Following a 13-0 victory in Round 18 against Majura FC in the National Premier League Women’s (NPLW), Belconnen United secured a second consecutive league title with two matchdays remaining in the 2026 season.
Having gone within one point of winning the NPLW Reserves in 2025, Darren Rodda’s outfit secured top spot in the same round, following Majura’s forfeit, and a record at the time, of 16 wins, one draw and one loss from 18 games.
For the First Grade side however, backing up a perfect 2025 campaign was always going to be a challenge, but Head Coach Scott Conlon has built up what has become the football powerhouse in the capital, having once again gone undefeated in the league and cup in 2026.
Penalty shootout defeat in the 2026 Charity Shield to Canberra Croatia, a first loss since the 2024 Grand Final, had Belconnen staring down the barrel of a less-dominant campaign, particularly following the departures of defensive mainstays Maddie Steinacker and Lisa Cary, attacking threats Pearl Tein, Talia Backhouse and Pascale LaHei, and reigning NPLW Player of the Season Keira Bobbin.
That loss to Croatia, following a 3-3 full-time scoreline, perhaps cast their opponents as early favourites in 2026, however, a 26-goal start to the club’s first four league matches had the Blue Devils top of the table ahead of a Round 5 meeting with Sam Odgers’ side.
With both teams leading the charge early on, fixtures between the two looked likely to define the title race, and following two lethal Alina Roberts finishes at the AIS, Belconnen moved a crucial five points clear of their opponents early in the season.
What followed was four successive wins, 32 goals scored, and just one conceded, in a period of the season that saw Scott Conlon recruit Canberra United’s Lillian Skelly to bolster the attacking ranks of a side that had already bagged 36 goals in six league matches.
A goal on debut against Majura had the winger off to the perfect start, albeit with plenty of ground to cover in the goal-scoring ranks at Belconnen, with Alyssa Di-Campli, Alina Roberts and Leila Billington all early golden boot favourites with seven each in their first six matches.
In between the run of four wins, a 4-0 cup semi-final success against Croatia set up an engaging prospect in Round 10 when the McKellar-based side traveled to Deakin Stadium, off the back of two wins in a row against their rivals.
A stunning Skelly free-kick had Conlon’s side on their way 33 minutes in, before a direct long ball from Hannah Bourke found April Hill in behind, who finished to shock the away side on the stroke of half-time.
Hill’s goal was decisive in securing a point for Croatia, inflicting on Belconnen their first points dropped in the NPLW for 644 days, since a 4-0 loss to Canberra Olympic in Round 20 of the 2024 season.
Despite the sting of falling short of three points, the Blue Devils marched on, and having captured the 2026 Federation Cup, heavy wins against the bottom three, alongside a 2-0 victory against Canberra Olympic, capped off another dominant run of form that had them cruising towards the league title.
It was again Croatia however, that almost caused a scare in Round 15, with both sides separated by a five-point gap, and only five matches of the campaign remaining.
Sam Odgers’ side put in an imperious showing away from home and could have taken a one-goal lead with just over ten remaining, when Bella Barac’s effort hit the crossbar, and landed on, and potentially over, the goal-line.
With the goal not given, Belconnen showed no mercy, going straight down the other end and forcing an unfortunate deflection off Maia Cameron to find the back of the net, however a late equaliser from Ellie Raymond made it two matches on the trot that Croatia were able to hold their opponents, despite the result all but confirming the league title for the Blue Devils.
Further wins against West Canberra Wanderers, Tuggeranong United and then a 13-0 drubbing of Majura solidified their title and secured a second consecutive season in which Conlon’s side have topped the NPLW table.
Conlon reflected on the achievement post-match.
“Anytime you get one of these it’s a good feeling,” he said. “You don’t think too much about it through preseason and the early parts of the year, but things need to go right from the very start.
“I said last year you can only drop three games I think in this league over the past sort of five or six years, no one’s won the league by dropping more than two or three games, so you’ve got to be consistent for a long time and that’s what we’ve been.”
In a season that so clearly resembles the side’s 2025 campaign, Conlon praised his new-look team’s ability to maintain the same high standards in 2026.
“One thing that people don’t realise if they see us winning all the time is whether there’s been much change, but not many people would realise that seven or eight of the starting lineup last year aren’t here, and that’s a huge change,” he commented. “I don’t know any clubs that could deal with seven or eight first grade starters leaving and having the same sort of momentum like we’ve had all year, so that’s a credit to the program and the coaches who’ve helped the girls come through to the team this year.”
Despite another all-conquering campaign, the challenge that Canberra Croatia have posed in 2026 will likely bode well for an entertaining finals series.
“In hindsight, at this stage last year nothing was going to stop us, it was just too long since we’d won the title and we were just on a big roll, this year it’s closer,” Conlon said. “We [haven’t] been as bullyish, we’ve got to imagine it’s going to be tough, and we’re looking forward to that because that’s why I purposely didn’t go with 17 or 18 first graders, I was happy to bring 14 into the season and depend on the younger ones to come when needed, so that’s going to be tougher for us, which is what we need.”
