2010–11 A-League

The 2010–11 A-League was the 34th season of top-flight soccer in Australia, and the sixth season of the Australian A-League soccer competition since its establishment in 2004. The home and away season began on 5 August 2010 and concluded on 13 February 2011. The addition of Melbourne Heart brought the total number of teams to 11. Brisbane Roar finished Premiers with two games remaining in the season following an Australian record unbeaten run, and later completed the Premiership and Championship double by beating the Central Coast Mariners in the Grand Final.

Rule changes

A new rule at the start of the season allows for two marquee players to be signed without salary cap restraints so long as one is Australian with a certain number of qualifications to be determined by FFA. This replaces the previous ruling of only one salary cap exempt player in previous seasons.

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 Heart	Melbourne	AAMI Park	30,050
Melbourne Victory	Melbourne	AAMI Park Etihad Stadium	30,050 56,347
Newcastle Jets	Newcastle	EnergyAustralia Stadium	26,164
North Queensland Fury	Townsville	Dairy Farmers Stadium	26,500
Perth Glory	Perth	NIB 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
Central Coast Mariners	Lawrie McKinna	Reassigned	9 February 2010[1]	Pre-season	Graham Arnold	10 February 2010[2]
Melbourne Heart	Inaugural				John van 't Schip	12 October 2009[3]
North Queensland Fury	Ian Ferguson	Signed by Perth Glory (assistant)	6 April 2010[4]		Frantisek Straka	7 June 2010[citation needed]
Adelaide United	Aurelio Vidmar	Sacked	3 June 2010[5]		Rini Coolen	5 July 2010[6]
Perth Glory	David Mitchell	Reassigned, moved to director	12 October 2010	7th	Ian Ferguson	12 October 2010[7]
Melbourne Victory	Ernie Merrick	Sacked	12 March 2011[8]	Post-season	Mehmet Durakovic	21 June 2011[citation needed]

Foreign players

Club	Visa 1	Visa 2	Visa 3	Visa 4	Visa 5	Non-Visa foreigner(s)	Former player(s)
Adelaide United	Marcos Flores	Cássio	Dario Bodrušić	Sergio van Dijk	Francisco Usúcar	Joe Keenan3 Andwélé Slory4	Lloyd Owusu Shin In-seob
Brisbane Roar	Henrique	Jean Carlos Solórzano	Thomas Broich	Kosta Barbarouses			Reinaldo1
Central Coast Mariners	Patricio Pérez	Patrick Zwaanswijk	Michael McGlinchey	Chris Doig		John Hutchinson2
Gold Coast United	Anderson	Robson	John Curtis	Peter Perchtold	Adama Traoré	Glen Moss2 Kim Sung-Kil4	Bas van den Brink
Melbourne Heart	Alex Terra	Gerald Sibon	Rutger Worm
Melbourne Victory	Ricardinho	Marvin Angulo	Carlos Hernández	Geoff Kellaway	Surat Sukha	Grant Brebner1
Newcastle Jets	Zhang Shuo	Michael Bridges	Marcello Fiorentini	Jeremy Brockie		Ali Abbas1 Tomislav Mišura3	Francis Jeffers4
North Queensland Fury	Mark Hughes	André Kilian	Dyron Daal	Eric Akoto	Eugene Sseppuya	Brad McDonald2 Jack Hingert2
Perth Glory	Robbie Fowler	Andy Todd	Victor Sikora	Branko Jelić	Steven McGarry
Sydney FC	Bruno Cazarine	Juho Mäkelä	Hirofumi Moriyasu	Byun Sung-Hwan	Stephan Keller	Terry McFlynn1
Wellington Phoenix	Toto Cornejo	Paul Ifill	Daniel	Diego Walsh	Chris Greenacre	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	Australian Marquee	International Marquee	Junior Marquee	Captain	Vice-Captain
Adelaide United	None	None	None	Travis Dodd[9]	Lucas Pantelis[9]
Brisbane Roar	None	None	None	Matt McKay[10][11]	Shane Stefanutto[12]
Central Coast Mariners	None	None	Oliver Bozanic[13]	Alex Wilkinson[14]	John Hutchinson[15]
Gold Coast United	Jason Culina[16]	None	Tahj Minniecon[17][18]	Jason Culina[19][20]	Michael Thwaite[19][20]
Melbourne Heart	Josip Skoko[21][22]	Gerald Sibon[23][24]	None	Simon Colosimo[25]	None
Melbourne Victory	Archie Thompson[26][27]	Ricardinho[28][note 1]	None	Kevin Muscat[30] Adrian Leijer[note 2][32]	Adrian Leijer[33]
Newcastle Jets	None	Michael Bridges[34][35]	None	Michael Bridges[36]	Ljubo Milicevic[36] Kasey Wehrman[36]
North Queensland Fury	None	None	None	Ufuk Talay[37]	Gareth Edds[37]
Perth Glory	Mile Sterjovski[38]	Robbie Fowler[39]	None	Jacob Burns[40]	None
Sydney FC	Nick Carle[41]	None	None	Terry McFlynn[42]	Alex Brosque[42] Hayden Foxe[42]
Wellington Phoenix	Jade North[43]	None	None	Andrew Durante[44]	Tim Brown[44]

