2022–23 A-League Men

The 2022–23 A-League Men, known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons, was the 46th season of national level men's soccer in Australia, and the 18th since the establishment of the competition as the A-League in 2004.

A-League Men

Season	2022–23
Dates	7 October 2022 – 3 June 2023
Champions	Central Coast Mariners (2nd title)
Premiers	Melbourne City (3rd title)
Champions League	Melbourne City
AFC Cup	Central Coast Mariners Macarthur FC
Matches played	156
Goals scored	477 (3.06 per match)
Top goalscorer	Jamie Maclaren (24 goals)
Biggest home win	Melbourne City 6–1 Macarthur FC (4 February 2023)
Biggest away win	Sydney FC 0–4 WS Wanderers (18 March 2023)
Highest scoring	Adelaide United 4–4 WS Wanderers (19 February 2023) Perth Glory 4–4 Adelaide United (23 April 2023)
Longest winning run	4 matches Adelaide United Melbourne City
Longest unbeaten run	12 matches Adelaide United
Longest winless run	6 matches Macarthur FC Melbourne Victory Newcastle Jets Perth Glory
Longest losing run	3 matches Brisbane Roar Melbourne Victory Newcastle Jets Wellington Phoenix Western United
Highest attendance	34,232[1] Sydney FC 0–1 WS Wanderers (12 November 2022)
Lowest attendance	1,408[1] Central Coast Mariners 4–1 Macarthur FC (11 March 2023)
Total attendance	1,115,048[1]
Average attendance	7,544[1] ( 1,942)
← 2021–22 2023–24 → All statistics correct as of 23 April 2023. (Note: Longest runs only include regular season results)

The regular season commenced on 7 October 2022. The season featured a mid-season break from 18 November 2022 to 8 December 2022 due to the 2022 FIFA World Cup being held in Qatar.^[2]

Melbourne City were the defending premiers and Western United were the defending champions.^[3] Melbourne City successfully defended their title, winning their third premiership in a row with two games remaining. Central Coast Mariners won their second championship, defeating Melbourne City 6–1 in the Grand Final.

This season was the first A-League Men season since 2013–14 to record an increase in average attendance compared to the previous season.

Clubs

Stadiums and locations

Twelve clubs are participating in the 2022–23 season.

Note: Table lists in alphabetical order.

Club	City	Home ground	Capacity
Adelaide United	Adelaide	Coopers Stadium	16,500
Brisbane Roar	Brisbane	Kayo Stadium	11,500
		Suncorp Stadium	52,500
Central Coast Mariners	Gosford	Industree Group Stadium	20,059
	Mudgee	Glen Willow Regional Sports Stadium	10,000
Macarthur FC	Campbelltown	Campbelltown Stadium	17,500[4]
Melbourne City	Melbourne	AAMI Park	30,050
Melbourne Victory
Newcastle Jets	Newcastle	McDonald Jones Stadium	33,000
Perth Glory	Perth	HBF Park	20,500
		Macedonia Park	4,500
Sydney FC	Sydney	Allianz Stadium	42,500[5]
Wellington Phoenix	Wellington	Sky Stadium	35,000
	Auckland	Eden Park	50,000
	Palmerston North	Central Energy Trust Arena	15,000
Western Sydney Wanderers	Parramatta	CommBank Stadium	30,000
Western United	Melbourne	AAMI Park	30,050
	Ballarat	Mars Stadium	11,000
	Hobart	North Hobart Oval	10,000
	Launceston	UTAS Stadium	19,000

