As Melbourne Victory reel from the shock of Patrick Kisnorbo's sudden departure, interim coach Arthur Diles is confident he can stabilise the embattled A-League Men club.
Third-placed Victory will have to front up for a derby against arch-rivals Melbourne City at AAMI Park on Saturday rocked by their coach walking out after just seven league games at the helm.
Diles was blindsided on Monday night when he learned Kisnorbo would be leaving for an overseas opportunity - reportedly an assistant coaching role in Japan - and he would be stepping up.
"Like everybody - shocked," Diles said of his reaction.
"We didn't see anything coming.
"I'm not fazed by this situation or this opportunity.
"It's football. I've been coaching and been around professional football for many years, and it's a progression - it happens.
"I'm ready for it, however long that is."
Captain Roderick Miranda added: "It was the same - a bit of shock, especially (given) it came from nowhere," he said.
Victory managing director Caroline Carnegie found out on Sunday, then told football director John Didulica.
"It was a shock, for sure. It's probably hard for people to get their head around it," Carnegie told AAP.
"But there wasn't anything internal that prompted it. There was no breakdown of anything. Everything was going along well.
"So it was literally shock, which then led to a conversation where I got to shock JD (Didulica), right after he jumped off a plane for his first holiday in three years."
Victory didn't attempt to convince Kisnorbo to stay on, with Carnegie and Didulica adamant they didn't want someone who didn't want to be there.
"We were disappointed, for sure," Carnegie said.
"We didn't spend a lot of time talking about that. We said 'we're disappointed. How do we deal with it? Let's move forward.'
"And then it was about, 'if there's an opportunity that he wants to take, how do we get the best replacement in for Melbourne Victory?' Because it is a derby week."
Miranda stressed the derby was the "perfect" game to deliver a response.
Diles, a former assistant to Tony Popovic, then Kisnorbo, considered it an opportunity to show stability.
"That's clear that that will happen, and the players are aware of that, and the staff," Diles said.
"Everyone's aware of the situation, the occasion and the expectation,
"So there's a lot of familiarity here. It's not like there's a whole coaching staff that's gone and someone just had to pick up the pieces, right?
"So everyone's still in place here. The players are there, and 99 per cent of the coaching staff are as well. So we're ready to go for Saturday."
Didulica confirmed Victory will back in Diles, who is in contention for the full-time role, and haven't otherwise started a process of looking for their next coach.
They will bring in a new assistant coach.
"We've got absolute confidence in Arthur," Didulica told AAP.
"He's been a big part of developing that game model.
"He's got really strong relationships with the players and the staff.
"So we have confidence that he can not even steady the ship, he can keep us getting stronger and closer to winning. We've got no doubt."
Didulica and Carnegie were adamant Diles would have the players he needed to succeed, with no plans for a January transfer window fire sale.
"There's no basis for us to do a fire sale," Didulica said.
