We also talked exclusively to New Zealand international and Wellington Phoenix goalkeeper Victoria Esson, on her thoughts regarding her first season in the A-League and the upcoming Oceania Football Confederation 2027 WWC Qualifiers, starting later this month. We also present the roster for New Zealand’s WNT for the WWC Qualifiers this month.
2025-26 Ninja A-League Women Season to Date
The 2025-26 Ninja A-League season has been one of the most competitive on the field for years. After Round 14—with most teams playing 11 games—Melbourne City led the table by five points with 23, while two points separated the next eight teams—with Wellington, Canberra, Brisbane and Central Coast all tied for second with 18 points, Melbourne Victory and Adelaide were tied for sixth with 17 points and Perth and Newcastle tied for eighth with 16 points. Our review below (Part 1) looks at the top six sides this season and was updated to include Round 15 games over the weekend of January 29-31.
In 2024-25, six teams made the playoffs: Melbourne City, Melbourne Victory, Adelaide United, Central Coast Mariners, Canberra United and Western United, but the latter team dropped out of the A-League (men, women and academy sides) for this season—officially in hibernation—due to financial struggles and their return to the league for next season or beyond is still undetermined.
At this point in the 2025-26 season, Melbourne City, Adelaide United, reigning league champions Central Coast Mariners and Canberra United would qualify again for the playoffs while Wellington Phoenix and Brisbane Roar would replace Melbourne Victory—who made the Grand Final last season against Central Coast—and Western United.
Off the field, it has been a really difficult season for the league. Before the season launched, Western United was suspended from the league and Auckland United—which had planned to join the Ninja A-League this season and won the Isuzu A-League men’s Premiership (regular season) title as an expansion side in 2024-25—is holding off on fielding a women’s side until the 2027-28 season (see: The Week in Women's Football: Ava Piazza exclusive; A-League teams & Matildas focus - TribalFootball.com).
Then in mid-January, Central Coast Mariners men’s women’s and academy side was taken over by the league as the previous ownership ran out of money. On the men’s side, the Mariners have won three A-League titles and the Women won the Grand Final last season in an outstanding run through the playoffs, led by stellar play and late game heroics from Matilda Isabelle Gomez in the semifinal over Melbourne City and a tying goal in the Grand Final, as well as scoring in the penalty shootout. The league is looking for new ownership for the Gosford, New South Wales-based side.
Further damage came in a Player’s Association report that the Ninja A-League is now “by far” the lowest-paid professional women’s competition in Australia, with an average league salary of just over AU$30,000. As a result, 76% of players reported that their financial situation was “not at all” or only “slightly” secure, with 62% having to work outside football during the 2024-25 season (see more on this topic below in our interview with Wellington Phoenix’ new goalkeeper Victoria Esson).
Matilda veteran with 134 caps and current Brisbane Roar midfielder Tameka Yallop (34) said: “You’re meant to be playing all the time now. This is meant to be your sole focus, when in reality, it isn’t … That’s what this report is all about: not just saying that we’re full-time professionals by the league, but the league showing we are full-time professionals by stepping up in other ways and actually giving us the full-time wages and programs.”
The report says that the result is that more of the league’s top players are moving abroad, to be replaced by imports from outside the top five European leagues and younger Australian/New Zealand internationals. The average age of the A-League Women is getting younger—always a defining element of the league since it started in 2008-09—with players aged 21 and under accounting for 32% of all the minutes played last season, an increase on 2023-24’s 28% level. The share of teenager minutes in the league also rose, from 15% to 18% in 2024-25, with the concern in the report that it will decrease the overall quality of competition, fan engagement, and commercial opportunities.
Incredibly, only 15% of ALW players are on multi-year contracts, which the report concluding that the league’s teams were missing out on the rapid rise of global transfer fees in the global women’s game, estimating they could earn as much as AU$10 million annually in transfer fees alone. The report notes that the ALW is now the “least preferred” competition globally among its own players.
Average crowds for the league fell by 26% in 2024-25 (1,571 regular season average) down from an all-time high for the 2023-24 season (2,117) as the league leveraged an increase in interest after Australia and New Zealand co-hosted the 2022-23 WWC in front of fantastic crowds throughout Australia. This season to date, the average league attendance is 1,596, just slightly above the 2024-25 season. The strong bump in attendances post the 2022-23 WWC is now gone and things are not looking good.
