2020–21 A-League

The 2020–21 A-League was the 44th season of national level soccer in Australia, and the 16th since the establishment of the A-League in 2004. The season was started on 28 December 2020 and concluded with the Grand Final on 27 June 2021.^[3] The start of the season was later than previous seasons as a result of both the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia and New Zealand, and as part of a gradual shift to move the competition from summer to winter.^[4] Wellington Phoenix played the majority of their home matches at Wollongong Showground in Wollongong due to international travel restrictions.^[5]

A-League

Season	2020–21
Dates	28 December 2020 – 27 June 2021
Champions	Melbourne City (1st title)
Premiers	Melbourne City (1st title)
Champions League	Melbourne City Sydney FC
Matches played	161
Goals scored	471 (2.93 per match)
Top goalscorer	Jamie Maclaren (25 goals)
Biggest home win	Melbourne City 7–0 Melbourne Victory (17 April 2021)
Biggest away win	Melbourne Victory 0–6 Melbourne City (6 March 2021)
Highest scoring	Western United 5–4 Perth Glory (23 January 2021) Melbourne Victory 5–4 WSW (23 April 2021)
Longest winning run	6 matches Adelaide United Melbourne City
Longest unbeaten run	11 matches Wellington Phoenix
Longest winless run	14 matches Newcastle Jets
Longest losing run	8 matches Western United
Highest attendance	24,105[1] WEL 3–0 WUN (22 May 2021)
Lowest attendance	550 WUN 1–2 MAC (31 May 2021) [2]
Total attendance	879,039[1]
Average attendance	5,745[1] ( 3,683)
← 2019–20 2021–22 → (Note: Longest run statistics do not include finals)

Melbourne Rectangular Stadium interior

Sydney FC were the defending champions and premiers, having won their record fifth and fourth titles respectively the previous season. Melbourne City won their first premiership and championship title, leaving Sydney FC in second on both.

Clubs

Adelaide United

Brisbane Roar

Central Coast Mariners

Macarthur FC

Melbourne City

Melbourne Victory

Newcastle Jets

Perth Glory

Sydney FC

Wellington Phoenix

Western United

Western Sydney Wanderers

There were 12 clubs participating in this season. Macarthur FC made their A-League debut this season.^[6]

Club	City	Home stadium(s)	Capacity
Adelaide United	Adelaide	Coopers Stadium	16,500
Brisbane Roar	Brisbane	Moreton Daily Stadium	11,500
Central Coast Mariners	Gosford	Central Coast Stadium	20,059
Macarthur FC	Sydney	Campbelltown Stadium	20,000
Melbourne City	Melbourne	AAMI Park	30,050
Melbourne Victory	Melbourne	Marvel Stadium	56,347
		AAMI Park	30,050
Newcastle Jets	Newcastle	McDonald Jones Stadium	33,000
	Coffs Harbour	C.ex Coffs International Stadium	20,000
Perth Glory	Perth	HBF Park	20,500
Sydney FC	Sydney	Stadium Australia	83,500
		Sydney Cricket Ground	48,601
		Netstrata Jubilee Stadium	20,500
		Leichhardt Oval	20,000
Wellington Phoenix	Auckland	Eden Park	50,000
	Wellington	Sky Stadium	34,500
	Newcastle	McDonald Jones Stadium	33,000
	Wollongong	WIN Stadium	23,000
Western Sydney Wanderers	Sydney	Bankwest Stadium	30,000
Western United	Geelong	GMHBA Stadium	26,000[a]
	Melbourne	AAMI Park	30,050
	Launceston	UTAS Stadium	19,000
	Ballarat	Mars Stadium	11,000

