The 2022-23 Isuzu UTE A-League season is done and dusted – and as that dust settles, it’s time to review how each club fared through a memorable campaign.
On this week’s episode of The Official Isuzu UTE A-League Podcast, host Daniel Garb was joined by KEEPUP’s Tom Smithies and James Dodd to dissect the season that was.
Listen below, or via Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you consume your podcasts
TEAM RATINGS
Smithies and Dodd joined Garb after Saturday’s Grand Final to provide each side with a rating out of 10 at the season’s end, beginning with wooden-spooners Macarthur FC and ending with premiers Melbourne City.
12th: Macarthur FC
Dodd’s rating: 3/10
If you look at Dwight Yorke’s (departure), it wasn’t handled very well. Maybe it was the wrong decision to bin him off that early, and the way it ended wasn’t particularly amicable either.
Smithies’ rating: 4/10
Until Dwight left, I thought they were actually playing some decent football. They won the cup deservedly, they peaked really well for that, and it’s just a shame the acrimonious way he left. It basically fell apart after that.
Jacob Burns has now left, and Mile Sterjovski is there on his own. He has such a rebuilding job to do at that club.
11th: Melbourne Victory
Dodd’s rating: 3/10
I remember when they got the wooden spoon a few years ago, the words were: we would never be in this position again. Two seasons later, they’ve regressed and narrowly avoided it.
I just think with everything that’s happened on the field, with the Melbourne Derby earlier in the season – you can’t blame the players for that, you can’t really blame the hierarchy at the club for that – but I just think everything that was done thereon.
Tony Popovic I think there will be big question marks over what his approach to the rest of the season was. There’s something not working there. They changed a lot off the pitch, football department-wise, and they found themselves back in the same position. There’s something that really needs to be fixed.
Smithies’ rating: 3/10
For the players they have, for the coach they have, the only reason I’m giving them three and not less is that it is a club in flux. We saw that with the departure of Anthony Di Pietro, the chairman for many years, just this last week. There is so much change going on and that club has lost its moorings, and needs to re-establish what its identity is.
10th: Newcastle Jets
Dodd’s rating: 4/10
They were on a really good run at one point this year, and that was after Arthur Papas had done a great job last year, and then this year they flatlined at the start, got themselves into a good position and then fell away.
They were just too inconsistent all season. We know the off-field situation at Newcastle is absolutely not ideal, but there’s a good squad there in Newcastle.
Smithies’ rating: 4/10
I think Daniel Penha was such a loss to the league and to the club. They had really built themselves around him, and they weren’t able to replace him in any way. They weren’t as slick or as good to watch as they were last year.
9th: Perth Glory
Dodd’s rating: 6/10
I was trying to base (the rating) on the footballing side of things, and what they did on the pitch: and I thought they were brilliant to watch, at home in particular.
They made Macedonia Park a real fortress. I thought Ruben Zadkovich absolutely proved a lot of people wrong, given what he was able to achieve. They were in the finals race until really late on, which I don’t think anybody expected them to be at the start of the season.
Smithies’ rating: 5/10
I’ll go 5/10 for the fact that we’re back here again: Ruben (Zadkovich) has left, no word on who a new coach will be, it’s yet another false dawn.
8th: Brisbane Roar
Dodd’s rating: 5/10
If I’m brutally honest, I think four-and-a-half of those five points are from Jay O’Shea. They didn’t have a great style of football, they were disjointed on and off the pitch, and I think their massive task is keeping hold of O’Shea.
He was the leading light by some distance at the club. The Charlie Austin experiment did not work at all. For them, Ross Aloisi could be a shrewd appointment – but they’re only a shrewd appointment if you give them the right adequate tools to work with – and that remains to be seen.
Smithies’ rating: 4/10
Groundhog Day FC. You had Robbie Fowler appointed- that was one strategy. Then Warren Moon appointed – that was another strategy. Now we’ve got Ross Aloisi coming in, which feels like – absolutely no disrespect to Ross, who has clearly gone and learnt from the school of Yokohama if you can call it that – but it feels like a safe appointment because they know him as John’s assistant previously.
At the moment, it’s not a team with an identity. That’s a job for Ross Aloisi.
It just feels like more disappointment delivered by Brisbane Roar. They weren’t good to watch all season. I don’t think the players enjoyed the way that they played.
7th: Western United
Dodd’s rating: 4/10
This is going to sound a bit harsh, but I’ve gone 4/10. Just because they were champions last year. I know they had a few issues with certain big-name players in that squad who were maybe looking to move on elsewhere, and they didn’t. They stayed, and their performances fell off a cliff this year, in particular.
I think John Aloisi did a pretty good job to resurrect their season and get them to within one place of the finals… but for me, I just found the drop-off from champions to the team that was bottom of the league at one point (was) just too big to warrant anything other than a four.
Smithies’ rating: 4/10
It’s not uncommon – we so often see teams struggling to back it up. In that context, I’ll give them 5/10 because there’s a tiny bit of an historic track record there.
