History shows, however, that going back to back in the 10-team league is a lot easier said than done.

Only Brisbane Roar have achieved that feat and they had to break all sorts of other records, including the longest unbeaten run by any team in any code, to do so.

Victory have themselves tried and failed on two previous occasions, on the first (in the 2007-08 campaign) not even making the finals, so coach Kevin Muscat will not be taking success for granted.

Still, it's hard to see how Victory, the most profitable club and the one with the biggest supporter base, will not be in the shake-up once again.

Muscat was in his first full season as a coach last year and showed the benefit of an apprenticeship served first under Ernie Merrick, then, briefly, Mehmet Durakovic and Jim Magilton before it was completed with a season as Socceroo coach (and Brisbane's title winning mentor) Ange Postecoglou.

Muscat had long experience in top-level football overseas and at international level with the Socceroos, and unlike many contemporaries has made an excellent transition to the dugout.

Now 42, Muscat would only have benefited from that championship-winning experience and is keen to prove that last year's success was not a one-off.

Things will be much harder, of course. Victory always has a target on its back wherever and whenever it plays: as the league's biggest club all the others revel in beating it. Now, as midfielder Leigh Broxham observed before the FFA Cup quarter-final last month, as champions they have a target on the front as well.

Muscat will be desperate not to repeat the domestic experience of his former Socceroo teammate Tony Popovic, who coached  Western Sydney Wanderers to that historic triumph in the 2014 Asian Champions League.

While Popovic got everything right in the continental competition that year, things went horribly wrong for the Parramatta-based club in the A-League. Struggling to juggle the competing demands of the Champions League and the World Club Championship, the Wanderers couldn't handle the fixture pile-up in the A-League and slumped to the foot of the table for most of the campaign.

That sort of effort would not be tolerated by Victory's demanding fan base, so handling the demands of the Champions League next March and April, when the A-League will be reaching a climax, will be uppermost in Muscat's mind.

His side has played in the ACL thrice and never progressed beyond the group stage, so this time round the Victory hierarchy, well aware that the Wanderers have won the competition and Adelaide United have reached the final,  are determined that their club can make their mark.

There will be no club chasing down Victory harder than their cross-city rivals, Melbourne City, now in the second season under the ownership of one of the world's richest clubs, Manchester City.

City eventually finished fourth last season after bumping along mid-table for most of the campaign. They finished strongly, knocking Wellington Phoenix out in the first final in New Zealand before crashing to Victory in front of a bumper crowd at Etihad in a semi-final.

Still, it was City's best return during its time in the competition (initially as Melbourne Heart) and coach John van't Schip's paymasters are entitled to expect a stronger showing this season.

There has been much change at City as the transformation from Heart has taken place. Where players once climbed into wheelie bins full of ice to cool down after training outside ramshackle facilities at Latrobe University, they can now luxuriate in first class surroundings at the City Football Academy close by.

Where once City contented themselves with scratch matches against local opposition to tick over during the off season, these days — as they did last January, while the Asian Cup was on and the league suspended — they can jet off to the Middle East for training camps and friendly games against foreign opponents.

With the improved conditions comes heightened expectations.

Van't Schip has turned over his squad considerably in the off-season, with almost a full team of new faces.

City's likely first eleven looks as though it could be a threat to anyone. There are certainly upgrades in the full-back positions, with Socceroo right-back Ivan Franjic (a member of the World Cup squad and the Asian Championship winning team) at right back and former Socceroo Michael Zullo at left back.

Van't Schip has brought in top flight experience by signing veterans Aaron Hughes, the ex-Newcastle United and Fulham defender, and goalkeeper Thomas Sorensen. The Dane is another to have played for years in the English top flight with Sunderland, Aston Villa and Stoke.

Last year, City's biggest problem was its inconsistency. One day it looked terrific, the next terrible – with the honourable exception of player of the year, Aaron Mooy, who has parlayed his good domestic form into a place in the Socceroos squad for the current round of World Cup qualifiers.

The signing of playes like Hughes — still part of the Northern Ireland squad that looks likely to qualify for the European Championships next year — and Sorensen, not to mention the combative club captain Paddy Kisnorbo, is designed to bring some much needed consistency and leadership to a dressing room that had a collective tendency to drop its head when things weren't going as hoped for last year.

The signing of Uruguayan striker Bruno Fornaroli is also an interesting move. Small, quick and with good feet, he represents a real change from the target man Josh Kennedy whom City employed last season. Fornaroli has a strong pedigree, having played in Italy's Serie A  with Sampodoria as well as in the top Greek division with Panathinaikos earlier in his career.

He showed, with two goals in the 5-0 FFA Cup quarter-final romp over Heidleberg, that he is a penalty-box poacher but that there were also other elements to his game, as he often dropped deeper into midfield to leave space for his teammates and to act as a link man.

With the two Sydney teams, especially Sydney FC, and the perennial challengers Adelaide, City are expected to be snapping at Victory's heels all season long.