Melbourne Derby (A-League)

The Melbourne Derby is an intra-city local derby in Australia's premier soccer competition, the Hyundai A-League. It is contested between two of the three Melbourne teams in the competition, Melbourne City and Melbourne Victory, and it was the A-League's first intra-city derby. Later, the second intra-city derby became Sydney FC versus Western Sydney Wanderers.

Melbourne Derby
A Melbourne Derby match at Marvel Stadium in 2015.
LocaleMelbourne
TeamsMelbourne City
Melbourne Victory
First meetingMelbourne Heart[lower-alpha 1] 2–1 Melbourne Victory
(8 October 2010)
Latest meetingMelbourne City 2–1 Melbourne Victory
(7 February 2020)
Next meetingTBC
Statistics
Meetings total32
Most winsMelbourne Victory (13)
Top scorerBesart Berisha (9)
Largest victoryMelbourne City 4–0 Melbourne Victory
(1 March 2014)

History

With the introduction of Melbourne Heart (who would later be known as Melbourne City) to the A-League at the start of the 2010–11 season (the Victory having joined the league at inception), the first derby was held on 8 October 2010 at AAMI Park. The match was originally scheduled for 2 October 2010 however due to the 2010 AFL Grand Final Replay occurring on the same day, the match was postponed.[1]

Melbourne Heart won the inaugural derby 2–1, with goals from Alex Terra and John Aloisi. Robbie Kruse scored for Victory. Aziz Behich was sent off late in the second half, but Heart were able to hold on and secure the win. Although the game was an official sell out, only 25,897 fans turned up, well short of AAMI Park's official capacity of 30,050. The Victory hosted their first home derby on 22 January at Docklands Stadium, with the match ending in a 2–2 draw.[2] The match was marred by an unacceptable tackle by Kevin Muscat on Adrian Zahra, which earned the Victory captain his second straight red card and a subsequent eight-match ban, ending not only his season, but his A-League career.[3]

The first scoreless draw in the derby occurred in the third round of 2011/12 season, whilst a record crowd at AAMI Park was in attendance for the second derby of the season. This derby was arguably one of the best in the rivalry's brief existence, with Heart midfielder Matt Thompson scoring twice in a matter of minutes late in the first half to put Heart in the lead 2–1, before Heart substitute Alex Terra scored controversially after appearing to handball preceding his goal in the second half. Heart would win the match 3–2.[4] The intense rivalry and passion between both sets of supporters occasionally boiled over, as occurred in February 2011 when four Melbourne Heart supporters were charged with "conspiracy to falsely imprison a [Victory supporter] ".[5]

In the 2014/15 season, Heart underwent a takeover by the City Football Group. Melbourne City had their first derby win under the new management that season, winning the pre-Christmas derby 1-0 with Erik Paartalu scoring one of the latest winners in a derby.[6] Victory and City later met in the Finals Series for the first time, in front of a derby record attendance of 50,873 at Etihad Stadium. Melbourne Victory won the Semi Final convincingly with a score of 3-0, with goals from Besart Berisha, Kosta Barbarouses and Archie Thompson.[7] The third derby of the 2015/16 season was marred by a series of flares let off both outside AAMI Park before the match and inside the arena during the match by some Melbourne Victory supporters. The poor behaviour from Victory fans also extended to "an alleged assault on TV news personnel outside the stadium, throwing missiles at Melbourne City player Thomas Sørensen and a Victoria Police officer, and altercations with police after the match".[8] Football Federation Australia subsequently issued Melbourne Victory a $50,000 club fine and a suspended three competition points deduction.[8] On the field, the match was lauded as one of the most "captivating" derbies of the rivalry and featured an incredible passage of play for a goal from City striker Bruno Fornaroli.[9] In Round 2 of the 2016/17 season, City recorded just their second ever derby win at Etihad Stadium, comfortably defeating Victory 4-1. The match featured the A-League debut of Socceroos all-time leading goal scorer Tim Cahill for City, who scored an incredible long-range goal to open City's account.[10] The February 2017 derby was a spiteful and controversial affair. Most notably City goalkeeper Dean Bouzanis, was suspended and forced to undergo an education course after ethnically slurring Victory striker Besart Berisha during the late stages of Victory's 2–1 win.[11] Tim Cahill was also red carded before even being entering the field of play, and Victory held on to record a stunning come from behind win.[12][13]

The two rivals have been drawn for an FFA Cup derby only once; in 2016 at the semi-final stage of the tournament. Melbourne City advanced to the Final, knocking out Victory 2-0 in what was one of the most physically confrontational clashes between the two rivals. The game was not without controversy, with Melbourne City's first goal of the match allowed to stand, despite the fact that Tim Cahill had seemingly interfered with Lawrence Thomas's line of sight whilst in an offside position.[14][15]

In the nine matches played from the start of the 2017/18 season to the end of the 2019/20 season, the teams shared three wins, three draws and three losses respectively, indicating a period of relative evenness between the rivals.

