2008–09 A-League

A-League

Season	2008–09
Dates	15 August 2008 – 28 February 2009
Champions	Melbourne Victory (2nd title)
Premiers	Melbourne Victory (2nd title)
AFC Champions League	Melbourne Victory, Adelaide United
Matches played	84
Goals scored	249 (2.96 per match)
Top goalscorer	Shane Smeltz (12 goals)
Best goalkeeper	Eugene Galekovic
Highest attendance	31,564
Lowest attendance	4,433
Average attendance	12,180 ( 2430)
← 2007–08 2009–10 →

The 2008–09 A-League was the 32nd season of top-flight soccer in Australia, and the fourth season of the A-League competition since its establishment in 2004. Two new clubs, North Queensland Thunder and Gold Coast Galaxy^[1][2] had received tentative licences from the FFA but these were revoked for the 2008–09 season on 12 March 2008.^[3] Expansion plans are on hold until the 2009–10 season. Based on their 2007–08 performances, the Central Coast Mariners and the Newcastle Jets competed in the 2009 AFC Champions League for the first time.

Changes to the league included:

• The introduction of both a youth league and women's league aligned with A-League clubs.^[4]
• An increase in the salary cap to A$1.9 million.^[5]
• The addition of a Junior Marquee player. (A player under the age of 23 who has up to A$150,000 of his salary outside of the cap.^[5]
• Injury replacement players can only match the injured players' salary, or have any excess included within the total Salary Cap.^[5]

Team	Location	Stadium	Capacity
Adelaide United	Adelaide	Hindmarsh Stadium	17,000
Central Coast Mariners	Gosford	Bluetongue Stadium	20,119
Melbourne Victory	Melbourne	Telstra Dome	56,347
Newcastle Jets	Newcastle	Energy Australia Stadium	26,164
Perth Glory	Perth	Members Equity Stadium	18,156
Queensland Roar	Brisbane	Suncorp Stadium	52,500
Sydney FC	Sydney	Aussie Stadium	42,500
Wellington Phoenix	Wellington	Westpac Stadium	34,500

Club	Visa 1	Visa 2	Visa 3	Visa 4	Non-Visa foreigner(s)	Former player(s)
Adelaide United	Alemão	Cássio	Cristiano	Diego Walsh	Jonas Salley1
Central Coast Mariners	André Gumprecht				Andrea Merenda3 John Hutchinson2
Melbourne Victory	Ney Fabiano	Carlos Hernández	José Luis López		Grant Brebner1
Newcastle Jets	Jesper Håkansson	Song Jin-hyung				Edmundo Zura
Perth Glory	Adrian Trinidad	Amaral	James Robinson	Eugène Dadi	Victor Sikora3
Queensland Roar	Reinaldo	Sergio van Dijk	Charlie Miller		Henrique3 Seo Hyuk-su1
Sydney FC	Bobby Petta	Terry McFlynn	Michael Enfield
Wellington Phoenix	Daniel	Gao Leilei	Chris Greenacre		Manny Muscat2	Fred4

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)

Club	Marquee	Junior Marquee	Captain	Vice-Captain
Adelaide United	Paul Agostino[6]	None	Travis Dodd[7]	Lucas Pantelis[7]
Central Coast Mariners	None	None	Alex Wilkinson[8]	None
Melbourne Victory	Archie Thompson[9][10]	Nick Ward[11][12][13]	Kevin Muscat[14][15]	None
Newcastle Jets	Edmundo Zura[16][note 1]	Adam D'Apuzzo[12]	Jade North[18] Matt Thompson[note 2][19]	Ante Covic[citation needed] Adam Griffiths[citation needed]
Perth Glory	None	Nikita Rukavytsya[20]	Jamie Coyne[21]	None
Queensland Roar	Craig Moore[22]	None	Craig Moore[23]	None
Sydney FC	John Aloisi[24]	Mark Bridge[12]	Steve Corica[25]	None
Wellington Phoenix	None	None	Andrew Durante[26]	Tim Brown[26] Jon McKain[26][27] Richard Johnson[26]

All A-League clubs played the pre-season cup competition held in July and August, and were drawn into two groups. Group A consisted of Adelaide United, Melbourne Victory, Newcastle Jets and Perth Glory. Group B was Central Coast Mariners, Queensland Roar, Sydney FC and Wellington Phoenix.

The winner of each group, Melbourne Victory and Wellington Phoenix, met in Wellington on 6 August 2008 for the Pre-Season Cup Final.^[28] With the score at 0–0 after 90 minutes, the game went to penalties, Melbourne Victory eventually prevailing 8–7, thus becoming the first team in A-League history to claim all three available trophies, after winning the Premiership and Championship in the 2006–07 season.

