Decentric you have made comments about the refereeing not having any impact on the game. There are 7 incidents that I will bring up that show how bad the refereeing was and most of these call favoured Wanderers over Adelaide, but that is not really the issue to me. I will call things against Adelaide such as La Rocca getting away with an elbow to the head last season and as I mentioned above O'Doherty getting a second yellow card instead of a straight red for a tackle last season. Both clear errors.

1. Bonevacia tackle on Isaias. This was a late, high, studs showing lunge that caught the calf just below the knee. 100% red card, given a yellow.
2. Melling tackle on Elsey. This was a two foot studs showing lunge, was only slightly late, but the only thing that could have made it worse was if it was also high. 100% red card, seems Peter Green missed the details of it as it was only a free kick.
3. Risdon tackle on Absalonsen breaking down the left. This deserved to be a yellow, it is given time after time in the A-league, for stopping a promising attack without even looking at the nature of the tackle. The tackle itself was very late I think was clearly reckless so should have been a yellow for that reason as well. Some have said it should have been a red card, maybe they have a point. However 100% yellow, free kick given
4. Aspropomatis elbow to the head. Asporpomatis was on a yellow card when he contested a heading contest and elbowed the Adelaide player in the head. It was a situation when he came in quickly from behind on an Adelaide player who was jumping up on the spot to head the ball. I feel this was a yellow card which would have been his second.
5. Isaias tackle on Bonevacia. This showed the frustrating inconsistency of the referee. I don't have a huge problem with Isaias getting a yellow card, although he did get the ball, but it was no where near as bad the tackle on him or the Risdon tackle which went without a card. 
6. Ben Warland definitely was throwing his body around and making a number of fouls for a period in the first half. While, perhaps, none of the incidents on their own deserved a yellow card, although a couple certainly went close, as a total there is no doubt Warland should have received a yellow card.  
7. The penalty was a joke, Santalab did not contest for the ball, he just bent over so what would have been a normal contest for the ball saw Isaias go over the top of him. 

Risdon and Warland both received yellow cards later in the game. I think both were for stopping promising attacks. SO we saw two attacks stopped by players taking one for the team which they would not have been able to do if they had been correctly given. So is two clear examples of how the quality of the game suffered because the referee did not do his job correctly.

Now I am sure there were other incidents that could be highlighted as well which I don't remember and maybe some of them helped Adelaide when they should not have done so but it seems the majority of worst decisions went against Adelaide. This on top of the missing of two Victory red cards on Friday night makes it hard to think we have not been hard done by in the last two games.

Now you've listed them like you have 1, 3, 4,5 6, and 7 are all good points.

As I said before even with the replay I thought Elsey/Melling was a 50/50 tackle, but you are correct on all  other 6 incidents.

Fair play to you.

Was this the game last season where Adelaide hit the post twice late on only for Victory to steal it at the death?

Yeah and I have no problem (besides the whole thing being based every year on whims instead of criteria) with Sydney getting to host the final.

Scenario 1 - give the final to Adelaide, Arnie whinges and complains and media beats up the story, FFA cops another slagging.
Scenario 2 -  Adelaide fans whinge about east coast bias, FFA cops another slagging.

I agree Roly's was real bad. He just basically attacked him with no effort to disguise it as an attempt on the ball.
But I remember being just amazed that he did it. He is so very skillfull as a player and was the highlight when watching the Nix and I cant recall him ever acting out like this for them either.
I didnt think he had it in him or was that type of player.

fixed,

Ha ha there's less of us though and our coach would be relatively gracious.

FTR I don't hate Arnie like others but there is no doubt he would kick up more of a fuss (and be asked for the quotes) more if the decision went our way

Now you've listed them like you have 1, 3, 4,5 6, and 7 are all good points.

As I said before even with the replay I thought Elsey/Melling was a 50/50 tackle, but you are correct on all  other 6 incidents.

Fair play to you.

In honesty until the FFA come up with some sort of criteria for the final, this will happen every year. 

Perhaps it should go on some sort of ranking system, i.e. the side who has beaten the most A-League sides, or highest ranked A-League sides gets to host. 

I mean yeah, it could be anything, even just goal difference.

I thought it was a 50/50.

i don't think goal difference is fair because if you play NPL games the whole way through, you're likely to have the higher goal difference. I think the tie breaker should be the team who beats the most HAL clubs along the way. If the finalists are level on that stat, then use goal difference as the tiebreaker. 

Leichhardt out

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/football/a-league/ffa-cup-final-venue-coopers-stadium-favourite-after-leichhardt-oval-ruled-out-due-to-ground-work/news-story/a4791a7d498e0232073a1e11a9c837ea

Expect a delay from FFA as they now need to search harder for a venue that isn't in Adelaide

Leichhardt out

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/sport/football/a-league/ffa-cup-final-venue-coopers-stadium-favourite-after-leichhardt-oval-ruled-out-due-to-ground-work/news-story/a4791a7d498e0232073a1e11a9c837ea

Expect a delay from FFA as they now need to search harder for a venue that isn't in Adelaide

Good point re goal difference

I've always said just do a draw for the final when the semi-final draw is done. Have balls numbered 1 (winner of semi 1) and 2 (winner of semi 2). Whichever is drawn first is the home team. Eliminates any confusion over where it might be played.

Random draws only work when venue availability is good. In the early rounds you can get away with the odd stadium like Gabbie or Marden no worries. But a final needs to be a tier above and it really comes down to a small number of venues (potentially only 1 in some cities) being available. Randomly drawing the home team is the fairest but the grounds still need to be available.

71k watching the game. Safe to say this corner shop competition is here to stay. This is a massive contradiction to what the almighty paulc had to say. 

Who do I believe though.

It is not so much WHEN Melling arrived, it was a loose ball which both players had to attack, a bit like the incident that lead to Vargas's injury. It is HOW Melling arrived that is the major problem, in the Vargas incident both players went in hard but fairly, in this incident one went in fairly, the other lunged in with excessive force. Two feet off the ground studs showing. As I said before this should be a red card even if contact is not made with the other player. It is so far out side what is acceptable the player has to be sent off.

I would have thought you of all people on here would know the laws of the game but here is the applicable law,

Serious foul play

A tackle or challenge that endangers the safety of an opponent or uses excessive force or brutality must be sanctioned as serious foul play.
Any player who lunges at an opponent in challenging for the ball from the front, from the side or from behind using one or both legs, with excessive force or endangers the safety of an opponent is guilty of serious foul play.

The bolding is mine and I feel applies completely to what Melling did, a text book case of exactly what not to do when tackling.

TBF the shire has 17% of SFC fanbase so they could play at Cronullas ground. 

As much as Arnie would crack the sads, the right place to host is Adelaide. Sydney FC played the state league side in the semis, Adelaide travelled to play another aleague team.The only time this wasn't the case was when Victory played Hume and then hosted the final against Perth

It's at Allianz