Thomas, who is set to sign with Danish outfit SønderjyskE Fodbold, became the fourth high-profile player lost to Victory since the A-League's suspension, joining internationals Ola Toivonen, Tim Hoogland, Jakob Poulsen in the departure lounge.

Their absence, combined with a season-ending injury to Robbie Kruse, is likely the biggest drain on any club's stocks since the shutdown, with the quintet, cumulatively, leaving behind a void of 174 international, 1171 top-flight European and 252 A-League game's worth of experience.

For a club onto its third Head Coach of the season, cocooned in a hub away from home and, short of a miracle, set to record their worst ever league position, one could forgive anyone becoming disillusioned.

But while Brebner can understand the thinking, he isn't approaching it that way.

“What I won’t do is answer questions [in a way] that just sounds like the right answers – is it demoralising? Yes, you could argue that it was," he said today. "But I don’t see it.

“Because I see what we’ve done this season, I see the points we’ve taken this season and the performances we’ve put out there with, arguably, all those players at hand. So, I don’t dwell on that.

“My standard, what I’m asking, will be the same as what I did on the weekend. If [players] are performing they’ll play, if they’re not they won’t play and that’s what they need to remind themselves every day because otherwise, somebody else will come in.”

Victory’s next hit out will arrive on Wednesday evening, when they clash with Brisbane Roar at Bankwest Stadium.

Roar lost 1-0 against Adelaide United on July 19 in what was both Warren Moon’s debut as Head Coach following the departure of Robbie Fowler and their only fixture since the A-League returned from its hiatus.

Fourth place on the A-League table, the club has three matches to come but, with Wellington Phoenix and Sydney FC to follow, they will need three points against Victory to stay in the finals’ places.

Fifth-placed Perth Glory, with a game in hand, sit just a point behind Moon’s outfit, while Adelaide, on an equal number of games played, are four points back and seventh-placed Western United, with two games in hand, are five adrift.

“We saw them get under similar type scenarios as they did under Robbie [Fowler],” Brebner said of Moon’s first game in charge against the Reds.  

“They’ve had a little bit longer now, I don’t think Warren changed so much so early after Darren Davis had taken the team for a few weeks in that mini pre-season.

“So, I wouldn’t have expected him to change too much for that Adelaide game.

"But they’ve had a bit of time now leading up into this one. It’s going to be an unknown – we’re expecting them to go the same way but there’s that scope for change. We’re just really trying to focus on what to do better from what we didn’t do and execute that better.”

The chaotic nature of the A-League’s fixtures means that Victory will enter the game off a four-day break, whereas the Queensland outfit won’t have played in 10.

“Certainly, I even as a coach would prefer to play games more often than not,” said Brebner.

“The workload and turnaround are pretty quick. But we know Brisbane is very similar to how Western United set up [in formation].

“[They’re] different styles in terms of the game they play, [Brisbane is] more of a team setup whereas Western United have some fantastic individuals that complement the way they play.

“Brisbane is going to be really tough opposition for us, we know that. We see how they set up with the ball and without the ball and we’ll be well rehearsed on what we need to do and hopefully, our players can execute it.”

Brebner also confirmed that Matt Acton would serve as Victory’s number one throughout the rest of the season following the departure of Thomas, while AIS product Matthew Sutton would serve as the back-up.

Though not going into specifics, the Scotsman also signalled two additional youngsters would receive call-ups for the game after a number of prospects received looks against Western United.