Another season of A-League football comes to a close this weekend with the Central Coast Mariners hosting the Melbourne Victory in the 2024 Grand Final.
Industree Group Stadium in Gosford will host its first A-League decider but it won’t be the first time the Mariners have been the home team for one of these games.
In 2008 they hosted the Newcastle Jets at Allianz Stadium with the nominal visitors on the day winning that match 1-0.
However their most recent Grand Final memory is a much more pleasant one, demolishing Melbourne City 6-1 in last year’s decider.
As for the Victory, this will be their seventh A-League Grand Final appearance as they chase a record fifth championship.
Their most recent piece of silverware came in the 2021 Australia Cup and Tony Popovic’s men will be eager to add another trophy on Saturday night.
CENTRAL COAST MARINERS
Few people would have expected the Mariners to enjoy the success they have this season after the major changes following last year’s championship.
Not only did coach Nick Montgomery leave for Scotland, a number of key players also departed including star striker Jason Cummings.
However a number of clever signings including defender Mikael Doka and Olyroos attacker Alou Kuol helped address those departures.
It was a rough start for new coach Mark Jackson, with the side losing their first four games prior to the November international window.
All while juggling AFC Cup commitments, the Mariners then went on a remarkable run in the league that featured 17 wins, four draws and just two defeats to claim a third premiership in team history.
Having claimed their first trophy of the campaign, they then travelled to Oman, where Kuol’s 84th minute strike won the AFC Cup Final, leaving just the A-League Championship as the last piece of the treble puzzle.
MELBOURNE VICTORY
There really is no clear and succinct way to sum up what has been a confusing Melbourne Victory campaign.
Despite starting the season on a 15 game unbeaten run, they never quite reached the imposing levels they perhaps offered in the first two rounds.
Of those 15 games, nine ended in draws and seven finished with a final score of 1-1 before their first defeat on February 10 at home to Macarthur FC.
That run might not have yielded the points return that coach Tony Popovic would have liked, but it kept them in the title race in to April and also allowed them to finish the regular season in third.
After a dramatic penalty shootout win over Melbourne City in the Elimination Final, the Victory then went into a two-legged Semi Final with Wellington which produced plenty of drama.
Following on from a dull 0-0 draw in Melbourne, the second leg in Wellington saw a late equaliser from Wellington to send the tie into extra time before Chris Ikonomidis scored what would be the winner in the 12th minute of extra time.
Victory on Saturday night would give the club their eighth trophy overall and a record equalling fifth championship from 19 seasons.
GRAND FINAL BETS
Right, with all of the preamble out of the way, let’s take a look at the actual A-League Grand Final markets and find some best bets.
Understandably, Central Coast will start as favourites both in the 90 Minute Result market ($2.10) and the To Lift the Trophy market ($1.65).
However the Victory do have form heading into regional New South Wales and crushing a team with plenty of public support, knocking off the Newcastle Jets back in 2018 1-0.
But this Mariners team seems to have something about them, no matter the circumstance, they almost always find a way to get a positive result.
Extra time is certainly a possibility with two of the three meetings between these teams this season ending in draws but in the crunch time, I have to side with the club playing in front of their fans.
As for which player comes through on the big stage, well it was Alou Kuol in the AFC Cup Final and I’ll happily back him to score what may well be the only goal of the match.
This has all the makings of the game being a complete opposite of last season’s demolition job, with the Victory more than capable of turning this game into a scrap.
Backing the under has been a winner in all three of their finals matches and I’ll keep that trend going, while teaming up all three legs for a SGM.
BEST: Central Coast to Lift the Trophy $1.65
GOALSCORER: Alou Kuol Anytime Goalscorer
TOTAL GOALS: Under 2.5 Goals $1.88
SGM: Central Coast to Lift the Trophy, Under 3.5 Goals, Alou Kuol Anytime Goalscorer