Belated congratulations to all the Mariners fans, I watched the GF and was plenty entertained... Poppa shit the bed trying to close down a lead and the pacy little Brazilian and the young bloke that come on and scored one of the goals and set up the other changed the whole dynamic.. Great game, good atmosphere, loved the pitch invasion at the end, seemed like a lot of fun... Well done (for once from me) to the Aleague. 

Not sure - but it was at least trialled in Australia Cup a few years back: https://www.footballaustralia.com.au/news/football-australia-receives-approval-concussion-substitutes

Just a thought because I'm reading about concussions in the 'APL skint thread'.

Funny that in the NRL and AFL they have all these concussion protocols and we're all 'football is way safer' and yet in the GF blood was pissing out of both Kuol's and the other bloke's head and it was all 'bandage 'em up, nothing to see here'.

They're going to have to eventually do something about these head knocks. (Mind you I think you can belt your head into someone and have blood pissing out and not be concussed. Not all head collisions are concussions.)

Do they have concussion protocols in the A League?

..and this game wasn’t marred by VAR. It was totally about the football and going off in the moment.
Played in late May, it could almost have been part of a winter season too.
Now I can’t wait for this coming weekends fixtures, I can’t remember being so excited by upcoming domestic football in quite some time, I’m super looking forward to the season now… 
oh, wait

On paper Melb Vic had a lot of depth, which may have been too much depth. 

A lot of good MV players probably didn't play enough minutes over the season. The back four was pretty constant and Bruno was retained as a central striker. Teague was kept on the pitch at number 6. There were too many quality MV players juggled in the other 4 positions.

Names are names. One has to credit CCM with developing a good team unit over the season. IMO the players that stood out for CCM during the final were Vuka, Hall, Kaltak and Theoharos.

Also, Jackson often cleverly reverted  to a clever 3 at the back  when building up, like Bielsa, his mentor has done. Often they relied too much on accelerated attacks for mine, and didn't build up more patiently, but they got the job done. Jackson is easily the most successful  English trained coach in  AL history.

Given the high quality possession football MV played over the season, I'd retain Popa as coach for the Melbourne club.

I'm sure most MV fans disagree and want to sack him. It was the lack of end product from all the MV attacking interplay that was the problem. I saw so many MV shots that should have worked the keeper, mishit or go astray.  

It was a very good game with a fantastic atmosphere in Gosford.

I thought Victory were the better team  in the first half and up until when  Geria scored.

In hindsight Popovic made a tactical mistake  employing a Half Press and Partial Press, defending deep, when CCM had the ball, after the Geria goal was scored.

It was too easy for CCM to have the ball, or regain it easily in the transitions when CCM lost  it in the last 30 mins of regular time.   There weren't enough MV players in advanced positions up the pitch to continue undisturbed build ups like earlier in the game before Geria scored.

Over the season I thought Melb Vic played a lot of good football, but failed to convert goals in the  pen box from poor final  balls, or MV attackers did not  anticipate better balls. Only really had Paramount after the new years so didn't see Bruno when he was  scoring a lot of goals earlier in the season. After the Asian Cup  he struggled to convert goals.

screw the game or the families, apparently, they missed an opportunity for corporate hospitality 

Newscorp wankers with side columns about how a massive chance was blown by not playing at Allianz. I wouldn't trade anything for what was had Saturday night providing local families who've gone all season the chance to see a GF.

While I'm sure plenty of families would've driven down, I can't help but think the game in Sydney would've deterred some Mariners fans. More Victory would've fit and more neutrals would've gone but I don't think the potential 20k more would've been worth it here. This Gosford GF is etched into history now. 

It'll be interesting to see should Sydney FC host a GF. 

Good 14 or so minutes here on the GF.

https://iview.abc.net.au/video/RS2308V016S00

It was handed to the police.

Yengi did the same to Victory supporters after scoring against them for Adelaide.

Then perhaps Troisi was unprofessional twat too. ‘Lumps of metal’ from where?! Security did metal detector scans before entry didn’t they? I got scanned for metal before entering Aami park for 1st semi final. Plastic bottles or anything been thrown should be dealt with by security staff or police. 

correct, whinge whinge whinge.....

