The 2015–16

Central Coast Mariners FC Central Coast Mariners Football Club is an Australian professional 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 Professional sports lea ...

season was the club's 11th season since its establishment in 2004. The club participated in the

A-League A-League Men, also known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional soccer league in Australia and New Zealand and the highest level of the Australian soccer league system. Established in 2004 as the A-League by the ...

for the 11th time and the

FFA Cup The Australia Cup (currently known as the Hahn Australia Cup for sponsorship reasons) is the national soccer knockout cup competition in Australia. This annual competition is organised by Football Australia (known as Football Federation Austra ...

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 would be given the permanent manager position, having previously filled the role in an interim capacity.

Nick Montgomery Nicholas Anthony Montgomery (born 28 October 1981) is a football coach and a former player. He is was recently an assistant coach at English Premier League club Tottenham Hotspur. A defensive midfielder, Montgomery spent the majority of his car ...

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 se ...

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

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

striker

Roy O'Donovan Roy Simon O'Donovan (born 10 August 1985) is an Irish professional Association football, footballer who plays as a striker for National Premier Leagues Northern NSW side Newcastle Olympic FC. He has been capped by Ireland at Under-19, Under-21 a ...

. 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 cric ...

left the club to take up a position at

Sydney FC Sydney Football Club, commonly known as Sydney FC, is a professional association football, soccer club based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. They compete in the top-tier men's league in Australia, the A-League Men. Established in 2004, ...

. His position was taken by the retiring

Matthew Nash Matthew Ian Nash (born 3 April 1981) is a former Australian goalkeeper and current goalkeeping coach for Sydney FC in the A-League. Club career Nash played for Port Kembla FC in the Illawarra League, before moving to NSW Premier League side API ...

, whose place in the squad was taken in turn by former

Adelaide United Adelaide United Football Club is a professional men's soccer club located in Adelaide, South Australia, Australia. The club was one of the eight founding members of the A-League Men and have competed in it concurrently since its formation, u ...

and

Young Socceroos The Australia national under-20 soccer team, known colloquially as the Young Socceroos, represents Australia in international under-20 Association football, soccer. The team is controlled by the governing body for soccer in Australia, Football ...

goalkeeper

Paul Izzo Paul David Izzo (; born 6 January 1995) is an Australian professional soccer player who plays as a goalkeeper for Danish Superliga side Randers. Izzo graduated from Rostrevor College in 2012. Izzo played youth football at the Australian Institu ...

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

F3 Derby The F3 Derby is a soccer 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 Mariners located on the ...

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 Australi ...

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

Western Sydney Wanderers Western Sydney Wanderers Football Club (colloquially known as Western Sydney, Wanderers, or simply as WSW) is an Australian professional association football club based in the Western Sydney region of Sydney, New South Wales. It competes in t ...

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 Wick ...

. 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 football club based in Wellington, New Zealand. It competes in the Australian A-League Men, under licence from Football Federation Australia. Phoenix entered the competition in the 2007–08 ...

, 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 soccer 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 Premier Leagues Capi ...

and Gungahlin United.

October

The Mariners started the

2015–16 A-League The 2015–16 A-League was the 39th season of top-flight soccer in Australia, and the 11th since the establishment of the A-League in 2004. Melbourne Victory FC, Melbourne Victory were both the defending A-League Premiers and Champions. The regu ...

season with a win over

Perth Glory Perth Glory Football Club is an Australian professional Association football, soccer club based in Perth, Perth, Western Australia. It competes in the country's premier men's competition, A-League Men, under Professional sports league organi ...

. 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 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 Mar ...

Central Coast Mariners FC seasons