Yonatan Cohen struck the only goal of Saturday's derby in the 10th minute, slotting home on the rebound after Max Caputo's looping effort bounced off the crossbar.

That was not the only incident of note, however, as Leckie turned out a man-of-the-match performance in an unfamiliar role, shielding the City back four.

He denied Zinedine Machach a first-half equaliser with a brilliant clearance off the line, then spent the majority of the second half wearing a bandage across his face after a nasty collision with the same player left him with a gashed nose.

Leckie won 10 of his 15 duels in the game, succeeding with two of his three tackles and playing more passes into the final third than any other City player (13).

The Australia international received the Joe Marston Medal as the best player on the pitch as City won its second A-League crown, also earning high praise from his coach.

"He was enormous tonight for us, absolutely enormous," Vidmar said of Leckie.

"We let the Ferrari get out of the garage tonight, and he just played an incredible game."

Reflecting on City's derby win, which came in front of a sporting record crowd of 29,902 at AAMI Park – the stadium shared by both Melbourne sides – Vidmar added: "It's an unbelievable feeling, with the amount of work that we've done throughout the year.

"We mentioned earlier tonight, before the game, about all the setbacks that we've had, all the hurdles we've had to face, and we seem to always have jumped over them and faced them with adversity in a really positive way.

"And then to see the reward that the boys have got tonight in a really, really tough game... it probably wasn't the prettiest of grand finals, but it was gritty.

"We fought for every inch, and I'm so rapt for everyone."

Victory coach Arthur Diles, meanwhile, felt his side was no match for City's physicality when it mattered most.

"It's a result over one match that didn't go our way, and it doesn't cut short the success of our season," Diles said.

"We fell a little bit short, not through a lack of trying, and that's football.

"It was aggressive, it was a lot of duels. If anything, maybe we fell short in that department in terms of, at times, getting bullied. But we tried. We gave it everything."