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

Personnel and kits

Team	Manager	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Kit sponsor
Adelaide United	Carl Veart	Craig Goodwin[6]	UCAN[7]	Flinders University[8] Australian Outdoor Living[note 1][9][10]
Brisbane Roar	Nick Green (caretaker)	Tom Aldred[11]	New Balance[12]	Cars4Us[13][14]
Central Coast Mariners	Nick Montgomery	Danny Vukovic[15]	Paladin Sports[16]	MATE[17]
Macarthur FC	Mile Sterjovski	Ulises Dávila[18]	Kelme[19]	ALAND[20]
Melbourne City	Rado Vidošić	Scott Jamieson[21]	Puma[22][23]	Etihad Airways[23]
Melbourne Victory	Tony Popovic	Joshua Brillante[24]	Macron[25]	Bonza[26]
Newcastle Jets	Arthur Papas	Carl Jenkinson Matthew Jurman Brandon O'Neill[27]	Legend Sportswear[28]	Port of Newcastle[29] Ampcontrol[note 1][28][30]
Perth Glory	Ruben Zadkovich	Mustafa Amini[31]	Macron[32]	Evolution Capital[33]
Sydney FC	Steve Corica	Alex Wilkinson[34]	Under Armour[35]	The Star[36]
Wellington Phoenix	Ufuk Talay	Alex Rufer[37]	Paladin Sports[38]	Oppo[39] Spark[note 1][39]
Western Sydney Wanderers	Marko Rudan	Marcelo[40]	Kappa[41]	Voltaren[42] Turner Freeman Lawyers[note 1][43]
Western United	John Aloisi	Alessandro Diamanti[44]	Kappa[45]	Simonds Homes[45]

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Position on table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
Macarthur FC	Ante Milicic	Resigned[46]	26 April 2022	Pre-season	Dwight Yorke	15 May 2022[47]
Perth Glory	Ruben Zadkovich	Promoted to full time	2 June 2022		Ruben Zadkovich	2 June 2022[48]
Melbourne City	Patrick Kisnorbo	Signed by Troyes[49]	23 November 2022	1st	Rado Vidošić (caretaker)	23 November 2022
Macarthur FC	Dwight Yorke	Mutual termination[50]	21 January 2023	6th	Mile Sterjovski	23 January 2023[51]
Melbourne City	Rado Vidošić (caretaker)	Promoted to full time	6 February 2023	1st	Rado Vidošić	6 February 2023[52]
Brisbane Roar	Warren Moon	Sacked[53]	20 February 2023	11th	Nick Green (caretaker)	21 February 2023[54]

Foreign players

See also: A-League Men transfers for 2022–23 season

Club	Visa 1	Visa 2	Visa 3	Visa 4	Visa 5	Non-visa foreigner(s)	Former player(s)
Adelaide United	Zach Clough	Hiroshi Ibusuki	Juande	Javi López		Isaías1
Brisbane Roar	Marcel Canadi	Jay O'Shea	Tom Aldred	Stefan Šćepović		Rahmat Akbari2 Jack Hingert2	Charlie Austin Matti Steinmann Riku Danzaki
Central Coast Mariners	Moresche	Marco Túlio	Béni Nkololo	Paul Ayongo	Brian Kaltak	Dan Hall2 James McGarry2 Storm Roux2	Kelechi John
Macarthur FC	Craig Noone	Bachana Arabuli	Ulises Dávila	Filip Kurto		Jason Romero3	Mario Williams
Melbourne City	Thomas Lam	Florin Berenguer	Valon Berisha	Richard van der Venne	Nuno Reis
Melbourne Victory	Damien Da Silva	Roderick Miranda	Nani	Cadete	Rai Marchán	Matthew Bozinovski2 Fernando Romero3
Newcastle Jets	Carl Jenkinson	Beka Mikeltadze	Manabu Saitō			Dane Ingham2	Beka Dartsmelia James McGarry2
Perth Glory	Darryl Lachman	Mark Beevers	Aaron McEneff	Adrián Sardinero		Stefan Colakovski2 Salim Khelifi3	Pacifique Niyongabire2 Ben Azubel
Sydney FC	Adam Le Fondre	Joe Lolley	Jack Rodwell	Róbert Mak	Diego Caballo
Wellington Phoenix	Yan Sasse	Bozhidar Kraev	David Ball	Scott Wootton	Oskar Zawada
Western Sydney Wanderers	Marcelo	Yeni Ngbakoto	Romain Amalfitano	Morgan Schneiderlin	Amor Layouni	Adama Traoré1 Miloš Ninković1	Sulejman Krpić
Western United	Alessandro Diamanti	Tomoki Imai	Tongo Doumbia	Aleksandar Prijović	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);^[55]
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)

Regular season

The 2022–23 season sees each team play 26 games, starting on 7 October 2022, and concluding on 30 April 2023, with a mid-season break between 14 November 2022 and 8 December 2022, due to the 2022 FIFA World Cup.^[56] This will be followed by a finals series for the top six teams.

