# 2021–22 Melbourne Victory FC season

The 2021–22 season was the 17th in the history of Melbourne Victory Football Club. This was Melbourne Victory's 17th season in the A-League Men. In addition to the domestic league, Melbourne Victory also participated in the FFA Cup.
The season was documented in the Network Ten, Paramount+ and Amazon Prime Video series Dream Big.

## Review
### Background

Melbourne Victory's 2020–21 campaign had seen their first ever last-place finish in a league season, after they finished 12th forcing the club to play an FFA Cup Round of 32 play-off against ninth-placed Perth Glory. Before their 2021–22 season, Melbourne Victory announced on 19 April 2021 that Tony Popovic would be managing the club for three years.

## Players
### First team squad

    As of 4 January 2022
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.
| No. | Pos. | Nation | Player |
| 1 | GK | AUS | Matt Acton |
| 2 | DF | AUS | Jason Geria |
| 3 | DF | AUS | Jason Davidson |
| 4 | MF | ESP | Rai Marchán |
| 5 | DF | AUS | Matthew Spiranovic |
| 6 | MF | AUS | Leigh Broxham (vice-captain) |
| 7 | MF | AUS | Chris Ikonomidis |
| 8 | MF | AUS | Joshua Brillante (captain) |
| 9 | FW | ITA | Francesco Margiotta |
| 10 | FW | AUS | Robbie Kruse |
| 11 | FW | AUS | Ben Folami |
| 13 | MF | AUS | Birkan Kirdar (scholarship) |
| 14 | MF | AUS | Jay Barnett |
| No. | Pos. | Nation | Player |
| 15 | DF | AUS | Aaron Anderson (scholarship) |
| 16 | DF | AUS | Stefan Nigro |
| 17 | DF | AUS | Brendan Hamill |
| 18 | FW | AUS | Nicholas D'Agostino |
| 19 | MF | AUS | Luka Prso |
| 20 | GK | CRO | Ivan Kelava |
| 21 | DF | POR | Roderick Miranda (vice-captain) |
| 22 | MF | AUS | Jake Brimmer |
| 23 | FW | NZL | Marco Rojas |
| 24 | FW | AUS | Nishan Velupillay (scholarship) |
| 26 | MF | AUS | Lleyton Brooks (scholarship) |
| 34 | FW | AUS | Gianluca Iannucci |
| 35 | DF | AUS | Zaydan Bello (scholarship) |

## Transfers
### Transfers in

| No. | Position | Player | Transferred from | Type/fee | Contract length | Date |
| 2 | DF | Jason Geria | Unattached | Free transfer | 1 year | 14 July 2021 |
| 8 | MF | Joshua Brillante | Xanthi | Free transfer | 3 years | 15 July 2021 |
| 3 | DF | Jason Davidson | Unattached | Free transfer | 1 year | 16 July 2021 |
| 16 | DF | Stefan Nigro | Central Coast Mariners | Free transfer | 3 years | 19 July 2021 |
| 5 | DF | Matthew Spiranovic | Unattached | Free transfer | 1 year | 20 July 2021 |
| 7 | MF | Chris Ikonomidis | Perth Glory | Free transfer | 3 years | 21 July 2021 |
| 17 | DF | Brendan Hamill | Western United | Free transfer | 2 years | 26 July 2021 |
| 4 | MF | Rai Marchán | Andorra | Free transfer | 1 year | 27 July 2021 |
| 20 | GK | Ivan Kelava | Xanthi | Free transfer | 1 year | 30 July 2021 |
| 18 | FW | Nicholas D'Agostino | Unattached | Free transfer | 3 years | 14 August 2021 |
| 21 | DF | Roderick Miranda | Unattached | Free transfer | 2 years | 1 October 2021 |
| 9 | FW | Francesco Margiotta | Unattached | Free transfer | 1 year | 20 October 2021 |
| 19 | GK | Jerrad Tyson | Green Gully | Injury replacement | 2 months | 4 November 2021 |
| 19 | MF | Luka Prso | Unattached | Free transfer | 1.5 years | 19 January 2022 |

#### From youth squad

| N | Pos. | Name | Age | Notes |
| 26 | MF | Lleyton Brooks | 20 | 1 year scholarship contract |
| 24 | FW | Nishan Velupillay | 20 | 2 year scholarship contract |
| 35 | DF | Zaydan Bello | 19 | 2 year scholarship contract |

