If you didn’t know them then, you certainly know them now: with the 20th season of the Isuzu UTE A-League in the books, these are the players who broke onto the scene in 2024-25.
From rising Aussie stars to a New Zealand international reborn at Auckland and an unsung hero finally receiving well-deserved recognition, aleagues.com.au identifies one player from each club who significantly enhanced their reputation through the 2024-25 campaign.
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Newcastle Jets: Eli Adams
Stunning goals, driving runs and an ice-cold celebration to match; Newcastle Jets midfielder Eli Adams had the best season of his career to date in his first term at his new club.
The 23-year-old had played just 23 games in four seasons split across Brisbane Roar and Melbourne Victory prior to joining Newcastle, but regular minutes under head coach Rob Stanton helped Adams fly into form as a Jet.
He made 24 appearances in his first season in Novocastria, and bagged an assist to go with nine goals – many of which were plucked straight from the top drawer.
Adams’ magnificent solo goal against Newcastle Jets won Goal of the Month honours in March; he scored two goals in three separate games throughout the campaign in a blistering start to life at his new club.
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Western Sydney Wanderers: Zac Sapsford
Zac Sapsford is on his way to Scotland after three seasons at Western Sydney Wanderers, having sealed a transfer to Dundee United off the back of his most impressive season to date in Red and Black.
The 22-year-old had two goals to his name heading into season 2024-25 but took his career tally to 11 with a nine-goal haul highlighted by a brace in a 3-3 draw against Sydney FC in February’s Sydney Derby epic.
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A player who simply loves scoring against the Wanderers’ crosstown rivals, three of Sapsford’s nine goals for the season came against the Sky Blues after his first two goals for the club the season prior in two separate Sydney Derbies.
Sapsford added four assists to his nine goals for the season as part of a ruthless Wanderers attack, and won the eToro Playmaker of the Year award for a sublime backheeled pass which set up Jack Clisby to score against the Mariners.
Western United: Dylan Leonard
Western United’s 17-year-old centre-back Dylan Leonard made waves in 2024-25 as the competition’s standout rising defensive star.
Last month, Leonard made history as the youngest ever player to start an Isuzu UTE A-League Semi-Final, after becoming Western United’s youngest ever debutant and goalscorer in the regular season.
During the Finals Series, Western head coach John Aloisi remarked that Leonard “surprises me every day, because he’s just got such composure about him” – and the teenager’s composure has been clear to see throughout his debut campaign in the competition.
Leonard’s 2,421 match minutes accrued through 27 appearances is the most of any teenage centre-back in a single season in the history of the Isuzu UTE A-League. Watch this space.
Auckland FC: Francis De Vries
Debut Isuzu UTE A-League seasons don’t get any better than this.
Francis De Vries arrived at Auckland FC in 2024 from semi-professional New Zealand club side Eastern Suburbs AFC, where he’d been playing on the comeback trail from an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury suffered in Sweden in 2023.
At the time, the New Zealand international was on the outskirts of the All Whites squad. Fast-forward 12 months, and the 30-year-old is back in the international fold and en route to the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup, after New Zealand’s direct qualification through the Oceania Football Confederation.
De Vries earned his shot at an All Whites recall by thriving in the Isuzu UTE A-League; he was key to Auckland’s Premiership triumph and won the Shark Fan Player of the Year award at the end of the season, having supplied eight assists from left-back whilst contributing to the best defence in the competition.
From New Zealand’s National League to the Isuzu UTE A-League and back onto the international stage, the 2024-25 campaign was an unforgettable one for De Vries, whose debut season in the competition will not be forgotten.
Perth Glory: Jaylan Pearman
It took Perth Glory head coach David Zdrilic until Round 12 to eventually hand Jaylan Pearman his Isuzu UTE A-League debut, but once he did, the teenage academy graduate’s special quality was instantly apparent.
Pearman was thrust straight into the starting lineup on debut against Western United and supplied Glory captain Adam Taggart with a sublime assist in the first half of a sparkling first performance in the league.
The then-18-year-old went on to make 12 appearances – all starts – for Zdrilic through the second half of the season. He scored four goals and notched three assists to end the season as the deserving recipient of the club’s DT38 Young Player of the Year award.
Out of contract at Glory following his debut season, Pearman is strongly linked to English club Queens Park Rangers where fellow Glory academy graduate Daniel Bennie already plies his trade.
SEASON REPORT CARDS
PART ONE: Your Isuzu UTE A-League side’s season rated
PART TWO: Your Isuzu UTE A-League side’s season rated
PART THREE: Your Isuzu UTE A-League side’s season rated
Melbourne City: Patrick Beach
Melbourne City travelled to take on Newcastle Jets in the first round of the season, and eyebrows were raised when head coach Aurelio Vidmar released his starting lineup.
Veteran goalkeeper Jamie Young, a Champion with Western United in 2022 and a 228-game Isuzu UTE A-League veteran, was benched for 21-year-old gloveman Patrick Beach.
Twenty-nine games later, Beach is an A-Leagues Champion himself, having played every minute of City’s 2024-25 campaign en route to a 1-0 Grand Final victory over Melbourne Victory in which the rising star kept his 13th clean sheet of the season.
Beach hadn’t played a game in the Isuzu UTE A-League before this season.
Brisbane Roar: Samuel Klein
Brisbane Roar’s disappointing 2024-25 campaign ended on a genuine high note with a four-game unbeaten run featuring three of their five wins for the season, and within that four-game run came the emergence of 21-year-old midfielder Samuel Klein.
