A-League locks in Round 1 GF rematch

Troisi superb dinked chip0:54

Football: James Troisi gives Socceroos the lead with 42nd minute strike.

Beshart Berisha will get a chance to repeat his A-League Grand Final goalscoring exploits as Victory faces off against Sydney FC in Round 1. Picture: Mark Evans

Matt WindleyHerald Sun

MELBOURNE Victory does not have to wait long to gain some grand final revenge on Sydney FC as the two rivals have been pitted together in an opening round blockbuster.

With the 2017-18 A-League fixture released today, Cross-town rival Melbourne City will open the season against Brisbane Roar at AAMI Park on Friday, October 6, before Victory hosts the Sky Blues in a grand final rematch at Etihad Stadium the following night.

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FULL 2017-18 FIXTURE

Beshart Berisha will get a chance to repeat his A-League Grand Final goalscoring exploits as Victory faces off against Sydney FC in Round 1. Picture: Mark Evans

Beshart Berisha will get a chance to repeat his A-League Grand Final goalscoring exploits as Victory faces off against Sydney FC in Round 1. Picture: Mark EvansSource:News Corp Australia

Victory and City will then play the first of three Melbourne derbies at Etihad Stadium the following week, before doing battle at AAMI Park on December 23 and again on March 2.

As has become the norm, the first two of those derbies will be played on Saturday nights, which mean they will be beamed live across the country on commercial television. Network 10 has taken up the rights to one A-League game a week for the first time.

But the third derby is on a Friday night and will be exclusive to Fox Sports.

One of the Sydney derbies will be played on a Sunday, also exclusive to Fox.

KEY DATES: EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE FIXTURE

Victory and City, along with the two Sydney clubs, have been given preference in the lucrative free to air TV slot.

The Melbourne sides will feature in eight Saturday night prime time games each, while champions Sydney feature 10 times and Western Sydney seven times.

Two other big-capital-city sides Adelaide United and Brisbane (five times respectively) also feature prominently.

Melbourne City star Tim Cahill will be hoping for more goals against Victory, with the two sides set to duel three times this season. Picture: Stuart Walmsley

Melbourne City star Tim Cahill will be hoping for more goals against Victory, with the two sides set to duel three times this season. Picture: Stuart WalmsleySource:News Corp Australia

Wellington and Perth will not host a Saturday night game on Free To Air because of time zone restraints, but will still feature as the away team three times.

While Central Coast (five games) and Newcastle (three games) have not been frozen out either, with A-League boss Greg O’Rourke saying these clubs deserve a chance to grow their brand and, in effect, the strength of the competition as a whole.

This year there will be two split rounds to help Australia’s Asian Champions League participants — Sydney, Victory and, potentially, the Roar.

Victory’s schedule in the back end of the season also minimises travel with the ACL in mind, as Kevin Muscat’s men will play six of seven games in Melbourne between February 3 and April 8.

The trade off is that last season’s runner-up will be on the road four times out of five in a late-November to late-December stretch.

Victory will once again take on Adelaide United at the Adelaide Oval, in Round 3, while City has a great chance to again increase its average attendances with two home games against each of Victory, Sydney and the Wanderers.

City will be glad Brisbane Roar tormentor Jamie MacLaren has jetted off to the Bundesliga, because the two teams clash in Round 1. Picture: George Salpigtidis

City will be glad Brisbane Roar tormentor Jamie MacLaren has jetted off to the Bundesliga, because the two teams clash in Round 1. Picture: George SalpigtidisSource:News Corp Australia

Also, as revealed by the Herald Sun on Tuesday, Victory has scored an extra game in Victoria by virtue of its clash with Central Coast in Geelong.

Victory was meant to have 13 home games this season, but will play a 14th at “home” with the Mariners giving up hosting rights, as it did when the two teams met at Simonds Stadium in the 2015-16 season.

Originally published as A-League locks in Round 1 GF rematch

Let’s block ads! (Why?)

Sport | news.com.au — Australia’s #1 news site

Post Author: martin

Martin is an enthusiastic programmer, a webdeveloper and a young entrepreneur. He is intereted into computers for a long time. In the age of 10 he has programmed his first website and since then he has been working on web technologies until now. He is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of BriefNews.eu and PCHealthBoost.info Online Magazines. His colleagues appreciate him as a passionate workhorse, a fan of new technologies, an eternal optimist and a dreamer, but especially the soul of the team for whom he can do anything in the world.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.