Regular season

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Brisbane Roar (C)	30	18	11	1	58	26	+32	65	Qualification for 2012 AFC Champions League group stage and Finals series[a]
2	Central Coast Mariners	30	16	9	5	50	31	+19	57
3	Adelaide United	30	15	5	10	51	36	+15	50	Qualification for 2012 AFC Champions League qualifying play-off and Finals series
4	Gold Coast United	30	12	10	8	40	32	+8	46	Qualification for Finals series
5	Melbourne Victory	30	11	10	9	45	39	+6	43
6	Wellington Phoenix	30	12	5	13	39	41	−2	41
7	Newcastle Jets	30	9	8	13	29	33	−4	35
8	Melbourne Heart	30	8	11	11	32	42	−10	35
9	Sydney FC	30	8	10	12	35	40	−5	34
10	Perth Glory	30	5	8	17	27	54	−27	23
11	North Queensland Fury	30	4	7	19	28	60	−32	19

Home and away season

The 2010–11 A-League season had each team play 30 matches over 27 rounds. The regular season started on Thursday, 5 August 2010 and ended on Sunday, 13 February 2011. The opening game was played at the new Melbourne Rectangular Stadium (AAMI Park) and marked the A-League debut of the new franchise, Melbourne Heart. Mid week games were played to accommodate this extra team.^[45] The official 2010–11 fixture list was released on 18 May 2010.^[46]

