LIVE football commentary returns to Injury Time with the blockbuster Melbourne derby in the Hyundai A-League!

It’s Melbourne Heart up against two-time champions, Melbourne Victory!

Both Melbourne clubs come into the game on the back of impressive wins, with the Heart actually sitting one place above their more illustrious opponents in 4th.

The Heart have been steadily building up form and have been one of the real surprise packages this season, and if you can believe it, if they manage to conjure a win this evening, they’ll move up to outright second on the table. Meanwhile for the Victory, a little bit of pressure was eased last week when they dominated Wellington Phoenix 3-1 at home and if they manage another convincing win of three goals or more against the Heart, the two teams will currently switch spots in the ladder.

Over the past 12-16 months, the Melbourne derby has firmed as the most passionate and intense local rivalry in the league and with both teams currently playing well, let’s hope we get a stunner of a match tonight!

Coverage will begin at 7.45PM AEST, with Gordon D’Mello on hand to take you through all of the action!

Can the Warriors repeat the result of their last AAMI Park visit?

It’s one thing to have a last minute try winning a preliminary finals match, but to last a whole 80 minutes competing against the Melbourne Storm at AAMI Park is another other ball game, and something that should be on the mind of every New Zealand Warrior.

Once again it is all about consistency and playing a full 80 minute game of footy rather than taking a whole half to warm up. The clash between the Warriors and the Storm demands one hundred percent dedication as soon as the first whistle blows if either team wants to reach the grand final against the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles.

Neither the Warriors nor the Storm can afford to allow an easy first half, especially with the stakes as high as they are. Although pressure and nerves can get the better of the most emotionally collected players, no team can afford this to happen tonight– this is the deciding factor.

The Big Three – if this doesn’t make the Warriors be nervous about tonight’s grand final qualifier, then there’s nothing that will.

Minor Premiers the Melbourne Storm have on their side the strongest spine that exists in the NRL today – fullback Billy Slater; half back Cooper Cronk and hooker Cameron Smith. When these three league superstars work together, there’s no measurement as to how damaging they can be.

For the Warriors to reach any form of success in tonight’s match, they cannot treat this as a game that has two halves. The Warriors need to either go hard from the start or go back across the Tasman.

The Storm’s style of football is to pin point any type of fault in the opposition and exploit it to the greatest degree, such as New Zealand’s comparatively slower paced players and lack of discipline in terms of penalty counts.

The Warriors best tool to shut down the reign of the Storm is Manu Vatuvei – strong, eager and nothing short of lethal when the ball is in his hands.

Over the past season, he has demonstrated what kinds of damage he can inflict on his unsuspecting prey when they get in his way.

From the power behind his shoulder to the line breaks which lead to field long tries, the Storm need to stay in control of Vatuvei’s game to keep their own on top. Something like that is always easier said than done, especially when it involves a raging winger weighing in at 112kgs.

The Warriors for this game have been dubbed the underdogs in this sudden death match up, although being dubbed the name of Melbourne’s ‘bogie’ side, as the Warriors have a fifty percent win/loss ratio against the Storm.

The Warriors side has a greater physical advantage over the Storm, where as the Melbournians are simply a more agile team compared to the Warriors. With this in mind, is there a way to look beneath the surface and discover which strength proves itself superior – attack or defence?

The brutal strength of the Warriors forward pack will look to wear down the Storm to the point where they slow down. Whereas the Storm, by way of their agility, are aiming to run circles around the Kiwis and create a game of cat and mouse.

The Warriors pack does not have the reflexes or flexibility that is on par with the likes of Billy Slater, so keeping up with them is not an option.

When saying this, let’s not be too quick to under estimate the tricks that are up the Warriors sleeves – after all, they did overcome the Tigers in the dying minutes with an amazing Krisnan Inu try. Can the Warriors pull it off again in another nail biting thriller against the Storm, or has the rabbit jumped out of the bag one game too soon?

Done deal... Kewell has finally agreed to return back to Australia.

Australian superstar Harry Kewell has put months of speculation to bed by agreeing to join A-League franchise Melbourne Victory on an incentive based deal.

