Nick Montgomery has labelled the Central Coast Mariners "the smallest club with the biggest heart" after a Jason Cummings hat-trick powered the A-League Men side to a 6-1 grand final annihilation of Melbourne City.
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Cummings, who looks set to take up a mega-money move in India, signed off from his stint in Gosford in style by leading the club to their first title since 2013 and the second in their history.
The Socceroos forward opened the scoring in the first half before dispatching two second-half penalties at Sydney's CommBank Stadium in front of a crowd of 26,523 and winning the Joe Marston Medal.
"I knew at the start of the season we were destined for something special," Cummings said.
"Our attacking players are just different class, I'm super happy and proud of these guys."
Sammy Silvera, Beni Nkololo and Moresche also found the back of the net for the Mariners on Saturday as they recorded the biggest grand final victory since 2007.
"I'm really proud, we're the smallest club with the biggest heart," said Montgomery.
"We believed we could get to the final and be champions... you can have as much money as you want, but you can't buy class and tonight these boys were class.
"The confidence in the boys and the belief, I thought we could win the game but not as emphatically as that."
Substitute Richard van der Venne was the only player to find the net for premiers City, who have now been in the past four grand finals but have just one championship to their name.
"I have no words... it was a great build-up for the game but it looked like they wanted to win the game more than us," said City coach Rado Vidosic.
"They outplayed us, they won every 50-50 and they were unbelievably committed.
"We thought someone else was going to do it for us. I'm disappointed, this is going to hurt us but we are definitely going to learn from it."
City began strongly with Danny Vukovic forced into a low save to thwart Socceroos winger Marco Tilio but things began to unravel when midfielder Valon Berisha collided with the Mariners goalkeeper.
With Berisha hobbling, the Mariners smelled blood and surged downfield through Nkololo with the French winger finding Cummings, who finished past Tom Glover.
City subbed off Berisha for van der Venne but the Mariners were attacking at will.
Marco Tulio and Nkololo forced Glover into fingertip saves, but there was nothing to prevent Silvera burning past Nuno Reis on the left and finishing to make it 2-0 after 34 minutes.
City looked shellshocked but somehow finished the first half with a goal, when van der Venne fired past Vukovic in the 40th minute.
The goal before halftime seemed to shake City into action and they began the second half with intent as Mathew Leckie and van der Venne both went close to equalising.
Montgomery turned to his bench, sending on home-grown leftback Jacob Farrell shortly after the hour mark.
Farrell had an immediate impact as he was felled by Andrew Nabbout in the City box in the 64th minute, with referee Chris Beath pointing to the spot.
Cummings sent Glover the wrong way and soon had another opportunity from the spot when Callum Talbot handled a Farrell cross.
The Socceroos forward fired to the right to wrap up his hat-trick and the Mariners hadn't finished there.
City's resolve wilted and the Mariners were queuing up to score, Silvera setting up Nkololo from an inch-perfect cross before Brazilian striker Moresche completed the rout.
Australian Associated Press
