History was going to be made no matter what happened in Sunday’s A-League grand final at a sold out Suncorp Stadium.
But the record books won’t quite do justice to what Brisbane Roar achieved with their come-from-behind 2-1 extra-time victory over Western Sydney Wanderers in front of 51,153 largely delirious fans.
Brisbane became the most successful team in the league’s nine-year history when they sealed their third championship in four years.
More A-League grand final coverage:
– Full match report and video highlights
– Comment: Mike Tuckerman
– Roar revel in Suncorp success
– Football is here to stay in Australia
– Brisbane puts on a great A-League final
– The Roar‘s live blog
Roar coach Mike Mulvey agreed that they were now the A-League benchmark.
“It was never in doubt,” he smiled.
“This club has in its DNA to never give up. They had that long before I arrived.
“This is some achievement by this club. Now we are the mighty Roar.”
Brisbane claimed the championship the only way they knew how – by giving their fans heart palpitations.
Western Sydney dared to dream of a maiden title in only their second season after Matthew Spiranovic’s 56th minute header drew first blood.
But Melbourne Victory-bound star striker Besart Berisha equalised with five minutes left in regular time, sending the match into extra-time.
They sent the anxious Roar faithful – and Mulvey – into raptures when Brazilian Henrique fired in the 108th minute match-winner.
Then again, Brisbane have an uncanny knack of keeping fans honest in grand finals.
They won their maiden 2011 title by fighting back from 2-0 down in extra-time to defeat Central Coast on penalties.
And the Roar claimed the 2012 crown with a late penalty goal after reeling in a 1-0 deficit against Perth Glory.
It seemed a fitting end to a season Brisbane dominated, claiming the Premiers Plate by finishing 10 points clear of the Wanderers.
But Western Sydney will be hoping for third time lucky after losing their second straight grand final in as many years of existence.
The turning point came when Wanderers skipper Nikolai Topor-Stanley (knee) went down in a 62nd minute tackle.
Without a defender on the bench, Western Sydney’s most influential player Iacopo La Rocca was forced from the midfield into the backline.
“It was a pivotal moment, there was a pendulum swing and we took advantage of it,” Mulvey said.
It seemed only something extraordinary was going to silence the relentless chants of the Wanderers’ 10,000-strong Red and Black Bloc supporter group that effortlessly drowned out the local orange army at first.
But Brisbane’s man for the big occasion – Berisha – did his best when he equalised with a header off a free kick by Thomas Broich, who shared man of the match honours with La Rocca.
And the orange army had plenty more to cheer about when super sub Henrique blasted from point blank range off a James Donachie cross.
It capped a remarkable rise for Mulvey who emerged from obscurity to be installed interim coach with Brisbane in disarray in December 2012.
Incredibly Mulvey had watched the Roar claim their first title from the grandstand as a punter.
Now Mulvey is just the fourth mentor to complete the minor premiership-championship double in a season.
“We are building something pretty special here. It’s a good platform to go forward,” Mulvey said.
More A-League grand final coverage:
– Full match report and video highlights
– Comment: Mike Tuckerman
– Roar revel in Suncorp success
– Football is here to stay in Australia
– Brisbane puts on a great A-League final
– The Roar‘s live blog
Catnap
Guest
How would roar go without broich just asking?
Bill
Guest
We need deeper benches
Chris Kettlewell
Roar Guru
I don't know how often you'd find a specialist centre back on the bench. Central defenders are almost never replaced except for injury and very often they need to have the players on the bench who could cover a few different positions if required. Since you can't have specialists on the bench to cover each position, it tends to mean that if a normally 90-minute player gets injured, you aren't going to have specialist cover there for them, and so you have to shuffle some things like WSW did.
Albo
Guest
By finishing 10 points clear of the rest in the regular season ,it says the Roar are the best team ! But they needed a bit of luck ( the Topper Stanley injury) to get away with the win yesterday. Not sure why Beecham or Heffernan weren't on the bench ? Which could have preserved La Roca in his starting role where he was completely snuffing out the Roar midfield ! Moving him to the central defender spot freed up the midfield where the Roar than ran amok !
j binnie
Guest
Mike's last statement spells out what is in front of him and it is in this area his real performance will be judged for in a football sense he has just got himself a new target,the Asian Championship. In this game the majority of the team had been there before so in a sense it was nothing new ,albeit it a euphoric and exciting experience, but no team in HAL history has gone to the top of the next level. He has one thing going for him, he has WSW testing the waters later this week and that should give a clue as what has to be done if success is to be achieved.New blood will be needed of course and the next 6 months are going to be interesting ,for due to the set up of the ACL Mike's thoughts have to get into gear almost at once. Here's wishing him and his players the best of luck in the new frontier, that has been hard earned but superbly achieved. jb