After the men’s Big Blue the night before, the women get their chance to ramp up the interstate hostilities, pitting the harboursiders against this season’s surprise title-contenders.

Victory produced a Herculean effort to overcome and thrive despite changing coaches three times throughout the season, including the loss of Mike Mulvey to Brisbane Roar.

They head into their first grand final with plenty of momentum and are favourites to lift the trophy at the final whistle thanks to a club record seven-match unbeaten run.

Former champions Sydney squeaked into the top four before putting Premiers Brisbane to the sword, settling a score that still lingered from last season’s controversial semi-final loss to the Queenslanders.

But they have yet to beat Victory this season.

It’s a match-up that offers plenty of subplots, intrigue, controversy and one of the most compelling football fairy-tales of recent times, with Victory gunning for their first piece of silverware.

Overcoming Perth Glory in a drama-packed 4-3 penalty shootout at nib Stadium was the last hurdle in their remarkable charge towards the league’s showpiece event.

Caitlin Friend, 19, said the obstacles along the way only served to make the team stronger, tighter and more confident. The striker’s season was hampered by injuries but she is hoping to come off the bench to devastating effect.

When she does it could be front of a record home crowd, with predictions the match will surpass the current league attendance record of just over 4,500.

“We’ve gone through like four coaches this season so it’s just amazing that we’ve made the grand final – I think it has shocked people actually,” Friend said.

“We knew we could do it but the fact that we lost Mike and had to have another coach and all those little setbacks, it’s just amazing to see that we could still get through.

“Melbourne is a real tight family. We don’t have a team of different individuals. We all go out there playing as a strong unit and I think it’s for that reason we’re such a strong competitor.

“You find that other teams sort of have the spotlight on individuals but at the end of the day it’s a team sport and I think that’s what gets Melbourne across the line because we’ve just got such good unity.”

Fabrizio Soncin’s outfit have the meanest defence in the league, conceding just 14 goals in the regular season and Sydney will need to be at their best to break them down.

And they’ll have to do it without the likes of Ellyse Perry, currently on World Cup cricketing duty, as well as Emma Kete who is serving a suspension for her 77th minute semi-final sending off.

Pocket rocket midfielder Teresa Polias believes there is plenty of quality on the bench to cover their absence.

“They’re two key players that we’ll miss on the day but in saying that we’ve got pretty good depth in our squad and we’ve had probably one of the best benches in the competition,” Polias said.

“We’ve got real attacking young players that can come in and we know they can do the job. In particular Chloe Logarzo is a dangerous player and pretty similar to Emma actually - she’s quite nippy.

“Larissa Crummer’s played many games for us before so it’s nothing new to her either. We know that our youngsters who come in will do the job.

“Both teams have real attacking threats so it’s going to be a really close game. We know Victory are tough opposition, they spread the ball around really well.

“We watched their semi the other day and their defenders performed exceptionally so it will be about breaking them down and taking our chances when we get them.”

At 22 Polias – a teacher at Canterbury South Public School – is one of the veterans of the Sydney side and admits she’s excited by the development of the W-League over the past five seasons.

“It’s the closest it’s ever been and the fact there’s been more overseas players involved has really added to the league as well,” she said. “It’s ever-growing and it’s just getting better each season which is great.”

Friend said the lead-up to the grand final had attracted unprecedented media interest and a huge swell of support fuelled by the Melbourne – Sydney rivalry.

Members of the Cove who are travelling down to watch the Big Blue on Saturday are expected to stay on to cheer coach Alen Stajcic’s squad to glory. The Victory striker is hoping they enjoy the game but head back to NSW disappointed.

“We believe in ourselves completely to win this game,” Friend said. “Even against Sydney we feel like we’re a stronger team and quite frankly it’s the team to play in the grand final I think.”

The match kicks off at 3.30pm at AAMI Park.