Poletti 
The All Stars and Chelsea players in action. Photo Credit: Wilde Imagery/Round Ball Australia
On Wednesday night at Allianz Stadium, Chelsea defeated the A-League Women All Stars side 3-0 in a game that was over as a contest almost as soon as it started.
A stunning strike from Sandy Baltimore that would be a goal of the season contender if it was a league game opened the scoring nine minutes in, before Sjoeke Nüsken added a second for Chelsea in the 12th minute, with the third goal coming in the second half from Lexi Potter.
The players took the game itself seriously at points, but for the most part it felt like every bit of a pre-season friendly where everyone looked like they were trying not to get hurt, which is entirely understandable.
So what did the game actually achieve to help the A-League Women, a competition where the players are still semi-professional and currently locked in Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) negotiations with the league?
When the game was announced in December 2025, Matildas stars Sam Kerr and Ellie Carpenter were all over the advertising, before Kerr departed to sign with Gotham in the NWSL, whilst one could be forgiven for fantasy booking the likes of Holly McNamara, Isabel Gomez, and Leah Davidson in the All Stars squad.
Unfortunately, as soon as the season was completed, most of the leagues best players and biggest stars departed for overseas opportunities leaving the best of the rest, who are all quality players, to make up the squad, although with some rather striking absences who would definitely meet the definition of ‘All Star.’
The jerseys looked and felt like a walking billboard for Ninja, while the game itself was played in an at best half-empty stadium with most of the second tier and the entire top-tier of seating blocked off.
Ultimately, the game provided a pay-day for the players, who are not contracted to their A-Leagues clubs in the off-season owing to the leagues semi-professional nature, and it served as a quality advertisement for the league itself.
For the All Stars and Melbourne Victory coach Jeff Hopkins, he said he loved the concept and that the opportunity for the best A-League Women players to showcase what the league is all about is not a bad thing, but it is also about how events like these can grow crowds.
“How we move and try and get those people that come to these games, [the] Matildas still packing places out, but then we’re still only getting 1500, 2000 people coming to watch us,” Hopkins said.
“It’s trying to make that link that we are good, we do have a really good product.
“The more that we play these games, the more we take them seriously, the better we prepare for these games, then maybe in time we start [to] get a little bit closer, and then maybe beating some of these teams as well.
“It’s a dilemma really. It doesn’t seem to be rolling over into bigger crowds. I think the game is strong. It’s a good quality product, but it’s just not drawing the support at the moment.”
Leticia McKenna said that it was amazing and hoped that the attention Chelsea bring from across the world will transition into the A-League Women when the season gets underway after the show and performance the All Stars put on.
“We want crowds. We want people there. We want to engage with fans. We want it to be a exciting and fun experience for everyone.
“Hopefully we can see more support from the crowds and as players we can bring that in.”
Photo supplied by Bursty for TEG Sport.
What comes next is the most important part. Can the league turn some of the Chelsea fans who turned up to watch their team into viewers of the A-League Women?
How does the domestic game attract the Matildas fans that mostly care and follow the national team who turned up to watch Ellie Carpenter?
Has this game helped unearth the leagues next big domestic star with the likes of Kayla Morrison, Aideen Keane, Leticia McKenna, Mackenzie Hawkesby and countless others showcasing their skill-sets throughout the game at a high standard against world class opposition?
Or will it be consigned to being ‘just a match that happened’ two months from now when the next season is currently scheduled to kick-off?
Regardless of whatever the answer is to any of the above questions, the game itself was fun and provided some moments of entertainment. Maybe at the end of the day that is all one can ask for.
Listen to the latest episode of The Dubcast, Round Ball Australia’s Women’s Football podcast on Spotify, Apple, or watch on YouTube, with new episodes weekly.