South Melbourne became the first non-A-League club to win the Australia Cup, beating Melbourne Victory 4-3 in a penalty shootout before 29,911 people at AAMI Park. The venue’s biggest sporting-event crowd watched an upset. A club outside the A-League took the trophy from a team that had expected to claim it for the third time in its history.
The shootout decides it
South Melbourne didn’t need a fifth penalty. Victory players Harrison Sawyer and Jason Davidson both missed, while South goalkeeper Javier Lopez turned away Sawyer’s attempts. Davidson sent his kick over the crossbar.
South seemed to have won the shootout when Sawyer took his first kick. But officials ruled the goalkeeper had moved too early, giving the Victory player another chance. Lopez saved his second spot kick too. Sawyer had previously played for South, adding a personal edge to the shootout without changing its result.
Lopez later received the Mark Viduka Medal as player of the final. His saves helped carry South through a match in which Victory had several chances, including a late opportunity from winger Clarismario Santos.
Victory’s lead doesn’t hold
Victory substitute Denis Genreau scored five minutes into extra time, and Victory thought the goal would secure the Cup for the third time in the club’s history. South equalised with three minutes of extra time remaining, when replacement Maximilian Mikkola scored.
South’s supporters celebrated the equaliser. The club carried that momentum into the shootout. The account records the response from the stands, but it doesn’t describe a wider organized campaign or mutual-aid effort around the match.
South had started better but didn’t convert its early dominance. In the 25th minute, Victory winger Clarismario Santos forced Lopez to tip his shot onto the post. Santos tested the goalkeeper again six minutes later, and the 35-year-old parried his strike to safety.
South striker Bul Juach found space and moved into the penalty area in the second half, but Victory goalkeeper Jack Duncan saved his left-footed shot. Juach had also played in the 2025 Cup final for Heidelberg United.
Lopez denied Genreau in the 69th minute, then saved a long-distance effort from Victory midfielder Jordi Valadon six minutes later. In the 78th minute, he stopped another Santos shot after substitute Guillermo May found the winger unmarked in the penalty area. May made his Victory debut after joining the club last month, following two seasons with Auckland FC.
The names attached to the final
South Melbourne captain Marco Jankovic was announced as the winner of the Mike Cockerill Medal just before kickoff. The medal goes to the Cup’s best-performing NPL player for the year. Jankovic told Network 10: “There have been some amazing NPL players that have won this medal in the past. It’s great to be along those amazing list of names.”
Jankovic, a 31-year-old defender from Queensland, is the son of former Real Madrid midfielder Milan Jankovic, who moved to Cairns in 1991. South’s decisive advantage came from a goalkeeper who kept stopping Victory’s attempts and a side that answered a late extra-time goal with one of its own. The record crowd watched a non-A-League club take the Cup.