League table

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Melbourne City	26	16	7	3	61	32	+29	55	Qualification for AFC Champions League group stage and Finals series[a]
2	Central Coast Mariners (C)	26	13	5	8	55	35	+20	44	Qualification for AFC Cup group stage and Finals series
3	Adelaide United	26	11	9	6	53	46	+7	42	Qualification for Finals series[b]
4	Western Sydney Wanderers	26	11	8	7	43	27	+16	41
5	Sydney FC	26	11	5	10	40	39	+1	38
6	Wellington Phoenix[c]	26	9	8	9	39	45	−6	35
7	Western United	26	9	5	12	34	47	−13	32
8	Brisbane Roar	26	7	9	10	26	33	−7	30
9	Perth Glory	26	7	8	11	36	46	−10	29	Qualification for 2023 Australia Cup play-offs
10	Newcastle Jets	26	8	5	13	30	45	−15	29
11	Melbourne Victory	26	8	4	14	29	34	−5	28
12	Macarthur FC	26	7	5	14	31	48	−17	26	Qualification for AFC Cup group stage and 2023 Australia Cup play-offs[d]

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. Determined by which of the Premiers for the 2021–22 or 2022–23 seasons accrued the most combined points over both seasons.^[57]
2. 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.
3. Wellington Phoenix cannot qualify for Asian Football Confederation competitions as they are based in New Zealand, which is under the Oceania Football Confederation.
4. Qualified to the AFC Cup as the 2022 Australia 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		2–1	1–4	1–0	4–2	3–0	0–1	2–1	1–1	5–1	4–4	0–1						1–1		2–0
Brisbane Roar	1–1		1–2	0–0	0–2	0–0	3–0	2–1	3–1	0–1	1–1	1–0					0–0				0–2
Central Coast Mariners	4–0	4–1		2–3	1–1	2–1	1–2	1–2	2–1	1–1	2–2	4–2				4–1			3–0
Macarthur FC	2–0	3–2	1–2		1–1	0–1	2–0	1–0	2–3	2–1	2–2	2–2							0–1			0–1
Melbourne City	3–3	2–1	1–0	6–1		2–1	1–1	4–0	3–2	2–2	3–2	2–1										4–1		4–0
Melbourne Victory	1–1	0–1	2–0	2–1	0–2		4–0	0–0	1–2	3–1	0–1	1–2		0–1			3–2
Newcastle Jets	2–4	0–1	1–3	2–1	1–2	2–1		2–1	0–2	3–1	1–1	1–3		4–0						2–2
Perth Glory	4–4	2–1	2–2	2–1	2–4	3–1	2–2		2–2	1–1	1–0	2–1											1–0	1–2
Sydney FC	2–2	1–1	3–2	0–3	2–1	2–3	2–0	4–1		0–1	0–1	3–3						1–0					0–4
Wellington Phoenix	1–1	2–2	2–2	4–1	1–3	1–2	2–1	2–2	1–0		1–1	2–3	3–1		2–1
Western Sydney Wanderers	2–3	1–1	0–3	4–0	1–1	2–1	2–0	1–0	0–1	4–0		1–0			2–0	4–0
Western United	2–4	1–1	0–3	1–1	1–3	1–0	1–1	2–1	1–3	0–3	1–0		2–3								1–0

Source: Keepup.com.au
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),^[58] the qualification for the 2023–24 AFC Champions League was changed. The single qualification spot for this competition goes to whichever of the Premiers for the current season or the previous season accrues the most combined points over both seasons.^[59] Melbourne City won the Premiership in both the 2021–22 and 2022–23 seasons,^[60] thereby automatically qualifying for the Champions League.

Melbourne Derby pitch invasion

Main article: Melbourne City v Melbourne Victory (17 December 2022)

During the Melbourne Derby between Melbourne City FC and Melbourne Victory FC on 17 December 2022 at the Melbourne Rectangular Stadium, the match was abandoned in the 22nd minute after several incidents of hooliganism took place both on and off the field. Throughout the match, supporters of both teams both ignited and threw flares.

