2015–16 A-League Explained

Competition:	A-League
Season:	2015–16
Dates:	8 October 2015 – 1 May 2016
Winners:	Adelaide United (1st title)
Premiers:	Adelaide United (2nd title)
Continentalcup1:	Champions League
Continentalcup1 Qualifiers:	Adelaide United Western Sydney Wanderers Brisbane Roar
Matches:	135
Total Goals:	421
League Topscorer:	Bruno Fornaroli (25 goals)
Best Goalkeeper:	Thomas Sørensen
Biggest Home Win:	Brisbane Roar 5 - 0 Melbourne Victory (12 March 2016)
Biggest Away Win:	Newcastle Jets 1 - 6 Perth Glory (24 January 2016)
Highest Scoring:	Perth Glory 6 - 3 Brisbane Roar (20 February 2016)
Longest Wins:	Western Sydney Wanderers (7 games)
Longest Unbeaten:	Adelaide United (14 games)
Longest Winless:	Central Coast Mariners Sydney FC (11 games)
Longest Losses:	Central Coast Mariners (6 games)
Highest Attendance:	40,539 Sydney FC vs. Western Sydney Wanderers (24 October 2015)
Lowest Attendance:	4,514 Central Coast Mariners vs. Melbourne City (3 December 2015)
Average Attendance:	12,309 (205)
Prevseason:	2014–15
Nextseason:	2016–17

The 2015–16 A-League was the 39th season of top-flight soccer in Australia, and the 11th since the establishment of the A-League in 2004. Melbourne Victory were both the defending A-League Premiers and Champions. The regular season schedule was released on 29 June 2015. The season commenced on 8 October 2015 and concluded on 10 April 2016. The finals series commenced on 15 April 2016 and concluded with the 2016 Grand Final, held on 1 May 2016.

The 2016 Grand Final took place on 1 May 2016, with Adelaide United claiming their first Championship with a 3–1 win against Western Sydney Wanderers.

Clubs

Team	City	Home Ground	Capacity
Adelaide United	Adelaide	Coopers Stadium	17,000
Brisbane Roar	Brisbane	Suncorp Stadium	52,500
Central Coast Mariners	Gosford	Central Coast Stadium	20,119
Melbourne City	Melbourne	AAMI Park	30,050
Melbourne Victory	Melbourne	Etihad Stadium AAMI Park	56,347 30,050
			33,000
Perth Glory	Perth	nib Stadium	20,500
Sydney FC	Sydney	Allianz Stadium	45,500
Wellington Phoenix	Wellington	Westpac Stadium	34,500
Western Sydney Wanderers	Sydney	Pirtek Stadium	21,487

Personnel and kits

Team	Manager	Captain	Kit manufacturer	Kit partner
Adelaide United	Guillermo Amor	Eugene Galekovic	Kappa	Veolia
Brisbane Roar	John Aloisi	Matt McKay	Umbro^[1]	Steadfast
Central Coast Mariners	Tony Walmsley	Nick Montgomery	Kappa	Masterfoods
Melbourne City	John van 't Schip	Patrick Kisnorbo	Nike	Etihad
Melbourne Victory	Kevin Muscat	Carl Valeri	Adidas^[2]	Community Training Initiatives (h) Oliana Foods (a)
Newcastle Jets	Scott Miller	Nigel Boogaard	BLK	Beechwood Homes (h) Inspirations Paints (a)
Perth Glory	Kenny Lowe	Richard Garcia	Macron^[3]	QBE Insurance
Sydney FC	Graham Arnold	Alex Brosque	Puma	The Star
Wellington Phoenix	Ernie Merrick	Andrew Durante	Adidas	Huawei
Western Sydney Wanderers	Tony Popovic	Nikolai Topor-Stanley	Nike^[4]	NRMA Insurance

Additionally, referee kits are made by Umbro.

