City's Jamieson set for 300th ALM game

Melbourne City captain Scott Jamieson is the A-League Men's chief antagonist but hopes he'll be remembered as a good person as he hits the 300-game mark.

SCOTT JAMIESON.
SCOTT JAMIESON. Picture: Kai Schwoerer/Getty Images

Scott Jamieson reckons he's known in the A-League Men as a trash talker, but on achieving his rare 300-game milestone hopes he will be remembered for much more.

The antagonistic, passionate Melbourne City captain will make his 300th appearance in Friday's grand-final rematch against Western United.

"I'm pretty sure the first thing that people think of me as is a shit-talker or chats shit or whinges," Jamieson told reporters on Wednesday.

"But on the flip side of that, I accepted that a long time ago that some people that don't know me are going to think that.

"But what I do take a lot of comfort (from) and I'm proud of is the people I've played with and the people I work with know the real me and they know first and foremost I'm a pretty good person but I'm also a competitive person on the field.

"Yeah, they will say I do like to push people's buttons, and that's the case, and annoy people.

"But ultimately, I understand when it comes to a bit of a football fraternity, they might say I tend to talk a lot.

"But I think they'll say I'm a good player, wasn't the greatest, wasn't certainly the worst, but I was a good player."

Jamieson, 33, was particularly cheeky when asked what were his career highlights, beyond doing the premiership-championship double in 2020-21.

He cited his debut for Adelaide United, Western Sydney's famous 5-4 win over Brisbane Roar, sealing the 2020-21 premiership amid a controversial non-penalty call against Central Coast and having Victory fans watch on as City sealed last season's premiers' plate.

Only Nikolai Topor-Stanley, Leigh Broxham, Andrew Durante (retired), Alex Wilkinsonand Liam Reddy have played more ALM games than Jamieson.

"I don't think my dad was trying to be disrespectful but I remember him saying to me when I told him (about the milestone) that he said to me 'you said you'd leave after your first year at Adelaide and you're 300 games now'," Jamieson said with a laugh.

The left-back has four Socceroos caps and led City to their breakthrough premiership and championship in 2020-21 plus the plate in 2021-22.

The hunger still burns as City attempt to rebound from losing last season's grand final.

"Take nothing away from Western United but the opportunity that we missed was a massive one," Jamieson said.

"You see the hurt on people's faces, but it's 10 times worse underneath the skin.

"So it's a massive game."