 | |||||||
| Event | 2021–22 A-League Men | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| |||||||
| Date | 28 May 2022 | ||||||
| Venue | AAMI Park,Melbourne | ||||||
| Joe Marston Medal | Aleksandar Prijović (Western United) | ||||||
| Referee | Chris Beath | ||||||
| Attendance | 22,495[1] | ||||||
| Weather | Clear 8 °C (46 °F) 76%humidity[2] | ||||||
←2021 2023 → | |||||||
The2022 A-League Men Grand Final was the 17thA-League Men Grand Final, the championship-deciding match of the AustralianA-League Men and the culmination of the2021–22 season. The match was played between season premiers and defending championsMelbourne City andWestern United on 28 May 2022 atAAMI Park inMelbourne.
The match was Melbourne City's third consecutive and overall A-League Men Grand Final, while it was Western United's inaugural feature in the Grand Final. Western United won 2–0. This was the first A-League Grand Final to feature two teams of the same city, with both teams representing Melbourne. Western United's win saw the club became just the second expansion side ever to win the A-League Championship, the quickest expansion side to win it, the first team to triumph in their first Grand Final appearance sinceBrisbane Roar in2011, and one of just two teams to have won the Championship after finishing outside the top two, withMelbourne Victory first achieving this feat in2018.[3]
In the following table, finals until 2004 were in the National Soccer League era, since 2006 were in the A-League era.
| Team | Previous grand final appearances (bold indicates winners) |
|---|---|
| Melbourne City | 2 (2020,2021) |
| Western United | None |
The 2021–22 season was the league's seventeenth since its inception in 2005, and the 45th season of top-flight association football inAustralia. Twelve teams competed in the regular season, with each team playing a total of 26 matches, resulting in an uneven fixture that involved some clubs meeting three times and others meeting only twice. The top six teams qualified for the finals series, which were played in a straight-knockout format, with the top two teams earning an automatic place in the semi-finals and the bottom four teams playing off in elimination finals.[4] One change made was that both semi-finals were now two-legged fixtures with the two winners of the semi-finals on aggregate meeting in the grand final.[5]Melbourne City andMelbourne Victory qualified for the semi-finals by virtue of finishing first and second respectively, whilstWestern United (third) metWellington Phoenix (sixth) in the first elimination final andAdelaide United (fourth) took onCentral Coast Mariners (fifth) in the second elimination final.
| Melbourne City | Round | Western United | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021–22 A-League Men 1st placed / Premiers
| Regular season | 2021–22 A-League Men 3rd placed
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Opponent | Score | Elimination-finals | Opponent | Score | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Bye | Wellington Phoenix | 1–0 (H) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Opponent | Agg. | 1st leg | 2nd leg | Semi-finals | Opponent | Agg. | 1st leg | 2nd leg | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Adelaide United | 2–1 | 0–0 (A) | 2–1 (a.e.t.) (H) | Melbourne Victory | 4–2 | 0–1 (H) | 4–1 (A) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Western United finished the season in 3rd place, where they played 6th placedWellington Phoenix in the first elimination final, where they won 1–0 atAAMI Park in front of 3,376 fans.[6] Western United then facedMelbourne Victory in the semi-final, who had finished the regular season in second place.[7] After losing the home leg 0–1, Western United then mounted a comeback in the away leg, defeating Melbourne Victory 4–1 in front of 15,349 spectators, with the scoreline being 4–2 on aggregate, to progress to their first everA-League Men Grand Final.[8]
The Grand Final was held atAAMI Park inMelbourne, the home ground of Melbourne City.[9] This was the third Grand Final hosted at the venue, after2015 and the previous edition in2021.
The Grand Final was broadcast throughout Australia live and free onNetwork 10 and streamed onParamount+ and10Play, the latter being for free.[10]
Chris Beath was selected to officiate the Grand Final on 25 May, which would be his third consecutive A-League Mens Grand Final. Beath was assisted by Anton Shchetinin and Ashley Beecham. The video match officials for the match were led byKris Griffiths-Jones, who was assisted by Kate Jacewicz and Kearney Robinson. Daniel Elder was the fourth official for the match. Andrej Giev was the fifth official.[11]
The match was the first A-League Men Grand Final since2019 that did not have the attendance impacted by COVID-19 restrictions. The match attendance of 22,495 was the third lowest Grand Final attendance, and the lowest attendance for a Grand Final that was not impacted by COVID-19 restrictions.
Young Franco,Tkay Maidza and Nerve performed before the start of the match and at half-time.[12]
![[icon]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aWiki_letter_w_cropped.svg) | This sectionneeds expansion with: a prose summary of the match. You can help byadding to it.(May 2025) |
     Melbourne City |      Western United |
|
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Joe Marston Medal: Assistant referees: | Match rules
|
|
|
|
Due to theAustralian Professional Leagues announcing on 12 December 2022 that 2023, 2024 and 2025 A-League Men Grand Finals would be hosted inSydney regardless of which two teams qualified, the 2022 Grand Final would have been the last Grand Final to be played outside of Sydney until at least 2026,[16][17] but the deal was scrapped in October 2023.[18][19][20]
Unsurprisingly, the winner of the Joe Marston Medal for player of the match was Prijovic.
| Seasons | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Finals series | |||||||
| Grand Finals | |||||||
| Clubs |
| ||||||
| Stadiums |
| ||||||
| Rivalries | |||||||
| Competition | |||||||
| Statistics and awards |
| ||||||
| Associated competitions | |||||||
