, and the lead was doubled from the penalty spot in first-half injury-time. Kelli Brown showed tremendous composure to pick out the top corner.
India Breier made sure of the points 20 minutes from full-time, with her left-footed drive proving too hot to handle for Chloe Lincoln, who could only help the ball into the net.
