Check out the full breakdown here

Busiest Pre-season

Last season’s runners-up specialists, Newcastle Jets, clocked up the most games and kilometres in the lead-up to 2018/19, jetting off to Spain (and China for most of the youngsters) as part of a gruelling pre-season schedule.

Coach Ernie Merrick put his men through 13 matches at home and overseas, one more than Adelaide United, Sydney FC and Perth Glory – the WA lads jetting abroad to a training camp in India, a destination also favoured by Melbourne City.

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Apart from the FFA Cup clashes, most games fell well short of drawcards. That wasn’t the case on July 23 at the new Optus Stadium, Perth, where Glory hosted English powerhouse Chelsea, going down 1-0 in front of more than 55,500 fans.

Games don’t define a pre-season, though, which is just as well for reigning champions Melbourne Victory who played five less matches than the Jets. Will they be underdone?

MOST SUCCESSFUL

Reigning Premiers Sydney FC may not be favourites to take silverware this year but were the only club to emerge from pre-season undefeated and set up their third straight FFA Cup final appearance with a showdown against Adelaide United scheduled for the end of the month. It’s a hard road ahead for the Sky Blues with a new coach, squad overhaul and no place to call home. But a good Cup run, plus a chance to pick up four A-League scalps in the league build-up (Central Coast Mariners, Newcastle Jets, Wellington Phoenix and Western Sydney Wanderers) won’t hurt their confidence. Brisbane Roar proved a harder nut to crack and the two teams played out a 1-1 draw on the Gold Coast early in pre-season.

Seven imports who'll star this season

The Reds and Roar survived pre-season with just one loss each, while at the other end it was a meh lead-in for Victory (3 defeats) and Wellington (4 defeats) whose results were the least flattering judged on losses to games played. Both were also bundled out of the FFA Cup against lower league competition – the Nix falling 1-0 to Bentleigh Greens in the Round of 32, and Victory downed 3-2 by APIA Leichhardt Tigers. The Jets came up short in four of their games but played more and also tested themselves against some quality opposition abroad.