{"id":2774,"date":"2026-05-01T07:41:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T07:41:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/2774\/"},"modified":"2026-05-01T07:41:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T07:41:09","slug":"hopkins-previews-special-finals-occasion-for-victory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/2774\/","title":{"rendered":"Hopkins previews ‘special’ Finals occasion for Victory"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jeff Hopkins is savouring the cut and thrust of Finals football yet again.<\/p>\n

No stranger to this time of the season, the four-time Championship-winning boss is looking to win his third as Melbourne Victory A-League Women\u2019s Head Coach, having delivered silverware in 2021 and 2022.<\/p>\n

The Girls in Blue\u2019s latest title tilt continues with a crunch Ninja A-League Women\u2019s Semi-Final (Leg 1) against Melbourne City<\/a> on Saturday, May 2, kick-off 5pm at AAMI Park.<\/p>\n

Each regular season meeting was a tight affair, with City winning a Round 10 clash 2-1 before the teams could not be split in a goalless draw at The Home of The Matildas in February.<\/p>\n

Speaking during his pre-match press conference, Hopkins looked at how the Melbourne Derby ingredient adds extra value to the Semi-Final stage.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese games are always big games. Looking at our games against City are always something special for us. I\u2019m sure it\u2019s the same for them as well. We\u2019re really looking forward to the game coming. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe had to wait three weeks for Canberra \u2013 this weekend seems to have come around really quickly. The girls have enjoyed the week, they\u2019re looking forward to the game, and the challenge that comes with playing Melbourne City.\u201d<\/p>\n

Victory reached the next stage of Finals thanks to an impressive 1-3 win away to Canberra United last Saturday, with Rachel Lowe opening the scoring before Ella O\u2019Grady netted a double.<\/p>\n

\"\"The Girls in Blue celebrating Rachel Lowe\u2019s opening strike at McKellar Park.<\/p>\n

In contrast, Premiers Plate winners City have had four weeks to wait for the showdown, but Hopkins is confident that his team have had prepared in the best way possible.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s how you use your time. If you use your time well, it\u2019s great having a lot of time to prepare. If you haven\u2019t, then you\u2019re in a bit of trouble. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll find that tomorrow, when that whistle goes, we\u2019ll see how well they\u2019ve been using their time and how well we\u2019ve been using ours.\u201d<\/p>\n

Watch Hopkins\u2019 full press conference below.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jeff Hopkins is savouring the cut and thrust of Finals football yet again. No stranger to this time…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2775,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[850,3911,260,332,851,376],"class_list":{"0":"post-2774","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-melbourne","8":"tag-finals","9":"tag-jeff-hopkins","10":"tag-melbourne","11":"tag-melbourne-victory","12":"tag-ninja-a-league","13":"tag-press-conference"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2774"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2774\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}