As launches go, there isn’t too much pomp and ceremony about this one. It’s season seven of the W-League; here are some speeches from FFA suits, a perfunctory Q&A with players, and now the opportunity for several coaches to get bailed up by aficionados over muffins and juice.

Supporters of women’s football in Australia would tell you not to set expectations too high, and yet there’s a quiet determination and optimism on show inside Westfield’s headquarters. It’s been a significant off-season for the women’s game – in July, Emma Highwood was appointed head of women’s football, tasked with overseeing the strategic plan she was instrumental in devising late last year. Growing the fan base of the women’s game and converting some of the more than 100,000 female players into active W-League supporters remains, among many others, a critical challenge.

Significant too was the announcement last month of an additional grant from Fifa of just over half-a-million dollars for the development of women’s and girl’s football down under. The cynical might link this largesse with Fifa supremo Sepp Blatter’s push for a fifth term – but irrespective of power games being played out in Zurich, this grant means nine new development officers working at a grassroots level.

And just as expectations surrounding the World Cup gave last season’s A-League a welcome fillip, so too season seven of the W-League offers women’s football a similar opportunity to expand its popularity. With the ninth-ranked Matildas flying the flag at the Women’s World Cup in Canada next July, and with a new national team coach expected to be named in the coming weeks, now is a crucial time for prospective national team players to stake their claims.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Brianna Davey of the Melbourne Victory poses during the W-League season launch at the Westfield Offices. Photograph: Mark Kolbe/Getty Images

Amid the good-humoured bonhomie of the launch this fact is palpable. With Lydia Williams cruelled by that bane of the women’s game in recent times, a ruptured ACL, the number one jersey at the World Cup is one such spot up for grabs. During the players’ Q&A, Williams’s understudy and a rising star of the game, Brianna Davey, forthrightly presents her case. Returning to her seat the teenager’s glance flickers towards the person seated alongside her, the woman she displaced between the sticks at Melbourne Victory, the incumbent and three-times World Cup goalkeeper, Melissa Barbieri. A whispered joke covers a potentially tense moment, but there’s no hiding that after an Indian summer at her new club Adelaide United, last year’s goalkeeper of the season, the veteran they call ‘Bubs’, still means business.

In contrast to their male counterparts where a diaspora of Socceroos ply their trade from Lisbon to Vladivostok, to win Matildas selection it’s best to turn out in the domestic competition. That’s great news for W-League fans with the cumulative talent on display bound to mark this year’s cohort the strongest yet.

The jewel in the W-League crown for this season is another goalkeeper – the reigning Fifa women’s world player of the year and Germany captain, Nadine Angerer. Her home region Franconia is famous for its wines, and this export also appears to be getting better with age – you may never get to watch Lionel Messi play on Australian soil but with season tickets for the W-League ranging between $50-95 you can take the kids to watch the world’s best don gloves for the price of a Nou Camp hot dog.

Brisbane Roar’s star keeper once famously preserved a clean sheet throughout an entire World Cup campaign – she’s won every trophy in world football, but could only watch as last year’s W-League championship crown slipped through her fingers. A revenge mission for Angerer and the Roar therefore, but it’s a vastly improved and relatively more even octet vying for this year’s trophy.

Adelaide United

Asked what the team’s main goal ahead of the season was, former Matildas captain Barbieri quipped without hesitation ‘to reduce crazy eyes’. Famous for his passion (and presumably his ocular expressions), coach Ross Aloisi has brought much-needed steel to a side synonymous with underachievement. The Lady Reds once went 34 games without a win – a run spanning over three years. In his dual role as head of women’s football in South Australia and Adelaide, coach Aloisi has been tasked with bringing through the next generation of SA talent. As demonstrated with the state’s victory at the recent NTC Challenge, the future at least appears rosier for the Adelaide faithful, but a finals berth still represents a significant challenge for this youthful side.

Brisbane Roar

Perhaps the pedigree side of the W-League, the aura surrounding Brisbane Roar was tarnished last season with heavy losses to both Canberra United and Sydney FC. The two-time champions and premiers welcome back the aforementioned Angerer, as well as Matildas captain Clare Polkinghorne, and with a host of experienced national team players including Kim Carroll, Elise Kellond-Knight and Tameka Butt still have the talent to win it. The diminutive Katrina Gorry ­– she stands at just 153cm – could be one of this year’s standout players after enjoying a storming Asian Cup for the Matildas, scoring the odd thunderbastard along the way.