### Transfers out

| No. | Position | Player | Transferred to | Type/fee | Date |
| 20 | GK | Max Crocombe | Unattached | End of contract | 11 June 2021 |
| 2 | DF | Storm Roux | Unattached | End of contract | 11 June 2021 |
| 3 | DF | Adama Traoré | Unattached | End of contract | 11 June 2021 |
| 4 | DF | Nick Ansell | Unattached | End of contract | 11 June 2021 |
| 19 | DF | Dylan Ryan | Willem II | End of loan | 30 June 2021 |
| 7 | FW | Callum McManaman | Tranmere Rovers | Mutual contract termination | 9 July 2021 |
| 9 | FW | Rudy Gestede | Unattached | End of contract | 9 July 2021 |
| 8 | MF | Jacob Butterfield | Unattached | End of contract | 15 July 2021 |
| 17 | FW | Elvis Kamsoba | Sydney FC | End of contract | 22 July 2021 |
| 16 | DF | Brandon Lauton | Unattached | End of contract | 11 September 2021 |
| 44 | DF | Matthew Bozinovski | Wellington Phoenix | Loan | 13 October 2021 |
| 19 | GK | Jerrad Tyson | Unattached | End of contract | 4 January 2022 |

### Contract extensions

| No. | Name | Position | Duration | Date | Notes |
| 13 | Birkan Kirdar | Midfielder | 2 years | 18 June 2021 | scholarship contract |
| 11 | Ben Folami | Striker | 2 years | 12 July 2021 | permanent contract following loan |
| 6 | Leigh Broxham | Midfielder | 1 year | 13 July 2021 | |
| 15 | Aaron Anderson | Centre-back | 1 year | 19 July 2021 | scholarship contract |
| 10 | Robbie Kruse | Striker | 1 year | 21 July 2021 | |
| 44 | Matthew Bozinovski | Defender | 2 years | 13 October 2021 | |
| 22 | Jake Brimmer | Midfielder | | 28 October 2021 | |
| 22 | Jake Brimmer | Midfielder | 2.5 years | 19 January 2022 | |
| 14 | Jay Barnett | Defensive midfielder | 1 year | 1 February 2022 | |
| 26 | Lleyton Brooks | Winger | 1 year | 1 February 2022 | |

## Competitions

Win  Draw  Loss  Cancelled or postponed

### Overview

| Competition | First match | Last match | Starting round | Record | Record | Record | Record | Record | Record | Record | Record |
| Competition | First match | Last match | Starting round | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Win % |
| A-League | 20 Nov 2021 | TBD | Matchday 1 | 26 | 13 | 9 | 4 | 42 | 25 | +17 | 050.00 |
| A-League Men Finals | 17 May 2022 | A-League Men Finals | Semi-finals | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 4 | −2 | 050.00 |
| FFA Cup | 24 Nov 2021 | 5 February 2022 | A-League play-off round | 6 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 12 | 5 | +7 | 083.33 |
| Total | Total | Total | Total | 34 | 19 | 10 | 5 | 56 | 34 | +22 | 055.88 |
Last updated: 19 February 2022 Source: Competitions

### A-League
#### League table

| Pos | Teamvte | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts | Qualification |
| 1 | Melbourne City | 26 | 14 | 7 | 5 | 55 | 33 | +22 | 49 | Qualification for finals series and 2023–24 AFC Champions League group stage |
| 2 | Melbourne Victory | 26 | 13 | 9 | 4 | 42 | 25 | +17 | 48 | Qualification for finals series |
| 3 | Western United (C) | 26 | 13 | 6 | 7 | 40 | 30 | +10 | 45 | Qualification for finals series |
| 4 | Adelaide United | 26 | 12 | 7 | 7 | 38 | 31 | +7 | 43 | Qualification for finals series |
| 5 | Central Coast Mariners | 26 | 12 | 6 | 8 | 49 | 35 | +14 | 42 | Qualification for finals series |
* ↑ Determined by which of the Premiers for the 2021–22 or 2022–23 seasons accrued the most combined points over both seasons. Melbourne City qualified as they were Premiers in both seasons.
* ↑ The top two teams enter the finals series at the semi-finals, while the teams ranked third to sixth enter the finals series at the elimination-finals.

#### Matches

The league fixtures were announced on 23 September 2021.