Victory defender James Donachie has labelled Saturday's clash against City as the biggest of his career.
Donachie compared the fixture's magnitude to the 2014 A-League Grand Final with former club Brisbane Roar.
He was subbed on in the 90th minute of the decider for Luke Brattan who is now at City.
“It probably would be (the biggest game), obviously my debut and stuff like that would be nothing like this kind of atmosphere,” Donachie said. “I played in a grand final and that was pretty big, but this would probably be the same if not better.
“The interest is massive and it’s good because it shows with a number of fans that are coming as well and you add to it the two Melbourne teams going head-to-head in a derby.
“It heats things up, it’s good to see and it’s good to see the interest coming in the game as well.”
Donachie managed 90 minutes in Victory’s season-opening draw with Roar.
The tall defender acknoweledged competition for places was tough with versatile defensive midfielders Alan Baro and Leigh Broxham along with fellow centre-back Nick Ansell fighting for spots.
He said the derby would be an opportunity to stake his claim against City stars Tim Cahill and Bruno Fornaroli.
“You grow up watching a player like Timmy, I’ve been watching to try stop him, I’ve been looking pretty closely at stuff that he does off the ball to try keep him as quiet as possible,” he said.
“They’ve got Fornaroli as well who bangs in goals, so you can’t really draw your attention just to one player you’ve got to respect the whole team and that’s what we’ll do and hopefully that leads to three points.
“At the end of the day it’s 11 v 11 and you have to go out and beat that 11, not just that one, so we’ll go out and give it a crack.”
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