Perth Glory v Brisbane Roar – Welcome back Taggs!

Round 3: Saturday November 3, 2018 - nib Stadium

A chance for Glory fans to give a 'very warm welcome back' to former Perth striker Adam Taggart. Glory threw the 2013/14 Golden Boot winner a lifeline last season and despite some fitness issues the 25-year-old repaid them by smashing in nine goals from nine league starts. Then-coach, Kenny Lowe, even touted the attacker as a World Cup bolter. So when Brisbane Roar snatched the golden goose at the end of the season it got ugly…fast. Glory owner Tony Sage unloaded both barrels on the striker. "It's not only extremely disappointing when you take a player who is at the crossroads in his career with injury, nurse him through at great expense and finally we get him right and then leaves with no thanks or even the decency to tell us," Sage wrote on Facebook. "He said he would wait till our new coach was appointed… so a liar as well...He would have been our highest paid player but all we got was a two fingered salute.”  Taggs, rather more diplomatically, thanked Glory fans and his former teammates, denying the club was blindsided. Still you don’t walk back that talk easily. Should be a cracker.

Sydney FC v Wellington Phoenix – Big Blue Man faces the Silver Fox

Round 7: Saturday December 8, 2018 - Jubilee Oval

Sydney FC legend and new Wellington Phoenix coach Mark Rudan takes on the Sky Blues. Known affectionately by the harbour-siders as the Big Blue Man, the Sydney FC hall of famer was the club’s inaugural captain, and led them through the dark days of Terry Butcher’s reign. Late in his career he came up against Sydney during a brief stint with Adelaide, but how will the home crowd react to seeing him bump tactics with former teammate, Steve Corica.

As fate would have it Rudan and Corica make their top flight coaching debuts in 2018/19. It’s not the first time Rudan’s legacy and ambition have clashed. In 2014 he urged Western Sydney Wanderers to turn out in numbers for his Sydney United 58’s FFA Cup clash against Sydney. Faced with blow-back from The Cove, Rudan responded: “I have nothing but respect for Sydney FC fans. They know how great they were towards me and how much they meant to me.” Only one thing would make this better - holding it at the old stomping ground, Allianz Stadium, where the two former titans of the Sydney XI once strode. With the stadium undergoing an upgrade Jubilee will have to do.

Central Coast Mariners v Newcastle Jets – Search for Redemption

Round 9: Sunday December 23, 2018 – Central Coast Stadium

To understand this one you have to go back to the last regulation round of 2017/18. It was a blood bath! Jets blew the Mariners out of the water with an 8-2 thrashing that broke all sorts of records. It was the highest scoring game and the biggest away win in A-League history, as Newcastle marched towards the Grand Final. Needless to say it was the Mariners worst flogging and condemned the home side to the wooden spoon where the Jets had been just one year earlier. The game marked the retirement of Mariners stalwart Josh Rose, memorable now for all the wrong reasons. You can’t rewrite the pages of history but the yellow and navy will be hoping to add a positive margin scribble with this one.