A new season dawns in the Women’s National Premier League with seven teams vying for supremacy and the chance to be crowned as League Champions come the end of a long and winding road.
Action commences in the 2024 campaign with a rare Thursday night fixture as the competition celebrates ten years of West Canberra Wanderers when the red and black host Belconnen United at Melrose Synthetic in front of the Live BarTV Sports cameras.
The Blue Devils will be one of the favourites for the league title this term, having come close to glory last year only to fall at the final hurdle in both the chase for the top spot and the Grand Final, defeated on both occasions by Canberra Olympic.
Recruitment has bene steady for the McKellar Park based club, Head Coach Scott Conlon having decided that subtle changes to his roster are all that is required to turn the federation Cup winners into serial challengers for silverware.
For the Wanderers, the 2024 season is a reprieve having finished bottom of the table but retaining their premier League status due to the disbanding of the Canberra United Academy and Wagga City Wanderers turning down an opportunity for promotion. They have a brand-new looking squad and will hope to upset the apple-cart first-time out.
Attention turns to the League Champions on Sunday afternoon as Canberra Olympic begins the defence of their double with the trip to take on Gungahlin United at Gungahlin Enclosed.
This fixture is always a difficult one for visiting teams and, with both squads under the tutelage of new Head Coaches, Frank Cachia at Olympic and Nick Van Aalst at the Gunners, should provide an intriguing head-to-head to kickstart the campaign.
Olympic have already tasted competitive football in 2024, their Charity Shield meeting with Belconnen United at the beginning of March standing them in good stead, and top-class recruiting has again made them the team to beat at the top end of the league table.
The Gunners have plenty of talent of their own and reached the federation Cup Final last term, only to be upset at the very death by a last-gasp Blue Devils winner. They have the talent to success and would love nothing better than to cause an upset in Round 1.
The final match of the round sees Tuggeranong United welcoming Canberra Croatia to Greenway Enclosed, the former Champions seeking to reestablish themselves as a force to be reckoned with in the competition.
Head Coach Zoran Glavinic has been slowly adding a more youthful feel to the Croatia playing group, with the usual campaigners who have seen and done it all, being bolstered by the arrival of some serious quality from the ranks of the former Canberra United Academy.
Croatia always appear to have the upper-hand in fixtures against Tuggeranong, and they will be hotly-tipped to do so again here as Sarah West brings her much-changes United to challenge.
There are a stack of fresh faces in the young Tuggeranong team, and this will be a tough initiation into the National Premier League first grade competition for them. But it’s the opening weekend, and hope springs eternal for every club in the league.
ANU WFC have the bye in Round 1.
FIXTURES
ROUND 1
Thursday 4 April
West Canberra Wanderers v Belconnen United (Melrose Synthetic, 19:00)
Sunday 7 April
Gungahlin United v Canberra Olympic (Gungahlin Enclosed, 14:00)
Tuggeranong United v Canberra Croatia (Greenway Enclosed, 15:00)
All matches are streamed live on BarTV Sports.
