Pressure on W-League stars to earn place in winning team
They won 3-1 last week without eight W-League players and without playing their best football. And now Manly United welcomes back Newcastle Jets star Chloe O’Brien for the clash against North West Sydney Koalas at Christie Park on Sunday night.
What’s pleasing for coach Tom Hopley is that O’Brien and the seven W-League players due to return will have to compete for spots like everyone else.
“Chloe’s obviously a very good player and will add lots to our squad,” Hopley said. “But it’ll be a huge positive for us that girls returning from W-League are returning to a winning team, and the pressure’s on them to compete for a place in it.”
Another positive for Hopley is that while his team didn’t play their best last Sunday against Bankstown City FC, they still came away with a 3-1 win. “I was impressed with the girls’ character and resolve when things weren’t going perfectly their way,” Hopley said. “We weren’t as good as we could be over the ball but scrapped and found a way to win.
“If we carry that mindset into the weekend and improve on the ball, we’ll be going well. We need quality and patience to play our traditional style of football.” Asked what that style is Hopley said: “When we go forward, we go forward in numbers. We have a mindset to keep pushing hard.”
On the training paddock Hopley said O’Brien has been a standout, Libby Copus-Brown showed touches of class while Emily Minett is steadily working towards full fitness.
The North West Sydney Koalas FC, meanwhile, remain something of a mystery. “Traditionally they’ve been a strong counter-attacking team,” Hopley said. “Their defence is well-organised and they play at pace away from that. We played them in a trial, though, and they didn’t play like that. We also don’t know which W-League players they’ll have back though they do have a fine player in [Sydney FC defender] Rachael Soutar.”