Womens A League Football Final Melbourne City Wellington Phoenix

A-League grand final key to Melbourne City’s treble but Wellington are out to spoil party

After facing the Phoenix in the decider, the women’s premiers will jet off to Korea for their Asian Champions League semi-final

✍ Jack Snape

🕒 14 May 2026 22:00

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What is a grand final when it isn’t, and just how should you celebrate it? That is the conundrum facing Melbourne City on Saturday, when they face Wellington Phoenix in the A-League Women decider at AAMI Park.

Win or lose, City are due to fly out at 7.25am the following morning to travel to South Korea for the Asian Champions League semi-finals, and a clash with Japanese club Tokyo Verdy Beleza.

City captain Rebekah Stott says the players are prepared for what is an unusual climax to a season. “We’ll have a little function after [the grand final] with our family and friends, and then the club’s booked us a hotel at the airport, so we’ll get a good night’s rest and then straight over to Korea.”

Coach Michael Matricciani says whatever the result against the Phoenix, the team can afford a celebration … as long as it’s brief. “If we win, maybe the club’s organised some champagne bottles, I’m not too sure, but hopefully they don’t drink too much,” he says. “Hopefully the players can get a few hours’ sleep and then we’ll get up nice and early and we’ll focus on Tokyo when the game is done on Saturday.”

Though City won their third premiers plate in a row this season and enter the clash with the Phoenix as favourites, victory is far from inevitable.

City shaded their home match between the sides 1-0 in December, then claimed the meeting in New Zealand the following month 2-1. In the end, the Melbourne club finished six points ahead of second-placed Wellington, making those two results critical in the race for the premiers plate, while the Phoenix scored more goals than any other team in the league, and conceded the fewest.

The Nix are led by Football Ferns defender Mackenzie Barry, but has talent across the pitch. Alongside Barry, midfielders Pia Vlok and Grace Jale, and attacker Brooke Nunn were voted by players into the starting lineup for the PFA’s team of the season, while goalkeeper Victoria Esson and defender Marisa van der Meer were included as substitutes.

Barry says the club – which will play its first ALW grand final in its 100th match – has grown steadily in its five years of existence. “There has been ups and downs for sure, but we’ve worked really hard to build up to this season,” she says. “It’s four years in the making, and now in our fifth we’ve made the grand final, so I’m so proud.”

City’s side is brimming with experience and quality. At the back, Stott is arguably the player of the competition, and Matildas attacker and golden boot winner Holly McNamara leads the line. But the main attraction of Saturday’s contest might be Wellington coach Bev Priestman. The former Canada manager won Olympic gold at Tokyo 2020, but was embroiled in a spying scandal during Paris 2024.

Banned by Fifa for a year, she moved to New Zealand – the home country of her wife – even before the opportunity with Wellington arrived a year ago. Priestman, asked on Thursday about whether this season is about “restoring” her reputation, was reflective.

“It can be that, but for me, whatever I do in life, I want to be the best I can be, ever since I was little,” she says. “I’m from a small town [Consett, in northern England] where you do have to – when you talk about being an underdog – you do have to swing and you do have to punch above your weight.

“Whatever I was going to throw myself into, whatever job, however big, small or different it is, that’s just in my blood. But I also think I’ve got a much better perspective on life and I think it has made me a better coach.”

Barry said Priestman has been “a huge asset” to the Phoenix. “She’s the best coach that I’ve ever met and I’ve ever been coached by,” she says. Mattriciani said the woman on the opposite bench is “of course” the best coach in the competition. “Most experienced, won a lot,” he says.

Stott – who, incidentally, spotted the Canadian drone over the Football Ferns training during the Paris Games – said she was pleased to see Priestman doing well. “She’s done an amazing job and I think just getting back in and around football is what she loves to do, so I’m very happy for her.”