Melbourne Victory head coach Tony Popovic has an 0-4 record in Isuzu UTE A-League title deciders. Ahead of attempt number five, Aussie football great Andy Harper discusses what a career-first Championship would do to his managerial legacy.
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Tony Popovic has been here before – but in four prior attempts, he’s never gone the distance.
The current Melbourne Victory boss has quite literally had his gaze fixed on the Isuzu UTE A-League’s Championship trophy, only to watch his Grand Final opponents clinch the silverware and hoist it aloft.
On two prior occasions, his team had won the Premiership before tasting Grand Final defeat: in 2013 at Western Sydney Wanderers, and 2019 at Perth Glory. Popovic reached two more Grand Finals at the Wanderers in 2014 and 2016 having finished second on the table in both seasons.
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This time around, Popovic will look to win an elusive Championship from third. Only two teams have managed to win the Championship from outside the top two: Victory in 2018, and Western United in 2022.
Considering Popovic’s Grand Final record, Network 10 commentator Andy Harper says “this match, for that very singular reason, is a very big one.”
“Because (that record) hangs now like an albatross for Tony Popovic,” Harper continued. “It’s a very unwelcome and undeserved record.
“Very clearly, Tony Popovic is fantastic for business. By and large over the course of the journey, he has proven that he can get teams into a competitive position, a challenging position. Now, that’s good for business. Because on the back of those performances, a club’s standing rises, attendances grow. For the business of football, Tony Popovic is great.
“On a personal level, he doesn’t want to come out of another Grand Final winless. That would be a horrible blow for a guy who is otherwise so good for business.
“His record shines like a beacon in successfully bringing teams to the point where they’re under consideration at the right end of the season.”
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Popovic’s 0-4 Grand Final record includes Perth Glory’s agonising penalty shootout defeat to Sydney FC in 2019, after 120 goalless minutes. It also includes Western Sydney’s 2-1 loss to Brisbane Roar – a game decided in extra-time.
“I can’t think to any of those Grand Finals where a Tony Popovic team, whether it was Western Sydney Wanderers or Perth Glory, got the yips,” Harper said.
“This is one of the vagaries of the system… it just never happened. It’s just that on the day they were either outplayed or circumstances got the better of them.
“If there is something in the ether, then we should all start believing in voodoo because that’s the only thing, other than one-off games where anything can happen, that’s stopped Popovic from winning a Grand Final as a coach.”
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At the end of his third full season as Victory coach, Popovic has the chance not only to break his Grand Final drought, but help the club to an equal league-record fifth title, level with bitter rivals Sydney FC.
He also is not alone in pursuit of a groundbreaking feat. A Championship would also be veteran striker Bruno Fornaroli’s first; he has never been to a Grand Final despite playing 186 league games and scoring 107 goals, the third-most of any player in the competition’s history.
Popovic has won the Australia Cup with Victory, the Premiers Plate with both Perth and Western Sydney and, unlike any head coach of any Australian club in history, can boast the unmatched feat of AFC Champions League glory, secured at the Wanderers in 2014.
“This is the one that remains,” Harper said.
“He’s won the Asian Champions League, no one has done that. He’s won multiple Premierships, he’s coached Victory to the Australia Cup. This is the big one, the biggest on our calendar that’s evaded him so far. It would complete the set.
“I wouldn’t presume that success on Saturday night would take any of the hunger away from Tony Popovic to keep going, but you would afford him the luxury of a quiet moment of reflection where he has won everything Australia has to offer. I don’t think that would be improper.”
Popovic’s Victory travel to face Central Coast at Industree Group Stadium on Saturday night.
