Discontent provides standard backdrop to Sydney derby laden with symbolism

T his weekend will mark the first time Western Sydney Wanderers play a finals match at their home ground, CommBank Stadium. It is not, however, the first time the post-season has come to the banks of the Parramatta River; Wanderers’ opponents on Saturday night, Sydney FC, have been here three times before.

It is one of the greater ignominies Wanderers supporters have had to suffer during a streak of playoff absences – which has finally been broken thanks to this season’s fourth-place finish – that the first time a trophy was lifted at the club’s shiny new home was by their most bitter rivals. Back when the Covid-19 pandemic made grand final relocations less controversial, the Sky Blues saw off Melbourne City 1-0 in the 2020 grand final.

There have been other indignities across Wanderers’ half-decade in the wilderness, but it is primarily this memory that gives the first-ever Sydney derby finals encounter an extra dimension. On that August evening three years ago, Sydney stole a moment that the Wanderers will never be able to get back. And on Saturday, the Sky Blues can purloin another piece of history by raining on their rivals’ parade like the sky blue confetti that came down in Parramatta in 2020.

But this has been a good season for Western Sydney. After numerous ill-fated attempts to replace foundation coach Tony Popovic, Marko Rudan has finally found the formula to return to the club to some level of respectability. It hasn’t always been pretty, it hasn’t been reliably dominant and it remains to be seen if long-term foundations have been laid. But it has been effective.

No team has defended better this campaign: five fewer goals conceded than next-best City, and a clean sheet kept in more than a third of their