'It's everyone's dream': Canberra United players back ALW expansion, full home and away fixture calls

Grace Maher, Emma Ilijoski and Laura Hughes echoed their coach Vicki Linton's comments from last week that a full home and away fixture list was needed, following the release of the upcoming season's draw.

Those hoping for such will be forced to wait at least another ALW season, as the 2021-22 draw fell four games short of achieving it.

Despite an expanded 10-team league to include Wellington Phoenix, Canberra will only face the New Zealand side, the two Sydney teams and Melbourne City once, due to the lack of a full home-and-away season.

Maher, 22, is entering her eighth ALW season - her sixth with United - and hoped she would be around for the day the competition was expanded.

"I think that's everyone's dream to be able to play full-time, home and away, and if they can figure out a way for it to be a full year. That's everyone's dream. To have that would be my dream and I would love to, and I hope to, be a player in the league when it happens," she said.

"Unfortunately we've seen players having to go overseas to get that and I think if we were to implement that, you'd see a lot of incredible talent come back to Australia and attract new talent from overseas. Because it is a great league, it's a secure league and we are looked after well."

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APL, who took over the ALW from Football Australia last year, have rebranded all three competitions to fall under one A-Leagues banner, expanded the league to include Wellington, vowed two more teams would join the competition by 2023 and have promised a full home-and-away fixture was on the cards in future.

But it will not come to fruition during the 2021-22 season.

Hughes, 22, who is entering her fifth season in green, backed the call from fans and players to deliver a full fixture list.

"It's definitely been coming, hopefully one day," the midfielder said.

"It would be so great to have a full home-and-away season here. It would just make the league better and stronger, it would bring more players in and the quality of it would be so much better. So I'm really excited for that to happen one day."

Defender Emma Ilijoski, entering her second ALW season, backed the APL's decision to ditch the W-League and Y-League titles.

"Putting it under one banner is super exciting. And it's just going to mean that we get to play and get a lot of confidence that the women's game is really improving and we've seen that over the past couple of years, so every step we take each year is going make a big difference. So this is a really exciting one for sure," she said.

The 18-year-old is part of the future of the ALW and backed her teammates' comments.

"That'd be absolutely amazing. Obviously, around the world women's football is getting a lot better. So to be able to see Australia on that same path as well. It would be amazing for the A-League Women's and it's not far away," she said.

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