Central Coast Mariners shock Melbourne City to become A-League Men champions

It was a wondrous night, an incredible night, something that was never expected and surely will never be repeated: a 6-1 victory to the Central Coast Mariners in the 2023 A-League Men grand final.

There was perhaps one moment where it could have been said to have turned. Samuel Silvera looked comfortable as he received the ball from Jason Cummings in the 34th minute of Saturday’s A-League Men grand final, his side ahead 1-0, almost as if the world was slowing down for him. He had started the game on the right and not looked comfortable, nervous even, with loose touches, errors, and turnovers uncharacteristic of his season.

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Perhaps recognising this, Mariners boss Nick Montgomery, denied ALM coach of the year honours earlier in the week based on a technicality, had switched him with Beni N’Kololo just over ten minutes prior and been immediately rewarded when the French winger broke down the right and set Cummings up, on his second attempt, to fire past Tom Glover in the City goal.

A lead secured and nerves settled, the Mariners began to rise like a tide, lifted by the wave of yellow and blue-clad supporters at their end of the ground. Conversely, City – the three-time defending premiers seeking to establish themselves amongst the pantheon of the greatest sides in Australian football history – looked off the pace in the final third. Marco Tilio, one of the brightest stars in the league, was finding space, only to send his efforts tamely at keeper Danny Vukovic.

And now Silvera was on the ball, looking up and seeing only Nuno Reis, a centreback shifted over to the right and instructed to stay home as Bos sprung forward in attack on the opposite side, in his way. Decision made, a sudden burst of pace, and he was beyond him, driving into the penalty area and driving a shot into the bottom corner of the net to make it 2-0 to the Mariners.

City responded – you knew they would, they’re too good not to – and pegged one back with five minutes remaining in the first half when Jamie Maclaren dragged a cutback to Richard van der Venne to hammer into the net. But thanks to Silvera, the Mariners had that two-goal buffer. At half time, club chief executive Shaun Mielekamp tweeted out a single word, part affirmation, part prayer, and part theft of intellectual property from the writers of Ted Lasso: “Believe!”

Ten minutes into the second half, Andrew Nabbout slid a ball through for Van der Venne to send past Vukovic but not past the rapid rearguard action of Nectarios Triantis. City was pressing, but the Mariners, in the best way possible, were desperate in their defending.

And then potentially the most remarkable half-an-hour in Australian football history occurred: a City collapse almost as epic as the tale being weaved by the Mariners.

In the 65th minute, Silvera turned his man and played through Cummings, who was tackled. Substitute Jacob Farrell lunged for the ball and was felled by Nabbout. Penalty to the Mariners, penalty for Cummings, and 3-1 with 25 to go.

Then there was another penalty, this time for a handball on Callum Talbot. Up stepped the ‘Cumdog’ and again the ball found the net. 4-1, a hat-trick and the record for the most goals in a single Mariner season for the Scottish-born Socceroo – who had confirmed on the broadcast it was his last game for the Mariners before heading overseas.

It was a humiliating collapse from a City side that has now been to four straight grand finals and lost three, and it became a rout when Silvera delivered a trivela onto the head of N’Kololo to make it 5-1 – an open-hand slap from the league’s smallest team, one whose uneven training pitch is prone to flooding and whose gym is a converted shipping container, to the ALM’s outpost of the City Football Group.

And then, just because they could, they added a sixth through Moresche.