2009–10 A-League

The 2009–10 A-League was the 33rd season of top-flight soccer in Australia, and the fifth season of the A-League competition since its establishment in 2004. The season marked the addition of two new teams from Queensland. Gold Coast United FC and the North Queensland Fury FC made their A-League debuts at the start of the season.^[1] Because of this, Queensland Roar were renamed to Brisbane Roar, as they were no longer the only A-League club from Queensland. With the inception of the two new clubs, many club transfers took place both within Australia and New Zealand, and around the world.

The length of the regular season was longer than in previous years, with 27 rounds rather than 21, plus finals. The season began on 6 August, with Melbourne hosting the Central Coast at home.^[2] As well as these major changes to the league, the Pre-Season Challenge Cup was no longer held as part of the 2009–10 season due to a busier regular season schedule,^[3] and clubs attracting higher profile pre-season friendlies. The Premiership and Championship double was completed by Sydney FC with victory over Melbourne in the final match of the regular season and on penalties in the Championship Grand Final.

Clubs

Team	City	Home Ground	Capacity
Adelaide United	Adelaide	Hindmarsh Stadium	17,000
Brisbane Roar	Brisbane	Suncorp Stadium	52,500
Central Coast Mariners	Gosford	Bluetongue Stadium	20,119
Gold Coast United	Gold Coast	Skilled Park	27,400
Melbourne Victory	Melbourne	Etihad Stadium	56,347
Newcastle Jets	Newcastle	Energy Australia Stadium	26,164
North Queensland Fury	Townsville	Dairy Farmers Stadium	26,500
Perth Glory	Perth	ME Bank Stadium	20,500
Sydney FC	Sydney	Sydney Football Stadium	45,500
Wellington Phoenix	Wellington	Westpac Stadium	36,000

Transfers

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment	Table
Sydney FC	John Kosmina	Sacked	31 January 2009[4]	5th (08–09)	Vítězslav Lavička	4 February 2009[5]	Pre-season
Newcastle Jets	Gary van Egmond	Resigned	27 June 2009	8th (08–09)	Branko Čulina	30 June 2009[6]	Pre-Season
Brisbane Roar	Frank Farina	Sacked	14 October 2009[7]	6th (09–10)	Ange Postecoglou	16 October 2009[8]	Round 10

Foreign players

Club	Visa 1	Visa 2	Visa 3	Visa 4	Visa 5	Non-Visa foreigner(s)	Former player(s)
Adelaide United	Alemão	Cássio	Cristiano	Lloyd Owusu	Shin In-seob	Marcos Flores3
Brisbane Roar	Pieter Collen	Henrique	Reinaldo	Steven Bryce	Sergio van Dijk		Bob Malcolm
Central Coast Mariners	Nicky Travis	Chris Doig	Jonathan Brown	Matt Crowell		John Hutchinson2	Wolry Wolfe4 Michael McGlinchey
Gold Coast United	Jefferson	Robson	Adama Traoré	Bas van den Brink	Charlie Miller	Anderson3	Milson
Melbourne Victory	Marvin Angulo	Carlos Hernández	Surat Sukha			Glen Moss2 Grant Brebner1	Ney Fabiano Sutee Suksomkit
Newcastle Jets	Michael Bridges	Marcello Fiorentini	Song Jin-hyung			Ali Abbas3
North Queensland Fury	Robbie Fowler	James Robinson	Kojiro Kaimoto	Jeremy Brockie	Scott Wilson	Terry Cooke3 Dyron Daal3 Jack Hingert2
Perth Glory	Andy Todd	Victor Sikora	Branko Jelić	Steven McGarry			Amaral4 Eugène Dadi
Sydney FC	Karol Kisel	Byun Sung-hwan	Stephan Keller			Terry McFlynn1
Wellington Phoenix	Paul Ifill	Daniel	Diego Walsh	Jiang Chen	Chris Greenacre	Eugène Dadi4 Manny Muscat2

The following do not fill a Visa position:
¹Those players who were born and started their professional career abroad but have since gained Australian Residency (and New Zealand Residency, in the case of Wellington Phoenix);
²Australian residents (and New Zealand residents, in the case of Wellington Phoenix) who have chosen to represent another national team;
³Injury Replacement Players, or National Team Replacement Players;
⁴Guest Players (eligible to play a maximum of ten games)

Salary cap exemptions and captains

Club	Marquee	Junior Marquee	Captain	Vice-Captain
Adelaide United	None	None	Travis Dodd[9]	Lucas Pantelis[9]
Brisbane Roar	None	Michael Zullo[10]	Matt McKay[11]	None
Central Coast Mariners	None	None	Alex Wilkinson[12]	John Hutchinson[13]
Gold Coast United	Jason Culina[14]	Tahj Minniecon[15]	Jason Culina[16][17]	Michael Thwaite[16][17]
Melbourne Victory	Archie Thompson[18][19]	None	Kevin Muscat[20]	Rodrigo Vargas[21]
Newcastle Jets	Fabio Vignaroli[22]	Adam D'Apuzzo[23]	Matt Thompson[24]	None
North Queensland Fury	Robbie Fowler[25]	None	Robbie Fowler[26]	None
Perth Glory	Mile Sterjovski[27]	None	Jacob Burns[28]	None
Sydney FC	John Aloisi[29]	Mark Bridge[23]	Steve Corica[30]	None
Wellington Phoenix	None	None	Andrew Durante[31]	Tim Brown[31]

