The 2021–22 A-League Men, known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons, was the 45th season of national level men's soccer in Australia, and the 17th since the establishment of the competition as the A-League in 2004.
Season | 2021–22 |
---|---|
Dates | 19 November 2021 – 28 May 2022 |
Champions | Western United (1st title) |
Premiers | Melbourne City (2nd title) |
Matches played | 163 |
Goals scored | 473 (2.9 per match) |
Top goalscorer | Jamie Maclaren (regular season, 15 goals) Jamie Maclaren (overall, 16 goals) |
Biggest home win | Western United 6–0 Perth Glory (16 April 2022) |
Biggest away win | Wellington Phoenix 0–6 Melbourne City (2 April 2022) |
Highest scoring | Newcastle Jets 6–1 Perth Glory (10 April 2022) |
Longest winning run | 5 matches Adelaide United Central Coast Mariners |
Longest unbeaten run | 15 matches Melbourne Victory |
Longest winless run | 16 matches Perth Glory |
Longest losing run | 6 matches Perth Glory |
Highest attendance | 23,118 WSW 0–0 Sydney FC (20 November 2021) |
Lowest attendance | 38 Wellington Phoenix 3–0 Brisbane Roar (16 February 2022) |
Average attendance | 5,602[1] ( 143) |
← 2020–21 2022–23 → (Note: Longest runs only include regular season results) |
Melbourne City were the defending champions and premiers, having won their first titles respectively the previous season. They retained the premiership, but lost the Grand Final to first-time grand finalists Western United.
Clubs
editTwelve clubs participated in the 2021–22 season.
Personnel and kits
editTeam | Manager | Captain | Kit manufacturer | Kit sponsor |
---|---|---|---|---|
Adelaide United | Carl Veart | Craig Goodwin | UCAN[5] | Flinders University[6][7] Australian Outdoor Living[note 1][8][9] |
Brisbane Roar | Warren Moon | Tom Aldred | New Balance[10] | ActronAir[11] |
Central Coast Mariners | Nick Montgomery | Oliver Bozanic | Paladin Sports[12] | MATE[13] |
Macarthur FC | Ante Milicic | Ulises Dávila | Macron[14] | Wisdom Homes[15] |
Melbourne City | Patrick Kisnorbo | Scott Jamieson | Puma[16] | Etihad Airways[17][18] |
Melbourne Victory | Tony Popovic | Joshua Brillante | Macron[19] | Metricon[20] |
Newcastle Jets | Arthur Papas | Matthew Jurman | VIVA[21] | Port of Newcastle[21] Ampcontrol[note 2][22] |
Perth Glory | Ruben Zadkovich | Brandon O'Neill | Macron[23] | BHP[24] |
Sydney FC | Steve Corica | Alex Wilkinson | Under Armour[25] | The Star[26] |
Wellington Phoenix | Ufuk Talay | Alex Rufer | Paladin Sports[27] | Spark[28] Oppo[note 3][28] |
Western Sydney Wanderers | Marko Rudan | Rhys Williams | Kappa[29] | Voltaren[30] Turner Freeman Lawyers[note 4][31] |
Western United | John Aloisi | Alessandro Diamanti | Kappa[32] | Simonds Homes[32] |
Managerial changes
editTeam | Outgoing manager | Manner of departure | Date of vacancy | Position on table | Incoming manager | Date of appointment |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Melbourne Victory | Steve Kean (caretaker) | End of contract | 10 June 2021 | Pre-season | Tony Popovic | 22 April 2021[33] |
Newcastle Jets | Craig Deans | Resigned[34] | 3 June 2021 | Arthur Papas | 28 June 2021[35] | |
Western United | Marko Rudan | Sacked[36] | 8 June 2021 | John Aloisi | 15 July 2021[37] | |
Central Coast Mariners | Alen Stajcic | Resigned[38] | 17 June 2021 | Nick Montgomery | 2 July 2021[39] | |
Western Sydney Wanderers | Carl Robinson | Sacked[40] | 30 January 2022 | 11th | Marko Rudan | 31 January 2022[41] |
Perth Glory | Richard Garcia | Sacked[42] | 20 March 2022 | 12th | Ruben Zadkovich (caretaker) | 20 March 2022[42] |
Foreign players
editThe following do not fill a Visa position:
1Those players who were born and started their professional career abroad but have since gained Australian citizenship (or New Zealand citizenship, in the case of Wellington Phoenix);[43]
2Australian citizens (or New Zealand citizens, 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 fourteen games)
Salary cap exemptions and captains
editTransfers
editRegular season
editLeague table
editPos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Melbourne City | 26 | 14 | 7 | 5 | 55 | 33 | +22 | 49 | Qualification for finals series and 2023–24 AFC Champions League group stage[b] |
2 | Melbourne Victory | 26 | 13 | 9 | 4 | 42 | 25 | +17 | 48 | Qualification for finals series[c] |
3 | Western United (C) | 26 | 13 | 6 | 7 | 40 | 30 | +10 | 45 | |
4 | Adelaide United | 26 | 12 | 7 | 7 | 38 | 31 | +7 | 43 | |
5 | Central Coast Mariners | 26 | 12 | 6 | 8 | 49 | 35 | +14 | 42 | |
6 | Wellington Phoenix[d] | 26 | 12 | 3 | 11 | 34 | 49 | −15 | 39 | |
7 | Macarthur FC | 26 | 9 | 6 | 11 | 38 | 47 | −9 | 33 | |
8 | Sydney FC | 26 | 8 | 7 | 11 | 37 | 44 | −7 | 31 | |
9 | Newcastle Jets | 26 | 8 | 5 | 13 | 45 | 43 | +2 | 29 | Qualification for 2022 Australia Cup play-offs[e] |
10 | Western Sydney Wanderers | 26 | 6 | 9 | 11 | 30 | 38 | −8 | 27 | |
11 | Brisbane Roar | 26 | 7 | 5 | 14 | 29 | 39 | −10 | 26 | |
12 | Perth Glory | 26 | 4 | 6 | 16 | 20 | 43 | −23 | 18 |
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Goals scored; 4) Points per game; 5) Least red cards; 6) Least yellow cards; 7) Toss of a coin in an event of a tie of two clubs.
