Tony Popovic says Melbourne Victory are a different beast this year after his side kickstarted their A-League Men campaign with a 2-0 win over Sydney FC.
Veteran striker Bruno Fornaroli scored Victory's opening goal at Sydney’s Allianz Stadium on Saturday, before a late finish from French import Zinedine Machach put the result beyond doubt.
Popovic believes the positive start is a sign of things to come.
Victory are eager to respond from last year’s disappointment of missing finals after a campaign overshadowed by the infamous Melbourne derby pitch invasion.
"The result is a bonus, the performance showed that we're not the same team as last year," Popovic said.
"Getting an away win at Sydney, our fans go home happy - that's the icing on the cake.
"The performance showed where we're heading and there's a lot more to come."
Sydney, meanwhile, will be left to wonder if they could have done more.
Steve Corica's side struggled to test Victory goalkeeper Paul Izzo and while both sides lacked polish, the Sky Blues failed to pose any real threat from open play.
Max Burgess showed some of his trademark magic but he and the rest of Sydney’s attacking outlets failed to give towering Brazilian forward Fabio Gomes the service he required.
The Sky Blues lacked patience, at times, too.
They had Victory under the pump early in the second half, but rather than pin them in their own box, Sydney captain Luke Brattan blasted the ball wildly over the bar.
Daniel Arzani looked the most likely for Victory with a handful of probing runs in the opening hour.
He and fellow winger Nishan Velupillay were causing Sydney problems out wide and continually switched flanks to change the angles of attack.
Victory got their breakthrough on the back of a Brattan blunder, the midfielder slipping under pressure and giving the ball away to Velupillay, who played in Fornaroli.
The striker took a single touch and then opened up, firing past Andrew Redmayne and into the back of the net in the 62nd minute.
To rub salt into the wound Machach went on a cavalier run through the heart of the Sydney defence in the dying minutes, knocking players out of his way before tucking the ball past Redmayne to wrap up the three points - and the Big Blue bragging rights - for Popovic’s men.
"We made a couple of mistakes that we probably wouldn't normally do and they are costly," Corica said.
"The first game of the season is always very tight and it was up until our mistakes, and they got their second late on.
"In the final third tonight, we were off a little bit. We didn't take our chances when they came."
