Cortnee Vine’s Sydney FC departure another wake-up call for the A-League Women

Some things are just not meant to last.

When Sydney FC confirmed the departures of Charlotte McLean and Cortnee Vine, it felt more like an inevitability.

The hope of somehow retaining Matildas hero Vine for another year seemed more and more like wishful thinking as time went on during the 2023-24 A-League Women season.

After 11 goals and six goal assists, Vine had clearly reached a point of being perhaps too good for the A-League to truly challenge herself and needed a new opportunity.

Internally, Sydney FC were shocked they were capable of re-signing Vine after the Women’s World Cup. It was such a sizable coup, and the Sky Blues seemed to know it would be one last hurrah.

Importantly for Sydney and the league, she delivered on and off the pitch. Crowds boomed wherever she went, she embraced her role as the marquee player with the media, and Sydney had their first true “bums on seats” marquee player since the days of Alessandro Del Piero.

The club knew it had an uphill battle to retain her for a further season and felt it could not stand in the way of her needing to take the next step in her career, alongside McLean. This is half of the story.

The other half is something that has been bubbling under the surface for years: the A-League Women simply is not keeping up with the pace of increasing professionalism around the world.

During Vine’s final outings as a Sydney FC player, she warned of the issues with professionalism in the game, saying money needed to be pumped into the game by both the Australian Professional Leagues and governments.

As the league’s marquee woman, this was a risky statement to make but an important one, and something she should be commended for. Unfortunately, despite a lot of good progress made in the last four years, it has not been fast enough and is nowhere near where it could and should be.

Australia is a powerhouse at international level, yet the star players in our domestic league that birthed Sam Kerr, Caitlin Foord, and Vine, are getting changed in carparks still and forced off the pitch for double headers with the men.

While several of the clubs have made huge strides in the last few years, the reality is the competition is hamstrung by money and resources. Some clubs take their women’s program seriously; others put a team together because they must, packing the staff with old boys with limited women’s football experience.

Keeping stars will require selling the lifestyle more than ever in lieu of proper pay they can get overseas. The new United States League (the second tier behind the National Women’s Soccer League) has poached several A-League Women players with salaries of US$75,000 (AU$112,000) per season.

On Saturday, Vine was confirmed to have signed for NWSL club North Carolina Courage on a three-year deal.

She may end up earning less in the United States than she did in the A-League Women under her marquee deal, but for the price of professionalism – such as access to full-time physios, sports scientists, coaching staff, facilities, and long-term stability – it’s a small price to pay.

The APL needs to see Vine’s warning and subsequent departure as a wakeup call, or risk being left behind, constantly chasing what overseas leagues achieved five years earlier.

As Vine herself told media after Sydney FC’s Grand Final win in May:

“No one’s going to come to Australia unless that’s what it is (professional). Nothing happens until we invest more”.