Was the 2023-24 A-League Women (ALW) season the best in the competition’s history? Possibly. There were certainly enough standout games, players, narrative, and intrigue to provide enough fuel to carry a long pub debate. What can be said more definitively, though, is that the campaign just concluded with Sydney FC edging Melbourne City to win a record fifth title was one of, if not the most consequential since the league’s inception.
Generally, you only get one post-World Cup season to capitalise and, after the 2023 tournament, this was the year for the ALW. And the ground was fertile. Putting aside their historic achievements on the field, what the Matildas achieved across that tournament was unprecedented, taking hearts and minds of the country in a stranglehold and altering what was thought achievable not just in women’s football, football, or sporting context, but on a cultural level itself.
