Be it his extraordinary five-goal effort in a grand final, his unerringly exuberant goal celebrations or his trait of buzzing around like a player half his age, Archie Thompson has earned and long-relished his position as the Melbourne Victory fans' favourite upfront. Some of his strike partners – chiefly Danny Allsopp and Robbie Kruse – have made telling contributions, but for consistency and longevity none have been able to match the 35-year-old.
Next season, however, the pecking order within the club – and possibly among supporters too – will change. When Thompson begins his 10th season at the club it will be in the unprecedented position of second fiddle, behind revered Albanian striker Besart Berisha. For that reason, and the no-second-chance nature of the final against Sydney FC, it meant Friday night could have conceivably been the last time Thompson played in front of his home crowd in the A-League as the undoubted top dog.
Thompson had the ball in the back of the net within two minutes, but it was purely for show as the tap-in came just after an unfavourable offside call against Victory. Nevertheless he still found himself subject to warm applause for his propensity for bold jinking forays forward, often when outnumbered by defenders.
The striker came into the match nursing a significant emotional burden: the mid-week funeral of his brother-in-law, which he said was "one of the saddest moments of my life". The first overt demonstration of that burden came in the best way possible: as part of a goal celebration for which he is renowned.
Thompson still had plenty to do when James Troisi deftly found him in space inside the box, but he had sufficient composure to open his stance and curve the ball past goalkeeper Vedran Janjetovic into the bottom-left corner of his goal.
The pummelling of the goal in the celebration was of secondary significance to Thompson's pointing to the sky. When he scored in Victory's win last week at Wellington, just after the death, he tweeted: "When I look back over my career nothing will come close to this moment." If anything was to trump that moment, scoring the opening goal at home in a final had to come close.
Late in the first half, by which stage Sydney had regained parity, Thompson had the chance to put the home team into the lead for a second time, only to make a slight error in accepting a pass from Gui Finkler, which hampered both the power and accuracy of his strike.
Thompson had scant opportunity to produce that decisive goal in the second half – that fell to Finkler in injury time – but he did have the ball at his feet at the corner flag when referee Peter Green blew the whistle. This time there was no exuberance, just reverent bowing at the corner flag as Victory's progression was sealed. He was so overcome that he was unable to speak when interviewed immediately afterwards.
He had given the fans another reason to appreciate him.