Personnel and kits

Team	Manager	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Kit sponsor
Adelaide United	Carl Veart	Stefan Mauk	UCAN[10]	Flinders University[11] Australian Outdoor Living[A][12]
Brisbane Roar	Warren Moon	Tom Aldred	Umbro[13][14]	ActronAir[15]
Central Coast Mariners	Alen Stajcic	Oliver Bozanic	Umbro[16][17]	Masterfoods[18] MATE[A][19]
Macarthur FC	Ante Milicic	Mark Milligan	Macron[20]	Wisdom Homes[21]
Melbourne City	Patrick Kisnorbo	Scott Jamieson	Puma[22]	Etihad Airways[23][24]
Melbourne Victory	Steve Kean (caretaker)	Leigh Broxham	Adidas[25]	Metricon[26]
Newcastle Jets	Craig Deans	Nigel Boogaard	Apelle[27]	Inspirations Paint[28]
Perth Glory	Richard Garcia	Diego Castro	Macron[29]	BHP[30]
Sydney FC	Steve Corica	Alex Wilkinson	Under Armour[31][32]	The Star[33]
Wellington Phoenix	Ufuk Talay	Ulises Dávila	Paladin Sports[34]	KPMG[35] Multi Civil and Rail[36]
Western Sydney Wanderers	Carl Robinson	Dylan McGowan	Kappa[37]	Voltaren[38] JD Sports[A][39]
Western United	Marko Rudan	Alessandro Diamanti	Kappa[40]	Simonds Homes[41] Tasman Logistics[A][42]

^

Away kit.

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position on table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
Macarthur FC	Inaugural manager			Pre-season	Ante Milicic[43]	15 May 2019
Melbourne Victory	Grant Brebner (caretaker)	Promoted to full time	24 August 2020		Grant Brebner[44]	24 August 2020
Perth Glory	Tony Popovic	Signed by Xanthi[45]	27 August 2020		Hayden Foxe (caretaker)[46]	2 September 2020
Melbourne City	Erick Mombaerts	Resigned	3 September 2020		Patrick Kisnorbo[47]	3 September 2020
Adelaide United	Carl Veart (caretaker)	Promoted to full time	18 September 2020		Carl Veart[48]	18 September 2020
Perth Glory	Hayden Foxe (caretaker)	End of contract	18 September 2020		Richard Garcia[49]	18 September 2020
Western Sydney Wanderers	Jean-Paul de Marigny	Sacked[50]	12 October 2020		Carl Robinson[51]	15 October 2020
Newcastle Jets	Carl Robinson	Signed by Western Sydney Wanderers[52]	15 October 2020		Craig Deans[b][54]	16 October 2020
Melbourne Victory	Grant Brebner	Sacked[55]	17 April 2021	12th	Steve Kean (caretaker)[56]	19 April 2021

1. The stadium will be undergoing construction during the season, which will reduce the stadium's capacity to around 26,000.^[7][8] The stadium will have a capacity of 40,000 once construction is complete.^[9]
2. Deans was initially appointed as interim coach, but the move was made permanent on 10 February 2021.^[53]

Foreign players

Club	Visa 1	Visa 2	Visa 3	Visa 4	Visa 5	Non-visa foreigner(s)	Former player(s)
Adelaide United	Michael Jakobsen	Juande	Javi López
Brisbane Roar	Macaulay Gillesphey	Jay O'Shea	Riku Danzaki	Masato Kudo	Tom Aldred	Jamie Young2 Joe Champness2 Jack Hingert2	Jai Ingham2
Central Coast Mariners	Marco Ureña	Michał Janota	Stefan Janković			Dan Hall2 Gianni Stensness2
Macarthur FC	Matt Derbyshire	Loïc Puyo	Beñat	Markel Susaeta		Antonis Martis2
Melbourne City	Craig Noone	Florin Berenguer	Naoki Tsubaki	Nuno Reis	Adrián Luna	Stefan Colakovski2	Daniel Georgievski2
Melbourne Victory	Rudy Gestede	Jacob Butterfield	Callum McManaman	Marco Rojas		Elvis Kamsoba2 Adama Traoré1 Max Crocombe2 Storm Roux2	Ryan Shotton
Newcastle Jets						Ali Abbas1 Roy O'Donovan1 Valentino Yuel2	Syahrian Abimanyu Liridon Krasniqi
Perth Glory	Darryl Lachman	Sebastian Langkamp	Kosuke Ota	Diego Castro	Bruno Fornaroli	Andy Keogh1 Dane Ingham2
Sydney FC	Bobô	Adam Le Fondre	Alexander Baumjohann	Kosta Barbarouses	Miloš Ninković
Wellington Phoenix	David Ball	Steven Taylor	Tomer Hemed	Ulises Dávila
Western Sydney Wanderers	Jordon Mutch	Nicolai Müller	Graham Dorrans	Ziggy Gordon		Patrick Ziegler1	Simon Cox Daniel Georgievski2
Western United	Alessandro Diamanti	Tomoki Imai	Filip Kurto	Iker Guarrotxena	Víctor Sánchez	Kaine Sheppard1 Besart Berisha1 Andrew Durante2

