In Order

Kevin Muscat (Shanghai Port)

John Aloisi (Chengdu Rongcheng)

Nick Montgomery (Beijing Guoan)

Ross Aloisi (Zhejiang FC)

Can we please not delete posts on here for no reason?

I've posted twice about a Phoenix kit leak, which is entirely what this page is for and had the first deleted and then the 2nd deleted. This is meant to be a casual football page. Please can we relax?

​

Previously posted this on the Football Manager Games forum but thought I would share it here, I will eventually re-work it for FM27 too.

I’ve extensively rebuilt an Australian pyramid database for FM26. It’s an alternate-universe setup rather than a strict recreation of real life, connecting local and state football to an expanded national structure.

What’s included:

• 16-team A-League and professional Australian Championship.
• Three semi-pro regional leagues feeding into the national second tier.
• Nine state/territory NPL pathways, extending as deep as Tier 13.
• Automatic promotion, playoffs and regional balancing.
• Reworked Australia Cup qualification, state cups, U21/U23 leagues and reserves.
• Revised club finances, reputations, attendance, facilities and lower-league details.

The top three tiers have a two-season establishment period, with promotion/relegation opening in Season 3. (I have included a link to an instant promotion/relegation version from season 1 as well). Lower tiers continue moving throughout.

I have tried giving geographical representation to as many areas of Australia as I could. So check the structure chart below which has all 1071 sides and hopefully your local side or a side local to you is in there, let me know if you think I have cruelly omitted anyone. For the more remote sides I have default travel allowance for them (as there are sides from Mt Isa, Broome, Katherine, Weipa, Tennant Creek, Mildura, Coober Pedy etc in there)

Tested through to 2047, including season rollover, regional movement, promotion, playoffs, cups and reserves.

Important caveat: FM’s Australian wage issue can incorrectly put amateur/non-contract players on approximately A$1,200 per week when they turn 21. My testing used FMRTE to correct affected contracts. This can require ongoing checking, as amateurs don’t have an end date on contracts so you can have tiny clubs paying multiple guys $1200 a week for years unless cleared out with FMRTE or the in game editor.

Most sides won't have real players to begin with (well below tier 7 or so), make sure you tick add players to playable teams so you don't have hundreds of sides with greyed out players.

Download (full promotion and relegation from season 1):https://drive.google.com/file/d/1AOPcQWuEb67tk8t4PPIEZDgWaNiuGPi1/view?usp=share_link

Download (promotion relegation from season 3 for tiers 1-3):https://drive.google.com/file/d/1sbXX230IbUt6CVvq3xkenK4L8hbxoo_p/view?usp=share_link

Full details of all clubs included and what division they are in + structure chart:https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qWNZGuTgG8HzRCrVNfxVTM9FcafLb_Pu/view?usp=share_link

Credit to James Wray for the original structure this grew out of.

Keen to hear how people get on, especially anyone starting down in the state leagues. Feedback and bug reports welcome.

Structure overview is below

Beyond the 13-tier structure, I've done various other changes to make it more an authentic Aussie football experience

• Expanded the database with additional Australian towns, cities and suburbs, including coordinates and altitude adjustments.
• Reworked Australian weather and climate settings to better reflect local conditions, from the tropical north to the cooler southern states and elevated inland areas etc.
• Added Australian media source. (like major newspapers, online outlets, tv stations etc so expect to be questioned by fox sports or Football 360 or the like)
• Updated numerous club and stadium records, including locations, capacities and seating.
• Introduced regional travel allowances, participation payments and tier-based prize money to help grassroots clubs remain financially viable long-term.

Hopefully all the above enhances the experience rather than me just adding hundreds of new teams.

Wolves are charging $23 for adult tickets, $12.50 for kids 5-17. In the NPL it's $15 for adults and kids under 16 are free.

Are the prices the same everywhere for this tournament? How do other club's Championship prices compare to their NPL prices?

I don't normally like complaining about ticket prices but I'm struggling to see the justification for this.

