Melbourne Victory has parted ways with coach Grant Brebner following the side's 7-0 thrashing at the hands of Melbourne City.
Mired in the worst season in club history and equalling the A-League record for heaviest ever margin of defeat, Saturday evening's heavy defeat to their local rivals proved the final straw for the 43-year-old Scot's tenure at the club.
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After meeting with Victory chairman Anthony Di Pietro, club CEO Trent Jacobs and a number of board members, Di Pietro accompanied Brebner into his postgame news conference to announce the decision.
The chairman declined to indicate who would be put in charge of the club in wake of the move, although indicated that the appointment of an interim, rather than a full-time coach, would likely be made to see out the season.
Former Blackburn Rovers boss Steve Kean and championship-winning assistant and former Wanderers coach Jean-Paul de Marigny loom as the most likely contenders, with Di Pietro confirming that they remained employed by the club.
Victory is scheduled to return to the field on Friday night at Marvel Stadium to take on Western Sydney Wanderers.
"We've come to the agreement that Grant will no longer be the coach of Melbourne Victory and that it is in the best interests of everyone involved -- the club and Grant as a person," Di Pietro said.
"We wanted to make that clear. I want to take the opportunity to thank Grant for his time. He has worked relentlessly.
"Things haven't worked out for a multitude of reasons and there will be, clearly, a review of everything that has happened to lead to this and what needs to be done.
"Grant has been a legend of the club, he's a championship-winning player, he's a champion person and we can't be more thankful for Grant and his efforts and the work he had undertaken. He'll remain part of this club forever. And the club will be with him on his next steps."
"I sit here and the first thing that comes to mind is the first thing that comes to my mind is thanking the club for giving me the opportunity to be the head coach of this fantastic football club," Brebner said.
"It's been a privilege and an honour to be given the opportunity to do this. Sadly, my expectations and the club's expectations are a lot higher we sit in. Therefore, in the conversation that the chairman and I had, we both were on the same path.
"From my perspective, this club will go on and this club will come back bigger and better than the situation we're in now. That result tonight was unacceptable.
"And the man sitting next to me, I have so much respect for. In terms of everything he's achieved in terms of this football club. We both want what's best for this football club.
"As head coach, tonight was unacceptable and I take the brunt of that. This club will move forward."
Initially elevated from a position in Victory's academy to serve in a caretaking role for the hub-based run-home of the 2019-20 season, Brebner initially declared he wasn't interested in the full-time role.
An offseason change of heart, though, subsequently saw him named over the candidacies of former Brisbane Roar boss John Aloisi and then-Ange Postecoglou assistant Arthur Papas.
Promising to restore pride in the badge and respect for the shirt, the 2006-07 and 2008-09 championship winner was sold as the candidate that understood and appreciated the inner workings of Victory and knew exactly what was needed to succeed.
But while he did take the club into the knockout stages of the Asian Champions League for just the second time, Brebner recorded just four wins from 22 league games in charge of the four-time A-League champions, only three of which have been delivered in 2020-21.
"Grant, I think at some point his words were 'we have to think about what's best for the club going forward," Di Pietro added.
"Clearly you can sit there and speculate about resignation, a mutual parting of the ways, termination. This is quite different. This answers itself.
"We looked at each other, we've known each other for many years and have enormous respect for each other. This decision made itself."