By Greg Blake
Big games entice big crowds and invite big moments. Grand finals provide the blank canvas upon which champions craft masterpieces. Sunday’s NPL grand final had moments and heroes alright, and Lakeside Stadium fairly throbbed with the insatiable energy of its halcyon days.
John Anastasiadis’ mighty Warriors edged out Dandenong City 2-1 in a gripping grand final, played before nearly 9,000 fans. And at 8.43pm on Sunday evening Heidelberg United Alexander completed its ascension to champion status.
Nature celebrated the game with the gift of Melbourne’s warmest day since forever. Ideal for the season decider. Delightful. But the night sky around 9pm was simply perfect and the once trepidatious Alexander fans knew all was right in their world. Afternoon had long given way to evening, yet the sun’s glow was still peeking over the horizon like a distant bushfire, the warm amber hue bleeding into the darkened night sky. Yellow and black.
Fitting really, after an evening in which this often sublimely beautiful 2025 Heidelberg United team wrote their own chapter in club history by becoming who we always thought – no, believed – they were. Champions. Dandenong City, the underdog upstarts, who stopped being bullied by the big kids around two months back, were as game as the Kelly gang.
The game itself was an old-fashioned nail-biter in the end. A Bul Juach penalty on the cusp of half time and a Max Bisetto show-stopper out of the break might have ended the contest abruptly. In hindsight, I’m glad it didn’t.
Who else but ‘Raging Bul’ to open the scoring? Treated to a superb back-spinning loft by Collins from deep, Juach committed to powering into the area, before his legs were swept away by the diving torso of Hajduk keeper, Pierce Clarke. Clarke’s reward? The chance to stop the resultant penalty, delivered by a player more comfortable from the dot than most going around. Clarke never stood a chance. No-one was surprised at the outcome.
Bisetto was honoured with the Jim Rooney Medal – so-named to honour a former Heidelberg United and Socceroo legend – and awarded to the grand final’s best player. The medal could have been shared by half-a-dozen others. I thought Yaren Sozer had won it before half time. Inside sixty seconds, actually. The premium blend of artisanal goalkeeping; desperation, anticipation and breathtaking athleticism.
Sozer’s out-stretched toe averted a 36th minute crisis, but the corner conceeded produced two very close-range efforts in rapid succession, both clawed away with lurches to the left by Sozer, as he channelled his inner feline
That said, Bisetto offered up a moment in time which will become grand final folklore. Once witnessed, unforgettable. And uncannily similar to the Andrew Cartanos masterpiece which put the Bergers 2-0 up in the 2018 grand final win over Avondale. Grand final worthy.
With the game 52 minutes old, Fletcher Fulton stabbed a left-footer outside for Bisetto, who hooked the ball in and sweep square and inside. Within three strides Bisetto’s pace off the mark had earned him a half yard over the tracking defender. Bisetto swivelled as if to traverse the penalty area perimeter, instead unloading a deftly swerving right-footer through the sliver of a gap between three defenders and just out of Clarke’s reach.
The finish perfectly precise and deliciously deadly. Bisetto crowned the moment with a joyous Rocky the Flying Squirrel-type leap onto the massive high-jump mat laying invitingly to the right of the goalface. Not surprisingly, he was joined by several teammates all keen on bouncing alongside him.
They didn’t reckon on the more critical bounce back. By Hajduk. Within two minutes. Tim Atherinos responded – on the run to the top of the penalty area – with a savagely emphatic screamer, delivered perfectly enough to elude diving Yaren Sozer’s outstretched fingertips. That goal on 54 minutes reduced the deficit and sent a shot of adrenalin through the entire refuse-to-lose Dandenong City cast and crew.
Alexander – largely unflappable and always unerring in their processes, regardless of circumstance – didn’t really look like losing. But seat belts were advisable for the closing half hour. Jack Webster polarises, but the veteran’s bluff and bravado lifts those around him and his ‘it’s the grand final, so all bets are off’ approach helped lift the game to an edgy and memorable climax.