There has been speculation the last few years of possibly building a second national women’s league (as the men have done this season) among state league powerhouses like Illawarra Stingrays and Macarthur Rams in New South Wales, Brisbane City and Lions FC in Queensland and Calder United (which supplied a number of players to Western United when they started) and Heidelberg United in the Melbourne area. Now, if the league continues to lose teams, some of these sides may have to step into the top level to help salvage the 18-year-old league. We sincerely hope this doesn’t happen but these are worrisome times for the women’s loop.
For reference for the club details below, see our 2025-26 Ninja A-League previews late last year: (Part 1: The Week in Women's Football: Speaking with Samya Hassani; A-League preview - TribalFootball.com and Part 2: The Week in Women's Football: A-League preview P2; Athlone win Double - TribalFootball.com).
Melbourne City (7-2-3 W-D-L, 23 points—First)
City lost their long regular season undefeated run after 31 games—which ran through the last four regular season matches of 2023-24, all of the 2024-25 season (24 games) and the first three games this season, when they lost their fourth game of the season away to Canberra United 2-1 on December 13. Matilda international forward Holly McNamara (23) leads the team and the league in goalscoring with 11 (tied with Annalise Rasmussen of the Central Coast Mariners) and she has one of only three hat-tricks scored this year to date—in a 3-1 home win over Perth on December 28.
McNamara has 27 goals in 38 appearances across her four previous seasons with City. With her impressive tally this season and overall, this could be her last season in the A-League for a while, with her name mentioned among clubs and agents in America and Western Europe. A name to remember for the future, Australian youth international midfielder Shelby McMahon (17), is second on the team with three goals.
Wellington Phoenix (6-3-3, 21 points, Tied for Second)
Wellington leads the league in goalscoring with 26—four more than second place Central Coast Mariners, who have played two more games to date while the Phoenix has played only 12 games (tied with Melbourne City and Brisbane for the fewest games played); their defense has also been superb with the fewest goals allowed in the league (10). New signing this season—current Football Fern goalkeeper Victoria Esson—has four shutouts thus far this season in 11 games.
Victoria Esson interview
Goalkeeper Victoria Esson (34) has been capped 28 times by New Zealand at the senior level. She has signed a one year deal with the Capital City team for 2025-26. Victoria Esson talked exclusively to TribalFootball.com in January about the style of play and competitiveness of the Ninja A-League, which—despite playing professionally for years in Europe—is her first season in the league: “The A-League is a very competitive league. Every game is a top one and I don’t think you can ever predict a winner. As a goalkeeper, I think that’s great because you have to stay switched on from the first whistle to the final whistle. It’s a physical league, quite fast and transitional. So far I’m enjoying it.”
When asked to compare the style of play in the A-League versus her experience in top leagues in Norway, German and Scotland, she said that: “Norway was pretty physical as well—direct football and quite competitive. A-League (is) slightly more transitional but it is probably most similar to the Norwegian league from when I played there four years ago. Germany is more technical and also very physical and it is also quite a quick game—the technical ability is slightly higher than in Australia.
"Scotland (is) very different—top six (and) bottom six (split season), first round you play teams who are part-time and train twice a week, whereas Rangers trained five times a week minimum and it showed in the scorelines. In the second half it was a little more interesting with the games (between the top six for the title)… It’s all very different styles of football that I have been playing across the four countries but it’s been good; it’s helped me to be a slightly more refined player and also not get stuck in just one style of football.”
She talked more about Scotland, having played the last three seasons with Rangers in Glasgow: “Scotland is an interesting one. Splitting top six bottom six sides (after the first round) was good. In Scotland, when Rangers and Celtic decided to make professional teams with obviously the means to with the backing from the men’s programs to work off of , (it) was quite successful (for the) women’s programs to start. It helped other teams to grow. In my second year, Hearts (of Edinburgh) went full-time on the women’s side. Hibs (Hibernian, also of Edinburgh) went full time; they were able to compete very highly and actually won the league.
