The 2005–06 season was the first for both the

Central Coast Mariners Central Coast Mariners Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Gosford, on the Central Coast of New South Wales. It competes in the A-League Men, under licence from the Australian Professional Leagues (APL). The Ma ...

and the

A-League A-League Men (known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons) is the highest-level professional men's soccer league in Australia and New Zealand. At the top of the Australian league system, it is the country's premier men's competiti ...

Compared with its Sydney rival, the

had a far more low-key buildup to the inaugural A-League season. The majority of its squad were experienced players from the defunct

National Soccer League The National Soccer League (NSL) was the top-level soccer league in Australia, run by Soccer Australia and later the Australian Soccer Association. The NSL, the A-League's predecessor, spanned 28 seasons from its inception in 1977 until its d ...

. They generally exceeded most expectations, having a very successful season, culminating in two solid displays in the preliminary competitions and reaching the

grand final Primarily in Australian sports, a grand final (sometimes colloquially abbreviated to "grannie") is a game that decides a sports league's premiership (or championship) winning team, i.e. the conclusive game of a finals (or play-off) series. Sy ...

in the

Players

First team squad

''Short term cover'' ''Short term cover'' ''Short term cover'' ''Short term cover'' ''Short term cover''

Matches

2005-06 Pre-season fixtures

Phillips International Soccer Sevens

The Mariners competed in Phillips International soccer sevens tournament played in

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

. Their group featured three of the biggest teams in the world, PSV,

Manchester United Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of City of Salford, Salford to ...

and

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language * Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Fo ...

. The Mariners caused one of the upsets of the tournament by defeating a somewhat understrength Manchester United 2–1.

Club World Cup Qualification Competition

The Mariners were runners-up to

Sydney FC Sydney Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Sydney, New South Wales. It competes in the country's premier men's competition, A-League Men, under licence from Australian Professional Leagues (APL). The club was fo ...

in the

qualifying tournament Qualification is either the process of qualifying for an achievement, or a credential attesting to that achievement, and may refer to: * Professional qualification, attributes developed by obtaining academic degrees or through professional exper ...

held to determine Australia's entry in the

FIFA Club World Cup The FIFA Club World Cup is an international men's association football competition organised by the ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The competition was first contested in 200 ...

, losing in the grand final 1–0.

2005 Pre-Season Cup

''Group B''

2005-06 A-League fixtures

2005-06 Finals series

Ladder

Finals

Statistics

Goal scorers

End of Year Awards

* Mariners Medallist - player of the year, as voted by Club members: **

Michael Beauchamp Michael Francis Beauchamp (born 8 March 1981) is an Australian former professional footballer who played as a central defender. He was a member of the Australian 2006 World Cup and 2010 FIFA World Cup squads. Early life Born in Sydney, New Sout ...

* Chairman's Award - awarded for outstanding service to the club: ** John Hutchinson and Ben Coonan (Mariners' media officer) (shared) * Golden Boot (top goalscorer): **

Stewart Petrie Stewart Petrie (born 27 February 1970) is a Scottish people, Scottish association football, football player and Coach (sport)#Association football, coach, who is currently manager of Scottish League One side Montrose F.C., Montrose. He spent mo ...

* Jesters' Pies Marinators' Goal of the Year: **

Noel Spencer Noel Spencer (born 26 July 1977 in Wollongong, Australia) is a former Australian football (soccer) player who coaches Dapto Dandaloo Fury in the Illawarra Premier League. Club career NSL Noel played for his hometown of Wollongong from 1996 ...

, round 1 vs

Perth Glory Perth Glory Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Perth, Western Australia. It competes in the country's premier men's competition, A-League Men, under licence from Australian Professional Leagues. Founded in 19 ...

* Central Coast Mariners Members Player of the Year Award: ** Andre Gumprecht

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Central Coast Mariners Season 2005-06 2005-06 2005–06 A-League season by team