2023–24 A-League Women

The 2023–24 A-League Women, known as the Liberty A-League for sponsorship reasons, was the sixteenth season of A-League Women, the Australian national women's soccer competition.

The season commenced on 14 October and had a full double round-robin regular season for the first time. The Grand Final was contested on 4 May 2024.

Central Coast Mariners re-joined the competition, having played in the first two seasons before exiting due to financial reasons.

Sydney FC were the defending premiers and champions, and successfully defended their championship. The premiers were Sydney's defeated opponent in the Grand Final, Melbourne City FC.

Ahead of the season, a new collective bargaining agreement was agreed, including a 20 percent increase to the salary cap, removing the cap of New Zealand players for Wellington Phoenix, and expanding the foreign player spots from 4 to 5, in line with the A-League Men competition.

With a total attendance of 284,551 as of 15 April 2024, the 2023–24 A-League Women season set the record for the most attended season of any women's sport in Australian history, with the season finishing with a final total attendance of 312,199.

Clubs

Stadiums and locations

Personnel and kits

Managerial changes

Transfers

Foreign players

Regular season

League table

Results

Individual matches are collated at each club's season article. Some fixtures in the first round were moved to larger venues following the success of the 2023 FIFA Women's World Cup.

Finals series

The finals series used the same format as A-League Men; run over four weeks, and involving the top six teams from the regular season. In the first week of fixtures, the third-through-sixth ranked teams played a single-elimination match, with the two winners of those matches joining the first and second ranked teams in two-legged semi-final ties; this was the first season that the A-League Women held two-legged semi-finals. The two winners of those matches met in the Grand Final. The previous format, which saw Sydney hosting the Grand Final until the 2024–25 season, was overturned in October 2023, reverting back to the higher-ranked semi-final winner hosting the match.

Bracket

Elimination-finals

Third-placed Western United, who qualified for successive finals series, played their first home finals match against sixth-placed Newcastle Jets (appearing in their first finals series since 2018). Newcastle took the lead 11 minutes in through Sarina Bolden until Western equalised by Alana Cerne. Bolden scored a penalty for Newcastle to take the lead into half-time, as Catherine Zimmerman score a penalty for Western to equalize again. In extra-time, Newcastle scored two further goals through Melina Ayres and Sophie Haban to win the match.

Fourth-placed Melbourne Victory hosted a finals match for the first time since 2020, against fifth-placed Central Coast Mariners who had not played in a finals series since 2009.

Semi-finals

Summary

Matches

Melbourne City won 6–0 on aggregate.

Sydney FC won 2–1 on aggregate.

Grand final

Regular season statistics

Top scorers

Hat-tricks

Key

• (H) Home team
• (A) Away team

End-of-season awards

The following awards were announced during half-time of the 2024 A-League Women grand final that took place on 4 May 2024.

• Julie Dolan Medal – Sophie Harding (Western Sydney Wanderers)
• Young Footballer of the Year – Daniela Galic (Melbourne City)
• Golden Boot Award – Michelle Heyman (Canberra United) (17 goals)
• Goalkeeper of the Year – Morgan Aquino (Perth Glory)
• Coach of the Year – Emily Husband (Central Coast Mariners)
• Referee of the Year – Casey Reibelt
• Fair Play Award – Melbourne City
• Goal of the Year – Cassidy Davis (Newcastle Jets v Western Sydney Wanderers, 5 November 2023)
• Save of the Year – Brianna Edwards (Wellington Phoenix)
• Playmaker of the Year – Alyssa Whinham (Wellington Phoenix)
• Fan Player of the Year – Mariana Speckmaier (Wellington Phoenix)

See also

References