(C) Champions
Notes:
- ^ The stadium will be undergoing construction during the season, which will reduce the stadium's capacity to around 26,000.[2][3] The stadium will have a capacity of 40,000 once construction is complete.[4]
- ^ Determined by which of the Premiers for the 2021–22 or 2022–23 seasons accrued the most combined points over both seasons.[64] Melbourne City qualified as they were Premiers in both seasons.
- ^ The top two teams enter the finals series at the semi-finals, while the teams ranked third to sixth enter the finals series at the elimination-finals.
- ^ Wellington Phoenix cannot qualify for Asian Football Confederation competitions as they are based in New Zealand, which is under the Oceania Football Confederation.
- ^ The top 8 teams qualify for the round of 32, while the bottom four teams participate in a play-off round.[65]
Fixtures and results
editAFC Champions League qualification
editDue to the re-formatting of the AFC Champions League to have an inter-year schedule from September (northern hemisphere autumn-to-spring) instead of an intra-year schedule (northern hemisphere spring-to-autumn),[66] the qualification for the 2023–24 AFC Champions League was changed. The single qualification spot for this competition goes to whichever of which of the Premiers for the current season or the following season accrues the most combined points over both seasons.[67] Melbourne City won the Premiership in both the 2021–22 and 2022–23 seasons,[68] thereby automatically qualifying for the Champions League.
Finals series
editFormat
editThe finals series, which ran over three weeks, consisted of the top six teams from the regular season. In the first week of fixtures, the third-through-sixth ranked teams played a single-elimination match, with the two winners of those matches joining the first and second ranked teams in two-legged semi-final ties. The first and second placed teams chose whether they would play home or away in the first leg.[69] The two winners of those matches meet in the Grand Final.[70] This season was the first to use this format.
Elimination-finals | Semi-finals | Grand Final | ||||||||||||||
4 | Adelaide United | 0 | 1 | 1 | ||||||||||||
4 | Adelaide United | 3 | 1 | Melbourne City (a.e.t.) | 0 | 2 | 2 | |||||||||
5 | Central Coast Mariners | 1 | 1 | Melbourne City | 0 | |||||||||||
3 | Western United | 2 | ||||||||||||||
3 | Western United | 0 | 4 | 4 | ||||||||||||
3 | Western United | 1 | 2 | Melbourne Victory | 1 | 1 | 2 | |||||||||
6 | Wellington Phoenix | 0 |
Elimination-finals
editSemi-finals
editSummary
Team 1 | Agg. | Team 2 | 1st leg | 2nd leg |
---|---|---|---|---|
Melbourne City | 2–1 | Adelaide United | 0–0 | 2–1 (a.e.t.) |
Melbourne Victory | 2–4 | Western United | 1–0 | 1–4 |
Matches
Melbourne Victory | 1–4 | Western United |
---|---|---|
Brimmer 37' | Report |
|
Western United won 4–2 on aggregate.
Melbourne City won 2–1 on aggregate.
Grand Final
editRegular season statistics
editTop scorers
editHat-tricks
editPlayer | For | Against | Result | Date | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Adam Le Fondre | Sydney FC | Central Coast Mariners | 5–0 (A) | 9 April 2022 | [72] |
Beka Mikeltadze | Newcastle Jets | Perth Glory | 6–1 (H) | 10 April 2022 | [73] |
Lachlan Wales | Western United | Perth Glory | 6–0 (H) | 16 April 2022 | [74] |
Key | |
---|---|
(A) | Away team |
(H) | Home team |
Clean sheets
editAwards
editAnnual awards
editThe following end of the season awards were announced at the 2021–22 Dolan Warren Awards night on 26 May 2022.[76]
Team of the season
editTeam of the season[77] | ||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Goalkeeper | Mark Birighitti (Central Coast Mariners) | |||||||
Defenders | Jason Geria (Melbourne Victory) | Léo Lacroix (Western United) | Curtis Good (Melbourne City) | Jason Davidson (Melbourne Victory) | ||||
Midfielders | Florin Berenguer (Melbourne City) | Joshua Brillante (Melbourne Victory) | Craig Goodwin (Adelaide United) | |||||
Forwards | Nick D'Agostino (Melbourne Victory) | Jake Brimmer (Melbourne Victory) | Jamie Maclaren (Melbourne City) | |||||
Substitutes | Jamie Young (Western United) | Ben Garuccio (Western United) | Javi López (Adelaide United) | Connor Metcalfe (Melbourne City) | Ulises Dávila (Macarthur FC) | Daniel Penha (Newcastle Jets) | Neil Kilkenny (Western United) |
See also
edit- 2021–22 A-League Women
- 2021–22 Adelaide United FC season
- 2021–22 Brisbane Roar FC season
- 2021–22 Central Coast Mariners FC season
- 2021–22 Macarthur FC season
- 2021–22 Melbourne City FC season
- 2021–22 Melbourne Victory FC season
- 2021–22 Newcastle Jets FC season
- 2021–22 Perth Glory FC season
- 2021–22 Sydney FC season
- 2021–22 Wellington Phoenix FC season
- 2021–22 Western Sydney Wanderers FC season
- 2021–22 Western United FC season