In the 20th minute, the match was interrupted due to flares being ignited and thrown onto the pitch, two of which had been thrown by Melbourne Victory supporters. Conflict arose when Melbourne City goalkeeper Tom Glover, who was defending the goal in front of the Melbourne Victory supporters end, picked up and threw the flares away from the pitch, the second of which was thrown into the crowd of Victory supporters. This sparked a pitch invasion by between 100 and 200 spectators, who proceeded to attack Glover and match referee Alex King, both of whom sustained minor injuries. The match was abandoned as a result.

On 23 December, Football Australia handed down interim sanctions on both clubs while a full investigation was being conducted. Both teams had their active supporter bays closed, with Melbourne Victory further sanctioned with supporter restrictions: travelling support was banned for away games, while home games were restricted to only valid club members.

The match was resumed on 5 April 2023 from the 21st minute, with the score resuming at 1–0 to Melbourne City.^[61] The match ended in a 2-1 win to Melbourne City, with Aiden O'Neill and Nishan Velupillay scoring for the Victory.

Finals series

Main article: 2023 A-League Men finals series

Format

The finals series was held in mostly the same format as the previous year, run over three weeks, and involving 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 two winners of those matches met in the Grand Final.

On 12 December 2022, the Australian Professional Leagues announced that the 2023 A-League Men Grand Final would be the first of three successive Grand Finals hosted in Sydney, regardless of which two teams earned the right to play in the final.^[62] The move received a large amount of backlash from supporters of all 12 clubs,^[63][64] and was overturned in the following season.

Bracket

	Elimination-finals					Semi-finals							Grand Final
	4	Western Sydney Wanderers	1
	5	Sydney FC	2			5	Sydney FC	1	0	1
						1	Melbourne City	1	4	5
													1	Melbourne City	1
	3	Adelaide United	2										2	Central Coast Mariners	6
	6	Wellington Phoenix	0			3	Adelaide United	1	0	1
						2	Central Coast Mariners	2	2	4

Elimination-finals

5 May 2023

19:15 ACST

Adelaide United	2–0	Wellington Phoenix
Goodwin 19', 67' (pen.)	Report

Coopers Stadium, Adelaide

Attendance: 10,231

Referee: Alireza Faghani

---

6 May 2023

19:45 AEST

Western Sydney Wanderers	1–2	Sydney FC
Schneiderlin 39' (pen.)	Report	Mak 69' Le Fondre 80'

CommBank Stadium, Sydney

Attendance: 27,288

Referee: Chris Beath

Semi-finals

Summary

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Melbourne City	5–1	Sydney FC	1–1	4–0
Central Coast Mariners	4–1	Adelaide United	2–1	2–0

Matches

12 May 2023

19:45 AEST

Sydney FC	1–1	Melbourne City
Le Fondre 64' (pen.)	Report	Leckie 18'

Allianz Stadium, Sydney

Attendance: 15,322

Referee: Adam Kersey

19 May 2023

19:45 AEST

Melbourne City	4–0	Sydney FC
Good 37' Rodwell 59' (o.g.) Tilio 67' Van der Venne 82'	Report

AAMI Park, Melbourne

Attendance: 9,223

Referee: Shaun Evans

Melbourne City won 5–1 on aggregate.

---

13 May 2023

19:45 ACST

Adelaide United	1–2	Central Coast Mariners
Goodwin 4' (pen.)	Report	McGarry 15' Cummings 38'

Coopers Stadium, Adelaide

Attendance: 15,771

Referee: Alex King

20 May 2023

19:45 AEST

Central Coast Mariners	2–0	Adelaide United
Silvera 48' Túlio 52'	Report

Industree Group Stadium, Gosford

Attendance: 20,059

Referee: Alireza Faghani

Central Coast Mariners won 4–1 on aggregate.

Grand Final

See also: 2023 A-League Men Grand Final

3 June 2023

19:45 AEST

Melbourne City	1–6	Central Coast Mariners
Van der Venne 40'	Report	Cummings 20', 65' (pen.), 73' (pen.) Silvera 34' Nkololo 83' Moresche 90+1'

CommBank Stadium, Sydney

Attendance: 26,523

Referee: Chris Beath

Regular season statistics

Top scorers

As of 29 April 2023

Rank	Player	Club	Goals[65]
1	Jamie Maclaren	Melbourne City	24
2	Jason Cummings	Central Coast Mariners	16
3	Oskar Zawada	Wellington Phoenix	15
4	Brandon Borello	Western Sydney Wanderers	13
5	Craig Goodwin	Adelaide United	12
6	Adam Le Fondre	Sydney FC	10
7	Róbert Mak	Sydney FC	9
	Jay O'Shea	Brisbane Roar
	Marco Tilio	Melbourne City
	Marco Túlio	Central Coast Mariners

