Regional rivals There has been a long-standing
rivalry between the cities of Sydney and Melbourne, the two largest cities in Australia. In soccer terms, the rivalry has existed for almost 140 years, starting with the first inter-colonial match between Victoria and New South Wales taking place on 16 August 1883 at the
East Melbourne Cricket Ground, which ended as a 2–2 draw in front of a crowd of 2,000. These intercolonial and later interstate matches continued regularly as a highlight of early Australian soccer until the outbreak of
World War I. Although there were many later matches between various mostly immigrant-founded teams from Melbourne and Sydney in the
Australia Cup and the
National Soccer League prior to the A-League Men era, the interstate rivalry aspect was not as much of a focus, given the context and identity of the clubs involved.
Sydney FC and
Melbourne Victory FC were destined to become major rivals at the inception of the
A-League Men due to the historic regional rivalry between their home cities. At the time, the A-League Men operated under the "one-team, one-city" model, so the rivalry was almost instantaneous.
Significant moments at
AAMI Park. The first competitive match between the two clubs was significantly played on the opening weekend of the inaugural
2005–06 A-League season. It was held on 28 August 2005, at Sydney FC's home ground, the
Sydney Football Stadium. Both teams were eager to stamp their authority as the biggest club in the league, with Sydney FC having already won the
2005 OFC Club Championship during the pre-season. The match ended in a 1-all draw as Victory's first player signing and soon to become stalwart,
Archie Thompson, cancelled out Sydney FC's marquee signing,
Dwight Yorke's first half goal. The second meeting, on 16 October 2005, resulted in a landslide win for Victory at their then home ground, the
Olympic Park Stadium, defeating Sydney FC 5–0. The result still stands as Sydney FC's worst defeat in this fixture. The first encounter between the clubs during the
2006–07 A-League season (and fourth overall) entrenched the rivalry between the teams as passion and tension fueled the match. Sydney FC skipper,
Mark Rudan was sent off after fourteen minutes and Victory player
Fred elbowed Sydney FC defender
Mark Milligan in the throat. Fred avoided sanction as he was substituted before the referee could see a replay on the big screen. The following match in Melbourne, the sixth overall, set the record for attendance at an A-League match when 50,333 fans crammed into
Etihad Stadium on 8 December 2006. The match ended in a nil-all draw. Sydney FC claimed the inaugural BeyondBlue Cup by defeating Melbourne Victory 1–0 at
Allianz Stadium on 10 March 2012. On 10 November 2012, Melbourne Victory came from 2–0 down to win 3–2 at
Allianz Stadium, with two late goals from substitute player
Andrew Nabbout helping them achieve the result. This match turned out of be
Ian Crook's last match as Sydney FC manager, as he announced his resignation shortly after the defeat, which was Sydney's fourth in six games. The fixture played 8 December 2006 holds the record for the second highest attendance at a regular season match with 50,333 in attendance. Currently, three fixtures between the two sides make up the top ten of the League's highest regular season attendances. With Sydney defeating Melbourne on 3 March 2017 (36th match), they became the first side to win all 3 games of the rivalry in the normal season. Melbourne Victory and Sydney met in the
2017 A-League Grand Final. Despite Sydney only losing 1 game throughout the whole season, it was Melbourne Victory who took the lead through a Besart Berisha goal. Sydney FC equalised after halftime thanks to Rhyan Grant. The game went to penalties and Sydney won 4–2 on penalties. It was exactly the same scoreline as their meeting in the 2010 Grand Final.
Comparative league placings ==Head-to-head summary==