Melbourne City's scrappy 1-0 A-League Men grand final win over Melbourne Victory, led by a battered and bloodied Mathew Leckie, wasn't the prettiest of triumphs.

But for coach Aurelio Vidmar, the club's second championship was the perfect way to cap off a season ravaged by injuries, setbacks and above all, resilience.

In the first ever Melbourne derby grand final, winger Yonatan Cohen handed City the lead in the 10th minute in front of a sellout, largely pro-Victory crowd at AAMI Park.

The crowd of 29,902 was a sporting record crowd at the venue.

But City outlasted the big pro-Victory contingent, just like how they overcame multiple horror runs with injury to just finish second behind Auckland FC, before earning a home grand final.

"It's an unbelievable feeling, to be honest, just the amount of work that we've done throughout the course of the year," Vidmar said.

"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 most prettiest of grand finals, but it was gritty.

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

Coach Vidmar's surprise decision to play Leckie in defensive midfield paid off as the Socceroo turned in a commanding performance to win the Joe Marston Medal as player of the match.

In his first start since returning from injury Leckie had his nose split open by an accidental boot from Zinedine Machach in the 49th minute but played on admirably with a massive bandage around his face.

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

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

It was Vidmar's first championship and just his second win over Victory in 18 attempts as coach of either Adelaide or City.

City's defence were superb as they condemned Victory to a second consecutive grand final defeat and extended their championship drought to seven years.

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

Kai Trewin and Germain Ferreyra completely shut down Bruno Fornaroli while full-backs Nathaniel Atkinson and Behich were aggressive, with Cohen a constant threat.

Victory's star winger Nishan Velupillay (ankle) failed to prove his fitness, ruling himself out of the game, and was clearly missed.

Victory's Daniel Arzani and Machach were lively without an end product.

Diles's charges started hot but City scored off their first touch in Victory's box.

Behich nutmegged Josh Rawlins with a wonderful backheel to find Andreas Kuen.

The Austrian cut back the ball for Max Caputo, whose shot hit the bar before Israeli winger Cohen drove home the rebound.

Max Caputo and Cohen both spurned chances to make it 2-0.

Victory unsuccessfully appealed for a handball penalty off German Ferreyra in the 80th minute, but referee Adam Kersey wasn't swayed and they were unable to manufacture an equaliser.

Diles was adamant it was a "clear handball" but didn't want to press the issue.

"In the end, if it was a penalty, they would have given it," he said.

"It's not, and we move on."