It’s a weekend of firsts for Melbourne City and Melbourne Victory in the A-Leagues.
On Saturday and Sunday, a pair of Melbourne Derbies in the Isuzu UTE A-League and Liberty A-League will take place on the same weekend for the first time in history. The Sunday instalment of the Melbourne Derby is a Liberty A-League Preliminary Final – the first ever Finals Series meeting between the two clubs across both competitions.
But in many ways, it’s also a weekend of familiarity for two clubs used to battling it out for high stakes: on the men’s side it’s a battle for ascendancy in the top six, with fifth-placed Victory within reach of league-leading City if they capitalise on their four games in hand.
On the women’s side, the two clubs are vying for one spot in next weekend’s Grand Final, an occasion both clubs have become accustomed to reaching in the past, with Victory and City winning one of the last two title deciders each.
READ: EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW AHEAD OF THE LIBERTY A-LEAGUE PRELIMINARY FINAL
Together, the two teams at each club have also competed for the newly-established Club Championship – another trophy added to the A-Leagues honour roll this season for the club with the highest combined points tally across both competitions, a reward for investment across the board.
City and Victory’s women’s sides have done their bit through the regular season – now it’s up to the men’s to carry the baton to the finish line.
For two clubs accustomed to achieving success on all fronts, the weekend’s derby fixtures will add another chapter to a rivalry battled with ferocity in both the men’s and women’s game.
Captain of City’s men’s outfit Scott Jamieson says the clubs who compete for all the silverware on offer across the A-Leagues show clear understanding of the importance of both the men’s and women’s competitions to their collective success.
“I think it comes down to: one – investment, and two – an identification that the women’s program is a very important one for the football club,” Jamieson told KEEPUP.
“I can only speak on behalf of our club, but from the outside watching the (Liberty A-League) Melbourne City have always been a real flag bearer, Sydney FC of late in the last few years have been fantastic and Melbourne Victory you have to say over the last year or two have definitely shown an investment into their women’s program.
“But when it comes to our football club and the people running it, it’s always been said there’s a real sense (that) women’s football is very important to our football club, we want to be successful on that front. It comes down to people that run the football club but also people that invest in and value our women’s game very highly. It’s great to be part of a football club that does that.”
FEATURE: ‘MENTALITY OF STEEL’ THAT DRIVES TORI TUMETH, CITY’S UNSUNG HERO
City and Victory are two of four A-Leagues clubs (Sydney FC, Brisbane Roar) to have been crowned Champions of both the men’s and women’s competitions throughout history. The two clubs have won a combined six Liberty A-League Championships, and five more in the Isuzu UTE A-League.
Jamieson arrived at City in 2017, joining a men’s side bereft of success with the weight of expectation becoming heavier by the season.
At that time City’s women’s side had quickly become a dominant force. Founded in 2015, City won three consecutive Liberty A-League Championships from their inaugural season onward.
It was a team brimming with Matildas; an imperious City side which lived up to the club’s expectation of success – and set the bar for the men’s side to follow.
“The people inside the football club running the football club on a daily basis, they have a keen eye on making sure our women’s team and men’s team are the best in the country,” Jamieson said. “That’s a testament to everyone involved at this club, the women’s program has been a fantastic one, it’s always aimed to be number one and history says that.”
History also states that success in the Liberty A-League has been directly transferable into the Isuzu UTE A-League at City. When you look at the career path of men’s head coach Patrick Kisnorbo, you see a former club captain who took the reins of the club’s youth team, achieving success with the women’s side before guiding the men’s outfit to the Premiership/Championship double last season.
“There’s no real ceiling in regards to what could happen if you’re on the men’s or the women’s side, you’re able to go between both and that’s clear,” Jamieson said.
“There’s no ceiling, there’s no box that our women’s program gets put in, it’s an important one our club focuses on.”
