Brendan Hamill will never forget the moment of kindness that showed Melbourne Victory are a unique force to be reckoned with.
Hamill suffered a devastating season-ending ACL tear in the Victory's 1-0 first leg home defeat to Auckland FC.
Last Saturday, he watched on from Melbourne as his teammates attempted to turn things around.
Dynamo Zinedine Machach scored to level the tie, then ran to the bench before grabbing Hamill's No.5 jersey and lifting it to the cameras.
"I had no idea," Hamill told AAP.
"I was at my son's little birthday party, I was watching the game. I watched him score.
"He kept running over to the bench and he was like 'give me something, give me something' and then they threw the jersey.
"I was like, 'oh, what are they doing?' And then right before he held it up in the air, I connected the dots.
"It was special, and it brought a tear to my eye.
"How do you put into words the feeling that that gave me? It triumphed any trophy or winning feeling. It was to be a part of a team. It was just special. I was there with them."
The Victory went on to win the game 2-0, the semi-final tie 2-1 on aggregate to reach Saturday's derby decider against Melbourne City at AAMI Park.
Coach Arthur Diles was on the bench watching Machach's tribute to his injured teammate with pride.
"When I see things like that, that means more to me than any result does," he told AAP.
"When I see a group that's that united and care so much for each other and are so close, that's really special and something that I'm definitely proud of.
"I love being the leader of this group, knowing that they're so together and making sure that through thick and through thin, we stick together like family.
"Because I've said to them: that's what family does. Family is there for you through your highs and through your lows.
"If we're a genuine family, then situations like this should bring us together, and it did that."
Victory players have spoken publicly about winning for injured pair Hamill and Mitch Langerak - who could also be joined on the sidelines by Nishan Velupillay (ankle).
"It's little things like that where it just shows you that we're a force to be reckoned with," Hamill said.
"Our togetherness is such a strong part in our game and we've shown that over the past couple of weeks.
"But you can't put a value on how much that actually helps when you cross that white line and you go play."
And Hamill, who was due for his knee reconstruction surgery on Tuesday, will be there and ready to celebrate if the Victory get the job done.
"I envision myself on stage with a winner's medal, with some crutches, in a lot of pain, dancing," he said.
"I'll be running with my crutches. I'll just take enough painkillers."