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

Notes

Table of results

Abbreviation and Color Key: Adelaide United – AU Brisbane Roar – BR Central Coast Mariners – CCM Gold Coast United – GCU Melbourne Heart – MH Melbourne Victory – MV Newcastle Jets – NJ Perth Glory – PG Sydney FC – SFC Wellington Phoenix – WP Win Loss Draw Home
Club	Match
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30
Adelaide United	NJ	CCM	MH	NQF	SFC	NJ	BR	PG	SFC	GCU	WP	MV	BR	PG	NJ	MH	GCU	WP	NQF	MH	PG	CCM	SFC	BR	MV	NQF	CCM	GCU	WP	MV
	0–0	1–1	3–2	2–3	1–3	2–1	1–1	2–0	1–2	0–0	3–0	2–1	4–0	2–0	3–1	0–2	2–1	2–1	2–0	1–2	4–2	2–0	2–0	0–1	1–4	8–1	1–2	0–0	0–1	2–1
Brisbane Roar	GCU	SFC	WP	NJ	MV	AU	MH	PG	NJ	CCM	MV	SFC	WP	AU	MH	NJ	NQF	PG	CCM	MV	SFC	NQF	GCU	AU	PG	CCM	WP	MH	NQF	GCU
	0–0	1–0	1–0	0–0	3–0	1–1	4–0	1–2	1–1	2–0	2–1	1–1	1–4	4–0	1–2	1–1	1–1	3–2	1–5	3–3	0–1	0–2	2–2	0–1	1–1	3–3	2–0	2–1	1–2	4 –0
Central Coast Mariners	MH	AU	WP	SFC	MV	MH	GCU	NQF	BR	PG	NQF	WP	MV	GCU	NJ	BR	SFC	PG	NQF	AU	MV	WP	BR	NJ	PG	SFC	AU	MH	GCU	NJ
	0–1	1–1	2–0	1–1	2–0	1–0	0–0	3–2	2–0	5–0	0–1	0–3	2–2	2–3	1–1	1–5	4–0	1–1	1–0	2–0	1–2	1–0	3–3	0–2	1–2	2–2	1–2	1–1	1–3	1–0
Gold Coast United	BR	WP	MV	PG	CCM	NJ	SFC	WP	AU	MH	NQF	MV	SFC	CCM	AU	NQF	MH	WP	NJ	BR	PG	SFC	NQF	MH	NJ	MV	AU	PG	CCM	BR
	0–0	3–3	0–1	0–1	0–0	1–0	1–1	3–1	0–0	0–0	1–2	0–1	3–1	2–3	2–1	1–2	3–0	2–0	2–0	2–2	0–0	2–0	4–0	1–1	5–1	2–0	0–0	1–2	1–3	4–0
Melbourne Heart	CCM	NJ	AU	PG	NQF	CCM	WP	BR	MV	WP	GCU	NJ	PG	NQF	BR	AU	WP	SFC	GCU	NJ	MV	AU	SFC	NQF	PG	GCU	MV	BR	CCM	SFC
	0–1	1–1	3–2	2–2	1–0	1–0	2–1	4–0	2–1	2–2	0–0	0–2	0–0	2–3	1–2	0–2	2–0	0–0	3–0	0–2	1–3	1–2	0–1	2–0	1–1	1–1	2–2	2–1	1–1	2–2
Melbourne Victory	SFC	PG	NQF	GCU	CCM	BR	WP	NQF	NJ	MH	SFC	BR	AU	GCU	PG	CCM	WP	BR	MH	PG	NJ	CCM	WP	AU	SFC	MH	NQF	GCU	NJ	AU
	3–3	0–2	2–2	0–1	2–0	3–0	0–0	0–0	0–0	2–1	3–0	2–1	2–1	0–1	3–1	2–2	2–2	3–3	1–3	2–0	2–1	1–2	2–0	1–4	1–1	2–2	0–3	2–0	2–0	2–1
Newcastle Jets	AU	MH	PG	BR	AU	PG	GCU	MV	BR	MH	SFC	AU	BR	WP	CCM	NQF	MH	GCU	WP	MV	SFC	NQF	NQF	CCM	GCU	WP	MV	SFC	PG	CCM
	0–0	1–1	1–0	0–0	2–1	2–0	1–0	0–0	1–1	0–2	1–0	3–1	1–1	1–0	1–1	0–2	0–2	2–0	4–0	2–1	1–2	1–3	1–0	0–2	5–1	1–0	2–0	1–1	4–0	1–0
North Queensland Fury	PG	SFC	MV	AU	MH	MV	WP	SFC	CCM	PG	GCU	CCM	MH	BR	PG	GCU	NJ	AU	SFC	BR	CCM	WP	MH	NJ	NJ	GCU	AU	MV	BR	WP
	3–3	2–1	2–2	2–3	1–0	0–0	2–1	1–1	3–2	2–1	1–2	0–1	2–3	1–1	1–1	1–2	0–2	2–0	1–0	0–2	1–0	1–1	2–0	1–3	1–0	4–0	8–1	0–3	1–2	3–1
Perth Glory	NQF	MV	NJ	MH	WP	GCU	NJ	AU	BR	NQF	SFC	CCM	MH	WP	AU	MV	SFC	BR	NQF	CCM	MV	AU	GCU	BR	MH	CCM	WP	SFC	GCU	NJ
	3–3	0–2	1–0	2–2	2–1	0–1	2–0	2–0	1–2	2–1	0–3	5–0	0–0	0–1	2–0	3–1	2–0	3–2	1–1	1–1	2–0	4–2	0–0	1–1	1–1	1–2	4–0	0–2	1–2	4–0
Sydney FC	MV	NQF	BR	CCM	AU	WP	GCU	NQF	AU	MV	PG	BR	NJ	GCU	PG	MH	WP	CCM	BR	NQF	MH	AU	NJ	GCU	MV	CCM	PG	NJ	WP	MH
	3–3	2–1	1–0	1–1	1–3	2–1	1–1	1–1	1–2	3–0	0–3	1–1	1–0	3–1	2–0	0–0	3–1	4–0	0–1	1–0	0–1	2–0	1–2	2–0	1–1	2–2	0–2	1–1	2–0	2–2
Wellington Phoenix	GCU	CCM	BR	PG	SFC	MV	MH	NQF	GCU	MH	AU	BR	PG	CCM	NJ	MH	MV	SFC	AU	GCU	NJ	NQF	MV	CCM	PG	BR	NJ	AU	SFC	NQF
	3–3	2–0	1–0	2–1	2–1	0–0	2–1	2–1	3–1	2–2	3–0	1–4	0–1	0–3	1–0	2–0	2–2	3–1	2–1	2–0	4–0	1–1	2–0	1–0	4–0	2–0	1–0	0–1	2–0	3–1