In the end, they missed out on the finals by three points, which was quite a resurrection – because they were horrible in the first half of the year.
6th: Wellington Phoenix
Dodd’s rating: 6/10
I was leaning toward a 7/10, but I think the fadeaway at the end of the season was too dramatic, and so underwhelming from how they well away.
Smithies’ rating: 6/10
6/10 for me. If you look at the last five games: loss, loss, loss, draw, win – and that win was handed to them on a plate by Macarthur.
5th: Sydney FC
Dodd’s rating: 6/10
It was a season of sugar hits for Sydney FC, with the additions of those players, but the underlying current of things that still need to be done at Sydney FC, it feels like they’re trying to sweep them under the carpet a little bit (regarding) the surgery that needs to be done on that squad in terms of age.
They did really well to get to the Semi Finals, that win over Western Sydney Wanderers in the Elimination Finals will live long in the memory of Sydney FC fans, because that was a fantastic effort from them. But for the club and the size they are, to never at any point challenge for top honours in the season is always going to be a disappointment.
Smithies’ rating: 6/10
A curate’s egg of a season. I know they finished fifth, and they finished strongly and got to the Semi Finals – but, there was so much excitement at the start of the year, when Joe Lolley came in, when Robert Mak came in.
The thought of a new style of football Steve Corica was going to play, the new stadium, all of that all got washed away a bit in the rain when they lost to Melbourne Victory first up.
The season just didn’t go anywhere. They were treading water. Their experience told at the end, and they strong-armed themselves into fifth place and into the finals.
4th: Western Sydney Wanderers
Dodd’s rating: 7/10
I was leaning towards an eight, but the way in which they bowed out of the finals, to get themselves there and be in contention for a top-two finish on the final day, to then carry into the following week playing their biggest rivals and fade like they did, especially in that second half against Sydney FC.
Marko Rudan did a fantastic job, all those new recruits (bought) into the club, but regardless for them to get back into finals after such along time, after such a big squad upheaval, for me it’s 7/10.
Smithies’ rating: 8/10
I’m going to give them an 8/10 because of the disappointment of recent years.
They’ve been so poor, and they had 19 new players. They were up there the whole way through, I think in that context – yes, dreadfully disappointing how that final finished, particularly the second-half of the last game of the season – but on the basis of previous 26-and-a-half rounds, I’m going to give them an 8/10.
A little asterisk on the fact that Morgan Schneiderlin has left, assistant Adam Griffiths has left, there are question marks over other players… and there are some big decisions to be made as well.
3rd: Adelaide United
Dodd’s rating: 8/10
The way in which (head coach Carl Veart) was able to blend (his) senior players with exciting kids, but also get the best out of them and try and educate on their journeys as well has been a real highlight for me.
I think it is disappointing that Adelaide have fallen at this step again. I think that will be something that will be reviewed by the club during the off-season.
Veart for me is under no real pressure going into next season, but he will be personally looking at it going: ‘Right, how do I take us onto that next level?’ Because it’s something that keeps happening, meaning there’s something they keep doing the same.
Smithies’ rating: 8/10
What (Dodd) said!
2nd: Central Coast Mariners
Dodd’s rating: 10/10
The physical and mental side of things after the Grand Final is all-encompassing. It was so nice to witness what it meant to Central Coast fans, they came down in such good numbers.
A magnificent evening for the Central Coast – and one that will live in the memory for quite some time.
Smithies’ rating: 10/10
The perfect season for them in the context of (being) the youngest team, the lowest wage bill… and yet they produced the magic on Saturday night. An amazing story all season, definitely 10/10.
I remember a few years ago, not that many years ago, writing a story (titled): ‘What is the point of the Mariners?’ And getting a very upset phone call from (club CEO) Shaun Mielekamp as a result. I think at the time it was hard for him to argue with that sentiment.
Whereas now, we can see the whole point of the Mariners: they are, almost, the A-League.
If we talk about the A-League as a place where exciting young Australian talent gets a go, then the distillation of that is the Mariners where players leave that club ready to go to a higher level.
1st: Melbourne City
Dodd’s rating: 8/10
If you’re that consistent over the regular season – and that includes a managerial change in there as well – I think you deserve to have a high rating in this.
Things go wrong in pressure moments, and the Grand Final they will review afterwards, and individuals will know they weren’t at the level they needed to be, maybe Rado Vidosic will walk away from that thinking: ‘I got it wrong’.
It’s easy to forget after a demolition like that in a massive game but they’ve been so good all season, and have been by far and away the best team in the competition for such a long period of time.
Smithies’ rating: 9/10
I’m going to give them 9/10 because of the Premier’s Plate and because of results over the season. Even they way they finished: win, win, draw, win, win.
I thought they navigated a managerial change so effortlessly, it was extraordinary. There are longer-term question marks to address there, undoubtedly, and the Grand Final performance was disappointing, but that for me takes them down from a 10/10 to a 9/10.
