Tomorrow evening’s contest at Marvel Stadium will mark the second straight year in which the dark and light blue sides of Melbourne will clash in a marquee round one fixture; goals from the now-departed Ritchie de Laet and Riley McGree propelling City to a 2-1 win over Victory in 2018/19.

Kurz, who crossed over to Victory this offseason after two years at Adelaide United, will coach the side in just his second competitive game after his club – which was missing several key signings that have since landed in Melbourne – was eliminated from the FFA Cup’s Round of 32 by Newcastle Jets.

Since that game, however, Tim Hoogland, Jakob Paulsen, Adama Traore, Kristijan Dobras and Migjen Basha have all arrived at the four-time A-League champions.

While Robbie Kruse and Matt Acton have been ruled out with injury and Kenny Athiu and Birkan Kirdar are absent on international duty with South Sudan, Kurz believes his side will otherwise be close to full strength for the clash against City.

“We are really excited that the season is starting with a big derby,” Kurz Said today. “I’m really happy we start with the derby.

“I watched the derbies last season on the television and it was always a special game. It’s a rivalry and if you play a derby you want to win it.

“I think in this case City are a little bit of an advantage, because they played more official games with the FFA Cup games, but I think we had a good preseason, we got some good results.

“But in the end, you have to perform. We are well prepared and the opponent is as well. I expect two strong Melbourne teams on the pitch tomorrow. Hopefully, we can be the better one.”

Victory may also be without defender Hoogland for the derby, with social media posts declaring the veteran had injured his groin in training.

Victory’s most recent signing, Basha, only arrived in Australia earlier this week after experiencing issues in securing a visa to enter Australia, but Kurz said his new Albanian was ready to go if called upon.

“The good thing is that he had a complete pre-season overseas,” Kurz said of Basha

“He played two or three official games in Europe for his old club. He’s had a little bit of rest but he looks good, the visa is done as he is part of the squad tomorrow. He can play.

Further boosting Kurz’s prospect of securing a win in his first league match with Victory will be the absence of striker Jamie Maclaren from Melbourne City’s ranks.

Called up for international duty, Maclaren scored a hattrick as the Socceroos cruised to a 5-0 win over minnows Nepal on Thursday night and his now in transit for next Tuesday’s meeting with Chinese Taipei in Kaohsiung.

“It’s a big loss,” Kurz remarked. “I think it’s a big loss for all the teams in the A-League that the season starts in the FIFA window – we’re also missing Kenny.

“I [still] expect a very strong side from City.

“They are well organised, they had good experience in official games and they got really good results.

“I had the experience in the last two seasons with how important it is to reach the Cup final; every two weeks you have an official game and that’s completely different to a friendly game.

“I expect a very strong side from City but we want to be better, we must work very hard to be better.”