Here are the eleven top performers (by position) from the entire regular season of the A-League, according to Flashscore's in-house player rating system.
Catch up on all A-League results and statistics on Flashscore.com.au here.
The average rating across the season of each player to have made at least ten appearances this season was taken into consideration when constructing this lineup, with seven honourable mentions forming an interchange bench further down.
For those of you not familiar with Flashscore player ratings, here's a brief explainer from the launch day back in 2024.
The gist of it is as follows: each player to spend at least ten minutes on the pitch starts with an average rating of 6.0 out of 10, which is then influenced positively or negatively by all the key metrics you would expect a footballer to be assessed by: tackles and individual duels for defenders, passing for midfielders and shots and goals for forwards.
Player ratings are more heavily weighted towards the stats most relevant to their position, with a rating of 7+ being very good, 8+ excellent and 9+ reserved only for the most outstanding of performances - it's not even a regular occurrence for the top rating of a match to be 9+. Anything under 6 is a day to forget and usually means a player has been more of a liability than an asset.
That's why every member of this squad, including the substitutes, have sustained an average rating in the 7s throughout the season.
We decided to drop this squad on the eve of the finals with an eye on reviewing it at the end of May to see if any standout playoffs ratings have changed its composition. So without further ado, congratulations to the following...
GK: Andrew Redmayne - Central Coast Mariners (7.2)
Redmayne was arguably the purchase of the season, being picked up off the floor as Sydney FC's trash at the start of the season.
He registered more saves (124) and saves per 90 minutes (4.8) than any other player at a percentage of nearly 75% in the face of what was a difficult campaign for the very youthful Mariners.
LB: Francis De Vries - Auckland FC (7.6)
De Vries beat some very good players to the left-back position, one of the most competitive of 2025/26 in terms of players averaging 7.0+ throughout the seasonm such as Ben Garuccio, Harry Politidis and Daniel Wilmering.
He created 14 'big chances' throughout the season, second only to another member of this Team of the Season which you'll see below, finishing the season strongly with three assists in his last five appearances before a calf injury ended his campaign prematurely.
CB: Jake Girdwood-Reich - Auckland FC (7.1)
Auckland FC had the second-best defence of the season, conceding only 29 goals, and it was a big part because of the centre-back pairing of Jake Girdwood-Reich and Daniel Hall.
Girdwood-Reich was top-ten in the competition for season interceptions (33), clearances (135) and enjoyed six clean sheets.
CB: Sebastian Esposito - Melbourne Victory (7.1)
The 21-year-old Esposito has quickly matured throughout his maiden season as a first team player, finishing 14th in the competition for clearances (123), equal 11th for tackles (55) and seventh for blocked shots (22).
His two goals also boosted his average rating, such as when he finished Player of the Match against the Bulls with one of the Victory's four goals.
RB: Callum Talbot - Macarthur FC (7.2)
Regular readers of this blog will know just how often Callum Talbot appeared at right-back in our Team of the Week - had we kept a weekly count, he very well could have had the most Team of the Week inclusions of any player in any position throughout 2025/26.
Talbot created more 'big chances' (17) than any other player in the regular season and completed 42 key passes - an impressive number for a fullback.
LM: Ryan Fraser - Western Sydney Wanderers (7.5)
The Scotsman oozed class from the very moment of his arrival from Championship side Southampton in January, scoring a game-winner in a 31-minute cameo on debut against Perth Glory.
That sparked a run of four goals and three assists in eight A-League matches, before a quiet finish to the season as the Wanderers fell out of finals contention, but there were plenty of highlights along the way in his 12 A-League matches.
Here's hoping he stays in Australia for another season.
CM: Juan Mata - Melbourne Victory (7.6*)
What can we say about Mata that has not already been said?
The league's official Player of the Month for both January and March dominated all before him from December onwards, accumulating four of his five goals and all 13 of his assists for 2025/26 since the beginning of December.
Some of his highlights went viral across Europe during the season, giving the Aussie game the injection it has sorely needed from a household name marquee signing.
CM: Luke Brattan - Macarthur FC (7.4)
36-year-old Brattan had one of his best ever A-League seasons, passing with 83% accuracy across 2025/26 including 40 key passes and six big chances created.
He also had an excellent finish to the campaign, scoring twice and assisting once in his last four games for the Bulls.