Matches

2010–19

2020–present
SeasonDerby
Comp*Date
Home team
Score
Away team
Goals (home)
Goals (away)
Venue
Attendance
2020–2133RSTBCVictoryCityTBC
34RSTBCCityVictoryTBC
35RSTBCVictoryCityTBC
* RS: A-League Regular Season, FS: A-League Finals Series, GF: A-League Grand Final, CUP: FFA Cup, AAMI: AAMI Park, Marvel: Docklands Stadium

Records & Statistics
  • Most Wins: 13, Melbourne Victory
  • Biggest Win: Melbourne City 4–0 Melbourne Victory (1 March 2014)
  • Most Consecutive Wins: 3, Melbourne Victory (7 February 2015 – 17 October 2015)
  • Most Consecutive Matches Undefeated: 5, Melbourne City (22 January 2011 – 5 October 2012)
  • Most Consecutive Games Without a Draw: 8, (21 December 2013 – 19 December 2015, 15 October 2016 - 20 October 2018)
  • Most Consecutive Draws: 3, (22 December 2018 – 21 December 2019)
  • Highest Goal Scorer: 9, Besart Berisha
  • Individual With Most Consecutive Matches Scored: 4, Besart Berisha (7 February 2015 – 19 December 2015)
  • Highest Attendance: 50,873. (8 May 2015)
  • Lowest Attendance: 15,791. (25 October 2016)
Competition City wins Draws Victory wins City goals Victory goals
League 118124446
Finals 00103
FFA Cup 10020
Total 128134649

Top goalscorers

Besart Berisha is the Melbourne Derby's all-time top goalscorer, with 9 goals
Player Club Goals
Besart Berisha Melbourne Victory 9
Archie Thompson Melbourne Victory 6
Kosta Barbarouses Melbourne Victory 5
Bruno Fornaroli Melbourne City 4
Ola Toivonen Melbourne Victory
Marco Rojas Melbourne Victory
John Aloisi Melbourne City 3
Fahid Ben Khalfallah Melbourne Victory
Robbie Kruse Melbourne Victory
David Williams Melbourne City
  • Players in Bold are still active for their club.

Players who have played for both clubs
Mate Dugandžić became the first player to transfer directly between the two Melbourne clubs, when he joined Melbourne Heart from Melbourne Victory in February 2011
Correct as of 6 January 2019
Player Melbourne City career Melbourne Victory career
Span League
apps		 League
goals		 Span League
apps		 League
goals
Aziz Behich 2010–2014 89 2 2009–2010 5 0
Christian Cavallo 2016 1 0 2015 0 0
Christopher Cristaldo 2016 0 0 2012–2015 4 1
Mate Dugandžić 2011–2015 75 13 2009–2011 36 7
Hernan Espindola 2015–2016 4 0 2013 0 0
Fred 2011–2013 38 3 2006–2007 20 4
Harry Kewell 2013–2014 16 2 2011–2012 25 8
Anthony Lesiotis 2018–2019 1 0 2019–present 6 0
Luke O'Dea 2013–2014 0 0 2012–2013 2 0
Paulo Retre 2013–2017 53 1 2011–2012 0 0
Kristian Sarkies 2010–2012 12 2 2005–2007 35 3
Tando Velaphi 2013–2015 22 0 2011–2013 3 0
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See also

Notes
  1. At the time the club was known as Melbourne Heart

References
  1. "First Melbourne derby delayed". The Age. 27 September 2010.
  2. "Victory, Heart draw first derby at Docklands Stadium". Archived from the original on 13 February 2011. Retrieved 27 October 2010.CS1 maint: BOT: original-url status unknown (link)
  3. "Kevin Muscat banned for eight games for tackle on Adrian Zahra". Herald-Sun. 28 January 2011. Archived from the original on 13 February 2011. Retrieved 12 February 2011.
  4. "Melbourne Heart defeat Melbourne Victory 3-2 in cracking A-League derby at AAMI Park". Fox Sports News. 23 December 2011.
  5. "A-League: Melbourne derby rivalry turns nasty". Herald Sun. 26 February 2011.
  6. "Melbourne City 1-0 Melbourne Victory: Paartalu nets dramatic winner". Goal.com. 20 December 2014.
  7. Muscat hails 'deserved' Victory triumph Official FFA Match Report, 9 May 2015
  8. "Melbourne Victory accepts $50,000 fine and suspended points deduction handed down by FFA". ABC News. 17 February 2016.
  9. "A-League Melbourne derby: Bruno Fornaroli's Magic lights up game as 10-man City hold on for draw". Sydney Morning Herald. 13 February 2016.
  10. "Melbourne Victory's noisy neighbours take over the party and stake a claim to be top dogs". Fairfax Media. 16 October 2016.
  11. "Melbourne Derby: Dean Bouzanis apologises for Besart Berisha gypsy slur". ABC News. 5 February 2017.
  12. "Incredible derby finale as Victory snatch late win over City". The Age.
  13. "Tim Cahill Red Card in Melbourne Derby before entering pitch". YouTube. Retrieved 10 December 2017.
  14. "Luke Brattan awarded goal from 25m shot for City to lead despite Tim Cahill drifting into off-side spot". Fox Sports Australia. Retrieved 23 December 2017.
  15. Lynch, Michael. "'Two sets of rules': Melbourne Victory coach fuming at referee after loss to City". Sydney Morning Herald. Fairfax Media. Retrieved 23 December 2017.
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