During a press conference earlier today, Melbourne Victory Chief Executive, Anthony Di Pietro announced that Kewell had signed a thee year deal.

Di Pietro noted that the contract was an ‘unconditional’ one.

He also quashed the rumoured problems caused by the FFA, stating they were nothing but helpful.

“The FFA were excellent in assistance to all parties including us and the Kewell camp,” he said.

Meanwhile, Victory head coach Mehmet Dugandzic said that he was aiming to play Kewell in a role behind the strikers.

“I spoke to Harry and he’s confident to play wherever I put him,” he said.

Both Di Pietro and Dugandzic raised up the point that Harry’s main incentive in returning to Australia was to give something back to his home country and the sport.

Kewell will arrive at the Victory in September and the club are confident he will be right for the blockbuster first round clash with Sydney FC at Etihad Stadium on October 8th.

Easy... the Waratahs made light work of the Rebels in Melbourne.

The remarkable result of opening night came in Melbourne, Australia, as last year’s runners up, the New South Wales Waratahs visited the new Australian side, the Melbourne Rebels.

Playing against a team with momentum of a debut game in a new stadium, little fazed the Waratahs as they delivered a 43-0 mauling.

After a nervous start that was expected, the Rebels started well. But once the Waratahs got their first five-pointer they never looked back.

Leading 10-0 at the break, the Waratahs still had work to do. The Rebels still had a chance as they ran on for the second half, but the patience and class of the Waratahs shone through.

Two tries a piece from stars Kurtley Beale and Drew Mitchell saw off any efforts from the Rebels and consigned them to a debut loss.

To add to the history of the night, the result would be the first ever that the Waratahs had kept an opponent scoreless in a Super Rugby match.

Meanwhile, across the ditch in Wellington, New Zealand, the Highlanders landed a shock win over the Hurricanes, defeating their domestic rivals 14-9.

Lima Sopoaga scored the opening try of the season, and despite only converting two out of six penalty attempts, still managed to give his side an 11 point lead.

The Hurricanes fought back though to make it 11-6 at the break.

But when Ma’a Nonu received his second yellow card in the 50^th minute for a shoulder charge, it effectively spelled game over for the Hurricanes.

Each team were only able to add three points after half time in what was a somewhat dour and dull opening to the Super 15 season.

It was another fascinating Melbourne Derby as the Heart and Victory battled out a 2-2 draw. In the final derby between the two for the A-League season, the Victory blew a two goal lead as John Aloisi’s brace got a deserved point for the Heart.

Shocker... Muscat's terrible tackle on Adrian Zahra spoiled another enthralling Melbourne Derby.

However, it was Kevin Muscat’s late sending off after an awful late challenge on the Heart’s Adrian Zahra that will no doubt envelop the match in controversy.

Chasing down the winger with scores locked at two-all, Muscat launched himself, studs showing, to clean up Zahra and inflict what looks to be a potential serious ACL injury.

Muscat, who had just returned to the field following a previous red card, showed no remorse and looks like facing quite a lengthy ban when the match review committee looks at the incident again.

It was an unfortunate end to what was a thrilling match in which the Heart showed much character to fight back after falling two goals down in the first half.

In front of a mammoth crowd of over 32,000, Danny Allsopp gave the Victory an early lead with a composed finish, with talisman Carlos Hernandez then adding a second from a free kick.

Muscat’s involvement in the free kick will also be looked at, with the defender purposely pushing the Heart wall vigorously which allowed some extra room for which Hernandez to curl the ball into the net.

With things looking bleak, the Heart pulled one back with half time beckoning.

The lead up came from another super bicycle kick from Alex Terra, which allowed Aloisi to give the Heart a beat when it looked a little dead.

Then a calamitous piece of defending by the entire Victory side resulted in the equalizer.

A flighted Skoko free kick was headed onto the Victory crossbar by captain Colosimo, the ball getting semi-cleared, before being lobbed back into the box. It was that man Muscat again, who completely misread the ball allowing Michael Beauchamp to volley to Aloisi who pounced with another header.

It was the result neither side really wanted in a cracking derby, but no doubt the Victory will be the more disappointed, blowing the chance to establish some breathing space on their fifth place spot and with Muscat facing a lengthy ban.