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When Melbourne-born Reno Piscopo arced a long-range bomb over the stranded Filip Kurto at AAMI Park on Sunday, he seemed to restore the natural order of things.
The 26-year-old endured a frustrating spell at the Newcastle Jets, starting just 11 games last season as injuries and loss of form blighted his stay in the Steel City.
But the former Australia youth international – who also represented Italy in his schoolboy days – looks a player reborn in Victory colours.
He’s started all three games under Patrick Kisnorbo – setting up Nikos Vergos for his first A-League goal with some outstanding wing play in the Melbourne Derby, before sealing Victory’s 2-1 come-from-behind win over Macarthur with a long-range screamer in front of the North Terrace on Sunday afternoon.
The win moved Victory up to second on the nascent A-League ladder and sent the home fans ecstatic.
Reno Piscopo celebrates after scoring. (Photo by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)
And with the club commemorating its 20th anniversary this week – Victory was founded on November 1, 2004 – fans are in a celebratory mood.
But are they still the biggest club in the A-League?
It was a suggestion made by a Victory fan on the platform formerly known as Twitter over the weekend in a tweet that was viewed more than 20,000 times.
But it also prompted the question – asked not only by me, but plenty of other A-League watchers – of whether Sydney FC aren’t actually the bigger club?
The Sky Blues produced the sort of win premierships are made of on Friday night, when they fought off a resilient Brisbane Roar 3-2 in an absolute thriller at Suncorp Stadium.
Twice the home team had fought back from a goal down, only for Sydney substitutes Adrian Segecic and Jaiden Kucharski to combine for the latter to smash home a scintillating stoppage-time winner.
Defeat was harsh on a Roar side that refused to roll over against a star-studded Sky Blues outfit, with fans in The Den celebrating a superb Thomas Waddingham equaliser and a first ever A-League goal from Indonesian recruit, Rafael Struick.
There was a terrific atmosphere inside Suncorp Stadium on the night – not that you would have noticed on Paramount+, with the TV cameras aimed squarely at the two sides of the stadium closed off to fans.
Brisbane Roar need a home of their own and as I wrote on here a couple of weeks ago, they’re willing to invest in an upgrade of Perry Park.
Sydney FC have no such worries, with the Sky Blues playing out of arguably the best stadium in Australia following the multi-million-dollar rebuild of Allianz Stadium.
Yet they only averaged 14,476 fans through the gates last season – meaning the new stadium was almost always two-thirds empty.
Part of that was in protest at the Australian Professional Leagues’ decision to sell off grand final hosting rights – despite the fact Sydney FC fans would have been one of the few supporter groups to have benefited from the move.
The question now is whether Sydney FC can rebuild the fan base to the levels we took for granted more than a decade ago.
Sydney FC fans at the SCG (Photo by Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images)
Yet the same is true for Melbourne Victory – who despite having the most engaged fan base online, really only ever draw big crowds for the derby.
The City Football Group have made it clear they’re happy to play second fiddle to Victory and the big guns of the league, with their refusal to sign a marquee or engage with supporters in any meaningful way marking Melbourne City out as the competition’s most forgettable side.
They’ll face a Western United outfit at AAMI Park tonight that is actually fostering relationships and building a football community out in Melbourne’s western suburbs.
The A-Leagues’ 20th season is on now! Be part of the action in stadium or watch it live.
But there’s no question Melbourne Victory and Sydney FC remain the two biggest sides in the league – with Sydney FC edging the Victorians with five A-League Men’s championships to four, while the latter possess arguably the larger fan base.
So which club is bigger?
That’s something this season’s title race may well decide.