![\"Holly](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/4JOJ2ZX_20260516175993054430_original_jpg.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\nHolly McNamara puts a goal past Phoenix keeper Vic Esson in the A-League women’s grand final.
\nPhoto: JOEL CARRETT\/AAP\n<\/p>\n
The Wellington Phoenix women’s record-breaking season has ended with a heavy loss in the grand final.<\/p>\n
In their 100th A-League game, the Phoenix lost to Melbourne City 3-1 at Melbourne’s AAMI Park to hand the Premiers’ Plate winners another trophy.<\/p>\n
The result followed the form guide, as the Phoenix had never beaten City in eight previous games, but the margin was wider than it had ever been.<\/p>\n
This was the first season that the Phoenix played playoff football and City’s experience at this end of the season showed, as the club won a fifth championship title – and the first since 2020.<\/p>\n
The video assistant referee (VAR) was available for the first time in a women’s A-League final and was called on less than five minutes into the match, when a review was required to determine if Phoenix goalkeeper Vic Esson had fouled a City player, but no penalty was given.<\/p>\n
City continued to test the Phoenix defence and nearly had the first goal of the game in the 36th minute, but the competition’s leading goalscorer, Holly McNamara, was ruled offside.<\/p>\n
McNamara did get her first goal since February – and her 13th of the season – with a looping shot that cleared Esson to take a 1-0 lead in the 40th minute. One minute later, she had her second goal and City were ahead 2-0 at the break.<\/p>\n
Leticia McKenna scored City’s third goal four minutes into the second half, as the hosts did not let up.<\/p>\n
The Phoenix claimed a consolation goal, when striker Makala Woods pounced on a rebound of a save in the 52nd minute.<\/p>\n
Read how the grand final unfolded, below:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Holly McNamara puts a goal past Phoenix keeper Vic Esson in the A-League women’s grand final. Photo: JOEL…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":430500,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[48,47,42,43,49,46,44,45,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-430499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-audio","tag-current-affairs","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-podcasts","tag-public-radio","tag-radio-new-zealand","tag-rnz","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=430499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430499\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/430500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=430499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=430499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=430499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}