Posted by The long off-season was interrupted this year by a very long international tournament that distracted me from writing the usual blog post summarising the Player of the Season results. That tournament finished this morning and Sydney FC’s season kicks off tomorrow night, leaving me with no more excuses (let alone time) to get it done. So here we go.
Voters
Across the course of 2025–26, 78 SFCU members submitted at least one vote to decide the Player of the Match. Incredibly, ten voted in every one of the 33 competitive matches, several of whom have achieved this feat across multiple seasons. If you’re interested, you can see a full list of voters here.
In total there were 1077 votes submitted, at an average of 32.6 per match. The chart below places this season in the context of the full history of the award.
The chart below shows how voting numbers tracked across the season.
There was a slow drop-off over the course of the season, which is pretty standard.
Results
Harrison Devenish-Meares is your 2025–26 SFCU Player of the Season!
HDM took 8 MOTMs (one shared), 8 second-places (one shared) and a third-place (also shared!) for a total of 39.5 points. It is a huge jump from the 2 seconds and 3 thirds (for 7 points) that he totalled last season, and he is the second goalkeeper to win the Player of the Season award.
Behind HDM came another double-barrelled surname: departing World Cup midfielder Paul Okon-Engstler completed his debut Sydney FC season with 5 MOTMs, 4 seconds (one shared) and an incredible 11 thirds (two shared). He ended up on the podium twice more than Devenish-Meares did, but was 7 points behind in the end, on 32.5.
Completing the top three was Tiago Quintal, who was a fair way behind on 23 points, made up of 6 MOTMs, 2 seconds and a third-place.
Fourth went to Joe Lolley, who was in the lead before his long-term injury stopped him from adding to the 18 points he picked up in the first 9 matches (with 4 MOTMs, 2 seconds and 2 thirds). Ben Garuccio finished his first SFC season in fifth, taking 2 MOTMs, 3 seconds and 3 thirds for 15 points.
The full results for every match, and the final standings can be found here; the graph below shows how the Player of the Season race unfolded across the season.
Other stats and final words
The performance that earned the highest average number of votes was HDM’s clean sheet in the goalless draw away to Melbourne City. He was awarded 157 votes by the 37 voters, at an average of 4.24. It is the fourth-highest average in the 16-year history of this voting; not quite enough to overcome Adrian Segecic’s record of 4.72 from last season.
As a final word, I’ll apologise for this being shorter than usual. There are a few more interesting things I wanted to add, but I’ve run out of time. Thanks again to everyone who voted during the season, and big thanks to Grant, Alex and James for keeping the SFCU community together and the voting system up-and-running. Hope to see your votes tomorrow!