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Sydney FC fan and North Queensland Fury Sympathiser
Minor Premiership: Adelaide United
Grand Final and Winner: Central Coast Mariners vs Sydney FC. CCM winning 3-2
Wooden Spoon: Gold Coast United
Golden Boot: Bruno Cazarine (14 goals)
Player of the Year: Brett Emerton for 10 assists
One to Watch: Bernie Ibini-Isei
Headline we will see: "We've got plenty of cover" says Durakovic as Kewell is sidelined for 3 months through injury.
Headline we won't see: "Gol Gol Goes Goal Mad"
Contributor
Melbourne Heart fan (yep, they exist)
Minor Premiership: Adelaide United
Grand Final and Winner: Sydney FC vs Brisbane - Brisbane Roar back to back
Wooden Spoon: Gold Coast United
Golden Boot: Sergio Van Dijk
Player of the Year: Liam Miller
One to Watch: Jack Hingert or Mate Dugandzic
Headline we will see: Kewell ruled out for season due to injury
Headline we won’t see: Kewell PASSES fitness test
Contributor
Token Irishmen, Neil is 15.7% owner of ‘The Shed’ at nib Stadium
Minor Premiership: Melbourne Victory
Grand Final and Winner: Melbourne Victory v Sydney FC in the Kewell v Emerton money spinner. Victory to win and erect a statue of Harry outside AAMI Park.
Wooden Spoon: Gold Coast United
Golden Boot: Sergio van Dijk
Player of the Year: Liam Miller
One to Watch: Liam Miller
Headline we will see: Kewell and the Gang
Headline we won’t see: Players, fans call for extended off season
Matt Greenlaw
Editor
Made up the whole 'We Are Football' campaign himself over beers with Johnny Warren in the early 70's.
Minor Premiership: Newcastle Jets. Dark horses quietly going about their business could really cause some problems for teams failing to lift to a competitive standard.
Grand Final and Winner: Central Coast Mariners. Will stick with Michal Roucek on this one. It is their time.
Wooden Spoon: Gold Coast United. They seem to have taken the mickey in terms of recruitment - their faith in youth will not pay off.
Golden Boot: Smeltz. He's an unstoppable force. Even if he got sidelined through injury he'd best scoring in the grandstand with a female fan. 15 goals.
Player of the Year: Emerton; 'nuff said.
One to Watch: Fred. If he can make an impact and give Heart more creativity then he's definitely one to keep a close eye on. Look for him in the derby match with Victory to see how he faces off with his old team.
Headline we will see: "Too many cooks spoil Victory frontline" after Kewell passes to Allsopp who passes to Thompson who runs it out for a throw-in.
Headline we won’t see: "Juliard School of Music accepts Pascal Bosschaart for singing scholarship"
Headline we won’t see: Players, fans call for extended off season
Editor
Made up the whole 'We Are Football' campaign himself over beers with Johnny Warren in the early 70's.
Minor Premiership: Newcastle Jets. Dark horses quietly going about their business could really cause some problems for teams failing to lift to a competitive standard.
Grand Final and Winner: Central Coast Mariners. Will stick with Michal Roucek on this one. It is their time.
Wooden Spoon: Gold Coast United. They seem to have taken the mickey in terms of recruitment - their faith in youth will not pay off.
Golden Boot: Smeltz. He's an unstoppable force. Even if he got sidelined through injury he'd best scoring in the grandstand with a female fan. 15 goals.
Player of the Year: Emerton; 'nuff said.
One to Watch: Fred. If he can make an impact and give Heart more creativity then he's definitely one to keep a close eye on. Look for him in the derby match with Victory to see how he faces off with his old team.
Headline we will see: "Too many cooks spoil Victory frontline" after Kewell passes to Allsopp who passes to Thompson who runs it out for a throw-in.
Headline we won’t see: "Juliard School of Music accepts Pascal Bosschaart for singing scholarship"
Nicholas Houghton
Contributor
The architect behind Branko's 11th Hour sacking.
