Well aware they can't hide from an A-League Men derby winless run that stretches beyond two years, Melbourne Victory are confident they have the form and the mettle to have a genuine crack at ending it.
Victory haven't won a men's Melbourne derby since December 2019, a time in which five full-time or interim managers have taken the reins as they slumped to a club low while Melbourne City reached the highest of highs.
The latest of those, Tony Popovic, has steered Victory an FFA Cup trophy and back to third on the table in a brilliant turnaround, and is now eyeing a derby victory, after two previous draws, at AAMI Park on Saturday night.
"They're the benchmark, they're playing well, they've had two great recent results. So these are the tests that you want," Popovic told AAP.
"We've improved with each game that we've played against them and we know tomorrow we have to improve again if we want to win the game, and we feel we can but we also feel that we're in good form as well.
"They're on a very good unbeaten run. We're eight games unbeaten, we won two tough away games.
"We had difficulties with our travel to Adelaide and difficulties to going into Perth. So we're showing a lot of growth in our character and our mentality and we need to put everything together tomorrow if we want to get the win."
Victory had to deal with flight delays and a late-night arrival before playing Perth, but still won 1-0.
But Popovic wouldn't be drawn on how big a marker knocking over reigning champions City would be in Victory's improvement.
"Tomorrow's an exciting game. We're at home, we have our home fans, we're playing the best team. So there's not much more you could want as a football club," he said.
"First and foremost, it's about winning a derby. They are unique. They are special games.
"You don't get more than three points for that but winning a derby would obviously be fantastic for the entire club after what the club's gone through the last few years.
"Melbourne City has gone to another level. We want to do that as well. So firstly, winning the derby is key.
"We can think about what that does for our season after the game."
Victory centre-back Roderick Miranda is available after serving a red-card suspension but City are still without full-back Scott Galloway.
