It has been ten glorious years of the A-League, but as Melbourne Victory marched its way to the title, was this the most exciting season of the past ten?
What defines a “great season”? Simply, it has to be exciting from the start to finish; an intense spectacle filled with twists, turns and controversial moments where you are glued to your seat and you are emotionally drained by the end of it, but still, you want more. More so, it has to be, just like any classic film, remembered over time.
Therefore, we begin ranking the A-League seasons.
10: 2007-08
A season in which two of the lesser lights from the F3 highway, the Newcastle Jets and the Central Coast Mariners, contested the premiership and the championship. A season in which two teams were way ahead of the pack, no one really remembers it, sadly. Except when Danny Vukovic went on a one-man war against the officials in the grand final.
9: 2013-14
Brisbane has a habit of winning grand finals by the skin of its teeth, and while it again pulled the rabbit out of the hat when it took down the Western Sydney Wanderers 2-1 in extra time, that was about as exciting as it got for the Queenslanders. Completely dominant from start to finish, the Roar galloped to the double. There was little less to chat about, except how far behind the rest of the league was.
8: 2005-06
Perhaps it took us a little time to get used to the A-League, but season one was not without its moments despite the average standards. This was all Adelaide marching to the Premiers’ Plate in front of heavy favourites and the Dwlight Yorke-led Sydney FC. John Kosmina contrived to blow up his team’s chances, by insisting to host the first leg at home, instead of playing in Sydney. That move shot the Reds in the foot; the Mariners surprised everyone to make it to the final, but like so many predicted, Sydney took the inaugural crown.
7: 2006-07
Version two of the A-League saw the emergence of the Victory in a dominant seasonal performance. It cruised to the premiership with games to spare, finishing with a 12-point buffer. Its finals campaign will be remembered for James Robinson’s 93rd minute winner and Archie Thompson’s five-goal heroics in the grand final, both coming against Adelaide United. Meanwhile, the New Zealand Knights were dumped at season’s end, Sydney became embroiled in a salary-cap dispute, and pipped the rather aggrieved Brisbane Roar to make the finals.
6: 2008-09
Talk about fine margins. The Victory took the premiership by “goals scored” after tying first with Adelaide on the same points and goal difference. Both finished ahead of a fast-finishing Roar side in a hotly contestested premiership race. The same could be said about the grand final, in which the Victory took out the double thanks to Tom Ponteljak’s strike after United were down to 10 men. The Jets crashed and burned, becoming the first team to win the championship and backing it up with the wooden spoon the following season.
5: 2011-12
Melbourne Heart made its first finals appearance. Harry Kewell returned, to much fanfare. And an unknown striker named Besart Berisha landed on our shores. An action-packed season was blowing full-steam ahead as the Roar and Mariners looked set for a grand final replay. Yet, the Mariners went down in straight sets in the finals, bundled out by Perth Glory. The best was yet to come with Berisha’s 94th-minute penalty seeing Brisbane claim back-to-back titles for the first time and condemning the Glory to a heartbreaking and controversial defeat. The question still remains: did he dive or was he tripped?
4: 2014-15
The Victory might have cantered to the championship in an effective and spellbinding finals run, but come the final weeks of the season, up to five teams had the chance to take the Premiers’ Plate. Broken up in between thanks to the Asian Cup, this season was an absorbing spectacle. The Glory were the pack leaders, until we found out it broke the rules and were dumped out of the finals. Melbourne City was born, but still did not achieve what its owners wanted. The quality of football reached a new level and the FFA had the final it dreamed of with the Victory hosting Sydney (albeit in a smaller stadium).
3: 2012-13
A season defined by the Western Sydney Wanderers. Talk about a surprise package. In their first year, under the leadership of Tony Popovic, the Wanderers stunned everyone by finishing first with ten straight wins (an A-League record), breaking crowd records and firmly planting its feet in the A-League. We also welcomed the first Sydney derby, a headline act in the A-League. The Mariners finally got its hands on the championship in a rather subdued final. There was plenty of other action, as Ange Postecoglou rejuvenated the Victory, the Glory pushed Sydney out of the finals thanks to a better goal difference on the final day and we welcomed legend Alessandro Del Piero to the league. Oh and Emile Heskey.
2: 2010-11
This was the season in which the standards of the A-League truly lifted, thanks to Postecoglou’s Brisbane Roar. It’s slick, passing game took the game by the balls (literally) and finally made the sporting world notice that Australians can play great football. Sydney suffered a post-championship collapse and internal disputes, the Victory no longer maintained its high standards and we welcomed the Melbourne Heart.
We also had the classic “pragmatic vs purist” games with Graham Arnold’s more defensive Mariners challenging the Roar for top honours. It all accumulated in an epic grand final, which puts Manchester City’s “AGUEROOOOOOO” moment second on the pedestal.
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1: 2009-10
Everything you want in an A-League season. Two new boys on the block with Gold Coast United and North Queensland Fury arriving from high up north. We had United, under the tutelage of the Mirion “Mourinho” Bleiberg surprising everyone and making it to the finals, despite Clive Palmer’s ongoing war with the FFA. It joined the Wellington Phoenix, who, thanks to Shane Smeltz, went all the way to the preliminary final in its first appearance.
Down near the bottom, Adelaide crashed completely, while a man by the name of Ange Postecoglou took over an ageing Brisbane Roar and began the rebuilding process.
There were, of course, honours to fight for. Come the final day, Sydney hosted the Victory with the winner taking the Premiers’ Plate and hosting a home game in the second leg of the major semi-final. Sydney duly won 2-0, but it did not help come finals time, as the Victory put the Sky Blues to the sword, winning 4-3 over two legs in an absorbing contest, granting it the right to host the grand final.
Advantage Melbourne? Not quite. In an exhilarating, nerve-breaking final, which finished 1-1, the game went to penalties. Kevin Muscat, forever reliable from the spot, missed his spot-kick and Byun Sung-Hwan slotted his home. The Sky Blues took the title 4-2 in the shootout, the first ever in A-League history.
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