Saturday’s Australia Cup final will see a Member Federation club on the competition’s biggest stage for the second time, as recently-crowned Victorian NPL champions Heidelberg United look to go one better than Sydney United 58’s effort in 2022.

But the David versus Goliath theme which drives so much of the interest in the competition is perhaps slightly ill-fitting here; their opponents, Newcastle Jets, are indeed a professional A-League side, but live a reality far from that of some of their financially stable, trophy winning top-flight peers.

Success would mean the first silverware at Newcastle since 2008 – they’ve made the finals just once in the last fifteen seasons – and their Cup record prior to this year was similarly dire, reaching the quarter-finals just once in ten attempts. Nobody would deny them the joy of success here; that aside, the bulk of neutral supporters are expected to be behind the Bergers, and their opportunity to write history.

‘The magic of every cup competition is seeing a minnow go up against a presumed giant. We celebrate it all over the world when Cupsets happen, and we should here as well’, Robbie Thomson told Box2Box ahead of the final, which he’ll call the action for Network 10.

‘A lot of people have been saying that the NPL clubs are catching the A League clubs and I think to a certain degree, the A League clubs are coming back to the field a little bit as well. We know that there are austerity measures around the A-League clubs, but take nothing away from what Heidelberg have achieved.

‘Three wins [against professional opposition] in a row, the second semi-professional club into the final of the Australia Cup. Take nothing away from Newcastle either, but they’re not quite the story of this final – not yet, anyway. We’ll see on Saturday.’

Bergers boss John Anastasiadis has carved out a quiet legacy as the competition’s Cupsetter in chief, taking Bentleigh Greens to the semi-finals in 2014 and overseeing four defeats of A-League clubs since joining Heidelberg in 2023.

His is a resume befitting an opportunity at A-League level, having also spent four seasons as an assistant at Western United. On Tuesday he described this as the ‘biggest game’ of his career, and one that could ‘change everything in Australian football.’

‘What I especially like about Johnny A is that he’s just gone about his business. He’s not bigger than anything. He doesn’t have a big head. He’s happy to take an assistant job at Western United for a number of years to do the hard yards, to keep learning, always, despite the success he’d had before going there.

‘Now he’s enjoying even more success. That now people are talking about him means that it’s never been so close to him being that next cab [off the rank] to getting that [A-League] opportunity. But he’s probably been ready for a number of years, let’s face it.

‘We get a little bit tired of seeing the same faces going around on the merry-go-round. I think a lot of fans would love to see a new coach come in with new ideas, and as someone who’s got results on the board.’

In the opposition dugout, this also stands as the biggest game in the fledgling managerial career of esteemed Socceroo Mark Milligan. Five months after his appointment to his first senior job, five games into his career, a win would endear him to the rugged Jets faithful and propel them into the season proper with an overdue dose of true optimism.

Fourteen goals from their four starts indicates a willingness to attack; their semi-final win over match-hardened Avondale presented a real challenge of durability with the Jets still in pre-season, but was one that they rode out, 4-2. Thomson feels that factor may be at play again in the final.

‘I can’t find a trace of even a friendly hit-out since their win over Avondale, so it’s going to be a month on Saturday since they’ve had a hit-out. So they’re playing training games, perhaps a couple of local hit-outs.

‘Heidelberg have still been playing competitive football: the semi-final, final of the NPL, which were big games. Johnny A has settled on very much a first choice eleven, it hardly ever changes. I think they can probably do it.’