Hat-tricks

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

Player	For	Against	Result	Date	Ref.
Richard van der Venne	Melbourne City	Macarthur FC	6–1 (H)	4 February 2023	[66]
Jamie Maclaren	Melbourne City	Western United	3–1 (A)	22 April 2023	[67]
Jason Cummings	Central Coast Mariners	Melbourne City	6–1 (N)	3 June 2023	[68]

Key
(A)	Away team
(H)	Home team
(N)	Neutral venue

Clean sheets

As of 29 April 2023

Rank	Player	Club	Clean sheets[69]
1	Lawrence Thomas	Western Sydney Wanderers	10
2	Jordan Holmes	Brisbane Roar	7
3	Tom Glover	Melbourne City	6
4	Paul Izzo	Melbourne Victory	5
	Filip Kurto	Macarthur FC
	Andrew Redmayne	Sydney FC
	Oliver Sail	Wellington Phoenix
8	Danny Vukovic	Central Coast Mariners	4
	Jamie Young	Western United
10	Cameron Cook	Perth Glory	3
	Jack Duncan	Newcastle Jets
	Joe Gauci	Adelaide United

Awards

Club awards

Club	Player	Ref.
Adelaide United	Craig Goodwin	[70]
Brisbane Roar	Tom Aldred	[71]
Central Coast Mariners	Josh Nisbet	[72]
Macarthur FC	Ivan Vujica	[73]
Melbourne City	Mathew Leckie	[74]
Melbourne Victory	Damien Da Silva	[75]
Newcastle Jets	Dane Ingham	[76]
Perth Glory	Mark Beevers	[77]
Sydney FC	Róbert Mak	[78]
Wellington Phoenix	Oskar Zawada	[79]
Western Sydney Wanderers	Brandon Borrello	[80]
Western United	Josh Risdon	[81]

Annual awards

The following end of the season awards were announced at the 2022–23 Dolan Warren Awards night that took place at The Star Casino on 1 June 2023.^[82]

Award	Winner	Club
Johnny Warren Medal	Craig Goodwin	Adelaide United
Young Footballer of the Year	Jordan Bos	Melbourne City
Golden Boot Award	Jamie Maclaren	Melbourne City
Goalkeeper of the Year	Lawrence Thomas	Western Sydney Wanderers
Coach of the Year	Carl Veart	Adelaide United
Goal of the Year	Giordano Colli	Perth Glory
Fair Play Award	Brisbane Roar
Referee of the Year	Chris Beath	—

Team of the season

Goalkeeper[83]	Defenders	Midfielders	Forwards	Substitutes
Joe Gauci (Adelaide United)	Marcelo (Western Sydney Wanderers) Brian Kaltak (Central Coast Mariners) Jordan Bos (Melbourne City)	Aiden O'Neill (Melbourne City) Josh Nisbet (Central Coast Mariners) Calem Nieuwenhof (Western Sydney Wanderers) Mathew Leckie (Melbourne City)	Brandon Borrello (Western Sydney Wanderers) Jamie Maclaren (Melbourne City) Craig Goodwin (Adelaide United)	Lawrence Thomas (Western Sydney Wanderers) Curtis Good (Melbourne City) Nectarios Triantis (Central Coast Mariners) Jay O'Shea (Brisbane Roar) Marco Túlio (Central Coast Mariners) Jason Cummings (Central Coast Mariners) Marco Tilio (Melbourne City)

See also

• 2022–23 A-League Women
• 2022–23 Adelaide United FC season
• 2022–23 Brisbane Roar FC season
• 2022–23 Central Coast Mariners FC season
• 2022–23 Macarthur FC season
• 2022–23 Melbourne City FC season
• 2022–23 Melbourne Victory FC season
• 2022–23 Newcastle Jets FC season
• 2022–23 Perth Glory FC season
• 2022–23 Sydney FC season
• 2022–23 Wellington Phoenix FC season
• 2022–23 Western Sydney Wanderers FC season
• 2022–23 Western United FC season

Notes

1. Away kit