Jankovic: We're going to bring excitement to Hahn Australia Cup Final

South Melbourne captain Marco Jankovic said that his side were out to play a front-foot, exciting brand of football against A-League Men's side Melbourne Victory at the Hahn Australia Cup Final on Saturday evening.

The experienced defender previewed the match after a gruelling 2026 full of ups, downs, and travel all around Oceania.

Season 2026 so far

2026 has been a bit of an adventure. It's been a pretty grueling ride, mentally, physically, but it's been an amazing challenge and an amazing adventure with a great club.

[53 games since the start of January] it's a lot. There's no going around that. There's no hiding away from it. I think we knew that would be a massive challenge. Back in December when we knew what would happen, and we had to put some things in place to make sure that we had time away from training to mentally recover to physically recover as well. A lot of the players have sacrificed so much time and money to invest in their body with recovery, with massage, with putting time for themselves and for their partners and their families. It's been a massive ride, but the prize at the end of it is too good to ignore, and everyone in this group this club wants to sacrifice as much as they can to put in and to  hopefully have a prize at the end.

The OFC Professional League

We started off the year in Auckland for a couple weeks. We came back for a very short few days, and then went off to Port Moresby to PNG. We had a bit of a longer time here in Melbourne, so we played out a few games [in the NPL]. Look, we've we've racked up the the frequent flyer points. We've racked up the the kilometers on our odometer. We had trip to Honiara in Solomon Islands. We had a trip to Fiji, and then back in Auckland again for for the final series of OFC. So since then it's been back here in Melbourne since about May. It's been a lot of traveling.

The line in the sand

After the the OFC final loss [2-1 defeat against Auckland FC], we came back to Melbourne and we had a bit of a rough run of results. We were losing to teams down the bottom of the table that we shouldn't have. A few weeks prior to that, we'd had a bit of a conversation as a group and drew a line in the sand and said: we've got some really special games coming up, and Adelaide [in the Hahn Australia Cup] was one of them. Our results started to turn, but I think the mentality of having that win really pushed us to go, yeah, we're back to the team that we need to be, and where we can go from here. It really did propel us in terms of how our form changed and our belief in the squad changed. It was definitely a special night and gave us that belief that we could get to this final like we have.

The Cup run

After Adelaide [in the Round of 32], we saw the draw and we knew that we would have Fremantle here at home. We had Preston away, and then from that point there was obviously a few question marks. We took every game as it came, but even Preston away in a quarter-final was a bit of a game to look forward to. So, once we overcame that one - and we knew that Lions had beaten Melbourne City - it was like, okay, this is real. This is very possible, knowing that we would play again here in front of our fans against Lions, who were probably one of the form teams in Australia. We knew that it was going to be a hard game, but we knew that at home, with the way that we were playing, we'd have a very good chance of making the final. So I do think that it was probably after that Preston game where we actually looked to the final and had that belief.

The Final

It's going to be a special occasion. We're lucky to have a few players that have been through this process, like Seb [Sebastian Pasquali] and Paulo [Retre], that have done that through the A-League. I've played a number of grand finals, so the preparation is definitely the same. The hype around it is something that's completely different. To sell out AAMI Park in a matter of 48 hours is pretty incredible, especially playing against a club like Victory. So I think it's going to be a very special day, and one I'm looking forward to.

You're going to see a passionate group of players that are wanting to play for their fans. We're going to play a style that we want to try and dominate the game. We want to play football. We want to score goals and entertain. We're not going to be pragmatic. We're going to do everything that we can to win that game and to control that game, and we're looking to bring some excitement to the game and and hopefully get some more fans cross over from navy blue to royal blue. I'm very excited.

Match Details

Hahn Australia Cup Final 2026
South Melbourne FC v Melbourne Victory FC
Date: Saturday, 10 October 2026
Venue: AAMI Park, Melbourne
Gates Open: 6:00pm AEDT
Kick-off: 7:35pm AEDT
Broadcast: Network 10 and Paramount+

Supporters are encouraged to arrive early, allow extra travel time and enjoy what is set to be a huge night at AAMI Park.