Brisbane Roar beat Western Sydney Wanderers in A-League opener

All four goals came in the first half as the Brisbane Roar beat the Western Sydney Wanderers 3-1 in the 2015-16 A-League curtain-raiser at Pirtek Stadium on Thursday.

Both sides will be looking for better seasons after finishing in the bottom four last term and it was the visiting Roar who got off to a fast start.

Jamie Maclaren, on his Roar debut, scored the first goal of the new season by pouncing on Brendan Hamill's weak backpass and chipping Andrew Redmayne in the Wanderers goal.

The hosts were level less than five minutes later through Mitch Nichols, who picked out the bottom corner from the left side of the box after beating the offside trap.

Brisbane were back in front midway through the first half when Daniel Bowles headed home Corona's corner and it was 3-1 10 minutes later.

Maclaren was on target again, completing his brace with a close-range finish after Western Sydney again failed to deal with a Corona corner.

After a blockbuster opening 45, neither side could find a way through in the second half as the Roar saw out the win to go top of the early table.

Wanderers have now only won one of their last eight matches against the Roar and still never won a season-opener in the A-League.