2022–23 A-League Men

The 2022–23 A-League Men, known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons, was the 46th season of national level men's soccer in Australia, and the 18th since the establishment of the competition as the A-League in 2004.

The regular season commenced on 7 October 2022. The season featured a mid-season break from 18 November 2022 to 8 December 2022 due to the 2022 FIFA World Cup being held in Qatar.

Melbourne City were the defending premiers and Western United were the defending champions. Melbourne City successfully defended their title, winning their third premiership in a row with two games remaining. Central Coast Mariners won their second championship, defeating Melbourne City 6–1 in the Grand Final.

This season was the first A-League Men season since 2013–14 to record an increase in average attendance compared to the previous season.

Clubs

Stadiums and locations

Twelve clubs are participating in the 2022–23 season.
:'' Note: Table lists in alphabetical order.''

Personnel and kits

Managerial changes

Foreign players

The following do not fill a Visa position:

¹Those players who were born and started their professional career abroad but have since gained Australian citizenship (or New Zealand citizenship, in the case of Wellington Phoenix);

²Australian citizens (or New Zealand citizens, in the case of Wellington Phoenix) who have chosen to represent another national team;

³Injury replacement players, or National team replacement players;

⁴Guest players (eligible to play a maximum of fourteen games)

Regular season

The 2022–23 season sees each team play 26 games, starting on 7 October 2022, and concluding on 30 April 2023, with a mid-season break between 14 November 2022 and 8 December 2022, due to the 2022 FIFA World Cup. This will be followed by a finals series for the top six teams.

League table

Fixtures and results

AFC Champions League qualification

Due to the re-formatting of the AFC Champions League to have an inter-year schedule from September (northern hemisphere autumn-to-spring) instead of an intra-year schedule (northern hemisphere spring-to-autumn), the qualification for the 2023–24 AFC Champions League was changed. The single qualification spot for this competition goes to whichever of the Premiers for the current season or the previous season accrues the most combined points over both seasons. Melbourne City won the Premiership in both the 2021–22 and 2022–23 seasons, thereby automatically qualifying for the Champions League.

Melbourne Derby pitch invasion

During the Melbourne Derby between Melbourne City FC and Melbourne Victory FC on 17 December 2022 at the Melbourne Rectangular Stadium, the match was abandoned in the 22nd minute after several incidents of hooliganism took place both on and off the field. Throughout the match, supporters of both teams both ignited and threw flares.

In the 20th minute, the match was interrupted due to flares being ignited and thrown onto the pitch, two of which had been thrown by Melbourne Victory supporters. Conflict arose when Melbourne City goalkeeper Tom Glover, who was defending the goal in front of the Melbourne Victory supporters end, picked up and threw the flares away from the pitch, the second of which was thrown into the crowd of Victory supporters. This sparked a pitch invasion by between 100 and 200 spectators, who proceeded to attack Glover and match referee Alex King, both of whom sustained minor injuries. The match was abandoned as a result.

On 23 December, Football Australia handed down interim sanctions on both clubs while a full investigation was being conducted. Both teams had their active supporter bays closed, with Melbourne Victory further sanctioned with supporter restrictions: travelling support was banned for away games, while home games were restricted to only valid club members.

The match was resumed on 5 April 2023 from the 21st minute, with the score resuming at 1–0 to Melbourne City. The match ended in a 2-1 win to Melbourne City, with Aiden O'Neill and Nishan Velupillay scoring for the Victory.

Finals series

Format

The finals series was held in mostly the same format as the previous year, run over three weeks, and involving the top six teams from the regular season. In the first week of fixtures, the third-through-sixth ranked teams played a single-elimination match, with the two winners of those matches joining the first and second ranked teams in two-legged semi-final ties. The two winners of those matches met in the Grand Final.

On 12 December 2022, the Australian Professional Leagues announced that the 2023 A-League Men Grand Final would be the first of three successive Grand Finals hosted in Sydney, regardless of which two teams earned the right to play in the final. The move received a large amount of backlash from supporters of all 12 clubs, and was overturned in the following season.

Bracket

Elimination-finals

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Semi-finals

Summary

Matches

''Melbourne City won 5–1 on aggregate.''
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''Central Coast Mariners won 4–1 on aggregate.''

Grand Final

Regular season statistics

Top scorers

Hat-tricks

Clean sheets

Awards

Club awards

Annual awards

The following end of the season awards were announced at the 2022–23 Dolan Warren Awards night that took place at The Star Casino on 1 June 2023.

Team of the season

See also

* 2022–23 A-League Women
* 2022–23 Adelaide United FC season
* 2022–23 Brisbane Roar FC season
* 2022–23 Central Coast Mariners FC season
* 2022–23 Macarthur FC season
* 2022–23 Melbourne City FC season
* 2022–23 Melbourne Victory FC season
* 2022–23 Newcastle Jets FC season
* 2022–23 Perth Glory FC season
* 2022–23 Sydney FC season
* 2022–23 Wellington Phoenix FC season
* 2022–23 Western Sydney Wanderers FC season
* 2022–23 Western United FC season

Notes

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:2022-23 A-League

A-League Men
A-League Men
A-League Men seasons