(Note: This column featured the Scottish Premier League 2024-25 season last summer, including Hibernian’s shocking league title win (see: The Week in Women's Football: Examining USL Super League playoffs and crazy Hibs title triumph - TribalFootball.com). It just shows that, if clubs put in the money and resources to send these teams full-time, it can make a real difference. I don’t know if there is anyone else even close to going full time in Scotland. Patrick Thistle or Motherwell? I would love to see another team work towards going full time. I’m not sure when that might be.”
Esson discussed the pros and cons of women’s teams being part of men’s organizations, as is the case at Wellington Phoenix and at Rangers. She said: “Pros and cons of having a men’s side—it’s great if the men’s team is doing well. They can help to resource the women’s team as well but I feel women’s program being dependent on the men’s program doing well, then they are at the mercy of how well the men’s (side) are doing. (Independent club) Glasgow City has (the edge) over the other teams that might change year-to-year (in terms of resources from their parent organization); they can have a little more longevity with their planning because they will know how the year will look (in terms of budget)…
"You hope that (there are) ambitions for clubs to start independently and (that) federations encourage it. You’d love to see clubs willing to put in money and resources into the women’s program and, as long as they can show that the women’s program will survive, it is great to see more teams going full-time. That’s one of the big issues in the A-League, is that it is not (a) full-time, full-year (league) and that really does hinder the league because players might stay in Europe a little bit longer because they are on twelve month contracts. (A-League) players have to get jobs, not only the 3-4 months outside of the season, but also during the season; there is a really high number of players who are juggling essentially full-time football and a job.”
Esson was in goal for seven of New Zealand’s nine international games last year (2-1-6 W-D-L); she talked about the upcoming 2027 Women’s World Cup qualifiers which start later this month. She liked the new format, with teams first playing matches across two groups (see more below): “It works better because it aligns with the FIFA (international) windows. There was a problem for the Olympic Qualifiers, which was a three week window, which didn’t fully overlap with the FIFA window for the rest of the world, which meant I had to miss club games (as did) other players. It’s much better this way and it also means we can come back to New Zealand and play on home soil, which we haven’t done for a long time. It’s really exciting to know we have a couple of games at home providing we do what we need to do in the Solomon Islands and qualify for the finals.”
Note: For the OFC 2027 WWC Qualifiers, the group stage begins on February 27 and concludes on March 5, with the Solomon Islands hosting New Zealand, Samoa and American Samoa in Group A and Fiji hosting Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu and New Caledonia in Group B. The top two teams in each group move on to the last four in New Zealand on April 12 in Kirikiriroa Hamilton, with the final set for April 15 at Tāmaki Makaurau Auckland.
Esson, now back playing at home in New Zealand for the first time in seven years, after moving from North Shore United in Auckland to join Avaldsnes in Norway, said that it is certainly easier playing for New Zealand in the A-League rather than in Europe: “The flying’s not easy. We’re very fortunate as footballers to play all over the world but when you’ve got games either side of long haul flights, it’s really difficult. A lot of countries are able to fly their players business class. We’re not quite there yet but New Zealand is trying to improve flying conditions and made some steps, but the less you have to travel, the better it is on the body, 100%.”
We closed the interview by discussing the new pan-Oceania professional league, the OFC Pro League—with two teams in New Zealand (see more on the new league in our column last month: The Week in Women's Football: Reviewing UK World Cup Bid & new Oceania book - TribalFootball.com) and whether that could be a model for the region’s women’s national teams: “I’m not 100% sure—I don’t know enough about the new OFC league—I do think the more professional teams on this side of the world, the more football will grow. At some point, if you’re going to have a professional team, you do it well and the players are paid and the team is well-resourced in terms of coaching staff, medical staff and sports science, that sort of thing. I think it would be great to have more professional female teams absolutely, but I think it’s important that we provide good contracts for those players, if we are going to put them in a situation where they are playing professional football and full-time football with all of the travel as well.”
Victoria Esson has brought her experience and talent to Wellington Phoenix for 2025-26 and the club is flying high in the A-League table. At the other end of the pitch, Wellington’s goalscoring has centered on imports, including Brooke Nunn (32) of England, who won a Ninja A-League title last season with the Mariners. To date, she has four goals and is in a tie for sixth in the league.
