With the Hyundai A-League 2017/18 Season just around the corner, we put out the call to you to tell us the greatest players and coaches to have graced the competition over the past 12 years.
From the men who stop the goals right through to the ones that score them at the other end, we asked who was the best player in each position.
And the fans have spoken. Here’s who YOU picked as the best player in each position plus the greatest coach the competition has ever seen.
GOALKEEPER: Michael Theo
This was the most keenly-contest of all the positions, with the top three separated by less than four percentage points.
Five-time championship winning gloveman Theo just edged the vote with 29.98% believing he’s the best keeper in Hyundai A-League history.
Eugene Galekovic was second with 26.92% of the vote, with Danny Vukovic just behind with 26.46%.
2008 Newcastle Jets championship winner Ante Covic (11.55%) was fourth while Sydney FC’s Clint Bolton, who has the 2006 and ’10 titles to his name, was fifth (5.08%).
DEFENDER: Andrew Durante
The Hyundai A-League has had some excellent defenders but the current Wellington Phoenix skipper topped the pops.
From more than 1700 votes, Durante got 25.82% to lead the way, ahead of Melbourne Victory’s Kevin Muscat (18.47%).
Jade North (16.47%), Alex Wilkinson (16.06%) and import Patrick Zwaanswijk (15%) round out the top five.
MIDFIELDER: Thomas Broich
It’s no surprise that a certain German from Brisbane Roar was the clear winner of the best-ever midfielder in Hyundai A-League history.
With a whopping 69.36% of the votes, Broich is emphatically the competition’s premier midfielder in a stellar field.
Melbourne Victory star Mark Milligan (10.03%) was second ahead of Costa Rican Carlos Hernandez (7.2%), Marcelo Carrusca (7.03%) and John Hutchinson (6.38%).
ATTACKER: Besart Berisha
As the Hyundai A-League’s greatest-ever goal-scorer – and the first man to crack 100 goals – Berisha was always going to be hard to beat for this one.
And so it proved with the Victory and former Brisbane Roar man collecting 49.32% of the votes.
His former team-mate Archie Thompson was second with 21.9%, while Italian legend Alessandro Del Piero got 16.89% for his two seasons at the Sky Blues.
Shane Smeltz (8.8%) and two-time Championship winner Mark Bridge (3.08%) round out the top five.
COACH: Ange Postecoglou
The now Caltex Socceroos boss – who won back-to-back title s with Brisbane Roar in 2011 and ’12 – was the pick as the competition’s best-ever manager with more than 40% of the vote.
Postecoglou beat out fellow two-time championship winning coach Graham Arnold (27.77%), with Tony Popovic third (13.67%) and Ernie Merrick – who won two titles with Melbourne Victory fourth (10.23%).
