Round 3 of the 2026-27 A-League Women season has come and gone, with plenty of tasty talking-points emerging with it.
Let's dive into whose stocks are up, whose are down, and what the biggest questions are heading into Round 4.
Stocks up: Sydney FC regain the Faith thanks to Webber
After an uninspiring opening round draw against Adelaide United and a disastrous 5-0 loss to Melbourne City last week, there were real concerns that Sydney FC were destined for yet another disappointing season.
But their 1-0 win over Brisbane Roar on Saturday -- and the manner in which they did it -- hinted at a Sky Blues side that is slowly but surely turning a corner.
Their first half was particularly impressive with Faith Webber, Maddie Caspers, and Riley Cohn running riot in and around the Roar's penalty area. Caspers, 19, was a particular stand-out, regularly bamboozling Brisbane's defence and making line-splitting passes into Webber and Cohn that could have resulted in some early goals.
Claire Corbett and Willa Pearson, who missed the first two rounds representing Australia at the Under-17 Women's World Cup, were thrown back into the starting line-up and provided both structure and assurance down the spine, while new signings Amy Chessari and right-back Kiley Dulaney created more going forward than in their previous two games.
Sydney ended the first half with 68% possession, including 15 shots to Brisbane's three, 10 corners to two, and 141 touches in the final third to the Roar's 49.
But it was the American striker (and stand-in captain) Webber who is emerging as the Sky Blues' biggest weapon this season, scoring her well-deserved debut goal just after the hour, latching onto a Caspers through-ball and rocketing a strike into the far bottom corner.
The forward was a tireless menace all game: exploiting gaps through Brisbane's hesitant back-line, fearlessly battling for every corner and set piece, and always threatening to shoot with either foot from anywhere around the penalty area.
While a win over a lacklustre Brisbane side with zero wins and eight goals conceded in three games may not count for much now, to do it minus their entire senior cohort -- with Jada Whyman, Charlotte McLean, Nat Tobin, Shay Hollman, Bianca Gittany, Sarah Hunter, and Indiana Dos Santos all unavailable -- is a testament to both the depth of the squad and the coaching that is, against all odds, managing to make them click.
Stocks down: Wherefore art thou, Wellington?
This was not the way Wellington Phoenix's season was meant to begin.
Having retained most of the squad who qualified for last year's Grand Final, and added some top-level signings like Abby Erceg and Tameka Yallop to the mix, the team looked, on paper, like a serious title contender.
But after a draw and two losses from their opening three games, with five goals conceded and just two scored, the eighth-placed Phoenix look like they have much more work to do than what many of us -- and potentially even themselves -- expected.
Granted, the Nix didn't exactly get off to a flying start last season, either. Two draws and two losses in their first five games was then followed by a winning run in the middle of the season which saw them shoot up the ladder and ultimately finish second, so head coach Bev Priestman likely isn't panicking just yet.
That could change, though, depending on the fitness of star striker Makala Woods, who hobbled off with an ankle injury early on in their 2-0 loss to Perth Glory on Sunday night. The American has become key to the way Wellington plays, acting as the hard-running, high-pressing target striker who lurks around the box and pulls defenders away to create space for others. Her replacements haven't shown the same instinct or physicality, so there are doubts over how effective they could be going forward without her.
In saying that, it is difficult to assess how much of Wellington's fatigued, disconnected performance against Perth -- especially between the midfielders and forwards -- was due to the early loss of Woods, or the extreme travel required to get there: up to 11 hours from New Zealand to Perth, including crossing four timezones.
The team arrived a few days early to try and adjust, but the late kick-off time meant the Phoenix players were on the pitch well into the early morning hours of their home city, and when your body and brain are working to a different rhythm, there's not much anyone can do about it.
Wellington are on the road again next week when they travel to Adelaide to face the Reds, before returning home to host Sydney FC and then crossing the ditch again to take on the Western Sydney Wanderers away. They've bounced back from bad starts before, can they do it again?
Moment of the weekend: The fastest goal already?
It took just 48 seconds for the Western Sydney Wanderers to tear Canberra United apart on Sunday with a neat series of zig-zag passes ending in Milly Bennett's opener in their comfortable 2-0 win.
The week ahead: A scheduling anomaly could be a blessing or a curse
Looking up next weekend's matches online, you'd be forgiven for thinking the platform you used was glitching. Just eight teams (in this 11 team league) are scheduled to play in Round 4, with three teams -- Sydney FC, Melbourne City, and Western Sydney -- all absent.
City are away in Uzbekistan competing in the AFC Women's Champions League, where they'll play three games in the space of a week before returning to face the Newcastle Jets in Round 5. By contrast, Sydney FC have their scheduled bye, which has come at the perfect time as they continue nursing their senior players through the injuries that have kept them sidelined.
In another fun quirk of the scheduling, Western Sydney were due to play City in Round 4, but due to the Champions League, have had their game moved to early January. They then have their bye the following week, meaning they'll miss two weekends in a row of football. Will this be a useful period to continue building chemistry amongst their brand new group? Or will they be frustrated that their recent two-game winning momentum will now be interrupted by half a month with no competitive fixtures?
In what feels like a poorly-planned calendar, this break for three of the league's teams comes just as Matildas head coach Joe Montemurro will be finalising his squad to take on Colombia in a two-game series at the end of November: a golden opportunity, you'd have thought, for any stand-out A-League players to make their arguments for inclusion in the squad for games on home soil.
On the flip side, perhaps these teams' absences will clear the air for the Dub's remaining eight sides to shine, with four of them -- Canberra, Brisbane, Newcastle, and Adelaide -- still looking for their first wins of the season.
With just two A-League players (two goalkeepers, no less) called into the last Matildas camp, the pipeline from the Dub to the national team appears to be getting slimmer and slimmer. These next few weeks, then, will be the clearest indication yet of just how seriously the league is considered by the Matildas' coaching staff, and whether their return to Australia can help boost interest in the competition as it enters the summer months.
In case you missed it
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- Marcotti's Musings: Arsenal got a big win at Liverpool, but why no Isak penalty?
- Ogden: Why Man United are so bad at hiring managers post-Ferguson