Key events
Summary
Jonathan Howcroft
Thank you very much for joining me this evening to bring the curtain down on another A-League season. I’ll leave you with Joey Lynch’s match report from AAMI Park, and catch you back here soon.
Melbourne City are A-League Men Champions!
Melbourne City’s players accept their medals. Aziz Behich thanks His Excellency Khaldoon Al Mubarak – as one does – directors, sponsors, and fans. Then the City captain accepts the championship trophy from former Labor Party Senator Stephen Conroy, walks over to his teammates and hoists it aloft to signal fireworks, streamers, and U2.
“Soccer Australia can’t catch a break,” emails Chris Paraskevas. “Needed a fairytale final in Auckland and didn’t get it (Victory ruining it again after the VAR debacle vs Jets). Now the team with no fans win (one guy had a Melbourne Heart flag!). Tragicomedy.”
But the generation of memes continues apace.
Mat Leckie wins the Joe Marston Medal
These photos will be beamed around the world and studied by historians in decades to come. A man who looks like a reanimated mummy walks onto the dais and accepts the medal for the best player in Australia’s grand final.
Mat Leckie was a doubt to start, was then selected in an unfamiliar No 6 role, but put in one heck of a shift, working hard in both directions, and suffering an awful gash on his nose for his troubles.
Michael Zappone is the emcee for the presentation ceremony. He begins by inviting the referees to accept their medals. Adam Kersey had an excellent night. It was a tricky match to navigate but he found the right balance between letting everything flow and nipping spotfires in the bud.
Paul Marioni’s email is headed: “The worst game of football in history”, which is a big call, but it was a far cry from Italy v Brazil at Spain 82. “I have never seen such a load of absolute nonsense ‘football’ in all my 70 years,” Paul adds, “no skill, no excitement, no pace, one goal, a trillion non fouls. Take a poll from those that had the time to watch this rubbish and see where it rates. Pile of garbage.”
The crowd at AAMI Park for the A-League Men #MelbDerby grand final is 29,902 — a new record for a sporting event staged at the venue.
— Joey Lynch (@joeylynchy) May 31, 2025
Victory only really tested Beach once, in the first half, while City missed one gilt edged opportunity in the second, and a couple of other presentable ones across the 90 minutes. Victory fans could point to the ball hitting Fereyra’s hand inside his penalty area late on, but it would have been a harsh penalty.
There was a level of commitment, physicality, and desperation from City that stood them in good stead tonight. You could tell they wanted to get the ball down and control the tempo but Victory denied them that opportunity. But City’s leaders: Ferreyra, Leckie, Behich, and Atkinson in particular, relished the scrap and matched Victory in every scuffle and spotfire.
It wasn’t a grand final full of champagne football, but City looked the more poised throughout. Victory gave everything but lacked composure in the final third in the first half, then ran out of ideas in the second.
Delight for Aurelio Vidmar on the City bench. Disbelief for his players on the pitch. An unknown emotion for Matthew Leckie, wrapped in blooded bandages.
Full-time: Melbourne City 1-0 Melbourne Victory
Melbourne City win the A-League Men Championship!
90+7 min: And when play resumes Vergos concedes a dreadful foul competing for the first header.
90+6 min: Tilio time-wastes his way into the book, allowing his team to reset and force Miranda to take a free-kick deep in his own half.
There’s a further delay while the goalscorer Cohen is substituted for Talbot.
90+5 min: A minute of attack is just what City ordered and Ugarkovic holds the ball in the left corner to milk the clock.
90+4 min: It’s scrappy, desperate, and frantic, and still City manage to find a toe or a head to anything sent their way. Piscopo wriggles free on the left but Ferryra is equal to his cross, then City buy a foul in transition.
90+3 min: Victory are unable to find any momentum. City’s defensive structure and midfield desperation has been too much all night.
90+1 min: Another flashpoint, this time on Victory’s right touchline as Ugarkovic and Behich scrap for possession but concede a foul. Teague swings over a deep cross that finds Rawlins at the far post. He leaps high, but can’t direct his header on target.
