MELBOURNE, Australia - Mathew Leckie had to suffer for his first A-League Men title. He had to play through the pain and then bleed for it, battling through the second half of his side's 1-0 win over Melbourne Victory in Saturday's Grand Final with his face encased in bandages. Earning a Joe Marston as best afield, teammate Marco Tilio could only describe him as a "machine" in the aftermath of the win, while Kai Trewin decreed him an "animal" and coach Aurelio Vidmar compared fielding the veteran to letting "the Ferrari out of the garage."
But it was not just suffering that marked Leckie's match-winning turn on Saturday but also sacrifice; a return to the Socceroos setup for crucial World Cup qualifiers against Japan and Saudi Arabia in the weeks ahead appearing to be the price he will have to pay for silverware.
Collected by an inadvertent boot from Zinédine Machach, Leckie's nose was sent in several directions just minutes into the second half of Saturday's decider, with the dressings that were wrapped around his face doing little to obfuscate the bloody mess that his face soon resembled. Unknown to all outside the City camp, however, this blow only served to exacerbate the discomfort he carried into the contest after previously picking up a hamstring injury on Tuesday, one that's severity, while probably minor, still isn't known for certain because Leckie quite simply didn't want to know, knocking back scans so that he could focus on training and then playing in the game.
"I just wanted to get through Friday's session," Leckie told reporters post-game. "It didn't feel too bad, and then with medication and stuff [it was possible to play].
"It wasn't the best feeling, but it didn't really restrict me from everything -- just pain. Lucky with that, I guess.
"This [the nose] just sums up the whole season for me; It's obviously been an unlucky one with injuries. My body sort of let me down this season, and I haven't been able to contribute much to the team.
"For me, it was important to give everything tonight for the boys and just be a part of a special night."
Battling multiple hamstring and calf issues throughout the campaign, maladies that restricted him to just 12 appearances and 564 minutes throughout the regular season, Leckie hadn't started a game since March coming into Saturday.
His previous three appearances had seen him log less than a half of football and, ahead of the game, Vidmar hadn't known quite what he could expect from the veteran leader, estimating that he could probably bank on getting 45 minutes out of him but that he'd probably top up at around an hour or so. The ultimate call on when he'd need to come off, however, wouldn't come down to Vidmar.
"He looked better before. I think he has gone 15 rounds with Mike Tyson, he's pretty banged up," said the coach.
"I was thinking, if he gives us 45 to 60, that would be absolutely brilliant. But he just said, 'Don't take me off until I put my hand up.' We kept asking him in the last 20 or so minutes how he was feeling, and he just said, 'It's nothing.'
"He's definitely feeling the pain now. But I think he got the right rewards tonight, with all the pain that he went through throughout the course of the year and what he went through this week. Absolutely enormous."
Adding further to the tale was that Leckie wasn't deployed in the wing, striker, or advanced midfield positions that he has generally been associated with but as a defensive midfielder. Getting his body onto Machach and any other Victory player that came his way, he was at the forefront of City's efforts to disrupt their opponent's attempts to establish any kind of meaningful control or flow, helped by referee Adam Kersey largely allowing play to continue without much intervention.
And while these efforts didn't lend themselves to the contest being a free-flowing, highly entertaining one -- in the great tradition of major finals, the pomp, circumstances and excitement from the occasion vastly outstripped that which was produced by the contest on the grass -- it did enable City to protect a 10th minute lead delivered by Yonatan Cohen without much in the way of problems.
Victory was able to produce just 0.95 expected goals (xG) from 14 shots across the evening, good for an average of 0.06 xG per shot. Just under a third of that figure came from a 19th-minute effort from Machach that was blocked by Leckie himself, while another 0.20 came from a 92nd-minute set-piece header from Josh Rawlins when Victory were desperately chasing the game. Outside of Daniel Arzani on the wing, who saw more of the ball than any other player on the park, the side in navy blue seemingly had little answers when asked to find a way to break down the league's most miserly defence this season and did far too little to test young goalkeeper Patrick Beach.
"It was a typical final in many ways... maybe the football wasn't as fluent from both teams," said Victory boss Arthur Diles post-game. "It was aggressive, there were a lot of duels. If anything, maybe we fell short in that department, at times, getting bullied."
But as gladiatorial as he may have proven on Saturday, even Leckie has limits.
The attacker was supposed to be one of four City players -- Leckie, Tilio, Trewin, and Aziz Behich -- flying to Perth on Sunday morning to link up with Tony Popovic's side for upcoming World Cup qualifiers. ESPN understands Victory left-back Kasey Bos is also set to be a surprise inclusion.
But after injuring his hamstring in the build-up and getting a free rhinoplasty during the game, it appears unlikely that Leckie make his first appearances for the national team since a qualifier against Palestine last November and just his third since the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Instead, he indicated that he would likely see a specialist on Monday regarding his nose, one based in Melbourne, not Perth and that, more than anything right now, he needed to rest.
"I was selected for the national team, but now I'm not sure," said Leckie.
"I want to be there, I really do. I've always said that I love the national team. I love representing Australia. But obviously over the last two years, my body's just been a lot of drama with injuries. And as much as I would like to be there, what's happening now with this and recently with my leg, I really, really think I do need just a really good break.
"Just have a nice break, get through the preseason -- because I need a good preseason, not just stop-start. Because I was back [from injury] four or five times this year. I need consistency. My body needs game time, and hopefully with a really good break that'll happen."
For all the pain the attacker went through this season, both of the body and mind, his was a campaign that ended on Saturday not just with his stitches lining a heavily bandaged face, gauze shoved up his nose, and a limp, but also with a Grand Final and Joe Marston Medal draped around Leckie's neck.
"It feels unbelievable," he said. "If we had lost the game and I walked away looking like this, then I would have been devastated. But it's all worth it now; we've made another special moment where, when I finish my career, I can look back on it.
"And I've probably got scars to remind me as well."