Heyman scores again to help Canberra top W-League with win vs. Melbourne City

Updated: May 17, 2023, 05:11 am

A season long flagged as an opportunity for the next generation of Australia's top female footballers, the opening week of the W-League instead saw Michelle Heyman's career resurrection take centre stage.

The former Matildas mainstay retired in 2019 after several injuries, before returning to Canberra United for the current season. Four days after netting a hat-trick in Canberra's 4-3 season opening win over Adelaide, Heyman was ever-threatening against reigning champions Melbourne City and made her dominance count in the 73rd minute of Sunday's 2-1 victory.

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The striker broke away from the City defence and caressed a curling shot into the top corner, later hinting a return to the Matildas fold ahead of the Olympics still drove her.

"Yeah definitely [Tokyo is on my mind]", Heyman told Fox Sports. "I think taking a year off was the best thing that could happen to me just to heal my body and now I feel better than ever.

"It's just nice to finally get back out there and have some fun and score a couple of goals. So I'm just going to continue to push every game and see where it can take me."

Canberra's Michelle Heyman has scored four goals in two W-League games since coming out of retirement.
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Matildas centre-back Jenna McCormick levelled the scores with a bullet header just three minutes later but it would be Canberra who had the last laugh.

With the final kick of the game, Nicki Flannery smacked a sublime long-range strike to claim all three points, sending United top and handing City their first defeat since the 2018-19 season.

Rado Vidosic's City had earlier in the week been lucky to escape with a 0-0 draw against a wasteful Brisbane.

Later on Sunday, Melbourne Victory and Brisbane settled for a 0-0 draw, with both teams spurning golden chances.

The game was soured midway through the first half when Victory defender Natalie Tathem suffered what appeared to be a serious knee injury.

Western Sydney snared their first points with a 2-1 win over Newcastle on Saturday. Wanderers forward Rosie Galea, 20, bagged a brace, with Jets veteran Tara Andrews also on the scoreboard.

The Wanderers had earlier lost to Sydney FC 3-0 on Wednesday, with Princess Ibini scoring a superb brace and former Wanderer Cortnee Vine also finding the back of the net.