Sydney FC has claimed their fourth A-League Women’s championship, cementing their status as Australia’s most successful women’s club.
On Sunday, Sydney FC beat Western United 4-0 in the 2023 grand final, becoming the first team to complete the premiership-championship double since 2016.
Named the player of the grand final, the Sydney FC’s striker Madison Haley scored two goals and assisted Natalie Tobin for another, with Princess Ibini scoring a penalty for the win at Western Sydney Stadium.
This was the Sydney FC’s sixth consecutive grand final and first championship win since the 2018/19 season. The team has reached the same number of championship wins as Melbourne City but have five premierships to City’s two and are the first team since City in 2015/16 to complete the double.
This year’s A-League Women’s championship match was played in front of a record crowd of 9,519 fans and was set against the Australian Professional League’s controversial decision to sell the decider in a deal with Destination NSW.
This meant Sydney played in their home state while United– in their inaugural campaign– had to travel to the decider rather than receiving hosting rights by beating the Sydney FC 1-0 in the semi-final.
Lead by head coach Ante Juric, Sydney FC played a strong game throughout the grand final, with first-year player Haley being described as the star of the match
With the historic win, team caption Natalie Tobin completed her 100th game, having said beforehand that winning the final was the team’s “fairytale”.
Making another bit of history on Sunday was 15-year-old player Indiana Dos Santos who became the youngest ever player in a grand final.