A product of the club’s NPL program, Klein signed a two-year scholarship deal with the club in February and proceeded to repay the faith shown in him by the club with five goals from midfield in his last eight appearances of the season, to claim the club’s Golden Boot for 2024-25.
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Central Coast Mariners: Haine Eames
Central Coast Mariners came into the 2024-25 as defending Premiers and Champions, but slid down the table to 10th by the end of the campaign. In a bitterly disappointing season for the club, one glaring positive shone brightly through the gloom.
Haine Eames signed a three-year scholarship contract with the club in June, 2024 and was handed his debut in Round 1, at just 16 years of age. He became the Mariners’ youngest-ever debutant – but he wasn’t done yet.
In December, he became the club’s youngest-ever starter against Macarthur. In the same game, he became the Mariners’ youngest-ever goalscorer, bagging a ripping strike to earn his side a point against the Bulls.
In February, the Mariners played Kawasaki Frontale in the AFC Champions League Elite and, having briefly been handed the armband late in the game, Eames became the club’s youngest-ever player to captain the side in a competitive game.
After that particular milestone in the teenager’s career, Mariners head coach Mark Jackson explained the decision to hand Eames the armband wasn’t a token gesture; it was a genuine reward for a player so highly rated on the Central Coast.
“It wasn’t a gesture from my point of view, it was earned,” Jackson explained
“Haine is not only a good prospect but a player who is performing exceptionally well at the moment and standing out within the team.
“Leadership is not always about who shouts the loudest or talks the most, it’s about leading by example. Haine is a player who does that.”
VISIT THE 2025-26 ISUZU UTE A-LEAGUE TRANSFER CENTRE
Sydney FC: Adrian Segecic
Adrian Segecic had scored just one goal for Sydney FC heading into season 2024-25.
Twenty-four appearances later, Segecic had taken his Sky Blues goal tally to 14 with a 13-goal haul that earned the 21-year-old a share of the league’s Golden Boot award.
Segecic scored the first hat-trick of his career in a 4-1 win over Central Coast Mariners in January, in a brilliant individual season also highlighted by a spectacular brace against Auckland FC in which the young winger bent two almost identical goals into the top left corner past Black Knights keeper Alex Paulsen – the best gloveman in the league.
Rumoured to be attracting interest from European clubs, Segecic burst onto the scene at the Sky Blues in 2024-25 and has earned any interest he receives from abroad.
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Macarthur Bulls: Kealey Adamson
Kealey Adamson made the move from Sydney FC to Macarthur Bulls in late 2023 at a crossroads moment in his young career, that could have led to him dropping back down into the NPL.
But after getting a second chance at the Bulls, the 22-year-old fullback is flourishing under head coach Mile Sterjovski and put together a consistent season as part of Macarthur’s defensive line, making 26 appearances – the equal-most at the club.
Adamson scored the first two goals of his Isuzu UTE A-League career and supplied three assists. His 81 tackles for the season were the third-most of any player in the regular season, with his 52 tackles won the second-most in the league.
The Bulls defender committed to 320 duels (second in the league) and won possession 132 times to sit right at the top in that particular category.
Like Segecic and Glory young gun Pearman, English clubs are circling for the Bulls fullback after the best season of his career to date.
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Adelaide United: Archie Goodwin
When Sydney FC’s Segecic ended the regular season on 13 goals, he became the third-youngest player to ever win the Golden Boot.
But the award was shared this season between two players: Segecic and Archie Goodwin, who, at 20 years and 178 days of age, became the outright youngest player to claim the top scoring gong.
VISIT THE 2025-26 ISUZU UTE A-LEAGUE TRANSFER CENTRE
Goodwin joined Adelaide United from Newcastle Jets ahead of the 2024-25 season and, after an injury-impacted start to his professional career, enjoyed the most consistent run of minutes he’s ever had under former Reds coach Carl Veart.
His 13 goals for the season included a goal on debut and seven goals in his next 10 games as he raced into Golden Boot consideration.
Having shared the Golden Boot with Segecic at the end of the season, Goodwin will look to claim the award outright in 2025-26 – a goal new Reds signing and club legend Craig Goodwin is eager to help him achieve.
SEASON REPORT CARDS
PART ONE: Your Isuzu UTE A-League side’s season rated
PART TWO: Your Isuzu UTE A-League side’s season rated
PART THREE: Your Isuzu UTE A-League side’s season rated
Melbourne Victory: Jordi Valadon
At last, central midfielder Jordi Valadon is receiving his fair share of the plaudits for his work alongside recently-capped Subway Socceroo Ryan Teague in the middle of the park for Melbourne Victory.
Valadon has been central to Victory’s efforts to qualify for the past two Isuzu UTE A-League Grand Finals, having formed a stellar partnership with Teague in Victory’s engine room.
Described as an “unsung hero” of the Victory squad during the 2025 Finals Series, Valadon supplied two assists in a shock 2-0 Semi-Final win over Premiers Auckland FC to bundle the hot favourite Black Knights out of the post-season, as Victory progressed to the title decider against Melbourne City.
It was the standout game of 22-year-old Valadon’s Isuzu UTE A-League career to date; his midfield partner Teague is now a Socceroos regular under former Victory head coach Tony Popovic, and if Valadon continues to develop on his current trajectory there’s no reason why the young midfield combatant can’t insert himself into the international selection debate.
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