Each week, ABC Sport will bring you a Round Wrap of the A-League Women's competition, including winners, losers, and a good thing that happened on or off the field.

Round 4 at a glance

Canberra United come from behind to draw 3-3 with Brisbane Roar, Melbourne City devastate Melbourne Victory 5-1, Sydney FC drew 0-0 with Western Sydney in the second Sydney Derby, and Newcastle Jets just edged Wellington Phoenix 1-0.

Winners

Hannah Wilkinson

Few outside of New Zealand football knew very much about Hannah Wilkinson when she signed for Melbourne City this season, but the Kiwi striker's performance in the Melbourne Derby on Boxing Day ensured we won't forget her in a hurry.

The 29-year old scored all five of City's goals in their thrashing of Melbourne Victory on Sunday, equalling the competition's all-time record for goals scored by an individual player in a single match, joining former Matilda and current PFA Co-Chief Executive Kate Gill who sent five past Western Sydney in 2014.

Wilkinson was arguably given a helping hand by Victory's porous, disjointed defence, but the 100-cap Football Fern was justly rewarded for her persistence, high pressing game, incisive runs, and calmness on the ball. Combined with top-class assists from team-makes including the stand-out Holly McNamara, City's five tidy goals reflect a cohesion and confidence that the team has been missing for the past two seasons.

Not only has this result catapulted City into second on the ladder with a superior goal difference over Victory, but Wilkinson has now galloped into the lead in the Golden Boot race with seven goals. Sydney FC's Remy Siemsen and Victory striker Catherine Zimmerman are both in second spot with just three goals apiece.

If Wilkinson and her new-look City side can maintain the form they've shown in the opening third of the season, they could be the team that dislodges one of the league favourites from their perch.

Western Sydney Wanderers

If any club were blessed by a Christmas miracle this round, it was surely Western Sydney Wanderers.

Off the field, the Wanderers continues to weather several storms. Last week, former women's head coach Dean Heffernan took to Twitter to criticise the club's upper management for the direction in which they've steered the club, as well as the damage it has caused to players, staff, and fans. A-League Men's head coach Carl Robinson is clinging to his job by his fingernails, while new women's boss Catherine Cannuli – who has stayed largely out of the public cross-hairs – was forced into isolation on the day of the game after being a rumoured close contact over Christmas.

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These off-field matters have no doubt affected the players' performances on the field this season. The women's team entered their second Sydney Derby on Monday afternoon with just two points and a single goal to their name over the past month, while their early performances have been largely underwhelming given the size and resources at the club's disposal.

They collapsed in the second half of the first Sydney Derby in early December, further tilting one of the most lop-sided derbies in the league in Sydney FC's favour. Indeed, the Sky Blues had won sixteen of their nineteen games against the Wanderers, scoring a whopping 45 goals to 19. Their only draw came all the way back in 2015.

Or it did – until Saint Nick delivered them a belated Christmas gift in the form of their second ever draw against Sydney on Monday. There was certainly an element of luck threaded throughout the game: Sydney midfielder Mackenzie Hawkesby missed several golden opportunities on goal, Wanderers forward Sheridan Gallagher escaped a hair-pull on Taylor Ray with a yellow card instead of a red, while the offside flag fluttered up six times to halt Sydney's waves of attacks.

While the Wanderers still haven't scored against Sydney in around seven hours of play, they ended the club's winning streak and kept them scoreless for the first time since last season's grand final. Given all the club has experienced on and off the field so far, this result feels as good as a win.

Losers

Goalkeepers

While there has been increased attention on Australia's lack of depth in central defence and defensive midfield, another growing area of concern – particularly after the last round of the ALW – is on goalkeepers.

Of the 13 goals scored in round four, at least five of them were arguably the result of individual goalkeeping errors. In Thursday afternoon's match between Canberra and Brisbane, the Roar were gifted their opening goal thanks to a Karly Roestbakken back-pass that Canberra goalkeeper Keeley Richards missed entirely after the ball bobbled in the uneven grass.

The young keeper's decision-making arguably contributed to Brisbane's second goal, too: instead of allowing Roar winger Anna Margraf's shot to roll harmlessly wide of the far post, Richards parried the ball right into the path of Shea Connors, who passed the ball easily into the open net.

The same questionable technique affected Roar goalkeeper Georgina Worth, as well, jumping too early and with the wrong leading hand to try and keep out Grace Maher's long-distance free kick that took an age to curl into the net. That goal ultimately gave Canberra the momentum to claw an equaliser back in the game's final minutes, keeping both teams on the foot of the ladder.

The Melbourne Derby also had its fair share of goalkeeper errors – and from much more experienced players. Victory goalkeeper Casey Dumont handed City their second goal of the game after a sloppy, unnecessary clearance that hit striker Holly McNamara and fell into the path of Hannah Wilkinson, who chipped past the stranded Dumont in the 12th minute.

A miscommunication between Dumont and make-shift centre-back Tiffany Eliadis also resulted in a City goal after the two Victory players clattered into each other while trying to negotiate a back-pass, allowing Wilkinson to skip around the infuriated pair and pass calmly into the net for her 25-minute hat-trick.

When it comes to development pathways for Australian players, the gap between the country's best goalkeepers and the rest appears as cavernous as ever.

Long hair

It will be one of the defining images of the 2021/22 ALW season: Wanderers forward Sheridan Gallagher's fist wrapped around the long, blonde ponytail of Sydney FC midfielder Taylor Ray as she tries to spin away with the ball. Ray, as shocked by the moment as those watching from afar, throws her arms out wide like she's being electrocuted as Gallagher pulls her to the ground.

The clip roared across social media within minutes. While Gallagher herself was widely condemned for how blatant and unnecessary an act it was, criticism was mostly aimed at the referee, who felt the foul was only deserving of a yellow card.

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There is a precedent for such light punishment, though. Back in 2017, Matildas forward Kyah Simon, who was playing for Melbourne City, infamously tugged at the ponytail of then-Melbourne Victory defender Annabel Martin, almost pulling her to the ground. Simon also escaped with just a yellow card despite the outrage it caused amongst fans and commentators.

This is where a tension emerges, and perhaps an overdue question of whether the punishment truly fits the crime. Deliberate hair-pulling feels like a more violent, visceral act than other fouls that carry a yellow card punishment such as dissent, shirt-pulling, or repeated small fouls. There is something more dangerous to a hair-pull, particularly in the injuries it could cause to players necks and heads, that makes a yellow card seem not nearly enough of a penalty to prevent players from doing it (which is, after all, the purpose of yellow and red cards).

And yet, even though hair-pulling is almost universally condemned, there appears to be no separate rule in the Laws of the Game that addresses it. This, then, begs the question: should hair-pulling be punished more severely in football? Is social condemnation enough to dissuade players from pulling other players' hair? Or should long hair count, as it does in some other sports like the NFL, as "part of the uniform"?

Here's a Good Thing

They may not have had a very happy Christmas on the pitch, but Melbourne Victory are clearly having a joyful time off it.

This Secret Santa gift made its way onto striker Maja Markovski's Instagram: t-shirts featuring a photo of captain Lia Privitelli photoshopped onto the body of a goat. The real ALW, it turns out, is the friends we make along the way.