Managerial changes

Team	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Table	Date of appointment
Brisbane Roar	Resigned^[5]	26 May 2015	Pre-season	26 May 2015^[6] ^[7]
Newcastle Jets	Sacked^[8] ^[9]	26 May 2015		18 June 2015^[10] ^[11]
Adelaide United	Resigned^[12]	24 July 2015		24 July 2015^[13]

Foreign players

Club	Visa 1	Visa 2	Visa 3	Visa 4	Visa 5	Non-Visa foreigner(s)	Former player(s)
Adelaide United	Marcelo Carrusca	Iacopo La Rocca	Sergio Cirio	Isaías	Pablo Sánchez
Brisbane Roar	Jean Carlos Solórzano	Thomas Broich	Jérome Polenz	Corona	Javier Hervás	Henrique¹ Jamie Young² Jack Hingert²
Central Coast Mariners	Daniel Heffernan	Roy O'Donovan	Fábio Ferreira	Nick Montgomery	Luis García	Mitch Austin¹ Storm Roux² Brad McDonald²
Melbourne City	Thomas Sørensen	Harry Novillo	Aaron Hughes	Bruno Fornaroli			Robert Koren
Melbourne Victory	Besart Berisha	Guilherme Finkler	Matthieu Delpierre	Kosta Barbarouses		Daniel Georgievski²
Newcastle Jets	Leonardo	Mateo Poljak	Morten Nordstrand	Enver Alivodić			Miloš Trifunović Lee Ki-je
Perth Glory	György Sándor	Andy Keogh	Nebojša Marinković	Diego Castro		Krisztián Vadócz³	Sidnei Guyon Fernandez
Sydney FC	Jacques Faty	Mickaël Tavares	Miloš Dimitrijević	Miloš Ninković	Filip Hološko	Vedran Janjetović¹ Ali Abbas¹ Shane Smeltz²
Wellington Phoenix	Roly Bonevacia	Roy Krishna	Albert Riera	Alex Rodriguez		Manny Muscat²	Jeffrey Sarpong
Western Sydney Wanderers	Federico Piovaccari	Romeo Castelen	Alberto	Andreu	Dimas

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 (and New Zealand citizenship, in the case of Wellington Phoenix);^[14]
²Australian citizens (and 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)

Salary cap exemptions and captains

Club	First Marquee	Second Marquee	Junior Marquee player-->	Mature Age Rookie	Loyalty Players	Captain
Adelaide United	Eugene Galekovic^[15]	Marcelo Carrusca	None	None	Eugene Galekovic^[16]	Bruce Djite^[17]
Brisbane Roar	Matt McKay^[18]	Thomas Broich^[19]	None	None	Matt McKay^[20]	Shane Stefanutto^[21]
Central Coast Mariners	Luis García^[22]	None	None	None	Nick Montgomery^[23]	None
Melbourne City	Aaron Mooy^[24]	None	Wade Dekker^[25]	None	Patrick Kisnorbo^[26]	None
Melbourne Victory	Oliver Bozanic^[27]	Besart Berisha^[28]	Jai Ingham	Archie Thompson^[29]	Carl Valeri^[30]	Leigh Broxham
Newcastle Jets	None	None	None	None	Nigel Boogaard^[31]	Mateo Poljak^[32]
Perth Glory	Diego Castro^[33]	Michael Thwaite^[34] ^[35]	None	None	Richard Garcia^[36]	None
Sydney FC	Alex Brosque^[37]	Filip Hološko^[38] ^[39]	Alex Mullen^[40]	None	Alex Brosque^[41]	Shane Smeltz Jacques Faty^[42]
Wellington Phoenix	None	None	Troy Danaskos	None	Andrew Durante^[43]	Ben Sigmund
Western Sydney Wanderers	Dario Vidošić^[44]	Federico Piovaccari^[45] ^[46]	None	None	Nikolai Topor-Stanley^[47]	Mark Bridge

The following concessions to the salary cap were introduced for this season:^[48]

A Loyalty allowance on a sliding scale for players who have played 5 years at the same club. Maximum $200,000 for 10 years.
A Mature Aged Rookie over the age of 21 who has not played in a fully professional league for the last 18 months and last played football in Australia.
Each Club can pay three players who started their careers with the club outside the Salary Cap. This season the total has been lifted from $150,000 to $200,000.
The two Marquee Players (which sit outside the Salary Cap) can be two foreigners.
Salary Cap Banking will allow clubs to carry over money not spent inside the Salary Cap in the previous two seasons to the following season, up to 105% of the Salary Cap in the relevant contract year.

