2016–17 A-League

The 2016–17 A-League was the 40th season of top-flight soccer in Australia, and the 12th since the establishment of the A-League in 2004. The season began on 7 October 2016.^[1]

A-League

Season	2016–17
Champions	Sydney FC (3rd title)
Premiers	Sydney FC (2nd title)
Champions League	Sydney FC Melbourne Victory Brisbane Roar
Matches played	135
Goals scored	409 (3.03 per match)
Top goalscorer	Besart Berisha Jamie Maclaren (19 goals)
Best goalkeeper	Danny Vukovic
Biggest home win	Melbourne Victory 6–1 Wellington Phoenix (31 October 2016) Wellington Phoenix 5–0 Newcastle Jets (26 March 2017)
Biggest away win	Adelaide United 0–5 Perth Glory (10 February 2017)
Highest scoring	Perth Glory 5–4 Melbourne City (16 April 2017)
Longest winning run	Melbourne Victory Sydney FC (6 games)
Longest unbeaten run	Sydney FC (19 games)
Longest winless run	Newcastle Jets (10 games)
Longest losing run	Newcastle Jets (6 games)
Highest attendance	61,880 Western Sydney Wanderers 0–4 Sydney FC (8 October 2016)
Lowest attendance	4,828 Wellington Phoenix 5–0 Newcastle Jets (26 March 2017)
Average attendance	12,294 ( 15)
← 2015–16 2017–18 →

Adelaide United were both the defending A-League Premiers and Champions. The 2017 Grand Final took place on 7 May 2017, with Sydney FC claiming their third Championship with a 1–1 (4–2 on penalties) win against Melbourne Victory. Sydney FC also claimed the premiership for the 2016–17 regular season, their second in club history.

Clubs

Further information: A-League § Clubs

Team	City	Home Ground	Capacity
Adelaide United	Adelaide	Coopers Stadium	17,000
Brisbane Roar	Brisbane	Suncorp Stadium	52,500
Central Coast Mariners	Gosford	Central Coast Stadium	20,119
Melbourne City	Melbourne	AAMI Park	30,050
Melbourne Victory	Melbourne	Etihad Stadium	56,347
		AAMI Park	30,050
Newcastle Jets	Newcastle	McDonald Jones Stadium	33,000
Perth Glory	Perth	nib Stadium	20,500
Sydney FC	Sydney	Allianz Stadium	45,500
Wellington Phoenix	Wellington	Westpac Stadium	34,500
Western Sydney Wanderers	Sydney	ANZ Stadium	84,000
		Spotless Stadium	24,000

Adelaide United

Brisbane Roar

Central Coast Mariners

Melbourne City

Melbourne Victory

Newcastle Jets

Perth Glory

Sydney FC

Wellington Phoenix

Western Sydney Wanderers

Personnel and kits

Team	Manager	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Kit partner
Adelaide United	Guillermo Amor	Eugene Galekovic	Macron[2]	IGA
Brisbane Roar	John Aloisi	Matt McKay	Umbro[3]	Steadfast
Central Coast Mariners	Paul Okon	Nick Montgomery	Umbro[4]	Masterfoods
Melbourne City	Michael Valkanis	Bruno Fornaroli	Nike	Etihad
Melbourne Victory	Kevin Muscat	Carl Valeri	Adidas[5]	Optislim
Newcastle Jets	Mark Jones	Nigel Boogaard	BLK	Ledman
Perth Glory	Kenny Lowe	Rostyn Griffiths	Macron[6]	QBE
Sydney FC	Graham Arnold	Alex Brosque	Puma	Webjet
Wellington Phoenix	Des Buckingham	Andrew Durante	Adidas	Huawei
Western Sydney Wanderers	Tony Popovic	Dimas	Nike[7]	NRMA Insurance

Transfers

Further information: A-League transfers for 2016–17 season

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position on table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
Central Coast Mariners	Tony Walmsley	Sacked[8]	8 August 2016	Pre-season	Paul Okon[9]	29 August 2016
Newcastle Jets	Scott Miller	Sacked[10]	7 September 2016		Mark Jones[11]	23 September 2016
Wellington Phoenix	Ernie Merrick	Resigned[12]	5 December 2016	10th	Des Buckingham[note 1][13]	5 December 2016
Melbourne City	John van 't Schip	Resigned[14]	3 January 2017	4th	Michael Valkanis[note 2][15]	3 January 2017

