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          A-League kit ranking: Which club has 2024-25's best jerseys?

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          • Joey Lynch, Australia Correspondent
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              Joey Lynch is a Melbourne-based sports journalist, AYA Cancer advocate, cynical centre-half and Zack Ryder mark. Primarily working on football, he has covered the Socceroos, Matildas, A-League, W-League, Y-League, the Australian grassroots and beyond.
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          Oct 16, 2024, 12:30 AM

          The A-League has had some truly iconic kits over its 20 seasons, coming a long way from season one in which clubs were forced to choose from two basic Reebok templates.

          - A-League Tipping: Create a comp and test yourself against the best!

          The right kit, at the right time, can become an important part of the league's story; Gold Coast United's "Freedom of Speech" kits, Sydney FC's look during the Alessandro Del Piero years, and Western Sydney Wanderers' foundation red and black hoops all cases in point.

          And with the business of kits and football as fashion so huge these days the importance of a club's threads feels like it's never been greater, an opportunity to not only engage with one's fans but an entire culture devoted to the art of dressing to impress on and off the football field.

          So, keen observers of fashion that we are, ESPN has cast our eyes over our favourite and not-so-favourite kits from the 2024-25 A-League season.

          The A-League's best kits

          1. Brisbane Roar away

          Not only has Brisbane produced one of the best shirts of the 2024-25 season with this year's away offering, but they may have produced one of the all-time great A-Leagues kits ever. It's absolutely gorgeous.

          Featuring a maroon and cream checkerboard pattern, transparent badge, maroon collar and doing a fine job of incorporating the sponsor into the overall look of the shirt, the strip has managed to still incorporate motifs and traditions of the club and its state while also feeling like proper fashion, the type of offering that will be popping up in kit aficionados' collections and content years from now.

          Away and third kits are where you're afforded the scope to experiment and try new things with your kits and while there's a distinct trend across the competitions this year to play it safe with rather plain white offerings, this kit hits a home run.

          2. Adelaide United home

          After last season's retro designs didn't quite hit the mark, 2024-25 marks a striking return to form from a club that generally nails their strips. The deep rich red base is already a strong start and in keeping with the club's identity and history -- they're called the Reds, after all -- but the added sublimated detailing on the jersey which draws inspiration from the archway at the 155-year-old St. Peter's Cathedral in the Adelaide CBD helps bring this shirt to the next level.

          The transparent, white badge helps compliment things while still being tasteful and while South Australian tourism has asked media at Gather Round to not refer to the "City of Churches," they've also pushed back against "Radalaide," so we're going to comfortably ignore them and appreciate the little "City of Churches" detailing on the bottom of the shirt.

          3. Perth Glory away

          The most recently released kit on this list, Glory's away offering has proven somewhat polarising since it was unveiled on Monday, with most of these disagreements centring on the detailing on the collar and sleeves.

          As was the case with Melbourne Victory's pink away kit last season, the lilac base for the shirt is a winner -- as well as being a clever nod to the club's identity in managing to have some variant of purple as both a home and away offering -- and while the green sponsor logo on the sleeve creates something of a jarring contrast, it doesn't do enough to wreck it.

          On the collar and sleeve design, you're either going to love it or hate it, to the extent that this shirt might end up on several "worst" lists. But given that, as mentioned, your away and third shirts are supposed to be for taking risks, this list comes down on the former side of that scale, the pattern giving off something of an Arizonan, southwest American vibe.

          4. Melbourne City third

          City generally likes to use their third kits to do some kind of throwback to the red and white of their Melbourne Heart era (one could argue that they should do this with their more oft-used away kits instead) and this year's iteration is a throwback to the third kit of the 2011-12 season.

          Featuring an all-black base with red piping on one sleeve and white on the other, the hero of the shirt are the two red and white sashes that are emblazoned across the chest, going in the reverse direction to the 2011-12 offering.

          Sashes, in general, are criminally underused in kits and every time that City/Heart have busted one out across their history they've been onto a winner -- their white kits with a red sash are in the argument for best A-League strip of all-time -- and this one continues the trend.

          5. Western United home

          Western's away kit has won plenty of love since its launch, the faded mint design continuing their history of banging away kits, but it's always so satisfying to see a club nail a home offering, and this year's strip does just that.

          Featuring black sleeves and collar -- the first ever collar on a Western kit -- the green and black stripes that the club has consistently used with good reasons over the years remain but this year's take returns to a solid green design, as opposed to last year's digital camo-style look, and combined with a move from three to five stripes, it creates a pleasingly clean front.

          Further, the classic Kappa Omini logo produces an instant feeling of nostalgia. It just looks right on a football kit, and its presence down the side of these kits helps to take them to another level.

          The A-League's worst kits

          1. Brisbane Roar third

          The Roar's third kit gets a lot right. A lot. The "earthy blue" that serves as the base colour is incredible and contrasts magnificently with the white collar (as you may be able to tell, this list is very pro-collar on kits) and the move to incorporate the club's history in its 20th year carries the right spirit. The sponsor incorporation works well, too.

          But, hypocritical as it may be given the above references to swinging for the fences with away and third kits, with the original Roar logo being watermarked across the jersey and emblazoned across the shoulder in bright orange in addition to the solid orange club crest it just feels like there's too much going on here, too many features trying to be the hero of the kit. There's going to be some people that adore it and others that don't.

          2. Melbourne Victory away

          Last year's away offering from Victory was class, inspired by the state's floral emblem the Common Heath. This year's offering, though, is a white shirt. Womp.

          Yes, there are mini chevrons -- a chevron is always a good idea on a Victory shirt -- covering the design but these too, are white, meaning that unless you're standing close enough to mark Alex Chidiac you'll probably be unable to pick them out.

          The button collar, meanwhile, doesn't just hit the same as the polo-style offering of the home kit.

          3. Wellington Phoenix home

          There is a lot the Phoenix do right with their kits, especially the way they respectfully incorporate the tohu that was gifted to the club six years ago by the Te Āti Awa iwi of the Taranaki and Wellington regions. Further, they've taken another big step forward this year by actually designating one kit as a home kit and the other as an away. The black detailing that surrounds this year's yellow kit is also quite nice and the sponsors have been incorporated well.

          However, like the mini chevrons on Victory's away kit, the "subtle pinstripes" that are present on this year's shirt are simply too subtle to be seen. Given the yellow and black colour scheme they've got to play with, it feels like there was scope to do more.

          4. Western United goalkeeper kit

          Western's goalkeeping kit was always on hiding to nothing given how good the outfielder's home and away kits were.

          Featuring an all-blue base with green detailing, as well as the Kappa Omini logo down the side, it does feature a faint diamond pattern running across it but -- and we're sensing a theme here -- if you weren't challenging Alyssa Dall'Oste for a cross it'd be very easy to miss.

          5. Melbourne City third

          Yes, this kit is featured in both the favourites and non-favourites list, mostly because we were on the precipice of something great, only for the "fresh, edgy pattern" that breaks the sash up into little pieces to stick its head around the door, making it feel less clean.

          Maybe it's street and cool and whatnot, it's happened to us and we're not with it, but it feels like less would have been more.