A-League pre-season wrap: Who's hot, who's not!

FINALLY! A-League season 2018/19 kicks off tonight so which club is firing on all cylinders ahead of Round 1? FTBL breaks down the pre-season results. But is it any indication of how the opening rounds will unfold? We'll know soon enough.

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.

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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.

WHO’S ON FIRE

Wellington’s Roy Krishna could just runaway with the club’s all-time scoring record if he can keep banging them away like this. The striker notched up 10 goals, considerably helped by a couple of hat-tricks. Meanwhile Sydney FC’s new recruit Trent Buhagiar fired in eight and looked on-track for a breakout season before doing his ACL. At the Jets, Jason Hoffman continues his resurgence with 6, the same as the Mariners Matt Simon - who bundled in a hat-trick against Central Coast United in September – and Sydney’s new signing Adam Le Fondre.

💥 Boom, boom, Vidosic! 💥 This goal from @dvidosic10 was the winner this afternoon as we defeated Perth Glory 1-0 at CFA Melbourne. pic.twitter.com/7WUBdtW9Cf
— Melbourne City FC 🏙️ (@MelbourneCity) October 7, 2018

Perth Glory have inflicted a number of crushing losses on lower league opposition allowing the likes of youngster Yacoub Mustafa and veterans Brendon Santalab and Diego Castro to rack up five each.

Sky Blues captain Alex Brosque also tucked away five while Craig Goodwin, Eric Bautheac, Adam Taggart, Dario Vidosic, Bruno Fornaroli, Kenny Athui and Roly Bonevacia each scored four for their respective clubs.

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Pre-season results

Adelaide United: 12 (GAMES) 9 (W), 2 (D), 1 (L)
Brisbane Roar: 9 (GAMES), 5 (W), 3 (D), 1 (L)
Central Coast Mariners: 9 (GAMES), 6 (W), 1 (D), 2 (L)
Melbourne City: 10 (GAMES) 6 (W), 2 (D), 2 (L)
Melbourne Victory: 8 (GAMES) 3 (W), 2 (D), 3 (L)
Newcastle Jets: 13 (GAMES), 7 (W), 2 (D), 4 (L)
Perth Glory: 12 (GAMES), 8 (W), 1 (D), 3 (L)
Sydney FC: 12 (GAMES) 10 (W), 2 (D), 0 (L)
Wellington Phoenix: 10 (GAMES) 6 (W), 0 (D), 4 (L)
Western Sydney Wanderers: 9 (GAMES) 5 (W), 1 (D), 3 (L)

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LAST GAME

So who heads into Round 1 2018/19 winners? Below we list each club’s last game (bold) of the pre-season:

Brisbane Roar 3 – 0 Brisbane Premier League Select XI (Sept 29)

Newcastle Jets 4 – 0 Western Sydney Wanderers (Sept 29)

Melbourne Victory 1 – 3 Wellington Phoenix (Oct 5)

Melbourne City 1 – 0 Perth Glory (Oct 7)

Sydney FC 2 – 0 Central Coast Mariners (Oct 11)

Adelaide United 2 – 1 Melbourne Victory (Oct 12)

Central Coast Mariners 4 – 0 Macarthur South West United (Oct 12)

Melbourne City 4 – 1 Western Sydney Wanderers (Oct 12)

Pre-season casualties

There's plenty of star power on show this weekend with the likes of Keisuke Honda, Adam Le Fondre, Steven Taylor, Ola Toivonen, Mirko Boland and Alex Baumjohann set to make their A-League debuts. Just as influential however is who won't be there. Not everyone player escaped the pre-season unscathed with some big names set to miss the start of the new campaign.

FRIDAY

Adelaide United are at full strength going into tonight’s home clash with Sydney FC which is more than can be said of the Sky Blues who suffered a crushing blow when on-fire speedster Trent Buhagiar did his ACL on season eve. Depth will be tested with the likes of new signing Danny De Silva (hamstring) still a week away from returning and long-time injuries Ben Warland (foot- 8 weeks) and Chris Zuvela (knee-indefinite) on the treatment table.

Buhagiar blow for Sydney

SATURDAY

Melbourne Victory have the luxury of a full squad heading into the derby on Saturday while Melbourne City are missing a host of youngsters to international duty. The big dramas come in the form of injured winger Ben O’Halloran (hamstring), Osama Malik (calf) and Curtis Good (fitness). City will feel confident, however, that they have the talent to cover the losses.

SUNDAY

Newcastle Jets have been hit on the injury front with the omission of rising stars Joe Champness (foot) and Johnny Koutroumbis (illness), who Jets confirmed this week was diagnosed with stage one thyroid cancer. The 20-year-old defender has put his football career on hold to deal with the illness. Not injured, but certainly absent is Roy O’Donovan, who mill miss eight rounds thanks to a suspension earned in last year’s Grand Final. The Jets travel away to Wellington Phoenix who are at full strength.

Merrick still not over the Grand Final

Brisbane Roar will be without World Cup veteran Brett Holman (knee) and Dane Ingham (ankle – three weeks) when they take on a Central Coast Mariners outfit without Andrew Hoole (foot injury), new signing Corey Gameiro (hamstring) and Jonathan Aspro, who is returning from an ACL. No Usain Bolt of course - the sprint legend is still deciding his future.

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Meanwhile, Perth’s Brendon Santalab won’t be there to face off against his old club when Glory host Western Sydney Wanderers in the last game of the round. The former red and black legend is out for one to two weeks with a hamstring injury, along with club captain Diego Castro (hamstring), Chris Harold (illness) and Jacob Italiano (knee). Wanderers are also missing key personnel at both ends of the park. As well as a laundry list of youngsters away on international duty, striker Mark Bridge is on the treatment table (6 weeks) along with German centre back Patrick Ziegler 9 (injury – 2 weeks).