Cummings gets last laugh as Mariners destroy City to win A-League title

Jason Cummings was persona non grata in Scotland barely a year ago – cut loose by his old club for allegedly being “unfit to train” the morning after strolling out on stage in front of 15,000 people at a public event in Glasgow dressed, head to toe, as The Joker.

On Saturday night, he had the last laugh. Quite literally. The A-League grand final was his last match for the Central Coast Mariners, the club where the affable 27-year-old has turned his career around – and this was some way to go out, with a hat-trick and the Joe Marston Medal as best afield.

Hat-trick hero Jason Cummings.Credit: Getty

A big, fat, life-changing contract awaits for Cummings with Indian club Mohun Bagan, an open secret which he finally confirmed pre-match. He will go there as a champion of Australia, and with a special place in Mariners history, having spearheaded a stunning 6-1 rout of Melbourne City at CommBank Stadium to end the club’s 10-year silverware drought.

There is little doubt he will also spearhead the team’s celebrations, and probably win the best on ground award there, too.

“Have you ever seen the film Project X?” he said when asked, post-match, what the next few hours of his life might look like.

Cummings scored the opener and then two penalties in the second half – the first after Andrew Nabbout shoved substitute Jacob Farrell, the second stemming from a harsh handball call on Callum Talbot, who slid to try and cut off Farrell’s cross. Together, they killed off any hope of a City comeback.

Then Beni Nkololo’s 83rd-minute header, set up by a breathtaking Sam Silvera ball, killed it again. And just for good measure, Moresche’s goal in injury time killed it some more.

“You can’t buy class, at the end of the day,” said Mariners coach Nick Montgomery.

“You can have as much money as you want, but you can’t buy class, and these boys are class. That tonight, that performance, was utter class, against a very good Melbourne City team. We’ve got a lot of players in there with big hearts. [This] club is the smallest club with the biggest heart and I thought tonight you saw that.”

The opening 20 minutes were tight, tense, and gave little hint of the footballing massacre that was to come. It all began when Nkololo broke down the right and sent in a brilliant cross which fell right in Cummings’ lap. His first shot was blocked by Curtis Good, who tumbled to the ground as Cummings pounced on the loose ball.

City looked a little shell-shocked, but there was much, much more where that came from. Just after the half-hour mark, an incredible scything run down the opposite flank by Silvera opened City up again, and there was nothing his marker Nuno Reis could do about it. Silvera kept going, and going, and going, until he was suddenly inside the box and the ball in the back of the net.

City promptly struck back to make it 2-1 five minutes from the break after some smart interplay between Good and Marco Tilio unlocked Jamie Maclaren. His cutback was smashed home by Richard van der Venne. Yet were it not for the outstretched legs of Tom Glover, who denied Nkololo in added time, they would have conceded again.

The real City finally emerged on the other side of half-time, and the pressure they piled on the Mariners was relentless. But so, too, was Central Coast’s rearguard, led brilliantly by Nectar Triantis, who is reportedly bound for Sunderland, and Vanuatu international Brian Kaltak, whose prime minister Ishmael Kalsakau flew to Sydney specifically to watch him play.

They kept them at bay until Nabbout gave away the first penalty in the 66th minute, and from there, they unravelled. For City, who were regarded as heavy favourites, this was an unmitigated disaster, a total and utter psychological capitulation.

Melbourne City have been the best team all year – for a few years, actually – but their hopes of an A-League dynasty may have evaporated. They have finished top of the table for the last three seasons but have lost three of the last four grand finals. Like it or not, that is how champions are crowned in this country, and on the one night that mattered the most, they fell to pieces.

“I have no words,” said coach Rado Vidosic. “It looked like they wanted to win the game more than us. They outplayed us first half, they bullied us, they won every 50-50. I just can’t explain what happened, what went wrong. Probably it’s not the tactical components, it’s just attitude, mindset.”

City should have been hosting this grand final, were it not for that controversial Destination NSW deal that instead brought it to Parramatta, and, crucially, within driving distance of Gosford – and that might have made all the difference. The Mariners, unsurprisingly, had the vast majority of the support. Don’t blame them, though; it wasn’t their decision.

An off-season of upheaval now looms for City, who will lose retiring skipper Scott Jamieson, Belgium-bound Socceroo Jordan Bos and probably Tilio and Aiden O’Neill as well. It would shock nobody if they rebuild successfully and make it straight back to this stage, but the bottom line is this particular group of players should have won more trophies.