Minor Premiership: Brisbane Roar. Last year’s premiers will bounce back from the past off seasons exodus of players, Ange has a system built for success but it won’t be as easy
Grand Final and Winner: Newcastle Jets. I'm a little bit biased but even with the loss of Jason Culina to a knee injury the Jets will turn AusGrid stadium a fortress and prove to Nathan Tinkler that it was money well spent
Wooden Spoon: Gold Coast United. What happened to Clive Palmer's promise of bringing in the best talent so his side would always threaten signing youth players and unknowns may prove to be a masterstroke, but I’m not convinced.
Golden Boot: Bruno Cazarine / Juho Mäkelä. I can’t split these two because the addition of Brett Emerton on top of a fired up Karol Kisel and Nicky Carle means goal assists a plenty in Sydney....
Player of the Year: Brett Emerton. The best player in the A-League by far. has all the ability and comes without the constant media pressure of Harry Kewell.
One to Watch: Tiago Calvano. Hand picked by Ljubo Millicevic to be his replacement in Newcastle this skillful Brazilian centre back will be key to Newcastle's style of play.
Headline we will see: "Emerton too Kewell as Sydney see off Melbourne"
Headline we won’t see: "Ljubo's Back!"
Contributor
Designer of Melbourne Victory’s new away kit
Minor Premiership: Melbourne Victory (75 points – 2 losses in Perth)
Grand Final and Winner: Melbourne Victory vs Central Coast Mariners. One of these two team knows how to win Grand Finals and one of them doesn’t
Wooden Spoon: Gold Coast United (6 points – 2 wins in Perth)
Golden Boot: Archie Thompson, He Hates when the spotlight isn’t on him and will win it out of spite
Player of the Year: Carlos Hernandez, It’s a well known fact that vertical adidas stripes make you look thinner.
One to Watch: Jason Hoffman was my early pick but now Heart have signed Fred to provide ‘The Hoff’ with balls on a platter he will score an Earth Mover full of goals and make his full Socceroos debut before the end of the season
Headline we will see: Home is where the HEART is. On Vince Grella’s return to Melbourne in the January transfer window
Headline we won’t see: Palm trees removed as Mariners look to finish off stadium
Isn't sure whether West Ham would cut it in the A League
Minor Premiership: Melbourne (didn't specify which one)
Grand Final and Winner: Perth vs Brisbane with Perth winning 2-1
Wooden Spoon: Wellington Phoenix
Golden Boot: Shane Smeltz
Player of the Year: Thomas Broich
One to Watch: James Meyer (Bris)
Headline we will see: "Lavicka under pressure"
Headline we won't see: Anything to do with the Culina family
Sarah O'Donovan
ContributorSpends way less time on her hair than Nick Carle
Minor Premiership: Sydney FC. They need to redeem themselves after a shocking season last year. With Emerton in the mids they can win the minor prem.
Grand Final and Winner: Melbourne Heart V Mariners. Mariners win 3-1.
Wooden Spoon: Wellington Phoenix
Golden Boot: A consistent season from either last year's winner Sergio van Dijk (Adelaide United) or Bruno Cazarine (Sydney FC).
Player of the Year: Michael Beauchamp , Sydney FC
One to Watch: Dani Sanchez, Wellington Phoenix. The 26 year old Spaniard who plays striker/midfielder proved he's worth a one year contract in a preseason game against Miramar Rangers in July this year. How he performs in the A-League this season will be crucial in defining what happens next in his career.
Headline we will see: Kewell keeps the bench warm for Melbourne Victory team mates.
Headline we won't see: Kewell plays for full 90 minutes.
Wooden Spoon: Wellington Phoenix
Golden Boot: A consistent season from either last year's winner Sergio van Dijk (Adelaide United) or Bruno Cazarine (Sydney FC).
Player of the Year: Michael Beauchamp , Sydney FC
One to Watch: Dani Sanchez, Wellington Phoenix. The 26 year old Spaniard who plays striker/midfielder proved he's worth a one year contract in a preseason game against Miramar Rangers in July this year. How he performs in the A-League this season will be crucial in defining what happens next in his career.
Headline we will see: Kewell keeps the bench warm for Melbourne Victory team mates.
