The A-League’s stars have unusually aligned with tickets for the first derby grand final between Melbourne Victory and Melbourne City sold out for Saturday night. It would be over the top to suggest the decider between the crosstown rivals has become the hottest ticket in town. But the enthusiasm to pack out AAMI Park has done more than just spare the league’s blushes, after a lack of AFL and NRL games in the city on the same evening all but gave football a free hit.
A moment in the spotlight rarely comes at a bad time for Australian football. The financial boost that comes from attracting 30,000 fans to the showpiece event will be just as welcomed across a competition that has had the Australian Professional Leagues slashing its distribution to clubs this season and reducing the salary cap for the next campaign.
The A-League Men has limped along in Australia in recent years, but the addition of a team in Auckland has been a breath of fresh air. The Black Knights’ average home crowd of 18,890 set the benchmark in their debut season; the league’s one-time major drawcard, Melbourne Victory, attracted 12,778. Even while laying down a marker as the country’s top men’s club side, Melbourne City have seen home crowds plummet 26% on last year to an average 6,299.
A fairytale double for the Black Knights was all but written into the script until Victory brought the newcomers’ momentum to a grinding halt when turning over a first-leg deficit in their semi-final with a 2-0 win away from home. City found an easier path to the grand final with a 3-0 romp against Western United, then comfortably managed the return leg after scoring first in a tame draw.
Victory have relished playing the part of the villain though they fell short of ruining the party in last year’s decider when Central Coast Mariners equalised in the dying stages then fired in two more goals in extra-time to seal a historic treble on home turf. Only the most ardent opposition supporters could deny Victory begrudging respect for bouncing back into a second successive grand final after they lost coach Tony Popovic in the aftermath of the painful defeat and his replacement Patrick Kisnorbo lasted less than six months.
Little was expected of Victory after assistant Arthur Diles took charge and began his tenure with a six-match winless run before improved but inconsistent form lifted them to a fifth-place finish. With the continued emergence of Ryan Teague and Nishan Velupillay, and a coaching masterclass from Diles in Auckland, the four-time champions are now one win from a first crown in seven years and just their second since the club hit its high watermark a decade ago.
In that 2014-15 season, Victory averaged home crowds of more than 25,000 and swept City aside 3-0 in a semi-final in front of 50,873 fans at Marvel Stadium. As that season’s premiers, Victory returned to AAMI Park a week later to defeat Sydney FC and seal their third and – in what might come as a shock to supporters at the time – still most recent league double, before the powerhouse club later suffered a fall from grace.
Victory’s revival is almost complete – on the pitch at least, if not quite in packing out the stands – as a side that again refuses to be written off and enjoys a sprinkling of stardust from the likes of the enigmatic Daniel Arzani. In a blow for Victory, neutral fans and even the Socceroos, Velupillay is rated as 50-50 for the grand final after injuring his ankle in Auckland last Saturday, but will be given every chance to prove his fitness. While Victory’s creative and midfield forces could prove the difference against City, Bruno Fornaroli, Zinedine Machach and captain Roderick Miranda are just as likely to decide the outcome as they did in the semi-final.
This year’s league runners-up from the other side of Melbourne did about as much as they could to claim the keys to the city during Victory’s years of decline. But three premierships and a championship in the past five years were arguably a meagre return for such a star-studded, well-resourced club. City now return for a fifth grand final in six seasons after last year’s blemish when their arch-rivals knocked them out on penalties in an elimination final.
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Much credit is due to coach Aurelio Vidmar for ensuring the transition period was short lived in part by luring Marco Tilio and Nathaniel Atkinson back from stints overseas, and giving teenage sensation Max Caputo time and space to shine. The trio of Australian talents will be critical to the in-form City’s hopes of building on their eight-match unbeaten run, along with first-year foreign players in Andreas Kuen and Yonatan Cohen.
Australian football has been here many times before, with visions of a grand spectacle that might reignite the passion of casual observers. The Mariners’ back-to-back championship triumphs will live long in the memory but so too does the last time Victory and City met under the glare of the spotlight in the wake of the Socceroos’ stirring 2022 World Cup campaign. With fans railing against the APL’s decision to break with tradition and hold three grand finals in Sydney – a deal that would have concluded with this year’s decider – the Melbourne derby descended into humiliating chaos when spectators invaded the pitch and forced the match to be abandoned for player safety reasons.
This time, with no new clouds hanging over the competition and the grand final being given clear air in Melbourne, the focus can turn to matters on the pitch and a tussle between two evenly-matched teams playing for more than just championship glory.