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 (or New Zealand citizenship, in the case of Wellington Phoenix);^[57]
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

Club	First Designated	Second Designated	Captain	Vice-Captain
Adelaide United	None	None	Stefan Mauk[58]	Jordan Elsey Ben Halloran[59]
Brisbane Roar	None	None	Tom Aldred[60]	None
Central Coast Mariners	Daniel De Silva[61][62]	None	Oliver Bozanic[63]	None
Macarthur FC	Mark Milligan[64]	None	Mark Milligan[65]	None
Melbourne City	Jamie Maclaren[66]	None	Scott Jamieson[67]	None
Melbourne Victory	Robbie Kruse[68]	None	Leigh Broxham[69]	None
Newcastle Jets	None	None	Nigel Boogaard[70][71]	Nikolai Topor-Stanley[72]
Perth Glory	Diego Castro[73][74]	Bruno Fornaroli[75]	Diego Castro[76]	Neil Kilkenny[77]
Sydney FC	None	None	Alex Wilkinson[78]	None
Wellington Phoenix	Tomer Hemed[79]	None	Ulises Dávila[80]	Alex Rufer[80]
Western Sydney Wanderers	None	None	Dylan McGowan[81]	None
Western United	Alessandro Diamanti[82]	None	Alessandro Diamanti[82][83]	Tomislav Uskok[83]

Transfers

Further information: A-League transfers for 2020–21 season

Regular season

The regular season commenced on 28 December 2020 and ended on 10 June 2021.

League table

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Melbourne City (C)	26	15	4	7	57	32	+25	49	Qualification for 2022 AFC Champions League group stage and finals series[a]
2	Sydney FC	26	13	8	5	39	23	+16	47	Qualification for 2022 AFC Champions League qualifying play-offs and finals series[a]
3	Central Coast Mariners	26	12	6	8	35	31	+4	42	Qualification for finals series[a]
4	Brisbane Roar	26	11	7	8	36	28	+8	40
5	Adelaide United	26	11	6	9	39	41	−2	39
6	Macarthur FC	26	11	6	9	33	36	−3	39
7	Wellington Phoenix[b]	26	10	8	8	44	34	+10	38
8	Western Sydney Wanderers	26	9	8	9	45	43	+2	35
9	Perth Glory	26	9	7	10	44	44	0	34	Qualification for 2021 FFA Cup play-offs[c]
10	Western United	26	8	4	14	30	47	−17	28
11	Newcastle Jets	26	5	6	15	24	38	−14	21
12	Melbourne Victory	26	5	4	17	31	60	−29	19	Qualification for 2022 AFC Champions League qualifying play-offs and 2021 FFA Cup play-offs[d]

Source: A-Leagues
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Goals scored; 4) Least red cards; 5) Least yellow cards; 6) Toss of a coin in an event of a tie of two clubs.
(C) Champions
Notes:

1. The top two teams entered the finals series at the semi-finals, while the teams ranked third to sixth entered the finals series at the elimination-finals.
2. Wellington Phoenix cannot qualify for Asian Football Confederation competitions as they are based in New Zealand, which is under the Oceania Football Confederation.
3. The top 8 teams qualified for the round of 32, while the bottom four teams participated in a playoff round.^[84]
4. Qualified as the 2021 FFA Cup winners.