Foreign players

Club	Visa 1	Visa 2	Visa 3	Visa 4	Visa 5	Non-Visa foreigner(s)	Former player(s)
Adelaide United	Marcelo Carrusca	Baba Diawara	Sergio Cirio	Isaías	Kim Jae-sung	Iacopo La Rocca1	Henrique1 Danny Choi3 Sergi Guardiola
Brisbane Roar	Thomas Kristensen	Thomas Broich	Manuel Arana			Jamie Young2 Avraam Papadopoulos2 Dane Ingham2 Jack Hingert2
Central Coast Mariners	Roy O'Donovan	Fábio Ferreira	Jacques Faty	Mickaël Tavares		Nick Montgomery1 Kwabena Appiah2 Storm Roux2	Brad McDonald2
Melbourne City	Fernando Brandán	Nicolás Colazo	Michael Jakobsen	Thomas Sørensen	Bruno Fornaroli	Manny Muscat2
Melbourne Victory	Besart Berisha	Marco Rojas	Alan Baró	Fahid Ben Khalfallah		Daniel Georgievski2 Jai Ingham2	Maximilian Beister
Newcastle Jets	Ma Leilei	Mateo Poljak	Morten Nordstrand	Wayne Brown	Aleksandr Kokko	Ivan Vujica2
Perth Glory	Joseph Mills	Andy Keogh	Lucian Goian	Nebojša Marinković	Diego Castro		Milan Smiljanić
Sydney FC	Bobô	Jordy Buijs	Miloš Dimitrijević	Miloš Ninković	Filip Hološko	Nicola Kuleski2
Wellington Phoenix	Guilherme Finkler	Roly Bonevacia	Roy Krishna	Marco Rossi	Alex Rodriguez
Western Sydney Wanderers	Nicolás Martínez	Jumpei Kusukami	Aritz Borda	Dimas	Bruno Piñatares

The following do not fill a Visa position:
¹Those players who were born and started their professional career abroad but have since gained Australian citizenship (and New Zealand citizenship, in the case of Wellington Phoenix);^[16]
2Australian citizens (and 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

Club	First Marquee	Second Marquee	Guest Marquee	Mature Age Rookie	Captain	Vice-Captain
Adelaide United	Eugene Galekovic[17]	Marcelo Carrusca[17]	None	None	Eugene Galekovic[18][19]	Marcelo Carrusca
Brisbane Roar	Matt McKay[20]	Thomas Broich[21]	None	None	Matt McKay[22]	Jade North[23]
Central Coast Mariners	None	None	None	None	Nick Montgomery[24]	None
Melbourne City	Bruno Fornaroli[25]	Nicolás Colazo[26]	Tim Cahill[27][28]	None	Bruno Fornaroli[29][30]	None
Melbourne Victory	Oliver Bozanic[31][note 3]	Besart Berisha[33]	None	None	Carl Valeri[34]	Leigh Broxham[34]
Newcastle Jets	None	None	None	Joel Allwright[35]	Nigel Boogaard[36]	Mateo Poljak[37]
Perth Glory	Diego Castro[38]	None	None	None	Rostyn Griffiths[39]	Andy Keogh[39]
Sydney FC	Filip Hološko[40][41]	Bobô[42]	None	None	Alex Brosque[43]	Alex Wilkinson[44]
Wellington Phoenix	Kosta Barbarouses[45]	Guilherme Finkler[46][47]	None	None	Andrew Durante[48]	None
Western Sydney Wanderers	Nicolás Martínez[49]	None	None	None	Dimas[50]	Mitch Nichols[50]

Regular season

League table

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Sydney FC (C)	27	20	6	1	55	12	+43	66	Qualification for 2018 AFC Champions League group stage and Finals series
2	Melbourne Victory	27	15	4	8	49	31	+18	49
3	Brisbane Roar	27	11	9	7	43	37	+6	42	Qualification for 2018 AFC Champions League second preliminary round and Finals series
4	Melbourne City	27	11	6	10	49	44	+5	39	Qualification for Finals series
5	Perth Glory	27	10	9	8	53	53	0	39
6	Western Sydney Wanderers	27	8	12	7	35	35	0	36
7	Wellington Phoenix[a]	27	8	6	13	41	46	−5	30
8	Central Coast Mariners	27	6	5	16	31	52	−21	23
9	Adelaide United	27	5	8	14	25	46	−21	23
10	Newcastle Jets	27	5	7	15	28	53	−25	22

