Melbourne Victory had a promising start to season one but tapered away at the business end of the season.  Finishing with four wins and only two points out of the top four, Victory would rueing their results late in the season.

Matt Shepherd has added some exceptional international players to the squad with midfielder Juliane Sitch, part of the American championship winning squad, and Canadian international Katie Thorlakson.  There is a distinct local flavour to the Melbourne side this season with 10 players from the FFV NTC program.  Victory has also maintained 11 players from last season and should be up and about early.



In season one, the only teams that conceded fewer goals than the Victory were all situated in the Top 4.  It's not surprising that Melbourne's strength is their defence considering their custodian is Matildas' goalkeeper Melissa Barbieri.

Stability was the name of the game and Melbourne's success could be attributed to the fact that defenders Laura Alleway, Enza Barilla, Maika Ruyter-Hooley and New Zealand international Marlies Oostdam spent a majority of the season as the wall in front of Barbieri.



While their defence stopped goals, Victory's attack struggled to find the back of the net.

To address this deficiency the navy blues have gone abroad and picked up Thorlakson to assist locals Deanna Niceski and Caitlin Friend.  Melbourne’s midfielders will also need to get in on the action and provide additional goals to boost the tally.  

For Melbourne Victory to see finals action this year they will need to score more goals.



At 24 Sarah Groenewald is already a veteran of senior football and last season the Melbournian displayed her talent on the national stage.

Sarah Groenewald

With four brothers, Groenewald has a natural competitive streak and the W-League  provided an opportunity for her to test herself.

“For me personally it was exciting that I could play against our national team players.  To be able to have the opportunity to play against the best players in the country week in and week out was great.”

“I was able to out myself up against that type of competition and then come back and see where I needed to improve and where the team could improve to be more competitive.”

Groenewald is Melbourne Victory’s swiss knife. 

“From my point of view its probably my versatility that keeps me in teams.  I can play, and I have always played, a lot of different positions.  Last year I went from playing right back to right wing to left wing and in couple of games I even played as a striker managing to score a goal or two.”

With the season one coming to a disappointing conclusion, Melbourne have stocked up on attacking players but Sarah Groenewald will still have an important role to play. 

“We have a great depth in our squad this year.  Training is competitive and it will be difficult to get a spot in the first 11 and because of that I think we will make the finals this year.  After that you never know, you could end up in a grand final.”

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