Marwood, along with Melbourne City’s full W-League squad and FFA A-League chief Greg O’Rourke, unveiled the latest addition to City Football Academy (CFA) which includes a new gym, medical, coaching and boot room facilities.

The facility was designed, built and operated in line with City Football Group’s infrastructure approach, sharing several design features with CFA Manchester and New York.

It comes after City won the 2016 W-League Championship in its inaugural season, being the first club to go through an entire campaign winning all regular season games.

And while City is now more advanced from its competitors, Marwood hoped the vision would act as a driving force for opponents.

“I hope it’s a springboard for other clubs, not just here, but around the world to see what could be achieved with some resources, passion and a strategy, trying to maintain a central DNA,” Marwood said.

“I hope all of those things because if other people get stronger then it helps, this is important everyone gets behind this, of course we want Melbourne to be successful but of course we want women’s football to be successful.

“I think we feel like we’ve created an environment which would lend itself towards being successful, but of course the people have to manage that and drive that forward.

“You know we need to give them the best facilities possible to be successful. I think what we’re trying to do is create a professional environment where these girls can enjoy a career that they hit the heights they want in terms of their ambitions.”

Marwood also believed they had barely scratched the surface in the project.

“We’re very proud, but you’re thinking about the next improvements every day, you can’t just go ‘OK, we’re done, we’re finished’, this is not finished,” he said.

“It has to grow, develop and we have to just keep that momentum because the momentum and attitude we’ve had so far has been remarkable if you think of the timespan it’s been done in.

“People said to me when I came to the group eight, nine years ago, if you said to me then ‘there’s going to be four clubs, you’re going to have women teams and new facilities’ and I would’ve said ‘you sure?’”

“We’ve been amazingly fortunate to be part of this project which is now I think is beginning to get the credit it deserves, I feel sorry for our owners because sometimes we wonder if they’ve had the right tone, credit, validity they should’ve had.”

The former Arsenal winger said staff involved in the project needed to be genuine in their optimism to drive it forward.

“I think that what’s been achieved in the women’s team is very important as it is for the men’s team, first and foremost we make no apologies, we do want to be successful,” Marwood said.

“It’s important for us as a group to be successful, so we have that ambition straight away, I think other ambition is to have a style of football, have people who share the colours, values and behaviours that come down from the top.”