90 mins: Leckie is a little lucky to stay on the field. Already booked, he dives in to a challenge that could well have been punished with more than a foul, but Kersey keeps it 11 v 11.
A minimum of seven minutes added time to be played.
89’ | Reno Piscopo and Jing Reec enter for Daniel Arzani and Zinedine Machach 🔄
MCY 1 – 0 MVC | #MCYvMVC
— Melbourne Victory (@gomvfc) May 31, 2025
87 mins: Arzani and Atkinson have battled hard all night and the latest flashpoint sees the Victory man needlessly bundle over his opponent on the touchline. A City substitute runs over to get involved and Arzani wafts his hand in front of his mouth dismissively in an indication his interlocutor has poor oral hygiene.
86 mins: City deal with a decent Arzani set-piece then Teague gives away a blatant yellow card for holding back Ugarkovic as City try to break. That felt like a significant moment. Victory were pressing, now City can slow everything down again.
85 mins: Victory keep coming though and earn a decent free-kick opportunity when Ugarkovic legs the marauding Miranda.
84 mins: City again allow Victory a spell of possession and territory, backing themselves in to find a challenge when required – which is borne out. Arzani continues to look dangerous, but as soon as he shaped to shoot his path to goal was blocked.
83 mins: The seagulls have arrived.
81 mins: Down the other end, Arzani has time on the left wing, cuts inside, and curls over a dangerous cross towards the far post. It beats Ferreyra and is headed away by Trewin – but straight into the arm of the flailing Argentine as he struggles to retain his balance. Victory are adamant it’s a handball penalty, but Kersey is unmoved. VAR chooses not to intervene either. Good. The VAR-era handball law is usually not fit for purpose, but on this occasion common sense prevailed.
80 mins: Lopane is straight into the action, winning a header then shooting smartly on the turn, but straight at Duncan.
79 mins: The classy Kuen is coming off for City with Lopane taking his place.
78 mins: Tilio is hacked down again and another Victory player is booked – Inserra this time. Leckie is incensed and runs in to remonstrate, sparking another minor melee. There’s been plenty of feeling on-field tonight. On another night it could have all kicked off. It still might.
76 mins: HOW IS THAT NOT 2-0!? City find Behich free on the left. He cuts back onto his right and has two unmarked men at the far post to cross towards. The delivery is faultless but Cohen, the farthest of the two, somehow heads wide from point blank range. That was an absolute stinker.
75 mins: Atkinson wins a full blooded 50:50 with Bos, then gets into a tussle with Arzani. It ends with him wrestling his former teammate to the ground and giving the assistant referee an earful for their correct evaluation of the fray.
74 mins: Cohen clips over the resulting free-kick, Trewin has a free header, but it’s always going high.
Fornaroli, who did little tonight, is replaced by Inserra. The injured Jackson also makes way for Vergos.
73 mins: Then City break and Rawlins hacks his way into the referee’s book after being skinned by Tilio.
71 mins: City concede territory for a spell and prove too compact for Victory to break down.
69 mins: Fornaroli buys another foul where he just stands and looks aggrieved when an opponent tries to win a ball he has no interest in actually controlling. That’s pretty much all he’s done tonight. He’s really cornered himself into a one-dimensional back to goal striker.
67 mins: Arzani wins a corner out of nothing, but before he can deliver there’s a melee in the penalty area with a stack of players from both sides involved. Jackson is irate, so is Behich, Ferreyra (on a booking) looks sheepish. Kersey lets it fizzle out and keeps his cards in his pocket. Replays show it all started when Ferreyra and Jackson got in each other’s grills trying to establish front position.
The corner does not cause a similar amount of comment.
66 mins: And that’s Caputo’s last action. He’s put in a decent shift leading the line, but he makes way for Memeti. Elsewhere, Jackson was down for quite a while after stumbling in the process of being wrongfooted by that long ball, and doesn’t look happy now he’s back on his feet.
65 mins: Massive opportunity wasted for City! A long ball downfield wrongfoots Jackson giving Caputo time and space to pick out one of two teammates. Instead he swivels and hammers a snapshot narrowly wide, seemingly unaware of how advantageous his situation was.
