At home for the third time this season, the Jets will welcome Melbourne City to McDonald Jones Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
And with two wins and two losses on the board so far, the weekend’s clash shapes as a pivotal one to the Jets season given the relatively short nature of the Westfield W-League.
It feels like an age since the woman played their last match, the 1-0 defeat to Brisbane Roar on Thursday 29 November.
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Before that was back-to-back wins over Western Sydney Wanderers and Canberra United, and the Jets will be keen to get back into winning ways.
With the big news that American striker, Katie Stengel is in doubt and rated a 50-50 chance of playing on Sunday, there could be changes afoot in the starting XI.
It’s in that area of the pitch which Melbourne City could be punished – they’ve conceded 11 goals this season, the highest in the league.
City drew 1-1 with Adelaide last weekend and have won just one match from five this season, but they’re a side whose record means they cannot be written off or taken lightly.
Team news
After coming together with goalkeeper, Britt Eckerstrom at training in a run-of-the-mill tackle Katie Stengel is in doubt.
Having sustained what looks a fairly minor ankle injury, her fitness could force Craig Deans into a reshuffle of his frontline which would mean opportunities for a number of youngsters.
Cortnee Vine, who missed out on the first XI last Thursday night but looked electric off the bench, is the obvious candidate to return to the starting lineup should Stengel miss out.
Just how Deans will set his side out remains to be seen though, but it could potentially see a pacey attacker like Jenna Kingsley start at the point of attack.
After playing their just their second competitive game together in the backline, Larissa Crummer and Cassidy Davis look set to continue building that partnership this weekend.
From the assistant
“This week was about setting a tone, we move on from last weekend’s performance and we focus on what we have to do, and making sure we’re getting the girls into a frame of mind where they’re believing in themselves,” assistant coach, Ash Wilson said.
“Our focus is getting back to our principles, creating those opportunities, and being a bit more composed on the ball.
“Cort was unlucky [to miss out against Brisbane], it’s a case of we’ve got similar players in her and Jenna. Both of them have scored goals, obviously someone like Cort can come on in the back end of games and do something special.
“Jenna is someone that works really hard, and she’s up there to do a lot of the work that some other players don’t want to do and get us into a position where you can bring someone like Cortnee on to play against a tired defence and create something special.”
“This weekend is extremely important for us, if we lose to City they jump us. They’ve been the champions for the past couple of years, and there’s a reason for that.
“They have quality players, and we can’t underestimate that. We can’t look at the ladder, see they’re below us and think it’s going to be easy. The mindset for us, is to do everything we can do, not fear them, and go out and really take it to them.”