Headline we won't see: Kewell plays for full 90 minutes.
Sam McInerney
ContributorOnly bloke in Adelaide that doesn't think it's a Pissant town
Minor Premiership: Adelaide United
Grand Final and Winner: Adelaide Vs Melbourne, Adelaide win (but not 6-0)
Wooden Spoon: Newcastle Jets
Golden Boot: Jean Carlos Solorzano
Player of the Year: Harry Kewell
One to Watch: Andy Slory
Headline we will see: "Injury forces Kewell out of clash"
Headline we won't see: "Romario makes triumphant A-League return"
Tyson Scott
ContributorWill inherit the Hunter Sports Group from his brother Nathan Tinkler
Minor Premiers: Melbourne Victory, such a good club year after year and with the introducion of Kewell (needless to say) the will be one of the most consistent performers of the season.
Grand Final and Winner: Melbourne Victory Vs Central Coast Mariners with CCM going up 2-1 in extra time. I think the 11/12 season surely has to see the Coasties take home some silverware with Amini to razzle the league.
Wooden Spooners: Gold Coast United, I'm jumping on the bandwagon and still trying to understand what they have done this off season?
Golden Boot: Matt Simon, dark horse but hopefully this season will see Simon score a few goals from distance to add to his consistent run of short range finishes
One to Watch: Bernie Ibini-Isei, a few cameos last year and a great performance in the dying stages of last season’s grand final. Hopefully with enough game time will be a big player.
Headline we will see: Mariners wait is finally over!
Headline we won’t see: Adam Kwasnik scores from distance to complete hat trick
Chief of Staff
A Roar fan in Melbourne who took this article far too seriously
Minor Premiership: To capitalise on Harry Kewell’s profile in the A-League, despite finishing seven points behind both Brisbane Roar and Perth Glory, the FFA docks eight points off those two sides for ‘administrative problems’, handing the silverware to Melbourne Victory. They then suspend Victory captain Adrian Leijer for diving in order for Kewell to be able to play the final match of the season as skipper so he gets to hoist the trophy at the conclusion of the match.
Grand Final and Winner: Following Euro-snob riots based on the ludicracy of a final’s system in football (“how DARE they mess with traditional football sacrosanct!”), the FFA, in a very uncharacteristic move, make a panic snap decision to scrap all finals matches on the eve of the Major Semi Final, leaving disgruntled punters who have already pre-purchased tickets with nothing to watch. As replacement, Frank Lowry calls in a favour from a friend, organising Barbra Streisand concerts at all venues that were booked to have finals matches.
Wooden Spoon: After a ten way tie for both the Premiership and the Wooden Spoon, with all teams equal on competition points and goal difference, a decision is made to avoid the mucking about of tossing coins and to initiate cost cutting measures. Seeing as North Queensland Fury’s name is still on the latest Wooden Spoon, the FFA decides that they will just re-award this season’s Wooden Spoon to the team in green.
Golden Boot:Rodrigo Vargas. Being Melbourne Victory's all-time leading [own] goal scorer, Vargas decides to up his statistics, having the season of his life and scoring more goals against his side than any opposition striker ever has.
Player of the Year: Dario Vidošić. After listening religiously to The Friday Show for over a year, Dario was horrified to hear Jack Quigley’s prediction of Vidošić as Flop of the Year. This motivated him enough to not only score 50 of Adelaide 61 goals this season but to also contribute 17 assists!
One to Watch: Alex Smith. With plenty to prove after being dropped by Gold Coast United a mere matter of weeks before the season was about to kick-off, Smith spends the rest of the season creeping around the training grounds and stadiums of A-League clubs trying to tell anyone who will listen about how good he is. Definitely one to watch out for, and more importantly, avoid, in fear of being stuck in an endless conversation of self love.
Headline we will see: Jack Quigley hospitalised after belly flopping into a wading pool of custard following Dario Vidošić’s Johnny Warren Medal win. (listen to The Friday Show to understand ~ http://www.thefootballsack.com/p/podcast.html)
Headline we won’t see: Mitch Nichols win’s the Player of the Month award after stringing together three consecutive matches of reasonable football.