NEDS WEEKEND PREVIEW: MELBOURNE DERBIES TAKE CENTRE STAGE
City were pipped to the post in the Liberty A-League Premiership race by Sydney FC this season, and the Sky Blues compounded City’s misery with a Semi-Final triumph which set up this weekend’s Melbourne Derby double-header.
To have the chance of adding a fifth Liberty A-League Champions trophy to the cabinet, City will have to get past a hungry Victory outfit; a club like City in the sense of being no stranger to success in the competition.
Lia Privitelli is six years into her Victory stay. The attacking midfielder says she couldn’t imagine playing for any other club due to the ‘good people’ at the club, its professionalism and the seriousness in which it takes its women’s program.
“Our club has a really good foundation, with all the operations and everyone that does work behind the scenes,” Privitelli told KEEPUP.
“Our chairman (Anthony Di Pietro) for example who has been there for years, right down to someone like (head coach) Jeff Hopkins. I signed my contract when he signed his first contract, Jeff has been there as long as I’ve been there; I guess having that consistency with staff really allowed the women’s game to progress the way it has, especially at Victory.
“I can’t fault Victory; I think that’s why I’ve stayed for as long as I have because they’ve just been on a personal level fantastic to me, I don’t know why I’d ever leave such a welcoming, family environment. I honestly don’t see myself going anywhere else.”
Privitelli says there’s a growing connection between the women’s and men’s programs at Victory which is helping both teams in their collective mission to fill the club’s burgeoning trophy cabinet.
“All our games are a double-header before the men’s which for us, the girls absolutely love that, and I hope that other clubs can follow suit as well,” she said.
“Because of those double-headers we’ve had a pretty strong connection in terms of the men watching parts of our game, then we get invited to the chairman’s function at every home game where we get a sit down meal and get to watch the men’s game in a very lovely room with fantastic views, so there has been quote a bit of a connection this year.
“Victory take pride in winning and bringing home silverware; that’s something that’s important to everyone, and everyone who comes to the club knows that’s part of our vision.
“Everyone is doing their piece from admin to players to make sure we can get that for the club, and more importantly for the fans.”
For the first time in A-Leagues history, that collective push for titles from both the men’s and women’s teams at a club is being measured in the inaugural Club Championship – a competition which collates the points accumulated by clubs with both a men’s and women’s side into one table, with the winners to be honoured by the end of the men’s campaign.
City lead all comers at this stage of the 2021/22 campaign. Jamieson says his club’s approach to the Club Championship is the same as with every other title which goes on the line each season: there’s a trophy, go out and hunt for it.
“I think every club will be able to reflect on that season and how their men’s and women’s programs have gone, but it also gives a club an opportunity to be tagged as the best club in Australia due to the fact that both their men’s and women’s programs have been so successful,” he said.
“It’s not something we talk about day to day, but definitely come the end of the season I can state that for us to win the Club Championship all be a great feat, because that means both the men’s and women’s programs have been successful.”
Jamieson says he’ll be on hand to watch City’s Melbourne Derby Preliminary Final bout; it’s the kind of support expected from players of the men’s side and vice versa.
City head into the weekend expecting to progress to the Liberty A-League Grand Final after finishing two places higher than Victory in the regular season. But City will know – just as the club’s men’s side will know when heading into Saturday’s derby clash – that when these two clubs meet, no stone is left unturned in the quest for crosstown bragging rights.
Privitelli says it best herself: “I think as a group, we’re quite competitive. If you were to come down to a training session you would see that straight away.
“The game against Adelaide (last weekend) , there was a chance that would be our last time together, our last time with everyone being on the field, possibly our last training session would’ve been done, we wouldn’t have had anything else.
“I think that just hit us. There was no chance that was happening, we wanted to keep going.
There was a core group of us training together maybe in July or August during lockdown, so we’ve been together for quite some time.
“We weren’t ready to let go. We threw everything at that game, and I think that’s just our mentality: we’re competitive, but also really good friends and just want to keep this thing going for as long as possible.”
