2008 A-League Grand Final

Football match

2008 A-League Grand Final

Event| 2007–08 A-League
| Central Coast Mariners | Newcastle Jets

|

0 | 1
Date| 24 February 2008
Venue| Sydney Football Stadium, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Man of the Match| Andrew Durante, Newcastle Jets
Referee| Mark Shield
Attendance| 36,354

<- 2007

2009 ->

Newcastle Jets celebrating after their Grand Final victory.

The 2008 A-League Grand Final took place at Sydney Football Stadium in Sydney, Australia on 24 February 2008. It was the first A-League Grand Final played at a neutral home ground, due to Bluetongue Stadium being deemed by FFA to not have a sufficient capacity to hold the centrepiece of the A-League season. This move created a stir of controversy and was protested by the Central Coast Mariners, who won the right to host the match, but to no avail.

## Route to the finals

[edit]

See also: 2007–08 A-League

| | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Semifinals| | | Preliminary final| | | Final
| | |
| Central Coast Mariners| 0| 3| | Central Coast Mariners| 0
| | | |
| Newcastle Jets| 2| 0| | | | | | Newcastle Jets| 1
| |
| | Newcastle Jets (aet)| 3|
| | | | |
| | | Queensland Roar| 2| | |
| | | | |
| Sydney FC| 0| 0| |
| |
| Queensland Roar| 0| 2| | |
| |
| | | | | |

## Match

[edit]

### Summary

[edit]

The first half of the game ended in a draw with neither side scoring a goal, though each had good scoring opportunities. Gary van Egmond made a risky change to his side's starting formation, playing with a back three. In the 64th minute Joel Griffiths scored the only goal after Tony Vidmar slipped.

The game ended in controversy after Central Coast earned a corner late into extra time in the second half. As the ball was crossed into Newcastle's penalty area, it appeared to hit Newcastle player James Holland on the right arm, before it was cleared away. Mariners players immediately demanded a penalty, yet referee Mark Shield decided not to award one. The Mariners players, enraged, continued to scream at Shield, pressuring him for a penalty. Mariners keeper Danny Vukovic as a result of this frustration, hit Shields' arm away when the referee was penalizing one of Vukovic's teammates with a yellowcard. Shield then immediately awarded Vukovic with a red card. Vukovic would later be charged with striking a match official by the FFA, and was subsequently banned for 9 months, 3 of those months suspended. Due to this, Vukovic missed a significant portion of the next A-League season as well as the Olympic Games.

### Details

[edit]

24 February 2008
17:00 AEDT

Central Coast Mariners| 0–1| Newcastle Jets

|
|

| Reports[1] |  Bridge  64'

Sydney Football Stadium, Sydney

Attendance: 36,354

Referee: Mark Shield

Central Coast Mariners

Newcastle Jets

|

|  |

|

GK | 20 |  Danny Vukovic |  90+4'
MF | 7 |  John Hutchinson
MF | 12 |  Greg Owens |  |  69'
DF | 13 |  Tony Vidmar |  |  75'
DF | 16 |  Nigel Boogaard |  90'
DF | 18 |  Alex Wilkinson (c)
MF | 19 |  Adam Kwasnik |  |  69'
FW | 22 |  Sasho Petrovski
MF | 23 |  Mile Jedinak |  12' |
FW | 25 |  John Aloisi |  90+5'
DF | 26 |  Alvin Ceccoli
Substitutes:
GK | 1 |  Matthew Trott
FW | 2 |  Matt Simon |  |  75'
MF | 6 |  André Gumprecht |  |  69'
MF | 10 |  Tom Pondeljak |  |  69'
DF | 15 |  Andrew Clark
Manager:
Lawrie McKinna
|  |  |

|

GK | 1 |  Ante Čović
DF | 2 |  Adam Griffiths |  11'
DF | 3 |  Jade North (c)
MF | 5 |  Stuart Musialik
DF | 6 |  Andrew Durante
MF | 8 |  Matt Thompson |  |  76'
FW | 9 |  Joel Griffiths |  37' |
DF | 11 |  Tarek Elrich
DF | 13 |  Adam D'Apuzzo
FW | 19 |  Mark Bridge |  64' |  73'
MF | 28 |  Song Jin-Hyung |  |  90+3'
Substitutes:
GK | 20 |  Ben Kennedy
MF | 10 |  Denni |  |  90+3'
MF | 18 |  Noel Spencer
MF | 22 |  Jason Hoffman |  |  76'
MF | 25 |  James Holland |  |  73'
Manager:
Gary van Egmond

Joe Marston Medal:
Andrew Durante (Newcastle Jets)

Assistant referees:
Ben Wilson
Nathan Gibson
Fourth official:
Matthew Breeze

Match rules

* 90 minutes
* 30 minutes of extra time if necessary.
* Penalty shoot-out if scores still level.

|

A-League
2008 Champions

Newcastle Jets
First Title

### Statistics

[edit]

| Central Coast  | Newcastle

|
|

Attempts at goal | 13 | 6
Attempts on target | 1 | 3
Attempts off target | 12 | 3
Attempts – Woodwork | 0 | 0
Keeper saves | 1 | 1
Ball possession | 42% | 58%
Corners | 1 | 6
Fouls committed | 18 | 15
Offsides | 1 | 4
Yellow cards | 3 | 2
Red cards | 1 | 0

## See also

[edit]

* 2007–08 A-League
* List of A-League honours

## References

[edit]

1. ^ "2008 A-League Grand Final". KEEPUP. Retrieved 30 December 2022.

## External links

[edit]

* Full Match highlights on YouTube
* Official A-League Website

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