2021–22 A-League Men

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.

A-League Men

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

Twelve clubs participated in the 2021–22 season.

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

Club	City	Home ground	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
	Mudgee	Glen Willow Regional Sports Stadium	10,000
Macarthur FC	Sydney	Campbelltown Stadium	20,000
		BlueBet Stadium	22,500
	Newcastle	McDonald Jones Stadium	33,000
Melbourne City	Melbourne	AAMI Park	30,050
Melbourne Victory	Melbourne	AAMI Park	30,050
Newcastle Jets	Newcastle	McDonald Jones Stadium	33,000
Perth Glory	Perth	HBF Park	20,500
	Launceston	UTAS Stadium	19,000
	Sydney	Netstrata Jubilee Oval	20,500
Sydney FC	Sydney	Netstrata Jubilee Oval	20,500
		Leichhardt Oval	20,000
Wellington Phoenix	Auckland	Eden Park	50,000
	Gosford	Central Coast Stadium	20,059
	Sydney	Netstrata Jubilee Oval	20,500
		Leichhardt Oval	20,000
		Campbelltown Stadium	20,000
		Endeavour Field	22,000
	Wellington	Sky Stadium	34,500
	Wollongong	WIN Stadium	23,000
Western Sydney Wanderers	Sydney	CommBank Stadium	30,000
Western United	Ballarat	Mars Stadium	11,000
		Morshead Park	8,500
	Geelong	GMHBA Stadium	26,000[a]
	Launceston	UTAS Stadium	19,000
	Melbourne	AAMI Park	30,050

Personnel and kits

Team	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

Team	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

Club	Visa 1	Visa 2	Visa 3	Visa 4	Visa 5	Non-visa foreigner(s)	Former player(s)
Adelaide United	Michael Jakobsen	Zach Clough	Hiroshi Ibusuki	Juande	Javi López	Isaías1
Brisbane Roar	Juan Lescano	Matti Steinmann	Jay O'Shea	Ryo Wada	Tom Aldred	Rahmat Akbari2 Jack Hingert2	Aidan Munford2
Central Coast Mariners	Moresche	Marco Ureña	Béni Nkololo	Nicolai Müller	Cy Goddard	Dan Hall2 Storm Roux2 Jason Cummings2
Macarthur FC	Jordon Mutch	Craig Noone	Adrian Mariappa	Ulises Dávila	Filip Kurto		Antonis Martis2
Melbourne City	Carl Jenkinson	Florin Berenguer	Manuel Pucciarelli	Tsubasa Endoh	Nuno Reis	Stefan Colakovski2
Melbourne Victory	Ivan Kelava	Francesco Margiotta	Marco Rojas	Roderick Miranda	Rai Marchán
Newcastle Jets	Daniel Penha	Olivier Boumal	Beka Mikeltadze	Savvas Siatravanis	Mario Arqués	Dane Ingham2 Valentino Yuel2
Perth Glory	Darryl Lachman	Daniel Sturridge	Kosuke Ota	Adrián Sardinero		Andy Keogh1 Darko Stanojević2
Sydney FC	Bobô	Adam Le Fondre	Luciano Narsingh	Kosta Barbarouses	Miloš Ninković	Elvis Kamsoba2
Wellington Phoenix	David Ball	Gary Hooper	Scott Wootton	Gael Sandoval		Matthew Bozinovski2
Western Sydney Wanderers	Jack Rodwell	Tomer Hemed	Keijiro Ogawa	Ziggy Gordon	Tomás Mejías	Adama Traoré1
Western United	Alessandro Diamanti	Tomoki Imai	Aleksandar Prijović	Rene Krhin	Léo Lacroix	Jamie Young2

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);^[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

Club	First Marquee	Second Marquee	Designated Player	Captain	Vice-captain
Adelaide United	None	None	None	Stefan Mauk[44][note 5] Craig Goodwin[note 6][46]	Ryan Kitto[46] Isaías[46]
Brisbane Roar	None	None	None	Tom Aldred[47]	None
Central Coast Mariners	None	None	None	Oliver Bozanic[48]	None
Macarthur FC	None	None	None	Ulises Dávila[49]	None
Melbourne City	Jamie Maclaren[50]	None	None	Scott Jamieson[51]	None
Melbourne Victory	Marco Rojas[52]	Chris Ikonomidis[52]	Roderick Miranda[53]	Joshua Brillante[54]	Roderick Miranda[55]
Newcastle Jets	None	None	Beka Mikeltadze[53]	Matthew Jurman[56]	None
Perth Glory	Daniel Sturridge[57]	Bruno Fornaroli[58]	Adrián Sardinero[53]	Brandon O'Neill[59]	None
Sydney FC	None	None	None	Alex Wilkinson[60]	None
Wellington Phoenix	None	None	None	Alex Rufer[61]	Oliver Sail[61]
Western Sydney Wanderers	None	None	None	Rhys Williams[62]	None
Western United	Alessandro Diamanti[63]	None	None	Alessandro Diamanti[63]	Josh Risdon[63]

Transfers

Further information: A-League Men transfers for 2021–22 season

Regular season

League table

Pos	Team v t e	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

Source: A-Leagues
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:

1. GMHBA Stadium was undergoing construction during the season, which reduced the stadium's capacity to around 26,000.^[2][3] The stadium had a capacity of 40,000 after construction was complete.^[4]
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. Wellington Phoenix cannot qualify for Asian Football Confederation competitions as they are based in New Zealand, which is under the Oceania Football Confederation.
5. 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