Fixtures and results

Home \ Away	ADE	BRI	CCM	MAC	MCY	MVC	NEW	PER	SYD	WEL	WSW	WUN	ADE	BRI	CCM	MAC	MCY	MVC	NEW	PER	SYD	WEL	WSW	WUN
Adelaide United		1–0	3–2	3–1	2–0	1–0	2–1	1–2	1–0	0–0	1–1	0–0									1–4		2–2
Brisbane Roar	3–1		0–0	0–2	0–1	5–2	0–0	2–1	1–1	0–0	1–1	2–1					3–0				0–2
Central Coast Mariners	2–1	0–4		2–0	3–2	1–1	1–0	2–2	2–2	1–2	0–1	3–2							0–2					2–0
Macarthur FC	4–0	1–2	0–2		1–1	3–1	2–2	2–0	0–3	1–1	2–2	2–1			1–2							0–3
Melbourne City	4–1	3–2	2–0	3–0		7–0	3–1	1–3	3–2	2–2	4–1	2–1			1–0				1–2
Melbourne Victory	1–3	1–3	1–1	1–2	0–6		0–1	2–1	0–3	2–0	5–4	3–4	0–1				1–1
Newcastle Jets	1–4	1–2	0–1	1–2	1–0	1–2		1–1	1–1	0–2	1–2	0–1		1–2						1–1
Perth Glory	5–3	3–1	1–2	0–0	1–3	2–1	2–1		1–1	1–3	5–1	3–0	2–1			1–1
Sydney FC	2–2	0–0	0–2	0–1	1–1	1–0	2–1	1–0		2–1	1–1	2–0						2–0					1–0
Wellington Phoenix	2–1	1–1	0–2	0–1	2–3	4–1	1–2	3–0	1–2		2–2	3–2								2–2				3–0
Western Sydney Wanderers	2–3	1–2	2–2	0–1	0–2	2–0	1–1	3–0	3–2	4–3		5–0		2–0								1–2
Western United	0–0	1–0	1–0	4–1	2–1	0–0	2–0	5–4	0–1	1–1	0–1					1–2		1–6

Source: A-League
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
For upcoming matches, an "a" indicates there is an article about the rivalry between the two participants.

Finals series

Main article: 2021 A-League finals series

	Elimination-finals				Semi-finals				Grand Final
					20 June – Sydney
					Melbourne City	2
	12 June – Gosford
					Macarthur FC	0
	Central Coast Mariners	0
									27 June – Melbourne
	Macarthur FC	2
									Melbourne City	3
									Sydney FC	1
					19 June – Sydney
					Sydney FC	2
	13 June – Brisbane
					Adelaide United	1
	Brisbane Roar	1
	Adelaide United	2

Elimination-finals

12 June 2021

19:05 AEST

Central Coast Mariners	0–2 (a.e.t.)	Macarthur FC
	Report	M'Mombwa 93' Ruhs 120+1'

Central Coast Stadium, Gosford

Attendance: 11,565

Referee: Shaun Evans

13 June 2021

15:05 AEST

Brisbane Roar	1–2	Adelaide United
Parsons 56'	Report	Juric 15', 19'

Moreton Daily Stadium, Brisbane

Attendance: 7,782

Referee: Alex King

Semi-finals

19 June 2021

19:05 AEST

Sydney FC	2–1	Adelaide United
Le Fondre 24' (pen.) Bobô 43'	Report	Juande 64'

