The fourth matchday of the 2026-27 A-League Men season is in the books and there is plenty of action to dissect.
Here's the lowdown on whose stocks are up, whose stocks are down, and what has the people talking coming out of the weekend.
Stocks up: Is Touré finally delivering on his potential?
While Mohamed Touré's goalscoring exploits at Norwich City have been making headlines in England and Australia, this weekend belonged to his older brother, Sydney FC winger Al Hassan Touré, who scored a hat trick in his side's 4-1 win over the Central Coast Mariners.
Still just 26, Touré feels like an A-League veteran, having burst onto the scene at Adelaide United seven years ago. Blessed with blistering pace, direct running and fearless confidence on the ball -- attributes Australian football has often struggled to produce -- the future looked bright.
While there have been flashes of brilliance since, his career has never reached the heights many anticipated.
An overseas adventure that took him to Turkey, France and the United States failed to produce the breakthrough and his first season back in the A-League was a mixed bag. His shoot-on-sight mentality and questionable decision-making sometimes undermined his attacking threat and frustrated fans. He finished with five goals in 20 appearances -- three of them in a single afternoon against the Newcastle Jets.
This campaign, however, could prove pivotal if Touré still harbours ambitions of another overseas move, and the early signs are promising.
He's already scored four goals and registered one assist from four appearances, averaging a goal every 67 minutes, compared with one every 220 minutes last season. His shot conversion rate has also tripled, from 12% last season to 36%.
Perhaps more encouraging than the goals has been his decision-making, highlighted by his second against the Mariners. Having burst forward on the counter-attack, Touré in the past might have backed himself to shoot. Instead, he played a clever one-two with Akol Akon before finishing into an empty net.
Against Adelaide in Round 2, Touré similarly resisted shooting, setting up Sydney's winner.
These moments suggest Touré may be evolving from a mercurial winger into a polished attacker who makes better decisions in the final third.
Having earned his solitary Socceroos cap last season, Touré still has ambitions of representing Australia again, telling Paramount+ post-match it was "always a dream to get called up."
Four games is a small sample size, but if he can maintain this form, another international opportunity -- and perhaps a second crack at Europe -- might not be out of reach.
Stocks down: The Original Rivalry delivered, but where are the wins?
Between them, Melbourne Victory and Adelaide United have won 10 premierships and championships -- almost a quarter of all major honours awarded since the A-League's inception.
But when the two traditional heavyweights met at Coopers Stadium on Sunday, neither had recorded a league win this season. Despite a thrilling 2-2 draw, both head into the international break still searching for their first victory.
Adelaide entered the contest rooted to the bottom of the ladder and without a point, their struggles laid bare by a 5-0 midweek thrashing in the AFC Champions League Two.
But there were signs of improvement on Sunday, with Brody Burkitt ending Adelaide's three-match goalscoring drought on the stroke of half-time.
Despite outshooting Victory 19-7 and generating 1.71 expected goals (xG) compared with the visitors' 0.73, the Reds looked to be heading for another defeat after conceding twice in six second-half minutes. The first was another thumping long-range strike from Jordi Valadon, who, having waited 74 games for his first A-League goal, now has two in as many weeks.
But Philipp Ziereis' dismissal for a second yellow card in the 86th minute handed Adelaide a lifeline, and Joey Garuccio sent the home crowd into raptures with a dramatic equaliser in the ninth minute of stoppage time.
Adelaide coach Airton Andrioli admitted his young side had again been their own "worst enemy" through costly mistakes. But despite remaining bottom, moments like these can feel like victories and should galvanise his squad.
For Victory, expected to challenge for major honours this season, new coach Giovanni Savarese has plenty to ponder. The departures of Juan Mata and Nishan Velupillay have left him rebuilding an attack that has struggled for cohesion, with just five goals in four matches.
Savarese acknowledged supporters "deserve to see a team that gets results," insisting Victory had been competitive in every match. But the underlying numbers paint a less encouraging picture. Victory have generated fewer expected goals than their opponents in three of their four fixtures, with a combined xG of just 2.93 compared with 5.38 conceded.
The results will also intensify scrutiny on director of football John Didulica. Savarese is the fourth head coach since Didulica arrived in 2021, and while Victory have reached two Grand Finals in that time, their only silverware remains the 2021 Australia Cup -- a modest return for a club that considers itself the biggest in the competition. With a difficult trip to Auckland awaiting after the international break, the pressure is mounting on Savarese, too, despite having overseen just four league matches.
Moment of the weekend: Garuccio's last-gasp equaliser
ADELAIDE SNATCH A POINT IN THE 99TH MINUTE! 🤯 A classic Original Rivalry match gets a box-office finish, as Joey Garuccio fires in an equaliser in front of the Red Army! 🔥 Watch #ADLvMVC live and exclusive on Paramount+ 📺 https://t.co/9anzASMTID
— Paramount+ Australia (@ParamountPlusAU) November 8, 2026
Touré may have delivered the performance of the weekend with his hat trick, but the moment belonged to Garuccio. Just seconds from a fourth straight defeat, Garuccio struck to earn Adelaide their first point of the season.
The week ahead: The other Herrington's Socceroos chance
Last week's news that the 2027 AFC Asian Cup in Saudi Arabia has been postponed by almost a year due to regional security concerns may have disappointed fans, but it also means the race for places in the Socceroos squad will run for another year. Among those hoping to impress national team boss Tony Popovic is Central Coast Mariners defender Diesel Herrington -- the older brother of Hull City's Lucas Herrington -- selected for friendlies against Qatar and Jordan as the A-League pauses for a fortnight.
Having made just 17 A-League appearances across the previous two seasons, with injuries hampering his progress, Herrington was a relatively unknown quantity heading into the new campaign, but has since played every minute of the Mariners' opening four games. Central Coast coach John Hutchinson offered a glowing assessment of the young defender following last week's draw with Melbourne Victory.
"You talk about a player with no ceiling; I look at him and, for me, he's the number one centre-back in this league -- comfortably," Hutchinson said.
The only other A-League player selected in Popovic's squad is Melbourne City's 89-cap Socceroos veteran Aziz Behich.
In case you missed it
- Socceroos name seven uncapped players to face Qatar, Jordan
- Zero to hero: Socceroos' Robertson scores stunning match-winner after own goal
- Man United's poor starts have Premier League relegation looking more likely
- Liverpool's Barcola, Isak, Wirtz show signs they're finally starting to click