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		1–1	2–1	1–0	2–2	1–2	2–1	2–0	1–2	4–0	1–2	2–1					2–2	0–1
Brisbane Roar	0–0		0–2	3–1	1–2	1–1	2–0	1–0	3–1	2–1	3–0	2–3	1–3									0–3
Central Coast Mariners	3–0	2–1		3–3	1–3	1–1	2–0	1–1	2–0	5–0	2–0	1–0				4–2					0–5
Macarthur FC	4–1	2–1	1–0		0–1	1–4	2–1	4–2	0–3	1–1	3–1	2–2							0–3				1–1
Melbourne City	1–2	2–1	3–2	3–1		2–2	3–0	1–0	4–0	2–1	3–3	0–1						1–1		2–2
Melbourne Victory	1–1	3–0	1–0	3–1	3–0		1–2	0–3	2–2	3–1	1–1	3–1		0–0										1–1
Newcastle Jets	1–2	2–1	1–2	2–2	2–4	1–2		6–1	2–0	4–0	1–0	1–1			2–4							4–0
Perth Glory	1–1	2–0	0–0	0–1	2–0	0–1	0–0		0–2	0–1	1–1	0–2	1–2	1–4
Sydney FC	2–3	1–1	3–2	0–1	1–2	1–4	2–2	1–2		2–1	3–2	1–1				2–2								3–0
Wellington Phoenix	1–1	3–0	2–1	3–1	0–6	1–0	3–2	2–1	1–1		0–2	2–1			0–4								1–0
Western Sydney Wanderers	0–0	1–1	2–2	0–2	1–3	2–0	2–2	1–0	0–0	1–2		0–1							3–2		2–0
Western United	1–0	1–0	2–2	2–0	1–0	0–1	2–1	1–0	1–0	1–4	3–2						2–2			6–0

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.

AFC Champions League qualification

Due 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

Main article: 2022 A-League Men finals series

Format

The 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

14 May 2022

19:45 AEST

Western United	1–0	Wellington Phoenix
Prijović 10'	Report

AAMI Park, Melbourne

Attendance: 3,376

Referee: Alex King

---

15 May 2022

15:35 ACST

Adelaide United	3–1	Central Coast Mariners
Goodwin 26' Yengi 67' Oliveira 90'	Report	Roux 71'

Coopers Stadium, Adelaide

Attendance: 10,113

Referee: Daniel Elder

Semi-finals

Summary

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	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

17 May 2022

19:05 AEST

Western United	0–1	Melbourne Victory
	Report	Brimmer 74'

AAMI Park, Melbourne

Attendance: 7,295

Referee: Alireza Faghani

21 May 2022

17:15 AEST

Melbourne Victory	1–4	Western United
Brimmer 37'	Report	Prijović 18', 49' Wales 78' Wenzel-Halls 90+9'

AAMI Park, Melbourne

Attendance: 15,349

Referee: Alex King

Western United won 4–2 on aggregate.

---

18 May 2022

18:35 ACST

Adelaide United	0–0	Melbourne City
	Report

Coopers Stadium, Adelaide

Attendance: 9,279

Referee: Chris Beath

22 May 2022

14:05 AEST

Melbourne City	2–1 (a.e.t.)	Adelaide United
Tilio 74' Maclaren 92'	Report	Clough 48'

AAMI Park, Melbourne

Attendance: 9,347

Referee: Alireza Faghani

Melbourne City won 2–1 on aggregate.

Grand Final

Main article: 2022 A-League Men Grand Final

28 May 2022

19:45 AEST (UTC+10:00)

Melbourne City	0–2	Western United
	Report	Reis 2' (o.g.) Prijović 30'

AAMI Park, Melbourne

Attendance: 22,495

Referee: Chris Beath

Regular season statistics

Top scorers

Rank	Player	Club	Goals[71]
1	Jamie Maclaren	Melbourne City	15
2	Beka Mikeltadze	Newcastle Jets	13
3	Jason Cummings	Central Coast Mariners	10
	Nicholas D'Agostino	Melbourne Victory
	Aleksandar Prijović	Western United
	Craig Goodwin	Adelaide United
7	Mathew Leckie	Melbourne City	9
8	Bruno Fornaroli	Perth Glory	8
9	Ulises Dávila	Macarthur FC	7
	Adam Le Fondre	Sydney FC
	Beni Nkololo	Central Coast Mariners
	Marco Ureña	Central Coast Mariners

Hat-tricks

Main article: List of A-League Men hat-tricks

Player	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

Rank	Player	Club	Clean sheets[75]
1	Jamie Young	Western United	10
2	Mark Birighitti	Central Coast Mariners	9
3	Ivan Kelava	Melbourne Victory	7
4	Tom Glover	Melbourne City	6
5	Oliver Sail	Wellington Phoenix	5
6	Jack Duncan	Newcastle Jets	4
	Joe Gauci	Adelaide United
	Filip Kurto	Macarthur FC
	Liam Reddy	Perth Glory
	Andrew Redmayne	Sydney FC

Awards

Annual awards

The following end of the season awards were announced at the 2021–22 Dolan Warren Awards night on 26 May 2022.^[76]

Award	Winner	Club
Johnny Warren Medal	Jake Brimmer	Melbourne Victory
Young Footballer of the Year	Angus Thurgate	Newcastle Jets
Golden Boot Award	Jamie Maclaren	Melbourne City
Goalkeeper of the Year	Mark Birighitti	Central Coast Mariners
Coach of the Year	Tony Popovic	Melbourne Victory
Goal of the Year	Ben Garuccio	Western United
Referee of the Year	Alex King

Team of the season

Team 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

• 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

Notes

1. Away kit
2. Away kit
3. Away kit
4. Away kit
5. Mauk was captain of Adelaide United until his transfer to Fagiano Okayama on 27 February 2022.^[45]
6. Goodwin replaced Mauk as captain of Adelaide United on 5 March 2022.