Winner: Lachlan Bayliss
2026 has been a breakout year for Lachlan Bayliss, who earlier this year was rewarded for his five goals and three assists at the Jets with a place in New Zealand's FIFA World Cup squad.
Despite not taking to the pitch in a World Cup game, he's been gaining more and more minutes for the All Whites in friendlies against the likes of Haiti and Palestine before a move across the Tasman to begin his second A-League journey and take his game to the next level.
What a start it was, scoring his second A-League double including an incredible long-range goal to open the scoring for his new club.
Only a professional with a sharp level of intelligence and match awareness would have been able to convert an unexpected moment of possession into what turned out to be a crucial goal.
Loser: Macklin Freke
Bayliss' success came at the expense of new Melbourne City recruit Macklin Freke, who was the worst rated player of Round 1 with a score of just 4.8 out of 10.
Freke conceded three goals despite Auckland's four shots on target creating an expected goals count of just 0.79, meaning he should in all likelihood have prevented at least two of the three goals that went through.
The long-range effort from Bayliss had a low xG count because of its distance and trajectory, which would have been a simple save for Freke had he been standing on his line.
It was a 20th consecutive competitive match without a clean sheet for Freke, who had fallen out of favour with Michael Valkanis at the Roar last season before moving across attempting to fill the enormous void left by Socceroos custodian Patrick Beach.
Winner: Joe Lolley
After more than 100 appearances for Sydney FC, the 34-year-old Englishman moved up the coast to Newcastle Jets for his seventh club stint and second in Australia, having become the 41st player in the A-League's history to record 30 or more career goals.
Despite not yet getting off the mark for the Jets in three appearances across the AFC Champions League and A-League, he was the highest-rated player of the weekend after recording five key passes, two of them creating big chances for the Jets.
Having topped the match count for several impactful stats from accurate passes into the box (6 of 9) to expected assists (0.70), whilst also winning five of seven individual duels, making two interceptions and four recoveries off the ball, the Flashscore player rating algorithm rewarded him handsomely for a solid effort despite not ultimately assisting or scoring either of his side's two goals.
Loser: A dour Sydney derby
A-League fixturing bosses probably thought they were onto a winner when they saw more than 30,000 tickets sold for a Round 1 Sydney derby at Allianz Stadium, but an overwhelming majority of spectators would have went home well and truly unsatiated.
There were only three shots on target from 22 attempts and a combined 1.6 expected goals as both teams played understandably cautiously and at times a bit sloppily, hardly a product worthy of the Sydney derby.
Round 1 derbies have been a debate amongst the community as long as they have existed, and whilst Sydney boss Patrick Kisnorbo wasn't worried about which club he faces week to week, new Wanderers head coach Ufuk Talay admitted he was "not a big fan" of scheduling the league's biggest regular season matches when teams are still dusting off the cobwebs.
"The A-League has a big break anyway," Talay said of the apparent need to kick the season off with a derby.
"I think people will turn up to games round one, round two, round three (anyway) and I think (when scheduling) the derby in round four or round five, there's always a build up to it."
Winner: Sasa Ognenovski
Macarthur finished three points ahead of Perth Glory last season but, despite the departure of leading goalscorer Adam Taggart, there was enough to suggest the Glory had a bit more upside than the Bulls under Adam Griffiths - at least until Macarthur made a couple of shrewd off-season signings.
Picking up Ryan Fraser from Western Sydney for free was an absolute bargain, as was immediately illustrated at the weekend when he delivered an inch-perfect set piece to fellow recruit Apostolos Stamatelopoulos, whilst Japanese newcomer Tatsuki Nara was also solid at the back with five duels won, seven clearances and a game-high seven accurate passes into the final third.
New boss Sasa Ognenovski acknowledged that there's a long way to go with his freshly assembled Bulls squad, with a lot of "work on combinations" and "getting to know each other" to come throughout the first half of the season, but he was evidently proud with the display of the "never say die mentality" that he wants to bring from former employer Preston Lions to Campbelltown.
Despite being outplayed in the opening period of the second half, Macarthur regained control of the ball and managed to not only negate Tom Lawrence's wonderful match opener for the Glory, but convert their possession to two set piece goals through Fraser and Stamatelopoulos.
Loser: Macarthur's finances
Build it and they will come? Not always.
Macarthur FC were one of the three winners on the pitch this weekend, but things off the park continue to look increasingly dire, with only 3,441 spectators filing through into Campbelltown Stadium despite the family friendly timeslot of Saturday 5pm.
The harshest of critics have long said the Bulls are the team that nobody wanted: the non-negotiable demand of then-broadcaster Fox Sports, who desperately wanted a third Sydney club when the Sydney derby was at the peak of its powers
It was squeezed into a rapidly growing part of the city that, despite having promising numbers in terms of player registration at both adult and youth level, was not crying out for A-League representation like Western Sydney was in the pre-Wanderers era.
Back-to-back seasons of recording more losses than wins certainly doesn't help, but even when the Bulls were looking an outside chance for finals under Mile Sterjovski, the crowd numbers were still appalling: their average of under 4,200 at Campbelltown last season was by far the worst in the league - and even worse, not likely sustainable in the long term.
All that Ognenovski can do in the mean time is keep winning.
Winners: Our Team of the Week
Lolley and Bayliss were the stars of our best XI which featured two new Jets - Lolley and striker Pat Wood - as well as former Newcastle midfielder Bayliss himself.
Ryan Fraser played in right midfield this weekend as a replacement for Luke Vickery, but with Lolley our star of the round and Fraser having experience on the left wing for Wanderers last season, it was an easy alteration to make to the side.
Read more about our Round 1 Team of the Week here.
