The biggest winners of Round 22 were...
Western United. Their third consecutive victory (4-1 v Wellington) ensured they not only moved two points closer to league leaders Auckland FC, but also held onto second place in spite of victories for both Melbourne City and Melbourne Victory.
Led by a first career double from Matthew Grimaldi, who doubled his goal count for the season in the space of little more than ten minutes, United were far more slick and efficient with their use of the ball.
They also had a small win off the field, drawing a bigger crowd to the underresourced and inconvenient Ironbark Fields (3,993) than Melbourne City pulled to their Friday night primetime match against Macarthur (3,569). It's another small step towards Melbourne's newest club shaking off their 'little sibling' tag.
The biggest losers of Round 22 were...
Wellington Phoenix, for the simple reason that even their head coach Giancarlo Italiano has put a pen through their playoff qualification hopes after they suffered what was a fourth consecutive defeat.
"Finals are done," Italiano told reporters after game.
"We're not going to make the finals, even if we win all seven games. Now what we're playing for, ultimately, is going to come down to pride for the club.
"Now we're playing for the pride of the club, and I expect the boys to lift and to give something for the fans to be optimistic about."
Italiano's perhaps a touch optimistic to expect his players to put in additional effort after he wrote their season off, but as they say: fear the team with nothing to lose.
What about the A-League coffers, though?
The three games in Melbourne last weekend had a combined attendance of less than 16,000, which was little more than Melbourne Victory's average crowd last season alone (13,108).
The fact that the Victory themselves could get only 8,500 spectators to see their 3-0 win over Central Coast Mariners perhaps lends some weight to the excuse that sporting crowds are typically poorer on long weekends as people head away from home for brief holidays, whilst Melbourne City's game was also up against a Billie Eilish show at Rod Laver Arena as well as the opening night of the AFL season on television.
If the former rings true, though, questions need to be asked of the fixturing which had all three Melbourne clubs playing home games within 24 hours.
The major embarrassment for City and for the A-League as a whole came a half-hour drive north to BT Connor Reserve in Preston, where the NPL Victoria game between Preston Lions and South Melbourne had what was according to some reports the biggest NPL crowd (outside of Australia Cup games) since the A-League's formation.
9,000 people packed the BT Connor Reserve, with many more turned away at the gate, as the Lions retained second place in the NPL Victoria standings with a commanding 2-0 victory that featured a cheeky panenka penalty from new recruit Gian Albano.
Goal of the Week: Eli eviscerates the left post
It's one thing to open the scoring against league-leaders Auckland - this was just the fourth occasion in 19 matches that the A-League's newest franchise went 1-0 down - but to do it in such style is truly special.
Watch this worldie from Newcastle Jets' Eli Adams, who starts with the ball in his own half, eventually puts on the afterburners to get away from Felipe Gallegos and then drills one past a helpless Alex Paulsen.
As a side note, Paulsen was the top-rated player of the match on our player ratings for saving six of the seven shots on target that he faced.