A huge thanks to Jellis Craig North East for presenting this weekend’s match report.
The first match after the first loss was always going to tell us something. What it told us, in the end, was that ten minutes is all Isobel Berks needs when the Redbacks Women turn up with the right answer, even from a goal down.
Anicka Castaneda opened the scoring for Southern on three minutes. By thirteen, Berks had answered with a hat-trick. By the time the contest had settled into anything resembling shape, the visitors led 3-1 at Inez Hunter Reserve and the rest of the evening was about whether the response was real or temporary. Paige Foa’s goal on 75 minutes confirmed it was the former.
The opening exchange was extraordinary. Castaneda struck inside three minutes to put the home side ahead, with every reason to think the contest was set up for them. Berks then made the next ten minutes her own. Her equaliser on seven cancelled the home advantage. Her second on nine put Eltham in front. Her third on thirteen turned a competitive away fixture into a lead the home side could not afford to chase from. Three goals, one player, ten minutes, after going a goal down inside three.
Half time arrived with the Redbacks 3-1 up and the question shifting from whether the response was coming to whether it could be sustained. Last weekend’s afternoon at The Web ended with Brunswick Juventus scoring six. The defensive question Brunswick had asked was the one this evening had been framed around. Tiana Orfanidis and the back line answered it in the way these things have to be answered, with eighty more minutes of work after a 3-1 scoreline that should have invited Southern back into the contest.
The home side never quite got there. Eltham held the structure, restricted Southern to limited returns from possession, and waited for the moment to put the result beyond reach. Foa supplied it on 75 minutes, finishing for the fourth and arriving at the scoresheet for the second time in two rounds. Coach Jonathan Barrientos rotated through the bench as the closing minutes approached, with Maria Mesiti, Jorja Dimasi and finally Berks herself making way for fresh legs. The reception when Berks left the field on 84 minutes told the story of an evening she had effectively settled in the opening quarter-hour.
The wider table tells its own story now. Eltham sit second on seventeen points after eight rounds, with FC Clifton Hill on top with eighteen from one fewer match played. Bundoora United are third on sixteen from eight, Brunswick Juventus fourth on fourteen. The points-per-game picture keeps the Redbacks well inside the title conversation, and a result like this one matters as much for what it says about the squad as for the points themselves. The first loss had reframed the season. This evening reframed the framing.
Berks now has nine goals in seven matches, and the conversation around her has moved past hot start. She is the form forward in VPL Women, full stop. Foa has six and counting, and the partnership between the two continues to look like the kind of axis that decides the back end of seasons. The defence put six on the board last week and one this week, which is the only direction those numbers needed to move.
Round 9 brings Ringwood City to The Web on Saturday 9 May. Two unbeaten home runs are already in the bank this season. The squad will want a third.