2025 League Two Men’s Season Review
A season full of many highs and lows saw two new teams get promoted from the League Two Men’s competition up to the League One Men’s for the first time, along with many other memorable moments across the 2025 League Two Men’s season.
The Premiers this season were Hurstville Zagreb FC, who wrapped up their claim for 1st on the ladder following their Round 25 win over Hawkesbury City FC, the 2-1 win bringing much celebration for the team as they rose to the League One Men’s competition for the first time for 2026.
Hurstville had the second-best attacking and best defensive stats in the competition, with 65 goals scored putting them behind the Flame on 78, and 20 goals conceded putting them at an average of 0.71 goals conceded per match.
Across their 28 matches, Hurstville won 22, drew four and only lost two on their way to recording 70 points, which saw them finish the year 15 points ahead of 2nd-placed Prospect United SC, the side also joining them in the League One Men’s competition in 2026.
Nikola Todoroski led the way for Hurstville with 13 goals scored this season, supported by Michael Neill with 12 and Hesan Soufi, who scored nine before his move to Inner West Hawks FC mid-year.
No one kept more clean sheets than Hurstville in 2025; they finished with 14 clean sheets, which is exactly half of their matches, with Michael Rutherford in-between the sticks for 11 of those occasions.
Prospect will also be joining Hurstville in the tier above for the 2026 season after their promotion/relegation play-off victory over Bonnyrigg White Eagles FC, a tie which went to extra-time at the end of the second leg, a 102nd minute winner from Jakob Petterson giving Prospect a 4-3 win over two legs.
Prospect had their fair share of goals scored this season with 60, the fourth-best in the competition, with Praneet Singh leading the way with 15 goals, followed by Anthony Idehen on 12.
Their defence also stood tall, with only 33 goals conceded this season, the second-best in the competition.
Having secured their spot in 2nd with a Round 30 5-2 home win over Bankstown United FC, Prospect went on to get the job done over two legs against their League One foes to send themselves up and send Bonnyrigg down to the League Two competition for 2026.
The race for 2nd was an enthralling affair, with Prospect ending a round in that spot for 16 of the 30 rounds this season, ahead of the challenges for that spot in the likes of South Coast Flame FC, Granville Rage, Bankstown United FC and Hawkesbury City FC.
Just as in 2024, this season saw another runaway Golden Boot winner, with South Coast Flame FC’s Jyden Harb taking out the gong with 29 goals scored this season, eight ahead of second-placed Harry Drew from Hawkesbury City FC.
Playing in 27 matches this season, Harb scored two hat-tricks and five braces, the hat-tricks coming in Round 11 at home to Camden Tigers FC and in Round 23 away to Inner West Hawks FC.
Harb scored in 20 of the 27 matches he played in this season, scoring against every opponent bar Hurstville to take out the Golden Boot honour, while he also ended the season as the highest scorer among the three divisions in New South Wales.
The biggest win of the season this year came for South Coast Flame FC in the opening round of the season, their 7-0 home win over Granville Rage ending up as the biggest margin of victory in the league in 2025.
The latest goal to win a match this season came in the 90+5’ of Dunbar Rovers FC’s match away to Fraser Park FC, that lone goal in stoppage time giving them a 1-0 win; that helped them complete the league double over Fraser Park after they also won the reverse fixture thanks to a 90’ goal.
There were 770 goals scored across the 2025 season, down on last year’s tally of 838, but there were plenty of memorable moments and goal of the season contenders across the league.
A contender for goal of the season came in the playoff match, where Jakob Petterson found the back of the net from 30 yards out in the 101st minute to give Prospect a 3-1 lead on the night and a 4-3 win on aggregate over Bonnyrigg.
The competition also saw plenty of success in the Australia Cup, with the most successful of the bunch being Granville Rage, who were on the cusp of a Round of 32 berth; they were knocked out by NPL side Sydney United 58 in the seventh qualifying round, United going on to lose to A-League Men’s side Sydney FC in the Round of 16.
Plenty of clubs had much different years in 2025 compared to 2024, with Prospect showing the most improvement going from 11th in 2024 to 2nd and promoted this season, while Central Coast dropped the most, from 5th in 2024 to 15th and last this season.
The relegated teams from last season, Dunbar Rovers FC and Nepean FC, finished the year in 7th and 12th, respectively.
A peculiar stat sees Parramatta FC finish on the exact same points total and position in back-to-back seasons, with their 8th-placed finish on 36 points in 2025 the exact same as in 2024.
The 2025 season has come to an end and with it, renewed hope will rise for every team to go out and do it all again next season, with transfers and club changes abound, and ambitions high to reach the summit once again.
Following a season where two new teams found glory in promotion among many other memorable moments, every team will hope to enjoy the off-season and prepare for the challenge to charge for the title and promotion again in 2026.
By Football NSW League Two Men’s Reporter, Dylan Costa
