The 2025 NPLM Preliminary Final 1 Preview
Avondale v Dandenong City
Venue: Avenger Park
Date/Time: Sunday, September 7, 2:00pm
Having clinched the Premiership on the final day of the home-and-away season, Avondale return to Avenger Park on Sunday afternoon stinging from defeat to the Newcastle Jets in the Semi-Finals of the Australia Cup. Awaiting them will be Dandenong City, fresh from a first ever win in the Dandy Derby on Friday evening, courtesy of a superb first-half strike from Jamie Latham.
The Avengers' league form has been irrepressible, unbeaten in the second-half of the season with emphatic wins against Heidelberg United and South Melbourne in the run home leading to a 2-1 victory over Green Gully to seal the Premiership in style.
City will be buoyed by their own recent trendline, undefeated in their last ten matches since the first week of June, with a 1-1 draw at Avenger Park a key result in ultimately securing their spot in the Finals. Although they can only sport one win against the Avengers in a dozen seasons since they first met, they will take a first ever positive result against the Thunder as encouragement into this sudden-death clash.
Head-to-Head Record
Played: 14
Avondale: 10
Dandenong City: 1
Draws: 3
Last Time They Met
Saturday July 19 2025, 3:00pm
Avenger Park, Parkville
Avondale 1 (Ahmed 61)
Dandenong City 1 (Cesnik 88)
Referee: Lucas Mattia
Avondale: Thomas Manos, Daniel Edwards, Ayden Brice, Matthew Reid (Blake Carpenter 74), Manyluak Aguek, Kur Kur (Stefan Zinni 63), Yitayew Towns, Emlyn Wellsmore, Luca Tevere (Kristian Trajceski 46), Yusuf Ahmed (Jackson Courtney-Perkins 63), Cian Cuba (Stefan Valentini 63); Coach: Zoran Markovski; Cautions: Towns 59.
Dandenong City: Matthew Marrum, Corey Sewell, Thomas Giannakopoulos, Jamie Latham (Malik Abuusba 74), Kenjok Athiu (Jackson Lino 85), Yagoub Mustafa, Valli Cesnik, Gaku Inaba, Danny Kim (Doni Grdic 71), Diego Cuba (Oscar Colgate-Jones 71), Timothy Atherinos
Coach: Nick Tolios
Cautions: Nil.
Watch the Last Time They Met!
The Key Matchup: Many Aguek v Kenny Athiu
Although on opposite sides of the pitch, these two strikers will prove instrumental in the fortunes of their respective teams on Sunday.
Manny Aguek has followed two solid seasons with the Avengers with a breakout campaign in 2025, scoring at a goal every two games and not missing a match to boot. His scoring touch in the League has disappeared over the past couple of months, his thirteenth and most recent strike coming in a 3-2 win over Melbourne Victory in early-June.
Conversely, Kenny Athiu has scored almost half of his season tally in that period, a hat-trick against Melbourne Knights in the penultimate round a stark reminder of the efficiency in front of goal the South Sudanese international possesses. It's been eight long seasons since Athiu was the NPLM Golden Boot winner, but his form of late harks back to that scintillating season with the Bergers.
Can King Kenny guide City to a monumental upset, or will Manny Aguek rediscover that elusive touch in front of goal to book the Avengers place in the Championship decider?
Match commentators: Steve Curtain and Ric Marchioli.
The 2025 NPLM Preliminary Finals will be broadcast live and free on the NPL Victoria YouTube Channel.
For a full and comprehensive season overview and preview of the NPL Finals participants you can download the 2025 NPLM Official Finals Guide.
NPLM Preliminary Finals
- Friday 5 September, 7:30pm: Heidelberg United v Preston Lions @ Olympic Village
- Sunday 7 September, 2:00pm: Avondale v Dandenong City @ Avenger Park