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 →

2008–09 A-League

32nd season of top-tier soccer league in Australia

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.

Quick Facts Season, Dates ...

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]

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[18] [N 1]
Zura's contract was mutually terminated part-way through his marquee deal on 2 November 2008.^[17]

[20] [N 2]
Thompson replaced North as captain mid-season

[1] [1]
"Galaxy, Thunder to join A-League". Fox Sports. 12 February 2008. Archived from the original on 22 May 2011. Retrieved 17 February 2008.

[expansion20080221-2] [2]
"Thunder, Galaxy get go-ahead". FourFourTwo. 21 February 2008. Archived from the original on 29 October 2013. Retrieved 21 February 2008.

[3] [3]
"A-League expansion plans postponed". SBS. 12 March 2008. Archived from the original on 13 March 2008. Retrieved 12 March 2008.

[4] [4]
"FFA: A-League WILL Get Bigger". FourFourTwo. 19 January 2007. Archived from the original on 6 January 2014. Retrieved 17 February 2008.

[fftwithabang-5] [5]
"New season to start with a bang sea". AU FourFourTwo. 2 May 2008. Archived from the original on 3 May 2008. Retrieved 2 May 2008.

[6] [6]
"Agostino fit for season kick-off". ABC News. 14 August 2008. Adelaide United marquee player Paul Agostino has been declared fit...

[DoddCaptain-7] [7]
Brettig, Daniel (30 July 2008). "Cool Dodd new Adelaide United skipper". The Advertiser.

[8] [8]
"Captain Wilkinson promoted to Centurion". Central Coast Mariners. Football Federation Australia. 8 February 2011. Wilkinson took the captain-s armband from an injured Noel Spencer late in the second season of the Hyundai A-League

[9] [9]
Lynch, Michael (30 April 2016). "Archie Thompson should play on after leaving Melbourne Victory". The Sydney Morning Herald. As Victory's inauguaral marquee signing...

[10] [10]
"Archie Thompson, Adrian Leijer sign new deals with Melbourne Victory". The Guardian. 2 May 2014. Victory's first ever signing, and scorer, will join up with new marquee Besart Berisha next season, after agreeing a new deal with the club that takes him inside the salary cap

[11] [11]
Ritson, Jon (15 May 2008). "Marquee Glee For Victory's Ward". FTBL.

[JuniorMarquees-12] [12]
Ritson, Jon (8 August 2008). "Slow Start For Marquee Scheme". FTBL. Sydney FC, Melbourne Victory and Newcastle Jets, confirmed they had signed junior marquees for the new season – Mark Bridge (Sydney), Nick Ward (Victory) and Adam D'Apuzzo (Jets).

[13] [13]
Lynch, Michael (7 January 2009). "Victory take top spot". Brisbane Times. A second-half goal by midfielder Nick Ward, who, injury-free, is finally finding the sort of form that justified making him the club's junior marquee player

[14] [14]
"Muscat Takes on Coaching Role". FTBL. 29 August 2007. MELBOURNE Victory skipper Kevin Muscat has signed a new two-year contract that sees him taking on a coaching role as well as the captaincy

[15] [15]
"Kevin Muscat appointed as new Melbourne Victory coach". The Guardian. 31 October 2013. Phoenix's Ernie Merrick was the Victory's inaugural coach and Muscat the club's inaugural captain

[16] [16]
Gardiner, James (31 July 2008). "Newcastle Jets unveil Edmundo Zura as marquee signing". The Newcastle Herald.

[17] [17]
Dillon, Robert; Gardiner, James (2 November 2008). "Exit Edmundo: Zura bids Jets farewell". The Newcastle Herald.

[19] [18]
"North heading to Korea". Newcastle Jets. 13 December 2008. North is a Newcastle Jets foundation player, having been with the club since the 2005/06 Hyundai A-League season, and was instated as captain last season.

[21] [19]
"Matt Thompson tipping Kaz Patafta to kick on". The Newcastle Herald. 23 January 2009. Stand-in Jets captain Matt Thompson has...

[22] [20]
"Nikita Fills Marquee Role". FTBL. 17 November 2008. Perth Glory striking sensation Nikita Rukavytsya has been confirmed as the club's Under-23 marquee player for this season.

[23] [21]
"Coyne leads the way for Glory". A-League. 15 August 2008.

[24] [22]
Ritson, Jon (24 July 2007). "Moore Signs With Roar". FourFourTwo. Archived from the original on 30 September 2012.

[25] [23]
Lomax, Andrew (22 December 2008). "Former Rangers captain Craig Moore given all-clear after cancer". The Daily Telegraph. Moore, 32, had the operation at a hospital in Brisbane, where he is now captain of Queensland Roar.

[26] [24]
"Sydney FC put players on notice". Fox Sports. 3 March 2008. Archived from the original on 31 December 2012. Aloisi, 32, signed a lucrative two-year deal as the marquee player...