Regular season

Results

Finals series

The Grand Final winner (Champion) qualified for the 2017 AFC Champions League group stage

Grand Final

Statistics

Attendances

By club

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.

By round

2015–16 A-League Attendance
Round	Total	Games	Avg. Per Game
scope='row'	Round 1	64,580	5	12,916
scope='row'	Round 2	84,448	5	16,890
scope='row'	Round 3	72,865	5	14,573
scope='row'	Round 4	67,074	5	13,415
scope='row'	Round 5	48,233	5	9,647
scope='row'	Round 6	58,681	5	11,736
scope='row'	Round 7	58,931	5	11,786
scope='row'	Round 8	59,295	5	11,859
scope='row'	Round 9	40,586	5	8,117
scope='row'	Round 10	46,988	5	9,398
scope='row'	Round 11	53,104	5	10,621
scope='row'	Round 12	73,423	5	14,685
scope='row'	Round 13	63,085	5	12,617
scope='row'	Round 14	55,954	5	11,191
scope='row'	Round 15	68,565	5	13,713
scope='row'	Round 16	76,749	5	15,350
scope='row'	Round 17	58,838	5	11,768
scope='row'	Round 18	63,419	5	12,684
scope='row'	Round 19	64,364	5	12,873
scope='row'	Round 20	86,207	5	17,241
scope='row'	Round 21	59,582	5	11,916
scope='row'	Round 22	44,628	5	8,926
scope='row'	Round 23	63,679	5	12,736
scope='row'	Round 24	49,476	5	9,895
scope='row'	Round 25	62,727	5	12,545
scope='row'	Round 26	58,268	5	11,654
scope='row'	Round 27	57,681	5	11,536
scope='row'	Elimination Final	31,430	2	15,715
scope='row'	Semi Final	35,573	2	17,787
scope='row'	Grand Final	50,119	1	50,119

Source:^[49]

Club membership

2015–16 A-League membership figures
Club	Members
Adelaide United	8,750
Brisbane Roar	5,347
Central Coast Mariners	6,059
Melbourne City	9,548
Melbourne Victory	27,054
Newcastle Jets	9,266
Perth Glory	7,109
Sydney FC	13,154
Wellington Phoenix	5,062
Western Sydney Wanderers	18,361
Total	109,710
Average	10,971

Player stats

Top scorers

^[50]

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Bruno Fornaroli	Melbourne City	23
2	Jamie Maclaren	Brisbane Roar	18
3	Besart Berisha	Melbourne Victory	17
4	Diego Castro	Perth Glory	13
5	Aaron Mooy	Melbourne City	11
6	Filip Hološko	Sydney FC	10
	Andy Keogh	Perth Glory
	Mitch Nichols	Western Sydney Wanderers
	Harry Novillo	Melbourne City
	Brendon Šantalab	Western Sydney Wanderers

Hat-tricks

See main article: List of A-League hat-tricks.

Player	Result	Date	Ref
Blake Powell⁴	5–2	14 February 2016	^[51]
	3–0	5 March 2016	^[52]
	5–0	12 March 2016	^[53]
	5–4	24 April 2016	^[54]

Note⁴ Player scored 4 goals

Own goals

Club	Against	Round
		1
		2
Perth Glory		3
	Melbourne Victory	4
		12
Central Coast Mariners		12
Melbourne City		12
Melbourne City		14
Adelaide United		14
		16
		16
	Melbourne Victory	16
		17
		19
	Newcastle Jets	20
Western Sydney Wanderers		20

Clean sheets