As Calder United and South Melbourne prepare to do battle in the 2022 Nike FC Cup Final, you could be forgiven for believing that history is in the making.
Calder United are attempting to claim their fifth Cup win in succession, and while they may be on an undisputed streak in the NPLW era, they are not the first club to establish such Cup dominance.
The very first Cup competition organised by the Victorian Women’s Soccer Association was in 1974, a pivotal year in the birth of organised Women’s football in Victoria. Green Gully were the inaugural winners, defeating Melton 2-1 in a mud-fest courtesy of a Hazel Donovan brace at Churchill Reserve. Gully would play in a further three consecutive finals between 1976 and 1978, and it was the last of those where the first steps towards record breaking history were made.
Greensborough SC had already stamped their authority on Women’s football by this point and were one of the first genuinely gender inclusive clubs of that fledgling era. Borough had notched back-to-back wins in the Cup in 1975-1976 along with a hat-trick of League titles by the time they faced Gully in the 1978 Cup Final, which they won in a thrilling contest 3-2. Women’s football was on a steady growth curve by now, with fourteen teams across two divisions featuring perennial bridesmaids North Dandenong, Green Gully, Richmond Alemannia (Second Division Champions in 1978), Ringwood City and South Melbourne Hellas.
But it was Greensborough who took all before them. Featuring a cavalcade of stars including legendary pioneers Shona Bass, Janette Melvin and Andrea Martin, they dispensed with all challengers to claim both the League and Cup competition in every season between 1978 and 1983. Their Cup final victories featured multiple wins over South Melbourne (1980 and 1981) and North Dandenong (1979 and 1982) before they claimed their sixth consecutive trophy with a win over Rowville in 1983. North Dandenong would finally break their dominance the following year and within three years, Greensborough were essentially no more as the Greek Cypriot community moved in and relocated the club to Victory Park in Moorabbin.
North Dandenong and Coburg (also now part of amalgamated entities in Dandenong City and Moreland City respectively) would share a couple of Cup wins throughout the remainder of the decade, before Box Hill (1990), Berwick City (1992 and again in 1995) and Cranbourne Comets (1996) etched their names on the Cup for the first time. There are probably more wins which can be attributed to any of those clubs, but records for this period are sketchy at best.
Winners of the VWSA Cup are yet to be determined for 1988, 1993, 1994, 1997 and 1998, the last of the years where Women’s Soccer Victoria was administering women’s football as a separate entity. Even after the Victorian Soccer Federation merger, there is still some debate as to whether a Cup was held in 2001 or 2002, or if wins by South Melbourne (2003) and Keilor Park (2004) were genuine Cup competitions or merely pre-season trophies.
Much like its counterpart in the Dockerty Cup, Women’s Cup competition went into recess for an extended period until 2012 witnessed a rebirth in the form of the State Knockout Cup. Box Hill United defeated Bundoora United courtesy of goals to Kat Smith (soon to embark on a Head Coach role with Western Sydney Wanderers) and former Gold Medal winner Georgia Koutrouvelis. Sandringham, FC Bulleen Lions, Boroondara Eagles and Heidelberg United continued a trend of a different winner every season until the arrival of Calder United as the dominant force in Women’s football. With Mark Torcaso at the helm, the Calder have amassed 26 wins and just one loss since their debut in the competition. Aside from 2003, South Melbourne will be appearing in their seventh Cup Final across all incarnations of the Cup, their fourth in the modern era.
The clubs have met twice in the Nike FC Cup, their first appearance in the third round in 2019 resulted in a 4-1 win to Calder United at Keilor Park Recreation Reserve, with goals to Emma Robers, Angie Beard, Catherine Zimmerman and Polly Doran rounding out a comprehensive display. The same margin separated both teams in the Nike FC Cup Final last year. After a tightly contested first half, United blew the game open in the second period with a brace to Aleksandra Sinclair and a long-range stunner from Montana Mathews confirming a 3-0 victory.