The 2008–09 A-League season was played over 21 rounds, followed by a finals series.^[29]

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Melbourne Victory (C)	21	12	2	7	39	27	+12	38	Qualification for 2010 AFC Champions League group stage and Finals series
2	Adelaide United	21	11	5	5	31	19	+12	38
3	Queensland Roar	21	10	6	5	36	25	+11	36	Qualification for Finals series
4	Central Coast Mariners	21	7	7	7	35	32	+3	28
5	Sydney FC	21	7	5	9	33	32	+1	26
6	Wellington Phoenix	21	7	5	9	23	31	−8	26
7	Perth Glory	21	6	4	11	31	44	−13	22
8	Newcastle Jets	21	4	6	11	21	39	−18	18

Total	Player		Team	Goals per Round
				1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21
12		Shane Smeltz	Wellington Phoenix	1	2				1	2				1	1	1			1		2
11		Matt Simon	Central Coast Mariners	1		1		2		1			2	1						1		2
11		Daniel Allsopp	Melbourne Victory		2	2				2						1			1		1	1	1
11		Sergio van Dijk	Queensland Roar			1									1		1	1		1		2	3	1
10		Eugène Dadi	Perth Glory		1	2		1						1			2	1				2
10		Nikita Rukavytsya	Perth Glory		1				1			1	2	1		2						1		1
8		Archie Thompson	Melbourne Victory			1		2						1	1					1			1	1
8		Cristiano	Adelaide United			2			2	1							2							1
8		Charlie Miller	Queensland Roar	1	1	1	1			1			1		1
7		Travis Dodd	Adelaide United	1	1					1		1	1		1		1
7		Joel Griffiths	Newcastle Jets	1	1			1					1	1				1		1
6		Mile Jedinak	Central Coast Mariners			1			1	2						1		1
6		Sasho Petrovski	Central Coast Mariners		2				1					1		1				1
5		Ney Fabiano de Oliveira	Melbourne Victory		1												1		1	1		1
5		Kevin Muscat	Melbourne Victory		1		1						2											1
5		Alex Brosque	Sydney FC			1		1	1															2
As of the end of the home and away season

	A goal was scored from a penalty kick
	Two goals were scored from penalty kicks

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
Melbourne Victory	11	24,516	31,564	18,036	269,671
Queensland Roar	10	12,995	19,111	9,118	129,947
Sydney FC	10	12,375	18,251	8,502	123,754
Adelaide United	11	11,712	23,002	7,832	128,832
Central Coast Mariners	11	10,465	15,546	7,865	115,110
Newcastle Jets	10	9,729	16,022	6,268	97,294
Perth Glory	10	7,942	12,581	4,433	79,415
Wellington Phoenix	11	7,193	10,516	5,500	79,124
{{{T9}}}	0	0	0	0	0
{{{T10}}}	0	0	0	0	0
{{{T11}}}	0	0	0	0	0
{{{T12}}}	0	0	0	0	0
League total	84	12,180	31,564	4,433	1,023,147

* Adelaide United played a one-off match at the Adelaide Oval against Sydney FC in their Round 18 match. This is why Adelaide United's highest single attendance exceeds the capacity of Hindmarsh Stadium.

Attendance	Round	Date	Home	Score	Away	Venue	Weekday	Time of Day
53,273	Grand Final	28 February 2009	Melbourne Victory	1–0	Adelaide United	Telstra Dome	Saturday	Night
34,736	Major SF (L2)	14 February 2009	Melbourne Victory	4–0	Adelaide United	Telstra Dome	Saturday	Night
31,654	Round 9	25 October 2008	Melbourne Victory	0–2	Sydney FC	Telstra Dome	Saturday	Night
28,905	Round 21	23 January 2009	Melbourne Victory	2–0	Wellington Phoenix	Telstra Dome	Friday	Night
27,196	Round 15	6 January 2009	Melbourne Victory	1–0	Adelaide United	Telstra Dome	Tuesday	Night
25,398	Round 17	27 December 2008	Melbourne Victory	3–2	Sydney FC	Telstra Dome	Saturday	Night
24,812	Round 4	12 September 2008	Melbourne Victory	1–0	Adelaide United	Telstra Dome	Friday	Night
24,003	Round 20	16 January 2009	Melbourne Victory	3–0	Central Coast Mariners	Telstra Dome	Friday	Night
23,705	Minor SF (L2)	13 February 2009	Queensland Roar	2–1	Central Coast Mariners	Suncorp Stadium	Friday	Night
23,447	Round 18	2 January 2009	Melbourne Victory	2–1	Queensland Roar	Telstra Dome	Friday	Night

• The Premiers' Plate was awarded to the Melbourne Victory, who finished on top of the ladder after the regular season.
• The Johnny Warren Medal was awarded to Shane Smeltz from the Wellington Phoenix.
• The Coach of the Year was awarded to Aurelio Vidmar of Adelaide United.
• The Reebok Golden Boot was awarded to Shane Smeltz of the Wellington Phoenix (12 goals - regular season).
• The Rising Star award was awarded to Scott Jamieson of Adelaide United.
• The Fair Play Award was awarded to the Queensland Roar.
• Goalkeeper of the Year was awarded to Eugene Galekovic of Adelaide United.
• Referee of the Year was awarded to Matthew Breeze.
• Foreign Player of the Year was awarded to Charlie Miller of the Queensland Roar.

• Adelaide United season 2008-09
• Central Coast Mariners season 2008-09
• Melbourne Victory season 2008-09
• Newcastle United Jets FC season 2008-09
• Perth Glory season 2008-09
• Queensland Roar season 2008-09
• Sydney FC season 2008-09
• Wellington Phoenix season 2008-09
• 2008 Australian football code crowds

• A-League official website, including fixtures
• Football Federation Australia
• SBS The World Game A-League section
• FOXSPORTS.com.au A-League section and Official A-League Fantasy competition