Friday's clash between Melbourne City and Adelaide United in Melbourne is set to go down in the history books.
In a global first for top-tier domestic football, a Video Assistant Referee system will be used during the match to try to prevent incorrect key match-changing decisions.
Head of Hyundai A-League, Greg O'Rourke, says the technology is designed to improve the game by allowing referees to make informed decisions.
"We will be able to bring this game to life, to stop clear errors, and be able to bring the right results for clubs, for coaches, for players and most importantly for the fans."
The V-A-R system will only conduct checks on four categories of match-changing decisions or incidents.
They are goals, penalty decisions, red card incidents and mistaken identity.
In all these situations, the VAR will only be called upon after the referee has made a decision.
Football Federation Australia's Director of Referees, Ben Wilson, who has overseen the months of testing of the system, says he's confident it will run seamlessly.
He says the technology aims at minimum interference for maximum benefit.
"This means that the referees will not be re-refereeing the game from the video operating room. They will allow the referee to make their decision, and only if a decision is clearly wrong, will the video assistant referee intervene."
Ben Wilson explains that if the system detects a clear error in a decision, it will be communicated to the referee, who then has the opportunity to review their call.
"He will make a TV signal and the decision will potentially be overturned. In rare circumstances the referee on the field has the opportunity to run to the sideline and to see the replay of incident himself, that is called an on-field review and he will then potentially change his decision based on that replay."
Clint Bolton is a former Sydney F-C goalkeeper and football commentator.
He says incorrect referee decisions are becoming a regular occurrence in the A-League, and the V-A-R system should help minimise these.
"There's glaring decisions or glaring errors being made almost weekly now with officials in the A-League so I think it will sort out some of the really big, big errors that have been missed by referees."
But he claims those errors arise from a lack of understanding by referees of the fundamental rules of the game and how to apply them.
And while the video system could help with some of the more obvious, incorrect referee calls, he says it could also create more problems.
"As far as getting things right, yeah we will probably get a lot of bigger decisions, that have gone missed, corrected. But again, there's a lot more eyes on it, a lot more humans involved, a lot more different opinions and a lot of these decisions are subjective at the end of the day, so I just think it's going to create a fair few issues as well."
From Friday, the V-A-R technology will be used in the remaining rounds of the A-league and in the finals, and then in the 2018 season and beyond.
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