Melbourne Victory opened their 2026/27 Ninja A-League Women campaign with a 1-0 win away to Western Sydney Wanderers at Wanderers Football Park on Saturday, with Alana Jancevski's 32nd-minute free kick the difference.
Jancevski curled her effort over the wall and beyond Wanderers goalkeeper Sarah Langman for the only goal of the match. "I was actually going to hit it to the other side and then I saw a little gap in that top left corner," Jancevski said.
The match was interrupted early when Wanderers captain Rhianna Pollicina, a former Victory player, went down with a knee injury in the 11th minute. Pollicina hobbled off the field.
Western Sydney pushed for an equaliser through substitute Alyssa Ng-Saad, who came close to scoring twice after coming off the bench, but Victory held on for the win under A-League Women's head coach Jeff Hopkins.
The result was one of three away wins on the opening weekend of the competition. Perth Glory beat Newcastle Jets 1-0 at Hunter City Motor Group Stadium, with American Rola Badawiya converting a 13th-minute penalty for the first goal of the new season.
The penalty was awarded after a Julia Sardo header from a corner struck Newcastle's Josie Allan on the arm. Newcastle felt they should have had a penalty of their own when a Libby Copus-Brown shot hit the arm of Perth defender Baxter Thew.
"It hit my face, not my hand," Thew said. He added that Perth had to dig in to protect the result. "We were under the pump at the end and they gave it to us, but I think we kept our heads and did what we needed to do, even if it wasn't pretty at times," he said.
Central Coast Mariners produced the highest-scoring result of the round, beating Brisbane Roar 4-2 away at Gioca Stadium. Peta Trimis put the Mariners ahead in the seventh minute before Brisbane's Daisy Brown equalised with a header from a corner in the 26th minute.
Talia Kapetanellis restored Central Coast's lead just before halftime, beating Matildas goalkeeper Chloe Lincoln. Skye Halmarick made it 3-1 just before the hour mark with a close-range finish at the end of a length-of-the-field move, before debutante Morgan Witz added a fourth from just inside the area.
"We did well in the second half just to match their energy, we knew they were going to come out hard," Halmarick said of Brisbane's response. Philippines international Katrina Guillou scored a late consolation for the Roar off the bench.