Finals series

Semi-finals

Preliminary final

Grand Final

Season statistics

Top scorers

As of end of regular season

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Sergio van Dijk	Adelaide United	16
2	Kosta Barbarouses	Brisbane Roar	11
	Robbie Kruse	Melbourne Victory
	Matt Simon	Central Coast Mariners
	Jean Solórzano	Brisbane Roar
6	Bruno Cazarine	Sydney FC	9
	Bruce Djite	Gold Coast United
	Robbie Fowler	Perth Glory
	Adam Kwasnik	Central Coast Mariners
10	John Aloisi	Melbourne Heart	8
	Marcos Flores	Adelaide United
	Chris Greenacre	Wellington Phoenix

Own goals

Player		Club	Against	Round
	Ben Kantarovski	Newcastle Jets	Melbourne Heart	2
	Brett Studman	North Queensland Fury	Adelaide United	4
	Michael Marrone	Melbourne Heart	Perth Glory	4
	Daniel McBreen	Central Coast Mariners	North Queensland Fury	9
	Shannon Cole	Sydney FC	Adelaide United	9
	Matt Smith	Brisbane Roar	Newcastle Jets	10
	Naum Sekulovski	Perth Glory	Central Coast Mariners	12
	Rodrigo Vargas	Melbourne Victory	Gold Coast United	13
	Clint Bolton	Melbourne Heart	Adelaide United	15
	Alex Wilkinson	Central Coast Mariners	Brisbane Roar	16
	Matthew Kemp	Melbourne Victory	Brisbane Roar	17
	Sebastian Ryall	Sydney FC	Central Coast Mariners	17
	Wayne Srhoj	Melbourne Heart	Melbourne Victory	18
	Sergio van Dijk	Adelaide United	Central Coast Mariners	20
	Hayden Foxe	Sydney FC	Adelaide United	20
	Adrian Leijer	Melbourne Victory	Central Coast Mariners	21
	Tando Velaphi	Perth Glory	Wellington Phoenix	24
	Nick Ward	Wellington Phoenix	Sydney FC	26

