The 2009 W-League draw has been released, with the Jets set to open their season away against Adelaide United on 5 October.

Newcastle’s first home match is against Sydney FC at EnergyAustralia Stadium on October 17.

The entire draw can be downloaded from the link below.

W-League draw

Newcastle Jets have secured a home semi final against Canberra United in the W-League. The Jets needed at least a draw away to Perth today to secure a home semi and finished with a 0-0 draw this afternoon at Members Equity Stadium.

Both teams had chances to open the scoring in the first half, but failed to test the keeper on many occassions.

Kate Gill and Joanne Peters both had good opportunities in the second half to win the game for Newcastle, but the Perth keeper, Luisa Marzatto, denied them on both occassions.

Emily van Egmond also had a chance in injury time, but was unable to hit the taget.

Newcastle finished the W-League season in 2nd position, while Perth claimed 7th spot.

Newcastle now take on Canberra United in the semi final on Saturday January 10 at EnergyAustralia Stadium.

A win by Newcastle Jets on Saturday means the club has secured a spot in the inaugural W-League final series. The Jets defeated Sydney 2-0 and are to finish either second or third, thus avoiding minor premiers Queensland.

Sydney FC were looking forward to this home away from home clash, where strangely Newcastle were the home team playing away in western Sydney, some 100kms or so away from their own city. Yet, Sydney’s star striker, Leena Khamis was struggling of late and had not made an impact since the Round 5 clash with the Mariners, and this was the time for her to get back in form.

Sydney did open the game the keener for action, yet for all their work in those first fifteen minutes, it was all to be undone through two strikes from Newcastle’s Katie Gill. Her first came from a shot from distance after 21 minutes and not too long after Gill outmuscled Sydney’s Lisa Gilbert and toe-poked the ball home.

Sydney did have some chances, the best probably coming to Khamis, yet when she did beat the opposing ‘keeper, Rebecca Smith came to her aid clearing the ball as it was just touching the line.

Adelaide United turned things around on Sunday afternoon at Wanderers Oval, Broadmeadow, a week after a humiliating 6-0 drubbing at the hands of Central Coast Mariners at Hindmarsh Stadium, but their improved showing was not enough to wrestle away any points from an ever-stronger Newcastle Jets side.

Reds’ coach, Mike Barnett, made a number of changes to his starting eleven, including leaving our veteran Sharon Black and bringing in goalkeeper Sian McLaren.

“She would have played last week, ironically, but she was injured and she did very well today,” he said after the game.

“She caught everything and it was a very pleasing performance.

We’ll never know if McLaren would have let in the six goals the unfortunate Emma Wirkus conceded in Adelaide, but on this showing by the promising young keeper it would have seemed unlikely.

Barnett left out not only Black, but Sarah Amorim, Donna Cockayne and Lauren Chilvers, bringing in Leanne Slater, Rachael Quigley and Tanya Harrison, the latter pair having come off the bench against Central Coast after the break. Cockayne was given the last half hour in this match.

In swirling winds that could have defeated better sides Adelaide showed a lot of composure and some good passing skills to run the Jets as close as anyone else has at the home of Broadmeadow Magic, Wanderers Oval the home of Macedonian football in the Hunter.

“We didn’t really notice the wind too much,” said Reds’ skipper Di Alagich. “It made things difficult but we didn’t let it distract us.”

Adelaide had taken a 17th minute lead through a twice-taken Victoria Balomenos penalty, following a push on Alagich by Rebecca Smith.

After an original encroachment, when the first attempt was parried and then bundled home at the second attempt by Balomenos, referee Corey Lee indicated an infringement.

Jets’ stand-in captain, Joanne Peters, paid tribute to her opponents

“Full credit to Adelaide in coming here determined to get something out of the game.”

“They showed they had lots of flexibility.

Jets’ coach, Gary Phillips, was also relieved to see his side emerge with the points.

“I wasn’t sure about that encroachment for their penalty,” he said

“Once again we had to come from behind to win it, though, which we are making a habit of doing at Wanderers Oval.”

“We have had to do without Cheryl (Salisbury, the team captain) for a couple of games as she has had a bit of a calf problem which is only just coming right again.

“She should be 100 per cent for the Finals, though.

“It’s good to see we are playing good football, week-in, week-out.

Phillips said he and Salisbury were taking the team together now.

Asked why her name was showing on the team sheet as well as his, under the coach’s name, he joked about it.

“We both run the team at the moment,” he said.

Winning a few early corners, which were well dealt with by the Adelaide defence and an increasingly dominant McLaren, Newcastle found themselves a goal down after some excellent lead up work from an Adelaide side well-drilled in their passing, especially on the approaches to goal.

A Katie Gill header for the Jets, in the fifth, was saved convincingly by McLaren and a free kick from Stacey Day in the sixth and a speculator from Peters in the seventh both went wide before the Reds struck.

