{"id":7289,"date":"2026-05-08T06:14:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T06:14:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/7289\/"},"modified":"2026-05-08T06:14:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T06:14:09","slug":"hopkins-dont-rule-victory-out-with-grand-final-spot-on-the-line","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/7289\/","title":{"rendered":"Hopkins: Don’t rule Victory out with Grand Final spot on the line"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jeff Hopkins is hoping to inspire his team to a Leg 2 comeback this weekend.<\/p>\n

Melbourne Victory make the short trip across Melbourne to face their crosstown rivals in a Ninja A-League Finals Series Semi-Final decider.<\/a><\/p>\n

The Girls in Blue, despite a battling effort at AAMI Park, trail by a single goal heading to ctrl:cyber Pitch on Saturday, May 9, kick-off 2pm AEST.<\/p>\n

But the 62-year-old is confident that this week\u2019s time spent on the training track, and the injection of some added belief from reminding them of past comebacks, including their own miraculous one against Central Coast Mariners in December, can be a recipe for success.<\/p>\n

Speaking during his pre-match press conference, Hopkins salivated over the prospect of upsetting Melbourne City\u2019s Championship dreams.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had a really productive week. We looked at maybe doing things that will allow us to be on the front foot a little bit more in terms of the way that we\u2019re going to play, and then we\u2019ll see where we go. We know we\u2019re capable of doing it, and we know that we\u2019ve done it before, and there\u2019s no reason why we can\u2019t turn this around and go on and win the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey understand as well that this game of football is actually made for days like this, for comebacks and teams to be a goal down and come back. That\u2019s why the game is such a good game to watch. You\u2019re never out of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Head Coach, Jeff Hopkins, during Leg 1.<\/p>\n

Joining the Head Coach on pre-match media duties was Rachel Lowe, who earlier this week was crowned 2026 Victory medallist,<\/a> and Hopkins gave a glowing assessment of the midfielder\u2019s performances this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cRight from the word go, she\u2019s had that confidence about the way she goes about her game. She\u2019s probably one of, or if not, our most gifted technical players. She understands the game really well. And this year, she\u2019s been really consistent in the way she\u2019s gone about things. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was very, very close, obviously, but thoroughly deserved. She\u2019s been excellent this year and very consistent as well, so really pleased for her too. She puts a lot into the game, she works really hard, and she loves the game itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jeff Hopkins is hoping to inspire his team to a Leg 2 comeback this weekend. Melbourne Victory make…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7290,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[850,3911,260,332,851,376],"class_list":{"0":"post-7289","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\/7289","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=7289"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7289\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}