The 2023/24 elimination final have served up all the drama and chaos that the A-League Women has become known for, with both games needing extra-time — as well as one penalty shootout — to decide which teams are through to the semifinals.

Here are the biggest talking points from the two games this past weekend.

1. Casey Dumont puts former club Melbourne Victory to the sword

To say that Casey Dumont's glittering career at Melbourne Victory ended acrimoniously would be putting it lightly.

The former Matildas goalkeeper made more than 50 appearances for Victory throughout her career, helping them win a premiership and two championship trophies along the way.

Since debuting for the Brisbane Roar in 2008, Dumont has made a name for herself as one of the best penalty-saving goalkeepers in the league, with her individual performances between the sticks almost single-handedly winning her side silverware.

Unfortunately, the relationship with Victory soured at the end of last season when Dumont — who was on a two-year contract at the club — decided to sign with Hawthorn in the AFLW, wanting to push herself to become a dual athlete.

She was originally "granted permission" to join Hawthorn over the A-League Women off-season, and was expected to return to the club before the current season began.

But that never happened. Victory instead parted ways with Dumont and replaced her with Matildas veteran Lydia Williams, which is how the shot-stopper ended up in goal for the Central Coast Mariners as they took down Victory 4-2 on penalties on Sunday night.

After a tense and scrappy 120 minutes, the game came down to a penalty shootout, with Dumont supposedly saying before the game that as soon as she knew it would be decided that way, her team was going to win.

And so they did. Dumont herself set the tone by converting the first penalty for the Mariners before saving twice against Victory youngsters Alana Murphy and Paige Zois — two players who would have practised penalties against her when they were all on the same side — with all the confident swagger of a goalkeeper who has been there, done that many times before.

Of the eight penalty shootouts that have happened in the A-League Women finals series, Dumont has been involved in five of them. She has won all five. Victory are no doubt wishing she had done it for them instead of against them this time around.

The Central Coast Mariners, who re-entered the A-League Women this year, have now won their first finals game in history, and will face Sydney FC in the two-legged play-off starting this weekend.

2. Newcastle Jets make history as club teeters off the field

Following a mid-season coaching change and years on the brink of bankruptcy, and with finals history leaning heavily against them, the Newcastle Jets faced a huge task as they took on last season's grand finalists Western United in the first elimination final on Saturday.

It was a raucous, end-to-end start to the first half, with Sarina Bolden's opening goal for the Jets cancelled out by a debut goal for Western centre-back Alana Cerne within the first 25 minutes.

United began to swing the game's momentum in their favour towards the end of the first half, with striker Catherine Zimmerman — as well as her entire team and everyone watching at home — thinking she'd put her side ahead after a tidy finish of a through-ball.

But when both teams had reset themselves for the kick-off, the referee signalled for a foul instead, with replays showing Zimmerman had tugged the shirt of a defender while racing through into open space.

With no VAR in use, and no assistant referees waving their flag, nobody quite knows how the decision was made or why it took so long for it to occur.

That saving grace was all Newcastle needed, with Bolden scoring a brace to give the Jets a 2-1 lead heading into half-time.

Zimmerman would have her revenge by converting a penalty just after the hour, but it would require extra time for the game to be put to bed, with impact substitutes Melina Ayres and Sophie Hoban delivering a one-two punch to an exhausted, injury-riddled Western side to win their first-ever finals match 4-2.

It was remarkable resilience, smart player management, and terrific football from a Newcastle side that has suffered the slings and arrows of club mismanagement off the field, having lost their head coach halfway through the season, and has also been propped up by a handful of other A-Leagues clubs over the past two years while it has searched (and continues to search) for a new owner.

They will now take on Premiers Melbourne City in the two-legged semi-final with the wind in their sails and nothing to lose from here. It would be an even more incredible feat if they were to go all the way to their first final in the circumstances.

3. Tarneit troubles

It wouldn't be the A-League Women without some absolutely bizarre off-field interruptions, whether it's a man with a tuba in the background suddenly appearing in the middle of a broadcast, a single camera pointed directly into the afternoon sun that obscured an entire half of Dorrien Gardens, or a giant yellow hexagon floating over the top of a live match for several minutes.

This week's main character was Western United's much-anticipated home stadium in Tarneit, which had been part of their pitch to enter the A-Leagues a few years ago but which only just materialised.

