Earlier this week it was confirmed that the upcoming 2022/23 season would kick-off on November 18 with 11 teams to include newcomers Western United in a 20-round, 99-match fixture with a four-match final series. Then in the 2023/24 season the competition would grow further with Central Coast Mariners joining in a 22-round home-and-away schedule for the first time, with 132 matches including a seven-match final series.

The plans had been a long time coming for the domestic women's league, but with six more rounds added for this season, the upcoming campaign will see team depth, fitness and stamina tested like never before.

That's where Canberra United's Academy can prove its immense value.

"We need those kind of the pathways to come through so we have a production line of players," Jagarinec said.

"The longer season means we might be able to rotate a few players into the training environment potentially, to keep our contracted players fresh. So that's important to have that local connection with the Canberra United Academy.

"[The academy] is very important to get longevity from players.

"When we're picking a squad it's really important that we're not just picking players anymore that are going to maybe last 10 or 11 games - we want to go the full season - 20 games plus finals now. So it's important for us to have a balance of youth and experience, but we need to keep the quality high."

Grove, who signed a two-year contract this week, knows better than most what opportunity the longer season presents to fellow young players, as a local product of the Canberra United Academy that took her shot last season and made it stick.

"Not too long ago, I was watching with my family," she said.

"Having a few more games this season is going to make a huge difference because as you saw last season, we just ran out of time with our form.

"It's really going to change the game and hopefully just give everyone, even the younger players, a bigger opportunity to show what they've got."

With a new coaching unit led by Njegosh Popovich, Grove said the team is coming together nicely to build on their positive finish at the end of a disappointing campaign last season.

"The sky's the limit," she said.

"As long as we work together and have a positive team culture, I think everything will fall into place.

"We know where we went wrong, and that's just making sure in every game we're fighting every minute. You can see that we did that at the end of last season with the last few games.

"We do have it in us to win and we do have it in us to deconstruct every opponent."

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