Melbourne Metropolis boss Aurelio Vidmar in contrast bandaged midfielder Mathew Leckie to a Ferrari after their 1-0 A-League grand closing overcome rivals Melbourne Victory.
Yonatan Cohen struck the one purpose of Saturday’s derby within the tenth minute, slotting house on the rebound after Max Caputo’s looping effort bounced off the crossbar.
That was not the one incident of word, nevertheless, as Leckie turned out a Man-of-the-Match efficiency in an unfamiliar position, shielding the Metropolis again 4.
He denied Zinedine Machach a first-half equaliser with an excellent clearance off the road, then spent nearly all of the second half sporting a bandage throughout his face after a nasty collision with the identical participant left him with a gashed nostril.
Leckie gained 10 of his 15 duels within the sport, succeeding with two of his three tackles and enjoying extra passes into the ultimate third than some other Metropolis participant (13).
The Australia worldwide obtained the Joe Marston Medal as one of the best participant on the pitch as Metropolis gained their second A-League crown, additionally incomes excessive reward from his coach.
“He was monumental tonight for us, completely monumental,” Vidmar stated of Leckie.
“We let the Ferrari get out of the storage tonight, and he simply performed an unimaginable sport.”
Mathew Leckie is your Joe Marston medallist Finest on floor within the Isuzu UTE A-League Grand Closing.
What a warrior!
Extra particulars: https://t.co/GIvoUe6eGM#MCYvMVC pic.twitter.com/2gxcsOseJU
— Isuzu UTE A-League (@aleaguemen) Could 31, 2025
Reflecting on Metropolis’s derby win, which got here in entrance of a sporting report crowd of 29,902 at AAMI Park – the stadium shared by each Melbourne sides – Vidmar added: “It’s an unbelievable feeling, with the quantity of labor that we’ve finished all year long.
“We talked about earlier tonight, earlier than the sport, about all of the setbacks that we’ve had, all of the hurdles we’ve needed to face, and we appear to all the time have jumped over them and confronted them with adversity in a very optimistic manner.
“After which to see the reward that the boys have gotten tonight in a very, actually robust sport… it in all probability wasn’t the prettiest of grand finals, however it was gritty.
“We fought for each inch, and I’m so rapt for everybody.”
Victory coach Arthur Diles, in the meantime, felt his aspect have been no match for Metropolis’s physicality when it mattered most.
“It’s a outcome over one match that didn’t go our manner, and it doesn’t lower brief the success of our season,” Diles stated.
“We fell a bit of bit brief, not by means of an absence of attempting, and that’s soccer.
“It was aggressive, it was plenty of duels. If something, possibly we fell brief in that division by way of, at instances, getting bullied. However we tried. We gave it every part.”