Terrigal v East Gosford
The headline fixture of the opening round of the 2025 WPL season is none other than last year’s Grand Final rematch as the two most consistent teams in recent years meet for another blockbuster match with Terrigal hosting East Gosford at Duffy’s Oval on Sunday.
As far as winning seasons go, last year for Terrigal does not get much better as they were able to finish the year as treble winners taking home the honours of Association Cup winners, League Champions and Premiers of the WPL competition.
That marked the second straight year Terrigal were crowned the League Champions of the competition, and they were able to get redemption over East Gosford for their Grand Final loss in 2023, defeating them on the same stage a year after 1-0.
However, a lot has changed in the off-season at Terrigal as they now make way for a new era at the club run by Cait Walker as the head coach as she spoke about the difficulties she has faced since joining the club.
“Preseason has been a mixer of putting a new squad together, a new coaching team and working out team structure. The lack of having grounds to train on has been challenging for us and has made it hard to work on gameplay and formations.”
“This year we have integrated a lot of youth, as Terrigal had a strong under 18’s team last year, we have brought to WPL about five of those players into the squad. Having these girls mix into the team has been a smooth transition and the senior players have helped with the development of these girls.”
This extreme turnover of players has seen Walker come into a role where she must rebuild and rely on the promising youth of Terrigal along with the few senior players who remain at the club.
As she looks towards this weekend’s contest with heavyweight outfit East Gosford, Walker admits the odds are stacked against them. “This weekend will be a huge challenge as we have only two WPL girls from last year and one player returning from an ACL reconstruction.”
“Therefore, we expect East Gosford will be a force to be against, they are a strong team that has a lot of experience and have weapons all over the field.”
This young Terrigal side will be forced to sink or swim in their opening fixture as they face one of the competition favourites at home. Nonetheless, Walker is optimistic her squad can get the job done.
“For us to get the three points I think will come down to us playing above where we are at the moment. In saying that you never know how the ball will roll on any given day so we will see.”
East Gosford also welcome a new head coach for the 2025 season as the experienced John Jiggins parts ways with Kincumber for a new challenge at the mighty Rams. It was noted last season that Jorge Chavez would end his tenure at the conclusion of their season as the Rams looked to claim back-to-back Premiers with another Grand Final win over Terrigal.
Despite putting on a tremendous showing, East Gosford went down 1-0 in extra time as they were forced to watch Terrigal claim their third trophy for the season. Luckily for Jiggins, he was able to keep the core group of players that have built success at the club in recent years as he looks to take this side to the next level.
Ahead of his official debut as coach, Jiggins spoke on whether he feels there will be a weight on his shoulders to bring more success to this club. “Obviously there is pressure when you take on such a successful club, but we can only believe in what we are doing and what structures we have put in place. The players have helped that by buying into what I have brought to the club!”
Jiggins also mentioned, “Preseason was pretty good. Although we did not play any other premier teams, we managed to play three Division 1 teams which allowed us to work on our playing systems and gave us match fitness.”
Two players who will be eager to make their mark this weekend will be the Hogan sisters, Kelly and Chloe, especially Kelly who has proven to be one of the best attackers in this league when donning an East Gosford jersey.
East Gosford will look to hit the ground running, seeking revenge over Terrigal for that Grand Final defeat as Jiggins is expecting a brave and determined Terrigal outfit to take the park on Sunday afternoon.
“I’m expecting a real fight in our first game of the season. Like us Terrigal have a new coach and will be up for the challenge. You cannot take anyone lightly in this competition and we will go into the weekend showing just that. Respect!”
“To get the win on Sunday we need to play fast direct football. We will need to be solid in defence, dominate the midfield and be clinical in front of goal. We are looking forward to the challenge!”
Match Official – Steven Miklecic
Round 1 Fixtures –
