Brisbane Roar W-League coach Jake Goodship says self-belief and some advice from a Roar legend helped his side break its winless run in style on the Gold Coast on Friday night.
Having drawn its first four matches, the Roar equalled its biggest-ever W-League win at Carrara, smashing six goals to hand Melbourne Victory their biggest-ever defeat.
Goals to Mariel Hecher and Tameka Yallop gave the Roar a 2-0 lead at the break, before Sharn Freier, Winonah Heatley and a brace from Emily Gielnik secured the win.
The victory — Roar’s biggest since 2009, when they beat Newcastle and Perth by the same score — came after the side opened their campaign with four successive draws.
Remaining unbeaten through that stage was a plus, but Goodship said his team kept the faith that results would come in an avalanche.
“The best thing about it was the players kept believing in what we are doing,” Goodship said.
“They didn’t want to listen to any outside noise about results.
Goodship has a strong squad to chose from, with Matildas greats Clare Polkinghorne and Tameka Yallop headlining the squad, although that quality has been punctuated by some impressive players stepping up from the National Premier Leagues.
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Goal scorers Hecher, Heatley and Freier all played in the second-tier National Premier Leagues (NPL) competition last season and have immediately made their mark on the squad.
“I think it shows the quality of the NPL that we have in Queensland, and the quality of coaching as well,” Goodship said.
“Two of those players [Hecher and Heatley] are from the Lions under Rob Askew, which is a credit to him, they’ve come straight in.
“They were ready to play straight away and that’s why they started and have been dominant in our starting 11.”
“They’ve all earned the respect of the experienced players, the Matildas, and they’ve done fantastically.”
While Brisbane has been dominating games in terms of chances created up to now, putting the ball in the net has been an issue prior to Friday’s avalanche of goals.
To help fix that, Goodship turned to a Roar legend.
Henrique played 168 times for the Roar in the A-League, scoring 40 goals on his way to two premierships and three championships.
“We bought Henrique in for a couple of sessions to work with Emily and a couple of the young players as well and the confidence he gave the players was incredible.
“Little techniques and little bits of advice that he can give having played at the highest level is priceless, and it paid off.
The Roar are now one of three teams yet to lose a game this season, along with ladder-topping Sydney and Canberra United.
However, despite the floodgates opening, Goodship is under no illusions that his side will need to remain switched-on if they are to stay in the hunt.
“The draw doesn’t get easier. We saw what happened to Victory, they beat City 6-0 and then lost their next two games, so for us, it’s really important to continue what we’re doing.
“We need to make sure that every player is performing every action at a better level and standard, so that when we create chances, we finish them off.
“We have the ability to hurt any team with the amount of chances we create.”
