Pondeljak injured his hamstring in the dying stages of the second leg of the major semi-final against Sydney and failed to come up when asked to prove his fitness on Friday.

The absence of the 34-year old is a major blow for the defending champions.

He has played in three of the four previous A-League grand finals and scored the only goal in last year's decider against Adelaide.

Pondeljak's absence paves the way for youngsters Matthew Foschini and Aziz Behich to both come onto the bench, joined by Marvin Angulo, Evan Berger and Glen Moss.

Sydney has opted to stick with Sebastian Ryall in its starting XI despite Shannon Cole being available after recovering from a hamstring problem.

Chris Payne has been included for John Aloisi in the only change from the match against Wellington last week.

Cole comes onto the bench, where he is joined by Hayden Foxe, Brendan Gan and youngster Joe Gibbs along with back-up keeper Ivan Necevski.

Melbourne Victory XI: 1.Mitchell LANGERAK (gk), 2.Kevin MUSCAT (c), 5.Surat SUKHA, 6.Leigh BROXHAM, 8.Grant BREBNER, 10.Archie THOMPSON, 12.Rodrigo VARGAS, 16.Carlos HERNANDEZ , 21.Robbie KRUSE, 22.Nick WARD, 23.Adrian LEIJER,

Subs: 11.Marvin ANGULO, 17.Matthew FOSCHINI, 19. Evan BERGER, 20.Glen MOSS (gk), 25.Aziz BEHICH

Sydney FC squad: 1. Clint BOLTON (gk), 2. Sebastian RYALL 3. Stephan KELLER, 4.Simon COLOSIMO, 6. Karol KISEL, 8. Stuart MUSIALIK, 14. Alex BROSQUE, 15. Terry MCFLYNN (c), 16. Chris PAYNE,19. Mark BRIDGE, 22. Sung-Hwan BYUN,

Subs: 5. Hayden FOXE, 7. Brendan GAN, 12. Shannon COLE, 20. Ivan NECEVSKI, 31. Joe GIBBS