Nepalese forward Sabitra “Samba” Bhandari (28), who we profiled prior to the start of the season, is tied for tenth in the league with three goals and two assists, but unfortunately tore her ACL in right knee against Brisbane Roar in a 2-2 tie in Queensland on January 3. She had previously had an operation on the same knee in 2021 and will be out of action for 9-12 months. Her loss is not only a huge blow to the team but also the league as she drew amazing support from the Nepalese diaspora community when she played throughout Australia, with fans staying after games in large numbers to greet her.
I think Brooke Nunn’s championship-winning experience last season will be a huge benefit to the Phoenix, who should make the playoffs for the first time this season in their fifth season. There is no controversy now as there was prior to the season when they signed Bev Priestman as coach, after she lost in job in Canada for spying on opposition teams with drones, including New Zealand at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Priestman’s team is playing extremely well and with confidence; Wellington is on track for a tremendous season. Their current position in the table is even more surprising in that the club has also lost Football Ferns pool player Alyssa Whinham and Netherlands international Tessel Middag to ACL injuries early in the season, while Dominican Republic international Lucia Leon also missed a few games with an injury—she has three assists in nine games this season after moving from Adelaide United for 2025/26.
A name to watch for the future is 17-year-old forward Pia Vlok, who leads the team with five goals, after scoring a hat-trick in a 5-1 win over Newcastle Jets on February 1 away in New South Wales. She is a U-17 international for New Zealand. This is her first season with Wellington after playing with Auckland United in the New Zealand Women’s National League. Earlier in the season, Vlok became the club’s youngest ever scorer with the only goal of the game in the 39th minute against Melbourne Victory (1-0) in Wellington’s Porirua Park, helping the Phoenix jump from 11th in the table to 5th on November 23 and defeat Melbourne Victory for the first time ever in the Ninja A-League.
At 17 years and 80 days, Vlok broke the record set by Milly Clegg in 2023 (17 years, 81 days) by just one day. After her hat-trick over Newcastle, she was called up to New Zealand’s senior squad for the first time, ahead of the region’s WWC qualifiers later this month in the Solomon Islands. Interestingly, midfielder Charlotte Lancaster (22) of Newcastle Jets, who has scored three goals and one assist in eight games, was also called in to the Football Ferns side, and could earn her first cap in the Solomon Islands.
Canberra United (6-3-4, 21 points, Tied for Second)
All-time A-League Women leading scorer (123 to date) and appearance leader (215 currently) Matilda Michelle Heyman (37) again leads the Greens in scoring with four goals—tied for seventh in the league—along with three assists. New Zealand international defender Elizabeth Anton has returned to the club for the 2025/26 Ninja A-League Women’s season. She moved from United in March of 2025, at the end of her debut season with the Australian Capital City side, to join Norwegian Toppserien side Kolbotn.
She scored one goal in 19 games with Canberra and won the club’s Player of the Year award at the end of the season. She said about her return to Canberra: “Pulling on the famous Green jersey last year was incredibly special and I couldn’t be happier to return to Canberra United for the rest of the season.” In Norway she played 25 matches in 2025. She also played with Perth Glory in the A-League Women for four seasons, scoring twice in 62 matches for the Western Australian side.
Adelaide United (6-2-5, 20 points, Fourth)
Adelaide United is well position in 2025/26 to make the playoffs for the second consecutive season and third appearance all-time. There were nervous times early in the campaign when they lost four of their first six games (with one win and one tie) but then went unbeaten in five games (with four wins) from December 27, 2025 through January 21, 2026, including victories over last season’s Grand Finalists Central Coast (1-0) at home on January 4 and Melbourne Victory (2-1) on January 21, also in Adelaide. American forward Erin Healy (24), in her second year with the Reds, leads the club with four goals (with one assist).
She went to Gonzaga University and was capped last year by the Republic of Ireland through FIFA’s parentage rules, coming on as a 75th minute substitute last June 26 in a 4-0 loss to the U.S. in Commerce City (Denver), Colorado. Midfielder Emily Condon has two goals and three assists in 12 games. She has played 140 games to date for Adelaide, the most of any women’s player in the club’s history, (with 23 goals) since her debut as a 15-year-old in the 2013-14 season.
