Prolific Avondale striker Hannah Wilkinson has been awarded the Senol NPLW Victoria New Balance Player of the Month, receiving the most votes from the commentary team after scoring and helping Avondale to win every match from Round 19-22.
It was a month to remember for Hannah Wilkinson. The New Zealand international was in red-hot form for Avondale, scoring six goals in her last four games, which included two braces against both Preston Lions and Essendon Royals.
Despite her impressive performances in the past month, Wilkinson humbly passed the praise onto her teammates, affirming, “as a forward you’re only as good as the players around you.”
“It’s just a reflection of our team, they’ve set me up for success and as long as I’m in the right place at the right time I can hopefully do my job and put the goals away.
“Getting Player of the Month is just an indication that we’ve got a damn good team.”
Wilkinson is in the hunt for the 2026 NPLW Golden Boot this season currently having played 21 games and scoring 19 goals this campaign, she sits joint-second with Bulleen’s Maja Markovski, eight goals behind league leader Kelli McGroarty of Essendon Royals.
In terms of the Golden Boot race, Wilkinson says she hasn’t focused on it indicating the importance is rather on wining matches than individual awards.
“The team organises for you to finish off the product and you get to be lucky enough to finish off that product. To me it’s more about winning, I just want to make sure we win week in, week out.
“It’s great to be in that list and if it comes from a by-product of winning then that’s awesome but most important to me is just to win.”
Avondale currently sit fourth in the NPLW with four games left to be played. Wilkinson states that securing a place in the finals series is ideal but it’s up to the playing group to get the job done.
“We just have to keep focusing on what we can do out there and getting as many wins as possible. We’ve been on a really good run at the moment; I think we have peaked as a team.
“We have got a couple of tough games coming up with South Melbourne and obviously Box Hill. I believe we can definitely keep going, we just need to keep going with what we are doing, being consistent defensively and attackingly as well.”
The captain has put in standout performances week in, week out for Avondale seeming like a match made in heaven, and yet it almost didn’t happen.
Wilkinson joined The Avengers on the last day of the transfer window after a last minute call with head coach Del Donnelly.
“I took a year off football and really missed it; it was a really good for opportunity from Avondale and it’s the best decision I’ve ever made. I think I’m enjoying being part of this team in particular, a really talented group of players, I enjoy it so much.”
Wilkinson has been pleasantly surprised with both the quality and the depth of the NPLW competition since joining this season.
“You’re getting the best players possible in Victoria and if you’re lucky enough you get some interstate players as well. When the A-League players come in and play during the off season that obviously increases the quality.
“We’ve definitely got some talent across the state.”
Wilkinson praises the quality of her side, specifically young guns Isabella Accardo and Teodora Djuric with belief they can reach both the A-Leagues and beyond later down the road.
“We’ve got a really nice balance of young and old, some experienced and some definitely I think can go quite far, Izzy is one of them, Teo is one of them. We definitely have some exciting talent moving up through.
“It’s our responsibility as experienced players to help guide those players, to set them up for success and do what we can as teammates and leaders. I hope I’m doing my job as an experienced player leading those players.”
Avondale’s last four games are against two finals-hunting sides in South Melbourne and Boroondara Eagles, league leaders Box Hill United, and finally away to Spring Hills FC.
It won’t be an easy run home to secure either a finals place or the golden boot for Hannah Wilkinson but if she can keep up her goal scoring form, her and Avondale stand a good chance.