The Roar's A-League expert tips and predictions: Round 1

Welcome to another year of A-League expert tips and predictions. This is your chance to battle it out with our writers in the race for tipping glory.

Historically, the Roar of the Crowd performs well and with the league looking as tight as it has for some time, the voice of the people will need to be in fine form.

Snatching the title back from the experts and gurus will be tough with Mike Tuckerman, Paul Nicholls, Evan Morgan Grahame and yours truly crunching the numbers for Round 1 as we speak.

Will Sydney FC pick up where they left off and charge to their third Premier’s Plate on the trot? Perhaps Brisbane Roar can recapture the glory days and surge back into contention for another title, or will the Victory stun everyone with back-to-back championships?

Can the Jets take that illusive extra step to glory? What of Adelaide, Melbourne City and Perth; all looking to improve and secure semi-final action once again? What fate awaits the Wanderers, Phoenix and Mariners, all looking to return to the top six?

It stacks up as a tremendous and somewhat unpredictable season. The opening round will undoubtedly throw up a few surprises and with little form on which to gauge some teams, luck might play something of a role.

Here is the way the panel sees things panning out and be sure to place your tips into the sheet below and have a say as the voice of the crowd.

Melbourne Victory coach Kevin Muscat. (Photo by Darrian Traynor/Getty Images)

Mike Tuckerman
Sydney, draw, draw, Brisbane, Perth

The A-League is back, and so is my terrible tipping. Adelaide fans seem to get annoyed that I fail to tip them on a weekly basis, but where are the goals going to come from for the Reds? I don’t think Sydney FC are sure things this season, but they should take all three points at Coopers Stadium.

Victory and City will try to scratch each other’s eyes out in a predictably spiteful Melbourne derby. Both have plenty of match-winners in their midst, as Bruno Fornaroli goes head to head with Keisuke Honda for the first time. I’m tipping a draw, although not with any real confidence.

Bruno Fornaroli of Melbourne City. (Photo by Kelly Defina/Getty Images)

I’ve got no idea how Wellington Phoenix or Newcastle Jets will fare this season. The Phoenix look marginally better than last season, while the Jets look considerably worse. Draw?

Brisbane Roar will beat the Central Coast Mariners at Suncorp Stadium, but that’s not to say the Mariners won’t be the surprise package of the season. If Ross McCormack doesn’t arrive in the same shape as Saint Nick, they might even challenge for a top six spot this season.

Perth Glory will look to get off to a flyer against a Wanderers side who suffered a setback in the FFA Cup, but while they’ve strengthened their defence, do they lack a reliable goal scorer? They could sneak the win against a Wanderers side that will regret the departure of Kearyn Baccus.

Champions: Sydney FC

Premier’s Plate: Melbourne City

Golden Boot: Bruno Fornaroli

Wooden Spoon: Newcastle Jets

Stuart Thomas
Adelaide, City, Wellington, Brisbane, Perth

The Reds look like real improvers this season off the back of some positive signs under the leadership of Marco Kurz in 2017-18. Sydney will be thereabouts in the long term but might struggle early with combinations and Adelaide should start the season with a confidence boosting victory at home.

The Melbourne derbies will have added spice thanks to a City team well and truly ready to challenge for the title. This will be more than evident at AAMI Park in Round 1 as Warren Joyce’s men do a job on the champions.

Coach Warren Joyce has installed a defence-first mindset at Melbourne City. (AAP Image/Joe Castro)

Wellington will make a glorious start to their time with Mark Rudan at the helm, claiming a 1-0 victory over the Jets and Brisbane will start what looks to be a promising and profitable year with a convincing win against the Mariners.

The final game of the round will see Perth, under the guidance of Tony Popovic, pick up three points against Western Sydney. The Wanderers have looked far from polished in pre-season action and the Glory will be ready to fire at home to open the season in style.

Champions: Melbourne City

Premier’s Plate: Melbourne Victory

Golden Boot: Bruno Fornaroli

Wooden Spoon: Western Sydney Wanderers

Paul Nicholls
draw, Victory, draw, Brisbane, Perth

Without meaning to sound Sydney-centric, the talk around Adelaide is all about Sydney FC. New coach Steve Corica has a job to do now that Trent Buhagiar has done his ACL. Can the new imports fill the gap left by Bobo and Adrian Mierzejewski? OK, I guess this is Sydney-centric. Draw.

Bruce Springsteen’s Pink Cadillac has the lyric, “it’s better than a Honda, it’s better than a Subaru.” Wrong, Bruce. Nothing is better than Keisuke Honda. He’ll perform burnouts all over AAMI Park. Victory in a canter.

Keisuke Honda is now a Melbourne Victory player – and what a player he is. (Photo by Kaz Photography/Getty Images)

Mark Rudan makes his A-League coaching debut for the Wellington Phoenix against the Newcastle Jets. Remember all those complicated technical diagrams he used to draw on the A-League highlights show? I’d like his help with the instructions to my Swedish flat pack wardrobe I got last Christmas. Should be a draw.

An Adam Taggart-inspired Brisbane Roar should defeat a Central Coast Mariners outfit with minds more on the athletics track than the football pitch.

The FFA Cup derby debacle shows that Wanderers coach Markus Babbel has much work to do. Perth Glory are making plenty of noise this year (like every other year) but good times are around the corner. Poppa’s precocious Perth boys to rout Babbel’s rabble.

Champions: Melbourne City

Premier’s Plate: Melbourne Victory

Golden Boot: Adam Taggart

Wooden Spoon: Central Coast

Evan Morgan Grahame
Sydney, Victory, Newcastle, Brisbane, draw

Stung badly by the injury to Trent Buhagiar, Sydney will grit their teeth and start their campaign off on the right track. Adelaide’s new signings, Craig Goodwin and Ben Halloran will hit the ground quite literally running, but Sydney will be too strong.

Keisuke Honda’s grand debut will be a win, in a ding-dong Melbourne derby. Victory’s recruitment has been excellent, and the wave of anticipation bottled up over these last few friendly-less weeks of pre-season will crash down on City. Who, by the way, look short a striker, and will be in trouble if Bruno Fornaroli goes down.

Mark Rudan’s Phoenix will need some time to spread their wings – a metaphor that’s come right out of the packet already stale – although their late-window signings have been encouraging. Newcastle’s retention of Dimi Petratos and Steven Ugarkovic was vital to their chances, and expect Ronald Vargas to come bursting out of the blocks this season.

Mark Rudan. (Source: Wikipedia)

John Aloisi’s Roar have been scarcely looked at this off-season: Adam Taggart and Stefan Mauk were secured early, back on July 1, and the fact they were the dictionary definition of mediocre last season helped fade them from the consciousness. But they have improved their squad markedly, and will be too much for Central Coast, unless of course Usain Bolt starts, in which case he’ll score a double hat-trick in a 7-0 win for the Mariners.

Usain Bolt of the Mariners (Photo by Matt King/Getty Images)

Ah, the Popovic Derby. As tasty as that narrative is, this will be a rather bland draw. Marcus Babbel’s bold coaching technique of publicly calling one of his starting attackers ‘sloppy’ who ‘can’t play a key pass’ is certainly an unusual sub-plot. But these two teams have too many new first-teamers, and will get off to a slow start against one another.

Premier’s Plate: Sydney

Champions: Sydney

Golden Boot: Ola Toivonen

Wooden Spoon: Central Coast