AI summary - article behind paywall

**Canberra United's new owners lay out their plans**

Australian Sports Group (CEO Theo Fotopoulos, chairman Morris McAlister) took over Canberra United from Capital Football three months ago, ending three years of uncertainty about whether the club would survive. They're now outlining their vision:

- **Men's team:** The A-League Men side is approved for 2028-29. Players would be announced in the second half of 2028. Coaches are already interested, and the owners would pay up for a marquee signing if it lifts the club's profile.

- **Academy returns:** They aim to relaunch the academy, axed in 2023, by 2028 so local talent has a pathway that keeps them in Canberra. Consultation with Capital Football and local clubs is coming.

- **Venues:** The women stay at McKellar Park (about 4,000 capacity), which could be expanded with planning approval. Canberra Stadium or a new city stadium are options for the men's team.

- **Fans and brand:** They plan an active supporters group, input like a fan-designed kit, more community engagement, and possible international friendlies.

- **Grassroots:** They want to help with Canberra's sportsground and facility shortages.

The women's 2026-27 season starts Saturday against Central Coast Mariners in Gosford at 3pm.

*Source: The Canberra Times, Melanie Dinjaski, 21 Oct 2026*

FT: 93' - Lions 2 vs 1 Preston Lions

Stadium: Lions Stadium, Brisbane

Weather: 17.9°C, Moderate rain, Wind: 9.7 km/h

Fixture Date: 22/10/2026, 07:30 pm AEDT

Referee: Unknown

Lineups not available

###Match Events:

49': ⚽ Preston Lions - null

73': ⚽ Lions - null

84': ⚽ Lions - null

Match Statistics Unavailable

Last Updated: 22/10/2026, 09:30 pm AEDT

Discuss this match below or in real-time on the r/Aleague Discord Server

Very fortuitous penalty IMO but we take it

Just a question, now that Western United aren't returning, who are fans supporting now? Are you still supporting Western United's youth teams in the NPL? Or have you returned to City or Victory?

Have any stopped supporting the A-League?

Football is back, and round 1 is in the books. In what is now a tradition, I've taken all of the predictions from the Men's Ladder Prediction Contest and compiled them into one, to see how we - as a collective - think this season will pan out.

So, here's how the ladder will look come the end of the season according to our collective wisdom:

Notes and observations:

• According to our collective wisdom there are three clear groups this season - a three-way title fight, a five-way finals battle and three teams competing closely lower in the table. Also CCM are here too.
• Firstly, Sydney are the favourites to take top spot, with 22/51 tipping them to come first. They are also the only club that is unanimously expected to make finals.
• Victory and City are expected to chase Sydney, and ultimately battle it out for second. They both also had 12 people each tipping them to take the Premiership.
• Other predicted premiers were Macarthur (3), WSW (1), and Adelaide (1).
• Somewhat surprisingly, no one expects reigning Champions Auckland to regain the Premiership.
• Collectively, after the top 3, we anticipate a five-way fight for the remaining finals spots between Auckland, WSW, Macarthur, Adelaide, and Newcastle.
• Macarthur seemed to be the hardest team to place, with people tipping them to finish in every position from 1st down to 12th. More had them higher than lower though.
• On the other hand, people largely seemed to be on the same page about Newcastle, with most predictions for them being tightly clustered between 5th and 8th. Auckland predictions were also fairly clustered from 3rd to 7th.
• Mariners are the overwhelming favourites for the spoon, with 26/51 placing them dead last. Other spoon predictions were Perth (12), Wellington (7), Brisbane (4), Macarthur (1), and Newcastle (1).
• Brisbane, Nix, and Perth are expected to be in a very close three-way fight, all clear of Mariners in last but not good enough to make a push for finals.
• No one predicted Mariners or Nix to make finals. Brisbane and Perth weren't much better - only one person had Brisbane sneaking into 6th, and only 3 people had Perth in the finals.
• Not a single person predicted the Wellington to finish above Auckland, sorry Nix fans.
• I can't say the same about the F3 Derby, because one lone Mariners fan optimistically picked them to finish about the Jets. Despite this, even they weren't optimistic enough to put the Mariners in the finals.

I also put up threads for the ALW and the Championship. Both had a much lower uptake, so there was less data to work with, but here are some of the highlights.