Source: A-Leagues
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored.
(C) Champions
Notes:

1. Wellington Phoenix cannot qualify for the AFC Champions League as they are not recognised as an AFC club.

Results

Home \ Away	ADE	BRI	CCM	MBC	MVC	NEW	PER	SYD	WEL	WSW	ADE	BRI	CCM	MBC	MVC	NEW	PER	SYD	WEL	WSW
Adelaide United		1–1	1–2	2–1	1–2	1–0	0–5	0–4	2–0	1–2		2–1			0–2		1–1		2–2	2–2
Brisbane Roar	4–0		5–1	1–0	1–1	2–3	2–1	1–1	1–2	1–1					1–0			0–0	4–3	2–1
Central Coast Mariners	2–1	0–1		2–2	0–3	2–0	2–0	2–3	0–2	1–4	2–3	1–2		2–3			2–0
Melbourne City	2–1	1–1	2–1		1–2	2–1	2–3	1–3	2–1	1–0	1–0	2–2				4–0	3–3
Melbourne Victory	2–1	3–2	4–1	1–4		2–0	1–1	1–2	6–1	3–0			1–0	2–1		4–2	4–1		0–3
Newcastle Jets	1–1	4–0	1–1	2–1	0–0		2–2	0–2	2–2	0–3	2–1	1–3	1–1					0–2
Perth Glory	3–1	2–2	3–3	5–4	2–1	1–2		1–4	2–0	2–2		3–1				3–2		0–3	2–1	2–0
Sydney FC	0–0	2–0	4–0	1–1	2–1	2–0	4–1		3–1	0–0	2–0		1–0	3–0	1–0
Wellington Phoenix	0–0	0–1	3–0	0–1	3–0	2–0	3–3	0–1		2–2			1–0	1–5		5–0		1–1		1–3
Western Sydney Wanderers	0–0	1–1	1–1	1–1	0–3	2–2	1–1	0–4	3–1				0–2	3–1	0–0	2–0		1–0

Updated to match(es) played on 16 April 2017. Source: a-league.com.au
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Finals series

	Elimination-finals				Semi-finals				Grand Final
					Sydney FC	3
	Melbourne City	0			Perth Glory	0
	Perth Glory	2							Sydney FC (p)	1 (4)
									Melbourne Victory	1 (2)
					Melbourne Victory	1
	Brisbane Roar (p)	1 (6)			Brisbane Roar	0
	Western Sydney Wanderers	1 (5)

Elimination-finals

21 April 2017

19:50 AEST

Brisbane Roar	1–1 (a.e.t.)	Western Sydney Wanderers
Maclaren 55'	Report	Antonis 45+1' (pen.)
Penalties
Borrello D'Agostino Maclaren DeVere Kristensen Oar	6–5	Antonis Dimas N. Martínez Hamill Cornthwaite Kusukami

Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane

Attendance: 17,530

Referee: Jarred Gillett

---

23 April 2017

19:00 AEST

Melbourne City	0–2	Perth Glory
	Report	Castro 16' Chianese 30'

AAMI Park, Melbourne

Attendance: 9,944

Referee: Chris Beath

Semi-finals

29 April 2017

19:50 AEST

Sydney FC	3–0	Perth Glory
Brillante 21' Buijs 37' Hološko 45+1'	Report

Allianz Stadium, Sydney

Attendance: 21,938

Referee: Peter Green

---

30 April 2017

17:00 AEST

Melbourne Victory	1–0	Brisbane Roar
Berisha 70'	Report

AAMI Park, Melbourne

Attendance: 20,202

Referee: Kris Griffiths-Jones

Grand Final

See also: 2017 A-League Grand Final

7 May 2017

17:00 AEST

Sydney FC	1–1 (a.e.t.)	Melbourne Victory
Grant 69'	Report	Berisha 20'
Penalties
Brosque Wilkinson Carney O'Neill Ninković	4–2	Troisi Broxham Valeri Rojas

Allianz Stadium, Sydney

Attendance: 41,546

Referee: Jarred Gillett

Statistics

Attendances

By club

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.

