2025/26 A-League Tips | Round 1

What better way to kick things off than a Friday night at Hindmarsh, with Adelaide hosting Sydney FC.

Last season these two sides battled to the end for sixth spot and Adelaide pipped Sydney by one point.

While there have been some changes in both squads, and in Adelaide’s coaching staff there is no reason to think this match won’t be any different.

There has been no shortage of goals in this fixture over the last few seasons with seven of the last nine games producing four or more goals.

Sydney won the last two head to head meetings but I’m expecting an even, end to end contest that is going to go down to the wire.

The Victory will host the defending premiers in the Saturday night feature match for Round 1 of the A-League and there is a lot to like about this match.

While the Victory might have fallen at the final hurdle last season losing the Grand Final, they are once again expected to compete for silverware this time around.

Head coach Arthur Diles has assembled a talented squad on paper, although Juan Mata might be limited to bench cameos from time to time as they manage his minutes.

Unfortunately their lone competitive preseason hitout was a poor loss to Olympic Kingsway in the Australia Cup, so they may be rusty out of the gates.

Meanwhile, Auckland went on a cup run through August that came to an end at the hands of eventual finalist Heidelberg.

However there was a lot to like about the way they controlled games in the early stage of the season and Steve Corica has another title contender on his hands.

The away side won three of the four meetings last season including both legs of that epic semi final tie, and I’ll happily back Auckland to start the season with all three points.