My whinge is wtih Muz, WTC is OTT, get those politics out of pre game let alone any sport so called entertainment.

Dumb of players but at the end of the day I don't care 

Lumps of metal thrown at the players during the game. They deserved everything they got. Seem to remember Triosi doing the same to the Cove as well. The Cove didn't throw anything at Victory players..

To be fair the iPhone was a nice touch 😂

I reckon that game summed up our season perfectly. We should have won the league by a street, but found a way to lose the GF against a bunch of no names. Some guy i have never heard of scores twice because Popa tries to save games instead of trying to win them. Its so frustrating to lose this way, because we never gave them a sniff before the equaliser. 

I said before the finals that Popa has to go, whether we win the toilet seat or not. Thanks for helping us rebuild, but you go with our blessing.

As for the behaviour of Edmondson. I've looked him up and he's only been in the A-League for 4 months. I wonder if he is aware of the events December 2022? I would suggest not. Otherwise he doesn't do what he did. We were criticised for throwing plastic cups at him.. but we'll wear that as it had the potential to be so much worse. 

They are not gang symbols, it was sign language and could roughly be translated as ‘Thank you for your hospitality. We really like Gosford. You are very nice people with a nice club’.  

The players are PAID to perform as PROFESSIONALS. The crowd are not. Join the dots

Edmondson & co. behavior was equivalent to team of 10 year old kids. Totally pathetic and uncalled for

Congrats Mariners.  That was the perfect game of football, right down to triumphing over the perfect villains. 

Did anyone who attended notice an increase in security or police presence? I'm just more curious how the large away support was monitored and whether riot police were waiting on Dane Drive.

Certainly I'd never want things to be like in Germany or even wilder but just curious about the security provisions for such a big event in what can feel like a more enclosed area. 

Why Melbourne supporters complaining about the celebrations back at them? 

You had half your gimp mask wearing squad unit throw up gang signs and throat slip gestures, oh no Edmonson did one back. 

Brains are rotting down under. 

Treble-winning captain and Central Coast Mariners legend Danny Vukovic has today announced his retirement from professional football after an incredible career 👏

Congratulations, Vuka! Thank you for the memories 💛💙

From everyone in the Mariners Family 🫶

Full story 🗞: https://bit.ly/3Vh7i5a

#CCMFC #TakeUsToTheTop

Due to work commitments could not get to the game and got up at 3 am to watch the replay.Fantastic atmosphere as you would expect at a small ground at full capacity.Committed display by both teams and Victory probably deserved their lead with Geria's 50th minute goal as they had shaded the locals in the first half.

I am not sure that Popa instructed his team to sit on a 1 nil lead as from what I can see the Mariners then imposed themselves on the game and with 3 at the back stifled Victory's midfield and pushed them back onto their back 4.The Victory defence was resolute and the Mariners could not find the key to unlock it but the introduction of Barcellos seemed to give impetus to the attack.Also Doka who had not been at his best started marauding down the right wing after Roux went off-the Brazilian was playing more as a wingback.

The interplay between Farrell,Edmondson,Nisbet and Barcellos for the big Englishman to score was brilliant and even more so for diPizio's goal with a clever pass from Nisbet to Barcellos and he put in a smart cutback to the youngster.

Alex King did a good job and neither side would have any complaints on that score..It was cheeky and inflammatory of Edmondson to celebrate in front of the Victory active but who knows what abusive comments they had been throwing his way during the match.

Pretty dumb them all going over. 

I saw a couple of his team mates trying to pull him away.

The Mariners have immense respect for the fans of the game including Victory fans, For the Victory active that slashed all 4 of Max Balard's tyres - not so much 

Imagine losing 5 grand finals...

I think, of those 5, his side has been genuinely outplayed twice (v Mariners 2013, v Adelaide 2016)
Once went to penalties, so that's just... football I suppose.
But twice, he's been up 1-0 away, conceded the equaliser in the dying minutes, and then gone on to lose in extra time. That's a straight up bottle-job.