As of matches played on 16 April 2017.

Team	Hosted	Average	High	Low	Total
Melbourne Victory	14	22,008	43,188	14,081	308,115
Western Sydney Wanderers	14	17,746	61,880	7,828	248,442
Sydney FC	13	16,001	40,143	8,380	208,008
Brisbane Roar	13	13,892	20,198	8,113	180,601
Melbourne City	13	10,593	24,706	7,745	137,709
Perth Glory	14	10,533	13,290	8,834	147,459
Adelaide United	14	9,565	14,908	6,642	133,905
Newcastle Jets	13	8,645	11,873	5,642	112,380
Central Coast Mariners	13	7,395	11,398	5,072	96,141
Wellington Phoenix	14	6,211	10,034	4,828	86,949
{{{T11}}}	0	0	0	0	0
{{{T12}}}	0	0	0	0	0
League total	135	12,294	61,880	4,828	1,659,709

By round

2016–17 A-League Attendance

Round	Total	Games	Avg. Per Game
Round 1	106,365	5	21,273
Round 2	92,603	5	18,521
Round 3	50,669	5	10,134
Round 4	67,635	5	13,527
Round 5	69,437	5	13,887
Round 6	58,035	5	11,607
Round 7	58,488	5	11,698
Round 8	58,367	5	11,673
Round 9	52,498	5	10,500
Round 10	60,940	5	12,188
Round 11	51,232	5	10,246
Round 12	65,126	5	13,025
Round 13	59,526	5	11,905
Round 14	55,845	5	11,169
Round 15	87,088	5	17,418
Round 16	47,206	5	9,441
Round 17	66,960	5	13,392
Round 18	71,681	5	14,336
Round 19	38,651	5	7,730
Round 20	75,391	5	15,078
Round 21	59,676	5	11,935
Round 22	41,656	5	8,331
Round 23	51,936	5	10,387
Round 24	44,143	5	8,829
Round 25	57,077	5	11,415
Round 26	49,300	5	9,860
Round 27	62,609	5	12,522
Elimination Final	27,474	2	13,737
Semi Final	42,140	2	21,070
Grand Final	41,546	1	41,546

Club membership

2016–17 A-League membership figures

Club	Members
Adelaide United	10,099
Brisbane Roar	7,050
Central Coast Mariners	6,265
Melbourne City	13,078
Melbourne Victory	26,251
Newcastle Jets	8,703
Perth Glory	8,644
Sydney FC	12,512
Wellington Phoenix	4,791
Western Sydney Wanderers	20,022
Total	117,415
Average	11,741

Last updated: 16 April 2017.
Source: a-league.com.au

Player stats

Top scorers

As of matches played on 16 April 2017^[51]

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Besart Berisha	Melbourne Victory	19
	Jamie Maclaren	Brisbane Roar
3	Bruno Fornaroli	Melbourne City	17
4	Bobô	Sydney FC	15
5	Brendon Santalab	Western Sydney Wanderers	14
6	Diego Castro	Perth Glory	12
	Andy Keogh	Perth Glory
	Roy Krishna	Wellington Phoenix
	Marco Rojas	Melbourne Victory
	Adam Taggart	Perth Glory

Hat-tricks

Main article: List of A-League hat-tricks

Player	For	Against	Result	Date	Ref
Andy Keogh	Perth Glory	Melbourne City	3–2	21 October 2016	[52]
Besart Berisha†	Melbourne Victory	Wellington Phoenix	6–1	31 October 2016	[53]
Besart Berisha†	Melbourne Victory	Western Sydney Wanderers	3–0	10 December 2016	[54]
Brendon Santalab	Western Sydney Wanderers	Melbourne City	3–1	24 March 2017	[55]
Jamie Maclaren	Brisbane Roar	Central Coast Mariners	5–1	2 April 2017	[56]

† - On 24 March 2017 Besart Berisha switched nationalities from Albania to Kosovo.

