Melbourne Victory face South Melbourne FC in the Hahn Australia Cup final at AAMI Park on Saturday night, the first meeting between the two Victorian clubs in two decades.
The match is reported to be close to a sellout, and new Victory defender Philipp Ziereis said he had already picked up on the occasion's significance around Melbourne.
"Yeah, I mean you can feel it in the city," Ziereis said. "You can see it everywhere on Instagram (and) stuff nowadays. So the boys told me we have, I think, Harry Sawyer played for them, so they told me what (it) is about."
Sawyer, one of six new faces at Victory this off-season, previously played for South Melbourne and is a former Macarthur FC striker, with Ziereis saying team-mates had filled him in on the history between the two clubs.
Ziereis, a 33-year-old central defender, joined Victory this off-season from German third-tier club RW Essen. He has started three of Victory's four matches on the way to the final.
The German missed the semi-final win over Sydney FC and Victory's 1-1 draw with Vietnamese side The Cong in their AFC Champions League Two opener after suffering a concussion in training, but he is fit to play on Saturday.
"The bigger the game and the final, the better it is," Ziereis said. "That's what we're here for. We want to win titles."
"I think for Australian football and for us, it will be a very good game."
Saturday's match is the first all-Victorian Hahn Australia Cup decider of the modern era, pitting Victory against an NPL Victoria powerhouse that last met the A-Leagues club two decades ago.
Victory have won the competition twice before, in 2015 and 2021, with both finals also held at AAMI Park, and have finished runners-up on other occasions.
Off-season signing Guillermo May, who arrived from Auckland FC, is available for the final after missing Victory's AFC Champions League Two trip to Vietnam while building his fitness. Fellow new recruit Tom Lockyer, the former Premier League defender and Wales international, is also part of the squad alongside Ziereis and Sawyer.
Ziereis praised the impact of new head coach Giovanni Savarese, the Venezuelan who joined Victory after a lengthy stint coaching in Major League Soccer.
"Ah top, he is very communicative. He's a very, very good guy," Ziereis said. "From the start, he always talked about family, about being together on the pitch, and I think that's what we've showed so far."
"We defended really very well on the pitch as a whole team, and yeah, now the pre-season's gone and the games come, you can hopefully see more development," Ziereis said. "But so far it's top, and we all enjoy it."
Victory's week does not end with the final. The club hosts FC Seoul in an AFC Champions League Two fixture at AAMI Park on Wednesday night, before opening their 2026-27 A-League Men season away to Wellington Phoenix at Hnry Stadium on Sunday, October 18.
The Hahn Australia Cup final kicks off at AAMI Park on Saturday, October 10.