Police stations to close as officers prepare to flood A-League Grand Final

Hundreds of police will be pulled from their local areas and a number of stations will close as resources are diverted to monitor fans at the A-League Grand Final on Saturday.

Hundreds of police will be pulled from their local areas and a number of stations will close as resources are diverted to monitor fans at Saturday’s A-League Grand Final.

Police stations including at Wallan, Boronia, Belgrave, Rowville, Mooroolbark and Croydon will close on Saturday night with officers from those regions pulled to the city.

Some of those stations will have their opening hours cut or will close entirely on Saturday as police brace for huge crowds at and around AAMI Park.

Police Association secretary Wayne Gatt said there would be “hundreds” of members drawn from both the suburbs and country areas.

Mr Gatt said only a small number of stations would be forced to close.

He said it was standard practice for the force when policing a major sporting event.

He lauded Victoria Police for being proactive to prepare for the Melbourne Derby.

“It’s not entirely uncommon,” he told 3AW.

“Sometimes we have to refocus what we’re doing to meet those challenges.”

Victoria Police said they would still be out and about in the suburbs on Saturday night.

“There will still be around the clock patrols to prevent, detect, and respond to crime,” a statement read.

“As always, if there is an emergency we urge the community to call triple-0 for urgent assistance.”

Melbourne Victory fans will be out in force this weekend. Picture: Robert Cianflone

It comes as one of the fiercest rivalries in Australian sport will come to a head at AAMI Park in Saturday night’s A-League Grand Final.

Put simply, the two contesting clubs Melbourne City and Melbourne Victory do not like each other.

That’s on the pitch and in the stands, among the fans.

Police, security and A-League officials will be on high alert to keep trouble between fans at a minimum, with patrols to extend beyond AAMI Park to nearby pubs, clubs and public transport hubs.

“The majority of supporters do the right thing and create an incredible environment for everyone in attendance, including families,” CBD Acting Commander Zorka Dunstan said.

“However, at times this year we have seen a very small group of supporters engage in reckless and anti-social behaviour.”

A spokesman for Melbourne Park said there would be “increased numbers of venue security, patron services and supervisor staff, as well as greater numbers of MSS Security and Victoria Police personnel.”

As one of the A-League’s foundation clubs, Victory got the jump on City in terms of support and enjoys a fanbase that remains one of the competition’s strongest.

City did not join the league until 2010, and back then was known as Melbourne Heart.

Melbourne City’s Kai Trewin and Marco Tilio are preparing to face off with Melbourne Victory’s Daniel Arzani and Clarismario Santos Rodrigues. Picture: Michael Klein

It gave the Melbourne sporting public a second A-League club to support, but despite its subsequent success as Melbourne City and substantial backing from the City Football Group – which last year had a net worth of $9.84bn – it still fails to attract big crowds to home matches.

A sellout crowd of close to 30,000 is expected for the first A-League grand final between the Melbourne rivals.

“You know what the derby is like,” Melbourne City coach Aurelio Vidmar said. “They’re always intense … so we just have to try to prepare for anything and everything.”

Unfortunately, “everything” includes the pitch invasion by Victory fans at a 2022 derby that will go down as one of the darkest nights in Australian football.

Off the field, Victory is yet to fully recover from the sanctions that followed the incident, but on the field it has qualified for a second successive grand final and is chasing a fifth A-League championship, which would put it alongside Sydney FC as the clubs with the most A-League titles.

Having finished fifth on the ladder after a season of disruption caused by the sudden departure of coach Patrick Kisnorbo in December, Victory was not expected to reach the decider under the little-known Arthur Diles, the club’s former assistant coach who was regarded by many as a cut-price coaching option to replace Kisnorbo.

But Diles’s men caused a huge boilover last weekend by dumping premier Auckland out of the finals.

City, which finished second, has reached the grand final for the fifth time in six years, but has only a 2021 championship to show for its toil and is scarred by a 6-1 loss to Central Coast in the 2023 decider.

City rides an eight-game unbeaten streak into the final – five wins and three draws.

Victory, though, is unbeaten in three derbies this season, and City has not beaten its fierce rival since April 2023.