City fall short in automatic promotion push as attention turns to playoff

Adelaide City has come up agonisingly short from securing automatic promotion to the Apex Steel Women’s National Premier League despite a 6-0 thrashing of Adelaide Jaguars on Sunday.

Heading into the final round of the Apex Steel Women’s State League both Sturt Lions and City were level on points with the Lions on top with a superior goal difference by one.

The Black and Whites were always going to be up against it with Sturt facing bottom-placed South Adelaide and needing to outscore the Lions’ result by at least two more goals.

After a tense opening 25 minutes, City could settle their nerves when Nakita Pereira opened the scoring on the half hour mark.

Natasha Vella doubled the advantage on 43 minutes but knew they would need a minor miracle to catch Sturt who were already 6-0 up at the interval at Karinya Reserve.

Substitute Yasmina Kasumovic scored two goals in five minutes midway during the second half before Millie Scott made it 5-0 with a quality strike.

Kasumovic completed her hat-trick via the penalty spot in the 85th minute, however it proved inconsequential.

Sturt ultimately won their match 13-0 which meant City would have had to have won 15-0 against the third-placed Jaguars.

It is a cruel blow to lose out on a title on goal difference, but Paul Morris’ side will need to quickly dust themselves off and refocus their attention to the promotion playoff against WNPL side Modbury Vista, who finished second to bottom.

There was better news for the WSL Reserves, who were crowned Premiers after defeating Adelaide Jaguars 2-0, with Danijela Jovanovic and Alexia Carrozza on the scoresheet.

Match Details

Adelaide City 6 (Pereira 30’, Vella 43’, Kasumovic 64’, 69’, 85 (p), Scott 83’)

Adelaide Jaguars 0

Apex Steel Women’s State League – Round 22

Sunday, 16 August 2026

Adelaide City Park – Pitch 2 (Artificial)