As the A-League Women season winds its way through the finals, most of the league is staring down one of the longest offseasons in world football. Some teams will be licking their wounds, having just been knocked out of the postseason like Canberra and Adelaide. Others, like Sydney FC and Western Sydney Wanderers, will have known their seasons were over quite early on and had to reckon with that failure.
With the pages running out on season 2025-26, ESPN is handing out report cards for each team as their season ends. We're looking into the highlights, the lowlights and everything in between.
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Canberra United: C-
Once again, talk of how this season panned out for Canberra United can't be done without acknowledging the future of the team. It's another season where the team in green doesn't have any security looking ahead to next season. To their immense credit, they performed incredibly well once again this season, rising up the table compared with last season even if they exited at the same point come finals.
Michelle Heyman led the way with six goals but gems like Josie Aulicino, Bethany Gordon, and Sasha Grove shone. Sally James stood tall with five clean sheets. Antoni Jagarinec has proven to be a strong, capable coach, and if given the opportunity, Canberra United could build on their finals appearances. If they exist next season.
Adelaide United: C-
For the first time in club history, Adelaide United secured back to back finals appearances, an important milestone for a club which has only progressed to the postseason three times.
While they did regress both on the ladder -- falling from 3rd to 5th -- and in finals -- getting knocked out in the semifinals as opposed to the elimination final -- the campaign can still be viewed through a positive lens more than a negative one.
Ilona Melegh had a breakout season for the Reds. The 17-year-old played 12 games and kept five clean sheets, anchoring the equal fourth best defence in the league. Erin Healy continued to be important, leading the way up top with four goals while Chelsie Dawber had a team-high five assists.
As always, the Adelaide core is one of the most stable in the league and they'll be hoping to retain their finals place and go better next year.
Central Coast Mariners: D-
From the highs of a first championship to the lows of missing out on finals. The Mariners were the best example this campaign of success one season not guaranteeing success the next. While they flirted with making the postseason all the way until the final round, a win required but a 0-0 draw with Sydney the result, the team couldn't conjure the required magic to defend their title.
Annalise Rasmussen was having a breakout season for the Mariners, and it caught the attention of Juventus, with the Gosford product making the move to Italy in February. In her wake, she left a large goal-scoring hole which wasn't filled. It was always going to be hard to replicate the 2024-25 season but not making finals will be a big disappointment.
Perth Glory: D
Perth Glory's absence from the finals has extended into a seventh season -- the longest current drought in the league -- as the team from the west finished in eighth spot on the ladder.
Teresa Morrissey was a standout for the Glory, earning six clean sheets in 14 appearances. But the season as a whole was quite middling for Perth. Rola Badawiya top scored with five goals and the team as a whole scored the second fewest in the league behind the two Sydney sides who both scored only 18.
Some big changes are required for Perth to get back to the finals fold.
Newcastle Jets: D-
The Jets had moments of promise but struggled to put it together consistently as they finished the season in ninth spot. The return of Melina Ayres to start the campaign was huge and the striker played her role, top scoring for Newcastle with eight goals. She was well supported by the likes of Kelli Brown, Josie Allan, and Sophie Hoban in attack.
Meanwhile, Anna Leat was an excellent recruit on paper and lived up to that billing on the pitch, pulling off some great saves to keep Jets in matches and rescue a few points. However, the Jets still had the second-leakiest defence in the league.
Barring the 2023-24 season, a finish in the bottom quarter of the table has become the standard for the Jets.
Sydney FC: F
Last season, when Sydney FC missed the finals for the first time in league history, there was an assumption that maybe this was going to be an outlier, an exception to the rule of excellence that has defined the Sky Blues. But things went from bad to worse in 2025-26 for Sydney. They avoided a wooden spoon thanks to a fractionally better goal difference but won only four games all year, one less than the last placed Wanderers.
In February, long time head coach Ante Juric parted ways with the club in the middle of an 11-game winless streak but the damage had well and truly been done.
The emergence of Willa Pearson, while raising questions about how young is too young to debut, was a positive for the team. But as a long offseason stretches out before them, the changes are already being made with Hana Lowry securing a move to Norway and Tori Tumeth crossing the Pacific to play in Canada.
Western Sydney Wanderers: F
The ESPN preseason preview asked if the Wanderers had done enough in the offseason to avoid another wooden spoon. As many suspected, the answer turned out to be no. While they were only condemned to last place on the table thanks to a worse goal difference than their rivals, Sydney, it's little consolation.
The Wanderers added two wooden spoons to their collection following the men's bottom-placed finish. It's a sign that the issues that plague the women's team, while longer lasting, are affecting the whole of the club.
As always, there were occasional bright sparks in red and black but the prevailing theme for this season was a leaky defence, an inability to score goals, and no clear way out of this mess.
