Lachlan Avil 
Roderick Miranda and Max Caputo battling it out in the third Melbourne Derby of the season. Photo: Marcus Robertson / Round Ball Australia.
The universal lexicon of footballing clichés tells you that for a derby, you throw out the form book. But for the first ever Melbourne Derby Grand Final in the A-League, you have to go further, you have got to throw out any notion that fools you into believing there is a predictable way this game will go.
Sure, Arthur Diles is a rookie coach. Aurelio Vidmar has lost a Grand Final once to Victory already in his career. Daniel Arzani is game-breaking at his best, but disappointingly ineffectual at his worst. Marco Tilio has had his season hampered by injury, yet has recovered into one of the league’s best.
City have the higher view from second on the ladder, but Victory will have the dominant support in the terraces of AAMI Park. All these factors are real, but in a game of this significance, tension and potential for history – it all comes down to moments.
Who is going to take the biggest of all derbies by the scruff of the neck and put their face dead centre on this page of Australian football folklore. The players know the stakes.
“Being a Melbourne boy, I know what these games mean,” said Melbourne City captain Aziz Behich.
“There’s no better way to end a season than a Melbourne Derby in a Grand Final.”
His opposite number, Melbourne Victory skipper Roderick Miranda echoes the same sentiment.
“It’s pretty special, especially considering it’s a derby I think it’s even bigger”, he said.
“Especially in Melbourne, for people in Melbourne and Victoria. Everybody’s really excited about this game, everyone’s really happy.”
Nishan Velupillay has been labelled what appears to be an optimistic “50-50” by the Victory gaffer, after he sustained an injury during their comeback semi-final victory over Auckland FC last week. January inclusion Mitch Langerak has not been included.
Both nominal left-backs Kasey Bos and Adama Traore are both included in the match day squad, which will force Diles into a tough decision as to whether to revert to the regular four in defence that has held Victory in good stead all reason, or continue with the three that was effective against Auckland.
City meanwhile – comparatively to the rest of their seasons – have a very consistent team that will largely look very familiar to the past month of the season.
A notable swap may come in the form of Socceroo, Mathew Leckie – who has been gradually returning to full fitness and was allowed 45 minutes in the second leg against Western United. Their inclusion to the match day squad is young talent Lawrence Wong – deemed fit to make an impact after fracturing his wrist playing for the club’s VPL1 side.
The Bruno Fornaroli factor cannot be ignored. Whilst not preferred to Nikos Vergos for most of the season, Fornaroli is a big game player. One that is a goal scoring centurion in the league but is yet to taste the ultimate glory of an A-League Championship, after making his first Grand Final last season in Victory’s defeat to the Mariners.
City boast the best defensive record of the season, whilst in recent months Victory’s resilience in the back third has improved.
The exclusion of Samuel Souprayen is a blow, but luckily for city German Ferreyra has come a long way since his first Melbourne Derby where he was played off the park and dragged at half time.
Joshua Rawlins and Joshua Inserra have both proved assured for Victory when called upon, but their selection is likely dependent of the shape of the team.
Assuming the fitness of Roderick Miranda and a left-back capable of running out the game, Diles will have a number of selection headaches, but can feel comfortable that any back lack he puts out is a proficient one.
Then there’s the Tilio vs Arzani battle. Two prodigies of the league that went to Europe (in fact, both to Celtic permanently and on loan respectively) and have returned due to injury and other circumstances.
At their best they are among the league’s top echelon of players. They have the moments of magic in them that can split apart defences and make their impact on a game of this magnitude. No doubt they are the two players with the largest weight of expectation heading into this game.
Those are the X’s and O’s to consider. But really, for a game that will be defined by emotion, history and moments; it feels somewhat futile.
At the end of this epic Grand Final, only one of these Melbourne Rivals will have the ultimate trump card to throw at their foes. The shouts of ‘we have the most Championships’ or ‘we went back-to-back-to-back’ will always be swatted away by the result of this game.
The stakes have never been higher.