RM: Joe Lolley - Sydney FC (7.6)
There's no doubting that Sydney FC were never the same went down with injury in January and again in March, with just seven goals scored in their seven games without him at the end of the regular season.
Former manager Ufuk Talay was left to lament his side crumbling in the face of key absences, and with Lolley returning Player of the Match ratings of 8.3+ five times in a six-game stretch early in the season, it's fair to say he could have been on track to take out the Johnny Warren Medal that Juan Mata will almost certainly claim.
FW: Sam Cosgrove - Auckland FC (7.4)
Auckland FC's early season success was in a big way because of their front pairing of Sam Cosgrove and Jesse Randall, who combined for 20 of Auckland's 42 goals and also aggregated ten assists between them.
Cosgrove shared the Golden Boot with Adelaide's Luka Jovanovic but sadly may have played his last part in Auckland's title push, with head coach Steve Corica confirming he has a serious ankle injury to contend with.
FW: Jesse Randall - Auckland FC (7.3)
Randall was not as efficient as Cosgrove in front of goal but was the busiest striker of the competition, leading the way for total shots (79) to finish equal third in the Golden Boot race.
Still, a big step forward for the 23-year-old who tripled his goal tally of just three last season.
S1: James Delianov - Newcastle Jets (7.2)
The Newcastle custodian was one of the inspirations to come up with a seven-man bench of honourable mentions because, despite falling short of Redmayne's season average rating by the narrowest of margins, one could very reasonably make case for he (and possibly even Harrison Devenish-Meares, to be fair) to be the Goalkeeper of the Season.
Delianov made 60 saves from inside the box across the season, many of them spectacular and some even directly credited for saving the Jets points during their run to the Premiers Plate.
Devenish-Meares topped the clean sheet tally by a long way (11), but there were some stinkers along the way - such as last weekend's 2-2 draw with Auckland - that dragged his average rating down to 7.1 rounded.
S2: Mark Natta - Adelaide United (7.1)
The first of the two defenders we wanted to pay tribute to this season made his move over from the Wanderers four seasons ago and has been a stalwart of their back four ever since.
Natta isn't much of a tackler, landing only 32 successful tackles across the campaign, but still loves to get himself in the way - illustrated by his tally of 126 clearances (no. 13 in the league) and 18 blocked shots (no. 12).
S3: Ben Garuccio - Sydney FC (7.3)
Garuccio is another player unlucky to find one in front of him as far as the numbers are concerned, with three Player of the Match awards in his last eight appearances (five of them seeing him rate 7.7+ out of 10) bringing him into Team of the Season discussions late on.
S4: Marcus Younis - Melbourne City (7.2)
City loanee Younis has been touted as their not-so-secret weapon for this month's finals series, and found himself on the outskirts of speculation about the Socceroos' World Cup squad, following a dazzling return of six goals in his last four matches.
Younis finished in the Golden Boot's top-ten with seven goals, despite playing only 11 of 26 rounds having been a mid-season move to Melbourne.
He converted nearly 23% of his shots into goals - the second-highest rate (behind Xavier Bertoncello's 28%) of anyone with more than five goals this season.
S5: Denis Genreau - Melbourne Victory (7.2)
Genreau has made a formidable partnership in the centre of the AAMI Park pitch with Mata, playing more of a defensive role whilst Mata creates attacking chances.
The 26-year-old finished second in the competition for interceptions (46), third for successful tackles (73), whilst running back to block seven shots - all important qualities for a defensive midfielder in the eyes of the algorithm.
S6: Eli Adams - Newcastle Jets (7.3)
Another very lengthy highlights reel in what we expect to be Eli Adams' final season in Australia, with offers from the United Kingdom and Europe surely coming in droves.
Adams trailed Lolley in the right midfield position, but let that take nothing away from the fact that he led the competition for successful dribbles (44) whilst finishing 11th for total shots (51) and finishing equal-sixth with eight goals.
S7: Tom Lawrence - Perth Glory (7.2)
The 32-year-old Welshman came to Perth after injury saw him fall further down the pecking order at Rangers, and he'll be praying the same doesn't happen under Adam Griffiths after his season ended in February with a serious foot injury.
When he was fit, he was very entertaining to watch, averaging three shots per game and producing a stellar hat-trick against City to ring in the new year.