The 2015–16 Central Coast Mariners FC season was the club's 11th season since its establishment in 2004. The club participated in the A-League for the 11th time and the

FFA Cup The Australia Cup, formerly known as the FFA Cup until the 2021 season, is the national football knockout cup competition in Australia. This annual competition is organised by Football Australia, formerly known as Football Federation Austral ...

for the 2nd time.

Review

Pre-season

The Mariners entered the 2015–16 season with significant change, following a relatively unsuccessful 2014–15 season. It was announced in April 2015 that

Tony Walmsley Tony Walmsley is an Australian professional football coach who worked as Technical Director and Head Coach for A-League side Central Coast Mariners. Career Tony Walmsley started his coaching career in 1989 when he served as player/coach for R ...

would be given the permanent manager position, having previously filled the role in an interim capacity. Nick Montgomery was named club captain following the retirement of long-serving midfielder John Hutchinson in May 2015. There was also significant early activity in the transfer market, with a number of players released. The most notable of these was striker and club-record goalscorer

Matt Simon Matthew Blake Simon (born 22 January 1986) is a retired Australian international football (soccer) player who played as a striker. Simon attended St Edward's College, East Gosford, where he was influenced to play soccer. Simon started his s ...

. The club's first signing of the season was Irish former

Premier League The Premier League (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Fo ...

striker

Roy O'Donovan Roy Simon O'Donovan (born 10 August 1985) is an Irish-Australian professional footballer who played as a striker for National Premier Leagues NSW side the Sydney Olympic FC. He has been capped by Ireland at Under-19, Under-21 and B level. O'Don ...

. In July, after ten seasons with the club as a player, goalkeeping coach and assistant coach,

John Crawley John Paul Crawley (born 21 September 1971) is a former English first-class cricketer who played at international level for England and county cricket for Hampshire and Lancashire. Crawley, one of three brothers who all played first-class cricke ...

left the club to take up a position at Sydney FC. His position was taken by the retiring Matthew Nash, whose place in the squad was taken in turn by former

Adelaide United Adelaide United Football Club is a professional soccer club based in Adelaide, South Australia, Australia. The club participates in the A-League Men under licence from Australian Professional Leagues (APL). The club was founded in 2003 to fil ...

and Young Socceroos goalkeeper

Paul Izzo Paul David Izzo (born 6 January 1995) is an Australian professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a des ...

. The Mariners won their opening pre-season friendly, a 2–1 victory over

F3 Derby The F3 Derby is an association football rivalry between Central Coast Mariners and Newcastle Jets. It is the longest standing derby in the A-League Men. The rivalry originated due to the team's relative geographical proximity, with the Mariner ...

rivals

Newcastle Jets Newcastle United Jets Football Club, commonly known as Newcastle Jets, is an Australian professional soccer club based in Newcastle, New South Wales. It competes in the country's premier competition, the A-League, under licence from The Australian ...

in a training match. This was followed by a win over

Western Sydney Wanderers Western Sydney Wanderers Football Club (colloquially known as Western Sydney, or simply as Wanderers) is an Australian professional soccer club based in the Western Sydney region of Sydney, New South Wales. It competes in the country's premier ...

two days later, with triallist Dan Heffernan scoring a

hat-trick A hat-trick or hat trick is the achievement of a generally positive feat three times in a match, or another achievement based on the number three. Origin The term first appeared in 1858 in cricket, to describe H. H. Stephenson taking three wic ...

. Central Coast were eliminated in the first round of the

2015 FFA Cup The 2015 FFA Cup was the second season of the FFA Cup, the main national soccer knockout cup competition in Australia. 32 teams began competition in the competition proper (from the round of 32), including all 10 A-League teams, the reigning Nat ...

Wellington Phoenix Wellington Phoenix Football Club is a professional association football club based in Wellington, New Zealand. It competes in the Australian A-League, under licence from Football Federation Australia. Phoenix entered the competition in the ...

, an error from goalkeeper

and a missed penalty from

consigning the team to a 1–0 loss. The club had a pre-season tour to Canberra in mid-August, which saw them pick up wins over

Canberra Olympic Canberra Olympic FC is an Australian semi-professional Association football club based in the suburb of O'Connor in the north of Canberra, Australian Capital Territory. The club was founded in 1956, and currently competes in the National Premi ...

and Gungahlin United.

October

The Mariners started the 2015–16 A-League season with a win over Perth Glory. After

scored the opening goal of the season from a rebound, two second-half penalties scored by Fábio Ferreira gave Central Coast a 3–2 win.

Players

Squad information

Transfers in

Transfers out

Club

Coaching staff

Other information

Statistics

Squad statistics

, - , colspan="19", ''Players no longer at the club:''

Pre-season and friendlies

Competitions

Overall

A-League

League table

Results summary

Results by round

Matches

FFA Cup

References

External links

Official Website
{{DEFAULTSORT:2015-16 Central Coast Mariners FC season

Central Coast Mariners Central Coast Mariners Football Club is an Australian professional association football, soccer club based in Gosford, on the Central Coast (New South Wales), Central Coast of New South Wales. It competes in the A-League, A-League Men, under ...

Central Coast Mariners FC seasons