Netstrata Jubilee Stadium, Sydney

Attendance: 7,500

Referee: Alireza Faghani

20 June 2021

16:05 AEST

Melbourne City	2–0	Macarthur FC
Colakovski 54' Tilio 55'	Report

Netstrata Jubilee Stadium, Sydney

Attendance: 2,283

Referee: Daniel Elder

Grand Final

See also: 2021 A-League Grand Final

27 June 2021

17:05 AEST

Melbourne City	3–1	Sydney FC
Atkinson 23' Jamieson 45+1' (pen.) Galloway 90+3'	Report	Barbarouses 21'

AAMI Park, Melbourne

Attendance: 14,017

Referee: Chris Beath

Statistics

Top scorers

Including Finals matches^[85]

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Jamie Maclaren	Melbourne City	25
2	Matt Derbyshire	Macarthur FC	14
3	Bruno Fornaroli	Perth Glory	13
4	Bobô	Sydney FC	12
5	Tomer Hemed	Wellington Phoenix	11
6	Matt Simon	Central Coast Mariners	10
7	Kosta Barbarouses	Sydney FC	9
	Riku Danzaki	Brisbane Roar
	Tomi Juric	Adelaide United
	Bruce Kamau	Western Sydney Wanderers

Hat-tricks

Main article: List of A-League hat-tricks

Player	For	Against	Result	Date	Ref.
Matt Derbyshire	Macarthur FC	Adelaide United	4–0 (H)	12 February 2021	[86]
Tomi Juric	Adelaide United	Central Coast Mariners	3–2 (H)	19 February 2021	[87]
Jamie Maclaren5	Melbourne City	Melbourne Victory	7–0 (H)	17 April 2021	[88]
Andy Keogh4	Perth Glory	Western Sydney Wanderers	5–1 (H)	16 May 2021	[89]

Key
4	Player scored four goals
5	Player scored five goals
(H)	Home team

Awards

Annual awards

The following end of the season awards were announced at the 2020–21 Dolan Warren Awards night on 23 June 2021.^[90]

• Johnny Warren Medal – Ulises Dávila, Wellington Phoenix & Miloš Ninković, Sydney FC
• NAB Young Footballer of the Year – Joel King, Sydney FC
• Nike Golden Boot Award – Jamie Maclaren, Melbourne City (25 goals)
• Goalkeeper of the Year – Mark Birighitti, Central Coast Mariners & Andrew Redmayne, Sydney FC
• Coach of the Year – Patrick Kisnorbo, Melbourne City
• Fair Play Award – Brisbane Roar
• Referee of the Year – Chris Beath
• Goal of the Year – Andy Keogh, Perth Glory (Perth Glory v Western Sydney Wanderers, 16 May 2021)

Team of the season

Team of the season
Goalkeeper	Adam Federici (Macarthur FC)
Defenders	Rhyan Grant (Sydney FC)	Ruon Tongyik (Central Coast Mariners)		Curtis Good (Melbourne City)			Scott Jamieson (Melbourne City)
Midfielders	Oliver Bozanic (Central Coast Mariners)		Ulises Dávila (Wellington Phoenix)			Connor Metcalfe (Melbourne City)
Forwards	Matt Derbyshire (Macarthur FC)		Jamie Maclaren (Melbourne City)			Craig Noone (Melbourne City)
Substitutes	Mark Birighitti (Central Coast Mariners)	Ryan Strain (Adelaide United)	Luke Brattan (Sydney FC)	Matt Simon (Central Coast Mariners)	Ryan McGowan (Sydney FC)	Miloš Ninković (Sydney FC)		Jay O'Shea (Brisbane Roar)

See also

• 2020–21 Adelaide United FC season
• 2020–21 Brisbane Roar FC season
• 2020–21 Central Coast Mariners FC season
• 2020–21 Macarthur FC season
• 2020–21 Melbourne City FC season
• 2020–21 Melbourne Victory FC season
• 2020–21 Newcastle Jets FC season
• 2020–21 Perth Glory FC season
• 2020–21 Sydney FC season
• 2020–21 Wellington Phoenix FC season
• 2020–21 Western Sydney Wanderers FC season
• 2020–21 Western United FC season