Brisbane Roar (5-4-3, 19 points, Tied for Fifth)
The Roar is on pace to make the playoffs for the first time in five seasons, after being a powerhouse in the early years of the league, winning two Grand Finals and making three more Grand Finals through the 2013-14 season. Former Netherlands international Bente Jansen (26) undoubtedly is one of the stories of the 2025/26 A-League season to-date and has been an outstanding new signing, scoring seven goals to date for fourth in the league. Jansen played two seasons at Ajax in Amsterdam before moving down under for the 2025-26 A-League campaign.
Matilda Sharn Freier (24), on loan from Wolfsburg of Germany who she signed with late last season from the Roar, has three goals (tied for tenth among goalscorers) as does Grace Kuilmau (18), who was capped at the senior level in 2025 in the Matildas’ 1-0 loss against Panama in Bunbury on July 5 of 2025—the 241st cap in the history of the Matildas—to become the first woman of Pacific Island heritage (Fiji) to play for the Australian women’s national team.
She said: “I know football hasn’t always been the biggest sport in the Pacific Islands; however I’ve really seen a growth in the past few years, especially in the women’s teams which is really good to see.”
Kuilamu went to Brisbane State High School and started playing club rugby at 10 years-old, however, she played schools football at a younger age and also with her family. She aspires to play overseas: “In the future, I would like to play overseas, eventually in the Women’s Super League in the UK, however there are many steps in between. Although many players have a specific club they would love to play for, I don’t really have one, but reaching that league has always been a dream.”
She would like to replicated Mary Fowler’s move from Adelaide United after the 2019/20 season, first to Montpellier in France and then to Manchester City, where she is in her fourth season. Fowler has Irish and Papua New Guinea heritage. Note: Australian U-17 and U-20 international midfielder Avaani Prakash (19) is also of Fijian heritage (as well as Indian) and is currently with Central Coast Mariners after playing the past two seasons with Western United.
Defender Ava Piazza, who we profiled last fall after she played for Armenian side Pyunik in the 2025-26 Champions League, has been a very nice addition to the Roar, playing in eight matches in defense and scoring once, the second goal in a 2-2 tie with Wellington Phoenix on January 3 in Queensland (see: The Week in Women's Football: Ava Piazza exclusive; A-League teams & Matildas focus - TribalFootball.com).
Central Coast Mariners (5-4-5, 19 points, Tied for Fifth)
Annalise Rasmussen (20), who won two U-23 Australian caps last season, is tied for the league lead in scoring with 11 tallies for the Mariners, in her third season with the club. Australian youth international Peta Trimis (19) has contributed four goals and is also in her third season with the reigning league champions. Isabel Gomez remains a brilliant force in midfield with her passing and brilliant vision—scoring two goals and adding five assists in 12 matches. The club is second in the league in team scoring with 22 goals, behind leaders Wellington (26). However, CCM needs to tighten up its defense as they have surrendered 21 goals—ahead of only Newcastle Jets (22) and Western Sydney (26).
However, off the field has been extremely high drama as the club (men’s, women’s and academy) was taken over by the league due to financial problems and there is now a frantic search for new ownership. The Mariner’s previous chairman resigned, blaming drastic cuts in funding from the league that made it: “extremely financially challenging for small clubs to survive.”
The funding from Australian Professional Leagues (APL) was cut by almost a fifth, from AU$2.35 million to AU$530,000. The APL took over the club when it forfeited its Club Participation Agreement to operate their A-League men’s and women’s league teams. APL Chair Stephan Conroy explained: “The APL Board is resolute in its commitment to fans and stakeholders to protect the game’s best interests, and make decisive action to ensure the ongoing growth, stability and integrity of the A-Leagues. As custodians of the game, we believe it is the best course of proactive action—for the short and long term interest of the Club—to terminate the current CPA under the current ownership, and run an expedited and robust sale process to find a new and stable long-term owner for the Mariners.”
Some interest in taking over the side has come from former Sydney Olympic FC (New South Wales State League) President Damon Hanlin—who was appointed director, secretary and sole shareholder of newly established entity Central Coast Mariners Football Club Pty Ltd in September 2025—who had submitted a formal application to acquire the Central Coast A-Leagues club.
Tim Grainey is a contributor to Tribal Football. His latest book Beyond Bend it Like Beckham on the global game of women’s football. Get your copy today. Follow Tim on X: @TimGrainey