After the penalty had been put away nicely for Adelaide, Gill put another free kick narrowly over the bar in the 19th.

Adelaide might well have punished that home side profligacy when, in the 29th, Sandra Scalzi got down the right and from a very tight angle forced Alison Logue into saving superbly at her near post.

“Alison has been great for us this season,” enthused Phillips. “She has really come on tremendously.”

A wonderful strike from Rebecca Smith brought the side level again in the 36th.

Newcastle had eclipsed Adelaide with some magic approach work and a bamboozled Reds’ rearguard could not clear their lines.

Smith, from well outside the area, hit a sweet right-footer that for once McLaren was unequal to.

The ball flew into the top left corner of the net to the relief of the Jets’ bench as the wind had favoured the visitors in the first period and they had appeared the more likely to strike the second blow.

As expected Newcastle had the Adelaide defence under pressure after the break, but gradually the visitors clawed their way back and made a great game of it.

McLaren claimed a left-footed Peters’ volley in the 51st competently and seven minutes later Scalzi clipped a good chance over the bar at the other end.

But the Jets were playing well and muscling their way to midfield supremacy by this stage.

Emily van Egmond struck the right hand upright in the 68th and it looked as if the home team would soon claim the prize.

This they did in the 79th, after an Adelaide corner had looked promising, but broke down and the visitors could not get back quickly enough.

Salisbury, by then on as a substitute, combined well with Gill and linked with van Egmond, who laid the ball back for Peters.

The skipper-for-the-day unleashed one of her typically powerful left-footers from just inside the area that found the top left corner of McLaren’s net and kept the Newcastle women right on course for a Finals’ berth.

“We still have some work to do,” said Phillips. “But we are getting into form at the right end of the season so I hope we can keep improving.”

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Newcastle Jets held competition leaders Sydney FC to a 1-1 draw in a hard-fought and open encounter at Campbelltown Stadium.

The league’s top scorer Leena Khamis netted three minutes after the interval but Katie Gill’s equaliser mid-way through the second half ensured the first ever draw of the Westfield W-League.

A first half arm-wrestle gave way to an open second half with both teams creating a number of quality goalscoring opportunities.

The Jets could have scored in the opening minutes of the match when a corner swung in from the left was flicked on by Cheryl Salisbury with Stacey Day twice denied in the ensuing melee.

Sydney FC replied with a Kylie Ledbrook free kick from distance that flew over the crossbar, with Servet Uzunlar also letting fly with the similar result.

On the half hour Khamis was put clear but she pulled her shot wide under pressure from Salisbury.

Sydney had a golden opportunity to break the deadlock late in the half but Khamis overhit her pass to Linda O’Neill who only had the goalkeeper to beat.

The best chance of the half fell right on the stroke of half time with Salisbury’s pinpoint cross from the left flank met expertly by Katie Gill but her header narrowly cleared the crossbar landing on the roof of the net.

Khamis broke the deadlock just after the break when she made good connection with a volley that took a massive deflection off Salisbury, wrong-footing Logue and looping into the goal. It was Khamis’ fifth goal in four starts to keep her at the top of the league’s goalscorers’ chart.

Midfield dynamo Uzunlar was inches away from being rewarded for a player of the match performance but her rasping shot from just outside the area narrowly cleared the right post.

Newcastle equalised mid-way through the second half with Gill displaying great strikers instinct to latch onto a loose ball and bury her shot into the far corner from 20 metres for her third goal of the season.

Khamis could have given her side the lead for a second time when she sprung the offside trap, and although Logue made a partial save, it took a last-ditch goal-line clearance from Gema Simon to maintain parity.

The action opened up further as the match wore on with play moving from end to end as fatigue set in on the sandy pitch.

Substitute Jessica Seaman could have won it for Sydney FC with virtually the last kick of the game but her snapshot went narrowly wide.

“I though it was a fairly even game, but I felt we shaded them in terms of chances and shots and thought we probably deserved a 2-1 or 3-1 victory,” said Sydney FC coach Alen Stajcic.

“We are still carrying a few injuries, and have to get through the next couple of weeks with the players we have got, who all did quite well today.”

“We will get the likes of Heather Garriock and Sarah Walsh back and am sure we will be a threat to the competition.”

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The first weekend of Westfield W-League action included a match at Broadmeadow Magic’s revamped Magic Park, officially Wanderers Oval, though there is nothing remotely oval about this excellent facility nurtured by Newcastle’s Macedonian community.

The women of Newcastle Jets had new club Canberra United to contend with for their initiation and it promised to be a baptism of fire.

When Jets’ captain, Cheryl Salisbury, guarding the near post for a second minute Christine Walters’ corner from the left, stuck out a foot and turned the ball into her own net things looked grim for the home side, conceding agoal so soon after the start, but the locals recovered well.

They went on to beat Canberra 2-1, though most present would probably agree that the visitors were the better side on the day.

