Adelaide United Women

Establishment

Adelaide United's women's team was formed in 2008 with the inception of the W-League, becoming one of the founding eight teams. The inaugural set up saw North Eastern MetroStars coach Michael Barnett take charge with ex-Adelaide United player Richie Alagich take up the assistant coach role and Matildas stalwart Dianne Alagich named as captain.

2008–2011

Adelaide's first game was on 25 October 2008 against Queensland Roar at the Queensland Sport and Athletics Centre, which ended in a 4–1 loss with Sharon Black getting the consolation goal. The first win came in Round 2 against the Newcastle Jets at Hindmarsh Stadium, a hard-fought 3–2 win thanks to a hat-trick from Sandra Scalzi. The Reds followed this up with another 3–2 win over Sydney FC before failing to win any of their next seven league games, finished last in the eight-team competition in their inaugural season.

After a disappointing inaugural season drastic changes were made to the playing staff including the retirement of experienced campaigners Sharon Black and Dianne Alagich to create a youthful team for the 2009 season. Despite the new look squad Adelaide continued to struggle in the league failing to win any of the first 5 games which included a record equaling defeat against Sydney FC on 1 November 2009. The first goal of the 2009 season was scored by Tenneille Boaler against Newcastle Jets in the round 6 clash at the Wanderers Oval the game ended in a 3 – 3 draw handing Adelaide its second point of the year. The season didn't get any better for Adelaide as they failed to win a single game in the second season but thanks to an unlikely 2 all draw with power house team Brisbane Roar they finished the season in 7th place their best ever finish to date. Most Valuable player for 2009 season Racheal Quigley.

The 2010–11 season was even worse for Reds as they lost all ten of their W-League matches. They only scored four goals and finished with a disappointing −32 goal differential; they tied their worst defeat with a −1 loss to Newcastle in round nine. Coach Michael Barnett was let go at the end of the disappointing season, and was replaced by David Edmondson.

Adelaide continued to struggle through most of the 2011–12 season as they opened the campaign with six more losses, scoring four goals during that time while letting twenty-one in. This was better pace than the previous season, though, and the Reds showed significant improvement in on-field play versus 2010–2011, cited as being "unlucky" to not come away with at least a point on multiple occasions. They finally snapped their winless and losing streaks, at 34 and 18 games respectively, with a 1–0 defeat of the Perth Glory in round eight, taking them off the bottom of the table for the first time since November 2009.^[]

Following Adelaide United taking control of the women's team, their first move was signing Mark Jones as the head coach.