2009–10 A-League

The 2009–10 A-League was the 33rd season of top-flight soccer in Australia, and the fifth season of the A-League competition since its establishment in 2004. The season marked the addition of two new teams from Queensland. Gold Coast United FC and the North Queensland Fury FC made their A-League debuts at the start of the season. Because of this, Queensland Roar were renamed to Brisbane Roar, as they were no longer the only A-League club from Queensland. With the inception of the two new clubs, many club transfers took place both within Australia and New Zealand, and around the world.

The length of the regular season was longer than in previous years, with 27 rounds rather than 21, plus finals. The season began on 6 August, with Melbourne hosting the Central Coast at home. As well as these major changes to the league, the Pre-Season Challenge Cup was no longer held as part of the 2009–10 season due to a busier regular season schedule, and clubs attracting higher profile pre-season friendlies. The Premiership and Championship double was completed by Sydney FC with victory over Melbourne in the final match of the regular season and on penalties in the Championship Grand Final.

Clubs

Team	City	Home Ground	Capacity
Adelaide United	Adelaide	Hindmarsh Stadium	17,000
Brisbane Roar	Brisbane	Suncorp Stadium	52,500
Central Coast Mariners	Gosford	Bluetongue Stadium	20,119
Gold Coast United	Gold Coast	Skilled Park	27,400
Melbourne Victory	Melbourne	Etihad Stadium	56,347
Newcastle Jets	Newcastle	Energy Australia Stadium	26,164
North Queensland Fury	Townsville	Dairy Farmers Stadium	26,500
Perth Glory	Perth	ME Bank Stadium	20,500
Sydney FC	Sydney	Sydney Football Stadium	45,500
Wellington Phoenix	Wellington	Westpac Stadium	36,000

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment	Table
Sydney FC		Sacked	31 January 2009	5th (08–09)		4 February 2009	Pre-season
Newcastle Jets		Resigned	27 June 2009	8th (08–09)		30 June 2009	Pre-Season
Brisbane Roar		Sacked	14 October 2009	6th (09–10)		16 October 2009	Round 10

Foreign players

Club	Visa 1	Visa 2	Visa 3	Visa 4	Visa 5	Non-Visa foreigner(s)	Former player(s)
Adelaide United	Template:Flagicon Alemão	Template:Flagicon Cássio	Template:Flagicon Cristiano	Template:Flagicon Lloyd Owusu	Template:Flagicon Shin In-seob	Template:Flagicon Marcos Flores3
Brisbane Roar	Template:Flagicon Pieter Collen	Template:Flagicon Henrique	Template:Flagicon Reinaldo	Template:Flagicon Steven Bryce	Template:Flagicon Sergio van Dijk		Template:Flagicon Bob Malcolm
Central Coast Mariners	Template:Flagicon Nicky Travis	Template:Flagicon Chris Doig	Template:Flagicon Jonathan Brown	Template:Flagicon Matt Crowell		Template:Flagicon John Hutchinson2	Template:Flagicon Wolry Wolfe4 Template:Flagicon Michael McGlinchey
Gold Coast United	Template:Flagicon Jefferson	Template:Flagicon Robson	Template:Flagicon Adama Traoré	Template:Flagicon Bas van den Brink	Template:Flagicon Charlie Miller	Template:Flagicon Anderson3	Template:Flagicon Milson
Melbourne Victory	Template:Flagicon Marvin Angulo	Template:Flagicon Carlos Hernández	Template:Flagicon Surat Sukha			Template:Flagicon Glen Moss2 Template:Flagicon Grant Brebner1	Template:Flagicon Ney Fabiano Template:Flagicon Sutee Suksomkit
Newcastle Jets	Template:Flagicon Michael Bridges	Template:Flagicon Marcello Fiorentini	Template:Flagicon Song Jin-hyung			Template:Flagicon Ali Abbas3
North Queensland Fury	Template:Flagicon Robbie Fowler	Template:Flagicon James Robinson	Template:Flagicon Kojiro Kaimoto	Template:Flagicon Jeremy Brockie	Template:Flagicon Scott Wilson	Template:Flagicon Terry Cooke3 Template:Flagicon Dyron Daal3 Template:Flagicon Jack Hingert2
Perth Glory	Template:Flagicon Andy Todd	Template:Flagicon Victor Sikora	Template:Flagicon Branko Jelić	Template:Flagicon Steven McGarry			Template:Flagicon Amaral4 Template:Flagicon Eugène Dadi
Sydney FC	Template:Flagicon Karol Kisel	Template:Flagicon Byun Sung-hwan	Template:Flagicon Stephan Keller			Template:Flagicon Terry McFlynn1
Wellington Phoenix	Template:Flagicon Paul Ifill	Template:Flagicon Daniel	Template:Flagicon Diego Walsh	Template:Flagicon Jiang Chen	Template:Flagicon Chris Greenacre	Template:Flagicon Eugène Dadi4 Template:Flagicon Manny Muscat2

The following do not fill a Visa position:
¹Those players who were born and started their professional career abroad but have since gained Australian Residency (and New Zealand Residency, in the case of Wellington Phoenix);
²Australian residents (and New Zealand residents, 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 ten games)