Officially the Canberra goal was credited to Sasha McDonnell, though it was hard to see how, even allowing for our view being blocked by late-arriving spectators standing in front of the media rooms, as the crowd built pleasingly to around 1,100 by Broadmeadow Magic officials’ estimates.

Newcastle took a while to settle but did produce the next real chance, as Canberra appeared to play within themselves, having taken an unexpected early lead.

In the eleventh minute the familiar figure of Katie Gill, who was later to score a brace and troubled the Canberra defence all afternoon, put what looked an excellent chance over the bar.

Canberra found their own first opportunity three minutes later when Kara Mowbray, getting away down the right, laid on a pass for Amy Chapman, whose shot was claimed down low by resolute Jets’ keeper, Alison Logue, who was to go on and make many more saves as the game wore on and become a real thorn in the side of the team in green.

Newcastle counter-attacked well in the 21st with Salisbury skipping clear into the Canberra box. While the ball was stuck away by Emily Van Egmond, after the Salisbury shot had been booted clear, the assistant’s flag had been raised for offside.

Three minutes later, however, Gill found the net legitimately, after Canberra had failed to press home their advantage in possession and the Newcastle strategy of attacking on the break yielded its first dividend.

Gill used her physical presence to get the better of the last defender to tuck the ball nicely past Lydia Willams to make it 1-1 at half time.

A Canberra corner two minutes after the restart, again from Walters, was played short to McDonnell whose cut-back to Caitlin Munoz was headed just over the bar.

The Canberra side was still looking the more likely winner at this stage.

A good chance went begging in the 52nd after Chapman on the right had provided McDonnell with the opening but the striker lacked conviction on this occasion.

A super-save from the busy Logue in the Newcastle goal denied Munoz in the 60th after Mowbray had once more done the spade work.

Canberra’s 58th minute substitute, Ashleigh Sykes, a member of the Young Matildas squad heading to Kuala Lumpur right after this match – Bronwyn Studman, Cian Maciejewski, Van Egmond and Samantha Wood also going there from those playing in this contest – showed great speed and strength to get past her markers on the right only to be thwarted by the cool presence of Logue once more.

It looked as if Canberra would go on with it but they lost a player to injury after making their last substitution and this could have been the catalyst that allowed Newcastle to win the game in the 82nd with another Salisbury goal, also on the break.

Right at the end, after seeing Logue frustrate them continually, Canberra had once last chance to take at least a point but skipper, Ellie Brush, volleyed just over the bar.

It was a great success, this first Westfield W-League game, played at Broadmeadow, as the crowd on a sunny, very warm afternoon exceeded all expectations and provided a tremendous atmospher

If all games in this new league can attract similar interest and support then Westfield has a winner.

NBN cameras were there to record the game played on a pitch lush with grass after a full winter of football played on it in the NBN League by Broadmeadow Magic and their opponents.

Only disappointing note was the lack of a match programme for the spectators who had forked out $5 to watch. Getting to know the names of the players is part and parcel of following a team and having their names on the back of their shirts is not always enough.

Newcastle may not have had the majority of the play but they played it tactically smart, had an excellent keeper and some highly experienced players in their ranks. Getting off to a winning start was great for the supporters and showed that coach, Gary Phillips, had his team well prepared for the opening fixture.

After the game participants from both teams talked freely with the media.

Newcastle coach, Gary Phillips, stated that “We have not had a good preparation but I still had a lot of confidence going into this game. I felt that the experienced player we had in the team would carry us through. We’re a bit under-done and we won’t be at our best probably until four or five rounds of the season. We should be OK then.”

Newcastle’s goalscorer, Katie Gill, said “It was good to be back here and after only 24 hours to recover from our flight it was never going to be easy. The crowd today was tremendous.”

Robbie Hooker, the Canberra coach, said “We had plenty of chances and there were a few tired bodies when it was all over. Caitlin has done her medial ligaments and Sasha (McDonnell) has a swollen ankle. It was a pretty physical match”.

“It just became sort of apparent, the old scenario, that the one just get two really good chances and score and the other team would have a thousand chances but just couldn’t score any,” added Hooker.

“I think [Jets' Coach] Gary [Phillips] will be the first to admit they dodged a bullet today, but there will be games this year I think we’ll will be lucky to get away with that, that’s football.”

“I don’t think they had any more experienced players out there than we did. That was not how they ended up winning the match,” he said when asked if he agreed with Phillips that his Newcastle team’s greater depth of experience was the deciding factor.

Canberra’s Thea Slatyer said that “It was quite physical and rough and a really fast game.” “My spirits aren’t down from that [performance] at all. It was really tough and the girls did a really good job, I’m really proud of them,” said Canberra United’s vice-captain. “We haven’t had a lot of preparation as a whole squad and I think we did really good job of gelling and playing together and I can’t wait to play again with the girls.”

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