While the field, the fans, and the angle for the broadcast were all fine and dandy, not all was well behind the scenes. Fifty-three minutes into the game, the entire facility was plunged into darkness thanks to a stadium-wide power outage.

The blackout lasted about 15 minutes, during which time the single broadcast commentator was forced to improvise, throwing back to highlights of the game and relaying whatever information he was gathering on the ground, while match-going fans tweeted their dismay at yet another bungle in the competition in which these types of events have become comically common.

Theories about the cause of the outage circulated: Was it the extraordinarily bright advertising hoardings ringing the field which Jets striker Melina Ayres said were so bright she couldn't even see the ball? Was it revenge for the Taylor Swift stadium karaoke sing-along done as the half-time entertainment? Was it simply that the A-League Women was cursed?

Whatever the reason, the lights eventually flickered back to life, with both teams — which had by then begun to cool down — given five minutes to warm back up and resume play.

In exchange, fans got some bonus football in the form of 30 minutes of extra time, in which the Jets powered their way to the win. So it was kind of worth it.

4. Box-office Sarina Bolden proves her worth

When the 2023/24 A-League Women season kicked off, Philippines striker Sarina Bolden — who had made history by scoring the country's first-ever goal at the Women's World Cup last year in their first win against New Zealand — was unemployed.

Despite showing her qualities for the Western Sydney Wanderers last year and then going on to star for her nation during the World Cup, the centre-forward — who'd had overseas offers, but chose to stay in Australia to be close to her national team — was clubless.

"It was kind of a little bit of a limbo," she told Optus Sport in January.

"Ideally I wanted to stay another season in the A-League, but football's a bit crazy and trying to find a team was not going my way.

That "something" was former Jets boss Gary van Egmond, who offered Bolden a contract with the club five rounds into the current season. She repaid the faith immediately, scoring five goals and assisting two more in her first six games, before going on to finish second in the Golden Boot race with 14 goals (just three behind winner Michelle Heyman).

One wonders whether Bolden would have claimed the gong herself had she had five more games to play in, but there's hope yet for the 27-year-old, who could drive her side all the way to their first grand final if they defeat Melbourne City in a home-and-away semifinal over the next two weekends.

The Julie Dolan Medal — awarded to the best player over the course of the season — as well as the Player of the Match for the grand final are two individual accolades still up for grabs, and with Bolden showing no signs of slowing down, there's every chance she could win one, if not both.

5. The biggest season ever, but how much bigger could it have been?

In the week leading up to the elimination final, the A-Leagues published statements and statistics celebrating just how big the 2023/24 season had been.

Memberships have soared more than 600 per cent. The local outbound transfer record for players have been smashed — twice. Social media engagement has risen, while match-day crowds have doubled. With three weeks to go, the competition is expected to become the highest-attended women's sports league in Australian history.

And yet, this past weekend begged the question of just how much further the league could have reached had it been given all the bells and whistles of the men's league, including being made available on terrestrial television.

Ahead of the current season, as part of the league's broadcast deal, it was decided that the entire league would be shown on a combination of 10Play — Network 10's streaming service — and Paramount+, the league's pay-walled broadcast partner. Unlike the A-League Men, which has two games shown on television per round, none of the women's games — not even the finals series — would be on the telly for casual viewers to watch.

While the A-Leagues has boasted about its increased "broadcast viewership hours", which are up over 130 per cent from last season, one wonders how many more fans would have tuned in had they been able to simply turn on the television at prime-time hours and found it ready and waiting for them.

Beyond their accessibility, there were also questions about the broadcast treatment both games got on the ground. Just one commentator was allocated for each game. Every men's game receives two (as well as a sideline commentator).

There was no pre-game, half-time, or post-match discussion from a panel or group of experts. There wasn't even an opportunity to hear from players or coaches afterwards, with debriefs and quotes instead filtering out through the written media who were on the ground at the time.

So while the A-Leagues ought to be praised for the work its done to grow the women's competition and get it to the point where it can boast about breaking records, this elimination final weekend showed there was still so much more work to do.

A-League Women Semi-Final Leg 1:

Sunday April 21: Newcastle Jets v Melbourne City (3pm AEST)
Sunday April 21: Central Coast Mariners v Sydney FC (5:45pm AEST)

A-League Women Semi-Final Leg 2:

Saturday April 27: Sydney FC v Central Coast Mariners (3pm AEST)
Sunday April 28: Melbourne City v Newcastle Jets (1pm AEST)