Regular season

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Sydney FC (C)	27	15	3	9	35	23	+12	48	Qualification for 2011 AFC Champions League group stage and Finals series
2	Melbourne Victory	27	14	5	8	47	32	+15	47
3	Gold Coast United	27	13	5	9	39	35	+4	44	Qualification for Finals series
4	Wellington Phoenix	27	10	10	7	37	29	+8	40
5	Perth Glory	27	11	6	10	40	34	+6	39
6	Newcastle Jets	27	10	4	13	33	45	−12	34
7	North Queensland Fury	27	8	8	11	29	46	−17	32
8	Central Coast Mariners	27	7	9	11	32	29	+3	30
9	Brisbane Roar	27	8	6	13	32	42	−10	30
10	Adelaide United	27	7	8	12	24	33	−9	29

Home and away season

The 2009–10 A-League season was played over 27 rounds, followed by a finals series.^[2]

Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

Round 4

Round 5

Round 6

Round 7

Round 8

Round 9

Round 10

Round 11

Round 12

Round 13

Round 14

Round 15

Round 16

Round 17

Round 18

Round 19

Round 20

Round 21

Round 22

Round 23

Round 24

Round 25

Round 26

Round 27

Finals series

Melbourne Victory won 4–3 on aggregate.

Season statistics

Top scorers

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Shane Smeltz	Gold Coast United	19
2	Sergio van Dijk	Brisbane Roar	13
3	Carlos Hernández	Melbourne Victory	12
	Paul Ifill	Wellington Phoenix
5	Archie Thompson	Melbourne Victory	10
6	John Aloisi	Sydney FC	9
	Robbie Fowler	North Queensland Fury
8	Daniel McBreen	Perth Glory	8
9	Tim Brown	Wellington Phoenix	7
	Steve Corica	Sydney FC
	Matt Thompson	Newcastle Jets

Attendance

These are the attendance records of each of the teams at the end of the home and away season. The table does not include finals series attendances.

Team	Hosted	Average	High	Low	Total
Melbourne Victory	14	20,750	30,668	15,168	290,503
Sydney FC	14	12,987	25,407	8,359	181,816
Adelaide United	14	10,765	15,038	8,244	150,705
Perth Glory	13	9,205	12,822	7,217	119,670
Wellington Phoenix	13	8,965	19,258	4,115	116,549
Brisbane Roar	14	8,650	19,902	5,801	121,099
Central Coast Mariners	13	7,430	11,137	5,193	96,588
North Queensland Fury	13	6,723	8,897	4,156	87,396
Newcastle Jets	13	6,358	9,892	4,329	82,656
Gold Coast United	14	5,392	10,024	2,616	75,493
{{{T11}}}	0	0	0	0	0
{{{T12}}}	0	0	0	0	0
League total	135	9,796	30,668	2,616	1,322,475

Top 10 Attendances

Attendance	Round	Date	Home	Score	Away	Venue	Weekday	Time of Day
44,560	Grand Final	20 March 2010	Melbourne Victory	1–1	Sydney FC	Etihad Stadium	Saturday	Evening
32,792	Finals Wk 2	7 March 2010	Wellington Phoenix	3–1	Newcastle Jets	Westpac Stadium	Sunday	Afternoon
30,668	10	9 October 2009	Melbourne Victory	0–3	Sydney FC	Etihad Stadium	Friday	Night
27,344	20	19 December 2009	Melbourne Victory	0–0	Sydney FC	Etihad Stadium	Saturday	Evening
25,407	27	14 February 2010	Sydney FC	2–0	Melbourne Victory	Sydney Football Stadium	Sunday	Evening
24,278	Finals Wk 1	21 February 2010	Wellington Phoenix	1–1	Perth Glory	Westpac Stadium	Sunday	Evening
23,818	Final Wk 2	7 March 2010	Sydney FC	2–2	Melbourne Victory	Sydney Football Stadium	Sunday	Evening
22,726	26	5 February 2010	Melbourne Victory	2–0	North Queensland Fury	Etihad Stadium	Friday	Night
21,182	12	24 October 2009	Melbourne Victory	3–1	Adelaide United	Etihad Stadium	Saturday	Evening
20,537	16	28 November 2009	Melbourne Victory	4–0	Gold Coast United	Etihad Stadium	Saturday	Evening

Discipline

The Fair Play Award will go to the team with the lowest points on the fair play ladder at the conclusion of the home and away season. It was awarded to Premiers Sydney FC who scraped in by 4 points from rivals Melbourne Victory.

1 point		Yellow Card
2 points		Second Caution Red Card
3 points		Direct Red Card

Team				Points
Sydney FC	38	0	1	41
Melbourne Victory	40	1	1	45
North Queensland Fury	41	2	0	45
Adelaide United	43	1	1	48
Central Coast Mariners	42	2	0	46
Newcastle Jets	43	1	0	45
Perth Glory	50	1	0	52
Gold Coast United	48	1	2	56
Wellington Phoenix	54	0	1	57
Brisbane Roar	54	2	1	61
Melbourne Heart	0	0	0	0
Sydney Rovers	0	0	0	0
Totals	453	11	7

* The Newcastle Jets' Tarek Elrich received a direct red card in their round 7 fixture against Sydney FC. However, this was successfully appealed by the club and expunged from Elrich and the team's records.^[36]
* Adelaide United's Iain Fyfe received a direct red card in their round 19 fixture against Perth Glory. However, this was overruled by the match review panel and expunged from Fyfe and the team's records.^[37]

See also

• 2009 Australian football code crowds

Team season articles

References