Canberra United

They may not have an A-League team, but the nation’s capital remains a real force in women’s football. Injury to stalwart Williams may have robbed Canberra of a familiar face in goal, but her replacement Chantel Jones is one part of a troika of impressive US imports that includes veteran Team USA midfielder Lori Lindsey, and rising star Stephanie Ochs. The Under-23 capped striker grabbed six goals last season and alongside all-time W-League leading goalscorer Michelle Heyman and occasional Matilda Ashleigh Sykes forms a formidable frontline that will be key to United’s premiership defence.

Melbourne Victory

It’s been a tough off-season for the first-time champions; having broken the vicelike grip on W-League silverware of eastern seaboard rivals Brisbane, Canberra and Sydney FC, the Victory have seen their assets raided. Joint top-scorer Caitlin Friend and Welsh midfield enforcer and grand final MVP Jess Fishlock have left for greener pastures, as has New Zealand international Katie Hoyle. Coach Dave Edmondson has also been poached, leaving new coach Joe Montemurro a challenging rebuild. He can still rely on the mercurial Lisa de Vanna and Australia’s brightest young star, Steph Catley, but defending the championship may prove beyond Melbourne’s grasp.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest De Vanna scored this beauty while playing for Sky Blue FC in the US last year.

Newcastle Jets

After last year’s results you could forgive Newcastle Jets coach Peter McGuinness for working the phones over the break. He’s enticed former Matildas Amber Neilson and Hayley Crawford out of retirement to add experience to an otherwise youthful Jets squad. Crucial to their hopes will be the leadership of ‘prodigal daughter’ Emily van Egmond. Back for her third stint with the Jets, the Matildas vice-captain ruffled Novocastrian feathers last year in the forthright fashion you’d associate with the surname Van Egmond, and much will be expected of her if the ‘magic’ is to return to Magic Park.

Perth Glory

In a league not famed for splashing the cash, one can’t help but feel the cheque books have come out in the west. The Glory have acquired the services of four Matildas during the recess, bringing Perth’s total number of national team players to six. Caitlin Foord scored a hat-trick against the WA side in Sydney FC’s remarkable 8-2 demolition job last season; the 2011 Fifa World Cup’s best young player was subsequently snared under the ‘if you can’t beat ‘em, buy ‘em’ policy and is joined by FC team-mate Sam Kerr. Despite already listing Collette McCallum and Kate Gill in their stocks, the Fremantle-born Kerr was at pains to describe Perth as ‘underdogs’ ahead of the season. Yep. Six Matildas and a Canadian international. Underdogs.

Sydney FC

One team’s gain is another’s loss. Perth’s raiding of Foord and Kerr was just the iceberg tip of Sydney’s woes – they’ve started the new season shorn of five strikers. An ACL injury has claimed Leena Khamis, with Kiwi international Emma Kete and last season’s league top scorer Jodie Taylor both earning moves overseas. To assuage these loses, FC have in turn raided cross-town rivals Western Sydney, securing the services of Matildas Kyah Simon, Servet Uzunlar and Teigen Allen. They’ve in part been lured by the prospect of working with boss Alen Stajcic, but with the interim Matildas coach reportedly on a shortlist of two for the national team job, Sydney FC fans will hope his focus remains firmly on the domestic season.

Western Sydney Wanderers

The real loser in the player merry-go-round has been the league’s newest club. With all eyes on the men’s spectacular A-League success and recent marauding run through Asia, it’s hard not to think the women’s game has become something of an afterthought. The playing department of the women’s squad has been decimated, with coach Stephen Roche ultimately falling on his sword. New boss Norm Boardman faces a sizable rebuilding task and has turned to youth, raiding the Mini Matildas (the Under-17 national side) as well as the Football NSW Institute. It’s hard to imagine West Sydney not becoming a powerhouse of the women’s game eventually, but this season may prove a tough ride for the faithful.

Round one fixtures

Saturday 13 September - Newcastle Jets v Melbourne Victory Magic Park, Broadmeadow (11am)

Sunday 14 September - Perth Glory v Brisbane Roar Ashfield Sports Club (12pm)

Sunday 14 September - Sydney FC v Adelaide United Lambert Park, Leichhardt (4pm)

Sunday 14 September - WS Wanderers v Canberra United Campbelltown Stadium (3pm)