Crowds and TV audiences have been down this season in the A-League compared to previous years.

Off-field issues have plagued the competition and affected its appeal.

But Newcastle’s fairytale rise into the decider, with a come-from-behind 2-1 win over Melbourne City, and then Melbourne Victory’s dramatic extra-time defeat of defending champions Sydney FC, has captured the imagination.

Former Victory defender and Socceroo Leijer, now playing in Korea, believes the exciting end of the 2017/2018 campaign is exactly what the competition needed.

“I watched both the semis and I follow the league from afar,” the 32-year-old told FourFourTwo.

“I think the good thing about it is the amount of talk about the A-League has been huge since those two brilliant games. That Victory vs Sydney FC one was just an unbelievable game.

“It took me a few hours afterwards to get to sleep I was that excited. It’s been good for the league and I think it’s come at a good time because there’s a lot of talk about expansion and things like that.

“Grand Finals can be tense at times and teams can be a bit cautious, but I know the way Ernie likes to play, he likes to attack. And the Victory are the same, that’s the way they like to go about things.

“Fingers crossed for an entertaining Grand Final and hopefully the league can get a good boost from it and off the back of the World Cup get some positive energy around it and keep growing the way everyone involved in the game in Australia wants it to.”

Newcastle will host the Grand Final for the first time after deposing of City and finishing second on the ladder.

“It’s massive for the town,” Leijer said.

“It’s unreal.”

The Suwon FC centreback is tipping Victory’s pedigree – the club has played in five A-league Grand Finals and won three of them, compared to the Jets one Grand Final win from one appearance  – to prove telling on Saturday.

“I think it will be a great game, a great atmosphere,” Leijer said.

“Both teams will enjoy the occasion. I just think the experience Victory’s got in finals football will just get them over the line. Newcastle’s firepower is quite good, so I think they’ll score, but Victory will get over the top maybe 2-1.”