Melbourne City enter this Saturday night’s A-League Grand Final with a better record than their opponent across the course of the season and every chance of taking away a trophy that would mean they have twice conquered the mountain.
City won 14 home and away games in 2024/25, the men in darker blue from Melbourne won just 12. Close to level on goals scored, City were well ahead in terms of goals conceded: a crucial metric around the world when it comes to the team best credentialed to claim titles.
Victory conceded 36 times during the season proper and City fared far better with the net bulging at their end just 25 times. With Auckland FC out of the picture, coach Steve Corica as grumpy as he has ever been, and the grand final set up for a ripping encounter at AAMI Park in Melbourne this Saturday night, it should and does lean the way of City.
However, as the past has shown us quite clearly, that is where it potentially all goes wrong for the club that has just seen its women’s team dramatically dumped from the A-League Women’s in the semi-finals despite not having lost a match all season.
The added kick in the guts was the women’s loss in the final of the Asian Champions League last Saturday night, when the team lost on penalties to Wuhan Jiangda.
It was without doubt, a bad week for City, yet the comprehensive manner in which the men’s squad handled Western United would have brought new breath into the relatively small number of supporters that will be in AAMI Park this Saturday.
Melbourne Victory will have far more vocal fans in the stadium, the atmosphere created will be all due to them and not the humble and muted voice that emanates from the people supporting City. It is the simple reality that so many people find irritating about the club owned by the City Football Group, a body with teams and interests all over the world and more money than one could poke the proverbial stick at.
Harry Politidis of Melbourne City (L) celebrates a goal during the round 17 A-League Men match between Melbourne City and Western United at AAMI Park. (Photo by Graham Denholm/Getty Images)
The broadly held view is that the old Melbourne Heart, eventually taken over thanks to the investment of CFG, has almost no fans, little meaningful history and without the outside influence, would be long gone from the A-League. It is a harsh view, especially to the few thousand that do turn up and love their team.
Yet there is certainly an element of truth to the opinion that when it comes to the plasticity of clubs, a horrible and awful measure that fans of the game use to insult clubs without the long forged traditions and periods of success enjoyed by some, Melbourne City might well be the best example ever seen in Australia.
The above is used by many to suggest something of a weak underbelly or a lack of fortitude that prevents the team from rising up in moments when a reaction is required. City’s record in recent grand finals does little to disprove those claims.
The 2024/25 decider will be the fifth time in six seasons that Melbourne City has played on the final day of the season. Despite topping the ladder in three of those seasons and finishing second in another, only once (2020/21) has the men’s team managed to celebrate the way many think it should be doing more frequently.
Things were looking perfect for the Melbourne City women season before things fell apart in the semi-finals. (Photo by James Worsfold/Getty Images)
Four grand finals in succession brought just the one triumph and a loss to Victory would see City extend its lead as the least successful club when it came to battling things out in grand finals. Of course, it is an achievement to get there, but City’s squad is always stacked, well bought and planned, with this season’s injury list early in the campaign evidence of just how deep they play as a group and how far the resources extend.
We have seen Victory come from the clouds before, claiming an unlikely championship and they may well do so off the back of Zinedine Machach and Daniel Arzani, with City the perennial loser once again. However, a loss for Victory would still offer them something, as an early coaching departure and a bit of a scrap to rebuild saw a rocky first third of the campaign.
Arthur Diles now has the chance to win a championship with Victory as head coach, one that he probably never though he would be competing for, and potentially relegating City to the runner-up scrapheap for the fourth time in six years.
It will be a tough pill to swallow for City fans should it happen, yet they have the team to win it. One wonders whether history overrides the talent and causes them to freeze in the headlights, as they have done in the past.
If that is the case, the giggles around Melbourne City will continue.
Stuart Thomashttps://https://ift.tt/go1vB0r City can’t afford to freeze in the headlights again – or they’ll start to look like a bit of a joke
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