The man who scored Melbourne Victory's decisive offside goal admits the A-League Grand Final would have been played differently had it been rightfully disallowed by the video assistant referee.
Kosta Barbarouses scored the only goal in Saturday night's 1-0 win over the Newcastle Jets but, while replays showed defender James Donachie was clearly offside when he headed Leroy George's cross back for the Kiwi international, a calamitous software error meant the VAR did not have access to the right camera angle until several minutes later -- too late.
Barbarouses said the extraordinary mistake, revealed by Football Federation Australia on Sunday, was a case of a system still racked with inconsistencies evening itself out.
"There's been mistakes with it all year," Barbarouses told AAP.
"We've had some decisions with the VAR go against us that shouldn't have so we'll take it.
"I put the ball in the back of the net and it's obviously a system error so we take the Grand Final win.
"They've implemented it so we're just doing our jobs. Sometimes it falls to you, sometimes it doesn't.
"It's still got its faults. I can think of a few goals Bes [Berisha] scored and Leroy's [George] one against Sydney where there wasn't a clear camera view of the goal line to see if it was over or not.
"There's still things they need to fix with it, and then on the other side they've got a few things right."
But Barbarouses felt the decider at McDonald Jones Stadium "probably would have played out a bit differently" had the VAR done its job and overturned his goal.
"The onus would have been on us to attack a little bit more but that's what happens in a final when you score early, you tend to subconsciously weather the storm a bit," he said.
"In the second half it was quite an even game, they didn't create too many chances and when they had to open up a bit we tried to score and created a few chances ourselves.
"I think we were deserved winners for sure."
Victory's Grand Final win, bitter as it was for the Jets, is a record fourth for the competition powerhouse.
And Barbarouses said there was no doubt it made Kevin Muscat's side the most successful overall.
"Absolutely," he said. "You can only go by trophies and the results that are there. Definitely the most successful club.
"That's where the club wants to be and it's no surprise to anyone."