Melbourne Victory unleashed one of the great grand final demolitions, Archie Thompson one of the great virtuoso performances and Adelaide United one of the great post-match referee bashings, as the Victory clinched the A-League championship.

The Victory humbled Adelaide United 6-0 in a one-sided grand final at Telstra Dome - Socceroo striker Thompson scoring five of the six goals in a performance unprecedented in Australian top-level soccer.

In front of record Australian domestic soccer crowd of 55,436, Thompson scored a first half hat-trick as the Victory tore apart the Reds to put the issue beyond doubt by halftime.

The Socceroo then capped a remarkable performance with two more in the second half to become the first player to score more than three goals in an A-League game and win the Joe Marston Medal for grand final man of the match.

Adelaide spent most of the match with 10 men after skipper Ross Aloisi was sent off in the 33rd minute for elbowing Victory midfielder Grant Brebner in the head to pick up a second yellow card - a decision which left United seething.

Aloisi, coach John Kosmina and veteran striker Carl Veart left no doubt where they thought the blame lay in large part for their defeat, all hitting out at referee Mark Shield and his assistants afterwards.

Aloisi labelled his second yellow card as "soft", Kosmina virtually accused Victory skipper Kevin Muscat of being a protected species, while Veart said the "three blind mice" could have done a better job than the officials in charge.

"Melbourne have done well today, but we felt we were harshly done by. I think the three blind mice could have done a better job out there," Veart said.

Despite Adelaide's clear post-match annoyance, the Victory were deserving winners, adding the championship to the league title they won in runaway fashion during the home-and-away season.

"I don't think it could get much better than that," Victory coach Ernie Merrick said.

"It was a night for great football and great goals. They've threatened to perform like that all year, and they picked the right night to do it."

Rarely has an Australian soccer grand final been so one-sided.

Adelaide was put on the backfoot early after Thompson netted in the 21st and 29th minutes to have the home side well in control.

Any hope of Adelaide fighting back vanished at 2-0 when Aloisi was sent off - Melbourne then carving up United at will.

Muscat, who earned Adelaide's ire after no action was taken over a dubious second-minute challenge on midfielder Diego, was outstanding along with Brazilian import Fred in the Victory's midfield.

Fred had a hand in four of Thompson's five goals, while Muscat's pinpoint pass released Thompson for his third goal in the 39th minute to give the Victory an emphatic lead by halftime.

After Fred twice hit the woodwork early in the second half, Thompson added a fourth in the 56th minute.

The excitable striker then sent the crowd into raptures with a fifth 18 minutes from fulltime - evoking memories of his international world record haul of 13 goals in the Socceroos' 31-0 win over American Samoa in 2001.

Substitute Kristian Sarkies iced the result for the Victory with a long-range sixth goal in injury-time.

Sunday night's crowd at Telstra Dome surpassed both the attendance for the rugby league State of Origin match held there last year, and the biggest AFL crowd for a match held at Telstra Dome.

But it was a little over 1,000 less than the record crowd for a sporting event at the venue - the 56,605 who attended the Wallabies-British Lions rugby Test in 2001.

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