What once appeared a whirlwind romance on the beach has turned into the love of a lifetime for Jason Cummings and the Central Coast Mariners.
Less than 18 months after a fresh-faced Scotsman arrived on the Central Coast desperate to turn his career around, now-bearded Socceroo Cummings has signed off by leading the Mariners to arguably their greatest triumph.
The enigmatic striker scored a hat-trick to steer Central Coast to a 6-1 upset thrashing of Melbourne City in the A-League Men grand final on Saturday and deservedly claim the Joe Marston Medal as man of the match.
Cummings indicated pre-match that the decider at CommBank Stadium would be his "last dance" with Nick Montgomery's Mariners.
He seemingly had no plans of it being a slow waltz out the door.
From the opening minutes, the 27-year-old set the tone with his fierce pressing and relentless energy.
He was denied the game's first goal by a magnificent save from Tom Glover in just the seventh minute.
But the relentless striker couldn't be kept quiet for long.
Beni Nkololo skipped past City prodigy Jordan Bos to whip the ball towards Jason Cummings.
While Curtis Good blocked Cummings' first shot, the striker toe-poked home his second crack at goal to send CommBank Stadium into raptures.
Sam Silvera made it 2-0 just 14 minutes later, before City's Richard van der Venne pulled City back into the match.
After halftime, with City threatening at 2-1 down, Cummings got the chance to settle things twice from the penalty spot.
Cool as you like, he buried one spot-kick in the bottom corner to make it 3-1, then drove another top bins to make it 4-1.
Cummings' 20th goal of the season also set the record for most by a Mariners player in one campaign - and prompted Montgomery to describe him as a player who "could get a hat-trick every time he steps on the pitch".
It set the tone for Nkololo and Moresche to complete the rout - and to send an elated Cummings running into the arms of the fans that have embraced him like no other.
"I've been here a year-and-a-half and the gaffer has changed my life," Cummings told Network Ten.
"My career was spiralling out of control and I've fallen in love with the Coast."
You get the feeling the love is mutual.