Own goals

As of matches played on 16 April 2017

Player	Club	Against	Round
Liam Reddy	Perth Glory	Central Coast Mariners	1
Jack Hingert	Brisbane Roar	Newcastle Jets	2
Rhyan Grant	Sydney FC	Perth Glory	6
Neil Kilkenny	Melbourne City	Western Sydney Wanderers	7
Josh Risdon	Perth Glory	Adelaide United	7
Iain Fyfe	Newcastle Jets	Melbourne Victory	8
Jake McGing	Central Coast Mariners	Western Sydney Wanderers	9
Milan Smiljanić	Perth Glory	Newcastle Jets	10
Jake McGing	Central Coast Mariners	Melbourne Victory	12
Carl Valeri	Melbourne Victory	Newcastle Jets	13
James Donachie	Melbourne Victory	Brisbane Roar	15
Alan Baró	Melbourne Victory	Melbourne City	18
Manny Muscat	Melbourne City	Melbourne Victory	18
Iacopo La Rocca	Adelaide United	Perth Glory	19
Ryan Lowry	Wellington Phoenix	Melbourne City	20
Nick Montgomery	Central Coast Mariners	Melbourne City	22
Ruon Tongyik	Melbourne City	Central Coast Mariners	22
Jason Hoffman	Newcastle Jets	Wellington Phoenix	24
Lucian Goian	Perth Glory	Sydney FC	24

Clean sheets

As of matches played on 16 April 2017^[57]

Rank	Player	Club	Clean sheets
1	Danny Vukovic	Sydney FC	15
2	Lawrence Thomas	Melbourne Victory	7
3	Vedran Janjetović	Western Sydney Wanderers	6
4	Glen Moss	Wellington Phoenix	5
5	Paul Izzo	Central Coast Mariners	4
	Michael Theo	Brisbane Roar
7	Eugene Galekovic	Adelaide United	3
	Lewis Italiano	Wellington Phoenix
	Liam Reddy	Perth Glory
10	Dean Bouzanis	Melbourne City	2
	Jack Duncan	Newcastle Jets
	Jamie Young	Brisbane Roar

NB - An additional clean sheet was kept by Melbourne City, however this is not listed due to a goalkeeper substitution.

Discipline

During the season each club is given fair play points based on the number of cards they received in games. A yellow card is worth 1 point, a second yellow card is worth 2 points, and a red card is worth 3 points. At the annual awards night, the club with the fewest points wins the Fair Play Award.^[58]

Club				FP Pts
Central Coast Mariners	44	1	2	52
Adelaide United	52	2	0	56
Brisbane Roar	51	1	1	56
Newcastle Jets	55	1	0	57
Melbourne Victory	56	1	2	64
Sydney FC	64	2	0	68
Wellington Phoenix	62	2	1	69
Western Sydney Wanderers	58	1	4	72
Perth Glory	67	1	2	75
Melbourne City	73	1	3	84
League total	582	13	15

Last updated: 16 April 2017.
Source: ultimatealeague.com

End-of-season awards

The following end of the season awards were announced at the 2016–17 Dolan Warren Awards night held at the Star Event Centre in Sydney on 1 May 2017.^[59]

• Johnny Warren Medal – Miloš Ninković, Sydney FC
• NAB Young Footballer of the Year – Jamie Maclaren, Brisbane Roar
• Nike Golden Boot Award – Besart Berisha, Melbourne Victory & Jamie Maclaren, Brisbane Roar (19 goals each)
• Goalkeeper of the Year – Danny Vukovic, Sydney FC
• Coach of the Year – Graham Arnold, Sydney FC
• Fair Play Award – Central Coast Mariners
• Referee of the Year – Jarred Gillett
• Goal of the Year – Tim Cahill, Melbourne City (Melbourne Victory v Melbourne City, 15 October 2016)

See also

• 2016–17 Adelaide United FC season
• 2016–17 Brisbane Roar FC season
• 2016–17 Central Coast Mariners FC season
• 2016–17 Melbourne City FC season
• 2016–17 Melbourne Victory FC season
• 2016–17 Newcastle Jets FC season
• 2016–17 Perth Glory FC season
• 2016–17 Sydney FC season
• 2016–17 Wellington Phoenix FC season
• 2016–17 Western Sydney Wanderers FC season

Notes

1. Buckingham was initially named as interim head coach, before being appointed on a permanent basis on 2 January 2017.
2. Valkanis was initially named as interim head coach, before being appointed on a permanent basis on 25 January 2017.
3. Bozanic transferred out of Melbourne Victory and his marquee deal part-way through on 16 March 2017.^[32]