Kevin Muscat will allow his Melbourne Victory players and staff to celebrate their Premiers’ Plate triumph but says there will be no let up in the quest to win the championship.
Victory finished the regular season as the A-League’s top team for the first time since 2008-09 following a 3-1 win at home to the Central Coast Mariners on Sunday.
Together with runners-up Sydney FC, they have the next two weeks off before hosting a semi-final.
Muscat, a two-time title winner as a player, hailed the achievement of his squad in ending Victory’s six-year wait to capture silverware.
“I’m over the moon, I’m ecstatic,” he said.
“To have achieved this with that group, it’s certainly special. (A) massive night for the football club, it’s been far too long. It’s been a long wait for a trophy.”
Asked whether or not he will allow the players to celebrate, the head coach said: “You’ve got to enjoy the good times.”
“We’ve put so much (in). It’s been a massive effort. The definition of celebration is far different from when I won them as a player here. The players are so professional in that sense. It’s important they go away with their families and enjoy the night but we’ll be in tomorrow morning and preparing, as usual.
“We’ve got things to do. I won’t give them days off. We’ll give them enough days off in a professional sense to ensure they’ve recovered. The fact we haven’t got a game next week – I dare say we’ll probably train a little bit harder this week.”
Victory and Sydney are joined in the finals by Wellington Phoenix, Adelaide United, Melbourne City and reigning champions Brisbane Roar, who benefitted from the disqualification of Perth Glory for breaching the salary cap.
The Roar are away to Adelaide on Friday night, before City go to Wellington on Sunday, with Muscat insisting every team still in contention represents a threat.
“We’ve all seen in finals football that you’ve got to respect everybody,” he said.
“Everybody now’s got an opportunity, all the way through it’s sudden death. I don’t particularly fear anybody more than anybody else. But at the same time we’ll respect all the teams remaining in the finals.”
Having narrowly failed to get out of the group stage in 2014, Victory have also secured a berth in next season’s AFC Champions League, where they will hope to emulate the feats of Australian holders Western Sydney Wanderers.
“In recent years Australian clubs have shown we can compete and when we get to that point it’ll be taken very seriously,” he said.