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	15	15,234	32,321	8,287	228,517
Adelaide United	15	11,552	21,083	7,370	173,286
Brisbane Roar	15	9,279	20,831	3,522	139,182
Perth Glory	15	8,488	16,019	5,576	127,322
Newcastle Jets	15	8,429	13,463	3,114	126,439
Melbourne Heart	15	8,315	25,897	2,754	124,725
Wellington Phoenix	15	7,981	14,108	4,700	119,716
Central Coast Mariners	15	7,713	12,409	5,373	115,695
Sydney FC	15	7,656	12,106	4,012	114,834
North Queensland Fury	15	4,245	7,195	1,003	63,681
Gold Coast United	15	3,434	14,783	1,658	51,505
{{{T12}}}	0	0	0	0	0
League total	165	8,393	32,321	1,003	1,384,902

Updated to the end of season.

• A Gold Coast United match held on 19 December 2010 was postponed due to the poor playing surface of the pitch and torrential rain after the 21st minute of the game had been played. Spectators were allowed free entry prior to the postponement, of which there were 10,146 in attendance of the 21,000+ who applied for the free tickets. The abandoned game's attendance is not taken into account.

Top 10 Attendances

Attendance	Round	Date	Home	Score	Away	Venue	Weekday	Time of Day
50,168	GF	13 March 2011	Brisbane Roar	2–2 (4–2 pen.)	Central Coast Mariners	Suncorp Stadium	Sunday	Afternoon
32,321	24	22 January 2011	Melbourne Victory	2–2	Melbourne Heart	Etihad Stadium	Saturday	Night
25,897	9	8 October 2010	Melbourne Heart	2–1	Melbourne Victory	AAMI Park	Friday	Night
25,168	SF Leg 2	26 February 2011	Brisbane Roar	2–2	Central Coast Mariners	Suncorp	Saturday	Night
23,059	18	11 December 2010	Melbourne Heart	1–3	Melbourne Victory	AAMI Park	Saturday	Night
21,083	27	11 February 2011	Adelaide United	2–1	Melbourne Victory	Adelaide Oval	Friday	Night
20,831	27	12 February 2011	Brisbane Roar	4–0	Gold Coast United	Suncorp	Saturday	Night
20,358	2	14 August 2010	Melbourne Victory	0–2	Perth Glory	AAMI Park	Saturday	Night
18,558	22	9 January 2011	Melbourne Victory	1–4	Adelaide United	AAMI Park	Sunday	Afternoon
17,299	10	16 October 2010	Melbourne Victory	3–0	Sydney FC	Etihad Stadium	Saturday	Night

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 Brisbane Roar who beat last year's Champions Sydney FC by 6 points.

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

Team				Points
Brisbane Roar	37	2	0	41
Sydney FC	45	1	0	47
Central Coast Mariners	45	2	0	49
Adelaide United	42	1	2	50
Wellington Phoenix	56	1	0	58
Gold Coast United	52	1	2	60
Newcastle Jets	52	2	3	65
North Queensland Fury	54	1	3	65
Melbourne Heart	56	4	1	67
Melbourne Victory	67	1	1	72
Perth Glory	62	5	5	87
Sydney Rovers	0	0	0	0
Totals	568	21	17

Updated to End of Week 27 (End of Regular Season)

Awards

End-of-season awards

• Johnny Warren Medal – Marcos Flores
• NAB Young Footballer of the Year – Mathew Ryan
• Golden Boot Award – Sergio Van Dijk
• Goalkeeper of the Year – Michael Theoklitos
• Manager of the Year – Ange Postecoglou
• Fair Play Award – Brisbane Roar
• Referee of the Year – Matthew Breeze
• Foreign Player of the Year – Marcos Flores
• Solo Goal of the Year – Erik Paartalu

Source:^[47][48]

All-Star team

Formation: 4–3–3

See also

• 2010 Australian football code crowds
• 2011 Australian football code crowds

Team season articles

Notes

References