Moreland welcomes the ladder-leading Warriors to Campbell Reserve this weekend for the final round of the NPL2 season.
But Saturday’s game is more than a season finale, it’s the crescendo to an incredible Moreland City season.
City sits in second, two points adrift of top spot, and is now on the cusp of promotion to NPL, something the club has not achieved for more than 70 years.
The Warriors, who have secured safe passage to the big leagues, are all that stand in the way of Moreland’s triumphant return to the top tier.
Steering the ship for the red, white and blue this year is a name that might be familiar to football enthusiasts in the Goulburn Valley.
Adrian Mathers will complete his eighth season at the Moreland helm in the side’s ultimate fixture this weekend.
Mathers, now 47, started his football journey at Tatura Soccer Club many moons ago.
After coming through the ranks as a junior under the guidance of his father, who coached at the club, Mathers moved to Melbourne and spent a year playing with his brother, Brent, at Croydon in the late 1990s.
The stars would align at the turn of the century, and Mathers made the switch to the club he has spent the past two decades at in 2000.
After hanging up the boots at City, Mathers took on an assistant coaching gig under former Western United chief executive Maurice Bisetto, who now heads up senior football operations at Moreland.
Bisetto passed the baton onto Mathers in 2014 and in his first year in charge he would guide his side to a State League championship.
After eight years of knocking on the door, City has not come closer to promotion than it is this season, recording 14 wins, four draws and three losses.
Mathers said throughout his storied career at the club, there was something special that set this year apart.
“I’ve spoken to the players, it’s not exactly been by design, but this is the best group I’ve worked with since I’ve been at the club,” he said.
“They’re an amazing set of players, it’s definitely been my favourite year at the club.”
Casting his mind back to his time with the Ibises, Mathers said the club values that he picked up in his early years are something he’s carried with him throughout his coaching career.
“Looking back to my time at Tatura, it’s a similar philosophy in many ways, with the right values and culture, I’ve got a lot of good memories there,” he said.
“You don’t realise it until you have a breath and look back on it, but you learn that stuff early on, about building an environment where people are comfortable and people feel that they belong.
“From a legacy point of view, that’s something that I want to pass on.”
For Mathers and his men, Saturday’s fixture is perhaps the biggest of their careers to date.
An incredible injury-time win over Pascoe Vale last weekend at CB Smith Reserve was a moment to savour — but it all comes down to this.
“From a league perspective, this is the biggest game we’ve ever faced,” Mathers said.
“It doesn’t get any bigger than this. I’ve said to the players, these are the types of games you want to be playing in.
“This is why you play football.”
