Melbourne Victory boss Tony Popovic believes his side are heading in the right direction after fighting out a 1-1 draw in the derby clash with Melbourne City.
Victory are priced at 9/2 to win the grand final and for the second time this season they have held the reigning premiers to a draw.
Huge improvement
Last season Victory were crushed 6-0 and 7-0 against City but there have been big changes since then with Popovic coming in and rebuilding the squad.
They are now a different animal and Popovic says they are primed to challenge for honours once again.
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"Overall, it's a very good performance," Popovic told reporters after the game. "Today we showed progress from the last match.
"We could've won the last derby. Today, we should've won. That's the difference. We should have won today."
Victory had taken the lead through Marco Rojas on 19 minutes before Melbourne City levelled matters thanks to Curtis Good on 45 minutes.
Kisnorbo disapppointed
The home side had to settle for a share of the points but boss Patrick Kisnorbo felt they had enough chances to win the game.
"In the end, we could have won it," said Kisnorbo. "It was a hard game of football and probably good for the neutral to watch."
It was also a fiery contest which spilled over into a melee between both sets of players after the final whistle. However Kisnorbo was quick to play it down.
"(It was) handbags stuff. It's nothing. It's emotions," Kisnorbo added.