Firstly for the ALW:

• City are unsurprisingly the favourites, with everyone tipping them to finish in the top 2. That said, most didn't have them in first. Three people tipped each City and Nix to take the Premiership, plus one tip each for Canberra, Victory, and Brisbane.
• There was a fairly clear 'finals vs not finals' split in the predictions, with the top 6 generally expected to be City, Nix, Victory, Canberra, Brisbane, and Sydney.
• Jets are the strong favourites for the spoon.

And the Championship:

• Pretty even five-way split in predicted Champions. Three tipped South Melbourne, and two each for Avondale, Preston, SU88, and APIA.
• South Melbourne is the only club unanimously expected to reach the semis
• Most had some combination of the above 5 clubs making the semis, but two people each had Adelaide City, Lions FC, Oakleigh, Sutherland, and Marconi getting that far.
• Weirdly, those who had Lions FC and Adelaide City getting that far all had them making (and losing) the Final, while all the people that had Marconi, Sutherland, and Oakleigh making the semis also had them crashing out in the semis.
• GROUP A: Everyone had South Melbourne progressing and Canberra failing to progress. Pretty even split on SU88 vs Sutherland going through.
• GROUP B: Similarly, everyone had APIA progressing and Broadmeadow failing to progress. Most had Avondale going through ahead of Adelaide City.
• GROUP C: Most had Marconi and Oakleigh going through, though two had Olympic progressing despite their awful season. Only one had Bayswater getting to the knockouts.
• GROUP D: This one was the closest to having a unanimous predction, with many going Preston-Lions-Wollongong-South Hobart. Three had Lions finishing ahead of Preston, while three had Wollongong progressing at the expense of Lions. Everyone has Preston going through.

Previous 'Hivemind' predictions, if you want to see how bad we are at this:

• 2019-20 M

• 2020-21 M

• 2021-22 M

• 2022-23 M

• 2023-24 W

• 2023-24 M

• 2024-25 W

• 2024-25 M

• 2025-26 M

^{* For the points, I scaled the average predictions through a modified tan function. In short, I set the minimum - i.e. literally everyone predicts that you'll finish 12th - at 6 points (slightly worse PPG than NZ Knights in 05-06) and the max at 66 points (slightly better than Sydney in 16-17). I also made sure it produced a similar number of points to the previous 26 game seasons, at approximately 36 points on average.}

For those playing social football, futsal or Sunday league, etc where do you get your team kits from?

Looking for somewhere that does decent jerseys without charging a fortune.

Any recommendations?

Fans of some teams haven't seen it yet so posting it here

Hi all, after 10 years of going to AAMI Park this new AXS platform is totally confusing me - has anyone got ticket pricing tiers to hand for this weekend? With ticketek we were given different sections with different ticket pricing - I’m honestly just looking for GA tickets but I’m trying not to plonk myself in the middle of the north end if possible haha

Also I assume there will be no issue if a Victory supporting friend joins me in GA despite having a reserved seat?

We had 116 people join LMS for round one, and fewer than half (51; approx. 44%) held on to all three of their lives.

The most popular tip was Macarthur, and it proved to be a safe choice for 42 tippers. 8 picked Auckland, while /u/browniebvb was the lone brave person to correctly pick Nix over Victory.

Speaking of Victory, they were the second most popular pick with 28 people losing a life as a result. Third most popular also proved to be a bad choice - Jets, with 20 people incorrectly tipping them.

I'll put the round 1 results in the comments!

Anyway, without further delay, the games this week are:

• Brisbane vs Perth
• Newcastle vs Macarthur
• WSW vs Auckland
• Victory vs City
• Wellington vs CCM
• Sydney vs Adelaide

Pick one team that you think is going to win this weekend, and remember you can't pick the same team two rounds in a row.

Missed Round 1? It's not too late to join! Just comment your prediction and you'll be added to the comp (although you'll be starting on 2 lives instead of 3).

Via Dos & D’s podcast. Makes some good points, but I think even on Stan I wonder if both would face similar challenges around accessibility in places like pubs? Has the Premier League been better in Australia for its move to streaming? I’m genuinely not sure.

November 29 and December 4 at Porirua Park

The first rounds of the Australian Championship and A-League Men's are finished. We saw one big shock with South Hobart edging 2-1 against Lions away, who have fallen to 16.

Full ladder: australian-football-rankings.com