[27] [25]
"Teenage sensation Danning lifts Sydney FC". The Sydney Morning Herald. 12 January 2009. Sydney Captain Steve Corica was left on the bench...

[DuranteCaptain-28] [26]
"Durante named Wellington Phoenix skipper". Nine MSN. 17 July 2008. Archived from the original on 30 March 2012.

[29] [27]
"You Can't Beat McKain: Herbert". FTBL. 11 August 2008. McKain, who will be Phoenix vice-captain this season

[30] [28]
2008 Pre-Season Cup Draw Archived 18 May 2011 at the Wayback Machine, Football Federation Australia, 2 May 2008

[31] [29]
Hyundai A-League 2008/09 Season Draw Archived 18 May 2011 at the Wayback Machine, Football Federation Australia, 2 May 2008

[Clubworldcup-32] [30]
Match rescheduled due to Adelaide's participation in FIFA Club World Cup

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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

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]

15 August 2008	Newcastle Jets	1–1	Central Coast Mariners	EnergyAustralia Stadium, Newcastle
20:00 UTC+10	J. Griffiths 90+1' (pen.)	Report Summary	Simon 87'	Attendance: 16,022 Referee: Matthew Breeze

16 August 2008	Sydney FC	0–0	Melbourne Victory	Sydney Football Stadium, Sydney
19:00 UTC+10		Report Summary		Attendance: 16,227 Referee: Mark Shield

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	Qualification for Finals series
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

17 August 2008	Wellington Phoenix	1–1	Queensland Roar	Westpac Stadium, Wellington
17:00 UTC+12	Smeltz 51'	Report Summary	Miller 46'	Attendance: 10,516 Referee: Ben Williams

17 August 2008	Adelaide United	1–0	Perth Glory	Hindmarsh Stadium, Adelaide
16:30 UTC+9:30	T. Dodd 41'	Report Summary		Attendance: 10,510 Referee: Peter Green

22 August 2008	Perth Glory	3–3	Newcastle Jets	Members Equity Stadium, Perth
19:00 UTC+8	Trinidad 35' (pen.) Dadi 58' Rukavytsya 81'	Report Summary	J. Griffiths 20' (pen.) Coyne 49' (o.g.) North 90+5'	Attendance: 8,876 Referee: Craig Zetter

23 August 2008	Central Coast Mariners	2–3	Sydney FC	Bluetongue Stadium, Gosford
19:00 UTC+10	Petrovski 13' (pen.), 67'	Report Summary	Corica 6', 14' Cole 81'	Attendance: 10,932 Referee: Ben Williams

24 August 2008	Wellington Phoenix	2–4	Melbourne Victory	Westpac Stadium, Wellington
17:00 UTC+12	Smeltz 29', 65' (pen.)	Report Summary	Allsopp 16', 35' Ney Fabiano 47' K. Muscat 68' (pen.)	Attendance: 6,110 Referee: Strebre Delovski

29 August 2008	Melbourne Victory	5–0	Newcastle Jets	Telstra Dome, Melbourne
18:00 UTC+10	Hernández 41' A. Thompson 45+2' Allsopp 61', 64' Brebner 90'	Report Summary		Attendance: 22,589 Referee: Mark Shield

30 August 2008	Adelaide United	3–0	Wellington Phoenix	Hindmarsh Stadium, Adelaide
18:30 UTC+9:30	Pantelis 15' Cristiano 49', 60'	Report Summary		Attendance: 7,832 Referee: Matthew Breeze

31 August 2008	Sydney FC	5–2	Perth Glory	Sydney Football Stadium, Sydney
15:00 UTC+10	Brosque 3' Corica 21' (pen.) Bridge 39' Cole 43' Topor-Stanley 88' (o.g.)	Report Summary	Dadi 12', 67' (pen.)	Attendance: 11,732 Referee: Peter Green

12 September 2008	Melbourne Victory	1–0	Adelaide United	Telstra Dome, Melbourne
18:00 UTC+10	K. Muscat 64'	Report Summary		Attendance: 24,812 Referee: Matthew Breeze

13 September 2008	Newcastle Jets	0–0	Sydney FC	EnergyAustralia Stadium, Newcastle
19:00 UTC+10		Report Summary		Attendance: 11,535 Referee: Peter O'Leary

14 September 2008	Perth Glory	0–3	Queensland Roar	Members Equity Stadium, Perth
15:00 UTC+8		Report Summary	Moore 14' McKay 23' Miller 45+2'	Attendance: 8,203 Referee: Ben Williams

19 September 2008	Queensland Roar	0–1	Newcastle Jets	Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane
20:00 UTC+10		Report Summary	J. Griffiths 83'	Attendance: 12,103 Referee: Craig Zetter

20 September 2008	Sydney FC	3–0	Adelaide United	Sydney Football Stadium, Sydney
17:00 UTC+10	McFlynn 2' Brosque 34' Santalab 79'	Report Summary		Attendance: 12,462 Referee: Ben Williams