Was there any moment more defining of this marvellous grand final than the restrained but palpably tense volatility of the chest-to-chest show of strength between Webster and Alexander’s no-nonsense Fletcher Fulton, as they postured and flexed awaiting a late-game Hajduk corner kick. Probably an exchange of f-bombs in the mix as well.
Tempers frayed at the death. Big boys. Stakes high. Long night at the office. It’ll happen. But Collins – and Anthony Lesiotis – had both been targeted all too frequently from the off and by the time Collins and Webster tangled again into stoppage time things came unnervingly close to gloves-off and score settling wild west saloon-style.
How Collins and Lesiotis – both figureheads and leaders, the types you construct your teams around – were the first two players booked in Sunday’s grand final is beyond me. And how was Jack Webster’s leap and left-forearm clearance of Asahi Yokokawa’s 20th minute free kick into the penalty area – apparently spotted by a bloke (and his dog) watching from a balcony three blocks away – was missed by an entire team of match officials?
Thankfully these were aberrations, rather than extensions of the recently fashionable trend of Alexander copping blatantly crap decisions in the biggest of games. The Warriors might have wrapped the grand final up with a late-game third goal, but the theatre of the rousing finish gave the 9,000 fans the full ninety minutes
As has been the case in every one 38 games thus far this season, this current day Heidelberg team unearths heroes when and as required, But quick grand final shout-outs to Sabit Ngor, who had the chainsaw buzzing from the get-go, and the mercurial Jamal Ali. His battle with the hamstring problem obvious, Ali braved the big game, played well and still managed a couple of hold-your-breath moments. And because it’s all about team I’ll mention Mo Aidara and Ryan Lethlean as well. I think that covers the starting eleven.
As soulless as Lakeside Stadium can feel these days, it will retain the spirit of John Anastasiadis for all time. He coached the club of his childhood and early playing days to Sunday’s championship at the ground by the lake, just as he coached Bentleigh Greens and South Melbourne before that to grand final success at the same venue. JA also played a massive playing role in successive South Melbourne NSL championships, back in the days when it was Bob Jane Stadium and the joint was jumping, as it did once more last Sunday
The calibre and reputation of Nick Tolios as both a coach and simply as a decent human being are beyond reproach. No platitudes offer succour, consolation or sanctuary to the vanquished, at least not now, and possibly for some time to come.There was no disgrace in losing this grand final for the ages. And Tolios has done a sensational job with Dandenong City.
With blokes like JA and Tolios maintaining key roles, the integrity and health of the Victorian game is guaranteed and in very good hands.
To Johnny A and his coaching and support crew, the physios and medicos, the skipper, Benjamin Collins, and the entire record-smashing playing squad – that irrepressible Band of Brothers who gathered a legion of hearts and allegiances along the way in 2025 – simply, thank you.
You blokes played with style and tenacity in equal portions. You showed grace and collective integrity at all times. You exemplified character in bouncing back in the face of both premiership and Dockerty Cup disappointments. The classy post-game speech from the skipper after Sunday’s grand final is testimony to the manner in which you’ve conducted yourselves all season long.
You blokes gave us the big moments and filled our hearts with pride. Along with massive adrenalin rushes! And there were the more subtle moments, liberally sharing the joy of the game with supporters at the grounds and – more poignantly – with all the wide-eyed and impressionable kids who’ll never forget belting out the song with the senior players after a win.
Of course the Australia Cup final and the new Aussie championship are on the October horizon. But for right now, on grand final night 2025, Alexander supporters can sleep well knowing all is right and rosy.
And to this marvellous group of players, you thoroughly deserved Sunday’s success, A tangible legacy to chisel in stone a largely extraordinarily 2025 campaign and forge a forever bond between this Band of Brothers.
We were just lucky to come along for the ride. So again, just thanks.
Plant the flag and cue the song. The Victorian championship is back where it belongs.
Warrior Nation!