Salary cap exemptions and captains

Club	Marquee	Junior Marquee	Captain	Vice-Captain
Adelaide United	None	None	Template:Flagicon Travis Dodd	Template:Flagicon Lucas Pantelis
Brisbane Roar	None	Template:Flagicon Michael Zullo	Template:Flagicon Matt McKay	None
Central Coast Mariners	None	None	Template:Flagicon Alex Wilkinson	Template:Flagicon John Hutchinson
Gold Coast United	Template:Flagicon Jason Culina	Template:Flagicon Tahj Minniecon	Template:Flagicon Jason Culina	Template:Flagicon Michael Thwaite
Melbourne Victory	Template:Flagicon Archie Thompson	None	Template:Flagicon Kevin Muscat	Template:Flagicon Rodrigo Vargas
Newcastle Jets	Template:Flagicon Fabio Vignaroli	Template:Flagicon Adam D'Apuzzo	Template:Flagicon Matt Thompson	None
North Queensland Fury	Template:Flagicon Robbie Fowler	None	Template:Flagicon Robbie Fowler	None
Perth Glory	Template:Flagicon Mile Sterjovski	None	Template:Flagicon Jacob Burns	None
Sydney FC	Template:Flagicon John Aloisi	Template:Flagicon Mark Bridge	Template:Flagicon Steve Corica	None
Wellington Phoenix	None	None	Template:Flagicon Andrew Durante	Template:Flagicon Tim Brown

Regular season

Home and away season

The 2009–10 A-League season was played over 27 rounds, followed by a finals series.

Finals series

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Semi-finals

Major semi-final

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Melbourne Victory won 4–3 on aggregate.

Season statistics

Top scorers

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Template:Flagicon Shane Smeltz	Gold Coast United	19
2	Template:Flagicon Sergio van Dijk	Brisbane Roar	13
3	Template:Flagicon Carlos Hernández	Melbourne Victory	12
	Template:Flagicon Paul Ifill	Wellington Phoenix
5	Template:Flagicon Archie Thompson	Melbourne Victory	10
6	Template:Flagicon John Aloisi	Sydney FC	9
	Template:Flagicon Robbie Fowler	North Queensland Fury
8	Template:Flagicon Daniel McBreen	Perth Glory	8
9	Template:Flagicon Tim Brown	Wellington Phoenix	7
	Template:Flagicon Steve Corica	Sydney FC
	Template:Flagicon Matt Thompson	Newcastle Jets

Attendance

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.

Team	Hosted	Average	High	Low	Total
Template:A-League team	14	20,750	30,668	15,168	290,503
Template:A-League team	14	12,987	25,407	8,359	181,816
Template:A-League team	14	10,765	15,038	8,244	150,705
Template:A-League team	13	9,205	12,822	7,217	119,670
Template:A-League team	13	8,965	19,258	4,115	116,549
Template:A-League team	14	8,650	19,902	5,801	121,099
Template:A-League team	13	7,430	11,137	5,193	96,588
Template:A-League team	13	6,723	8,897	4,156	87,396
Template:A-League team	13	6,358	9,892	4,329	82,656
Template:A-League team	14	5,392	10,024	2,616	75,493
Template:A-League team	0	0	0	0	0
Template:A-League team	0	0	0	0	0
League total	135	9,796			1,322,475

Top 10 Attendances

Attendance	Round	Date	Home	Score	Away	Venue	Weekday	Time of Day
44,560	Grand Final	20 March 2010	Melbourne Victory	1–1	Sydney FC	Etihad Stadium	Saturday	Evening
32,792	Finals Wk 2	7 March 2010	Wellington Phoenix	3–1	Newcastle Jets	Westpac Stadium	Sunday	Afternoon
30,668	10	9 October 2009	Melbourne Victory	0–3	Sydney FC	Etihad Stadium	Friday	Night
27,344	20	19 December 2009	Melbourne Victory	0–0	Sydney FC	Etihad Stadium	Saturday	Evening
25,407	27	14 February 2010	Sydney FC	2–0	Melbourne Victory	Sydney Football Stadium	Sunday	Evening
24,278	Finals Wk 1	21 February 2010	Wellington Phoenix	1–1	Perth Glory	Westpac Stadium	Sunday	Evening
23,818	Final Wk 2	7 March 2010	Sydney FC	2–2	Melbourne Victory	Sydney Football Stadium	Sunday	Evening
22,726	26	5 February 2010	Melbourne Victory	2–0	North Queensland Fury	Etihad Stadium	Friday	Night
21,182	12	24 October 2009	Melbourne Victory	3–1	Adelaide United	Etihad Stadium	Saturday	Evening
20,537	16	28 November 2009	Melbourne Victory	4–0	Gold Coast United	Etihad Stadium	Saturday	Evening

Discipline

The Fair Play Award will go to the team with the lowest points on the fair play ladder at the conclusion of the home and away season. It was awarded to Premiers Sydney FC who scraped in by 4 points from rivals Melbourne Victory. Template:A-LeagueDiscipline

* The Newcastle Jets' Tarek Elrich received a direct red card in their round 7 fixture against Sydney FC. However, this was successfully appealed by the club and expunged from Elrich and the team's records.
* Adelaide United's Iain Fyfe received a direct red card in their round 19 fixture against Perth Glory. However, this was overruled by the match review panel and expunged from Fyfe and the team's records.

See also

• 2009 Australian football code crowds

Team season articles

• 2009–10 Adelaide United FC season
• 2009–10 Brisbane Roar FC season
• 2009–10 Central Coast Mariners FC season
• 2009–10 Gold Coast United FC season
• 2009–10 Melbourne Victory FC season
• 2009–10 Newcastle Jets FC season
• 2009–10 North Queensland Fury FC season
• 2009–10 Perth Glory FC season
• 2009–10 Sydney FC season
• 2009–10 Wellington Phoenix FC season