20 September 2008	Central Coast Mariners	2–2	Melbourne Victory	Bluetongue Stadium, Gosford
19:00 UTC+10	Simon 12', 84'	Report Summary	A. Thompson 16', 90+4'	Attendance: 9,010 Referee: Peter Green

21 September 2008	Perth Glory	1–0	Wellington Phoenix	Members Equity Stadium, Perth
15:00 UTC+8	Dadi 79' (pen.)	Report Summary		Attendance: 4,433 Referee: Strebre Delovski

26 September 2008	Central Coast Mariners	4–1	Perth Glory	Bluetongue Stadium, Gosford
20:00 UTC+10	Petrovski 9' Jedinak 29' Caceres 45' Osman 64'	Report Summary	Rukavytsya 63'	Attendance: 8,016 Referee: Mark Shield

27 September 2008	Adelaide United	2–0	Newcastle Jets	Hindmarsh Stadium, Adelaide
18:30 UTC+9:30	Cristiano 72', 89'	Report Summary		Attendance: 8,111 Referee: Strebre Delovski

28 September 2008	Wellington Phoenix	2–1	Sydney FC	Westpac Stadium, Wellington
17:00 UTC+12	Smeltz 42' Brown 76'	Report Summary	Brosque 20'	Attendance: 6,729 Referee: Chris Beath

28 September 2008	Melbourne Victory	0–2	Queensland Roar	Telstra Dome, Melbourne
17:00 UTC+10		Report Summary	Minniecon 83' Zullo 90+4'	Attendance: 22,266 Referee: Ben Williams

2008–09_A-League

Clubs

Foreign players

Salary cap exemptions and captains

Pre-season Challenge Cup

Regular season

League table

Results

Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

Round 4

Round 5

Round 6

Round 7

Round 8

Round 9

Round 10

Round 11

Round 12

Round 13

Round 14

Round 15

Round 16

Round 17

Round 18

Round 19

Round 20

Round 21

Finals series

Statistics

Leading scorers

Attendance

Top 10 Attendances

Awards

See also

Notes

References

External links

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3 October 2008	Adelaide United	3–3	Central Coast Mariners	Hindmarsh Stadium, Adelaide
19:30 UTC+9:30	T. Dodd 7' (pen.) Cornthwaite 19' Cristiano 50'	Report Summary	Jedinak 66' (pen.), 76' Simon 84'	Attendance: 9,074 Referee: Ben Williams

4 October 2008	Melbourne Victory	4–0	Perth Glory	Telstra Dome, Melbourne
17:00 UTC+10	Brebner 25' Allsopp 39', 71' Vargas 46'	Report Summary		Attendance: 18,036 Referee: Strebre Delovski

6 October 2008	Newcastle Jets	2–2	Wellington Phoenix	EnergyAustralia Stadium, Newcastle
15:00 UTC+11	T. Elrich 59' Patafta 68'	Report Summary	Smeltz 52' (pen.), 89' (pen.)	Attendance: 8,492 Referee: Craig Zetter

17 October 2008	Queensland Roar	0–1	Adelaide United	Suncorp Stadium, Brisbane
19:30 UTC+10		Report Summary	Cornthwaite 60'	Attendance: 11,117 Referee: Mark Shield

18 October 2008	Newcastle Jets	1–0	Melbourne Victory	EnergyAustralia Stadium, Newcastle
19:00 UTC+11	Jesic 85'	Report Summary		Attendance: 11,384 Referee: Matthew Breeze

19 October 2008	Central Coast Mariners	0–1	Wellington Phoenix	Bluetongue Stadium, Gosford
15:00 UTC+11		Report Summary	K. Dodd 53'	Attendance: 9,011 Referee: Ben Williams

24 October 2008	Central Coast Mariners	1–0	Newcastle Jets	Bluetongue Stadium, Gosford
20:00 UTC+11	Macallister 33'	Report Summary		Attendance: 10,710 Referee: Matthew Breeze

25 October 2008	Melbourne Victory	0–2	Sydney FC	Telstra Dome, Melbourne
19:00 UTC+11		Report Summary	Bridge 20' Aloisi 62'	Attendance: 31,564 Referee: Ben Williams

26 October 2008	Adelaide United	2–1	Perth Glory	Hindmarsh Stadium, Adelaide
16:30 UTC+10:30	Alemão 80' T. Dodd 82' (pen.)	Report Summary	Rukavytsya 55'	Attendance: 10,126 Referee: Strebre Delovski

31 October 2008	Adelaide United	2–3	Melbourne Victory	Hindmarsh Stadium, Adelaide
19:30 UTC+10:30	T. Dodd 28' (pen.) Cássio 67'	Report Summary	K. Muscat 55' (pen.), 81' (pen.) Celeski 84'	Attendance: 13,191 Referee: Matthew Breeze