Thankfully, heading into 2020, it appears the three belligerents from the footballing hotbed are still well placed to provide numerous storylines and barnstorming entertainment in the coming months.

Though their 2-1 defeat of Melbourne City in the annual Christmas Derby may have dealt a body-blow to City’s attempts to catch Sydney FC atop the A-League table, Victory’s triumph means that entering 2020, the three-way battle for Victoria supremacy remains well and truly alive.

With a bye week looming and the transfer window soon to open, conjecture had been that Kurz was coaching for his job on that Saturday at AAMI Park.

A loss could have easily seen his side slide to the bottom of the table at the end of 2019 and with – at a minimum – a 13-point gap between themselves and bitter-rivals City.

But it’s amazing what three points can do for a narrative.

MELBOURNE VICTORY'S CHANGING NARRATIVE

Now held out of the top-six only via goal difference, Victory is now well-positioned to return from their bye and begin to leverage their collection of talented individual parts into a lethal collective.

Most important on this journey will be Robbie Kruse.

Whereas he was just one of a number of Victory players to miss time at the beginning of the season, the Socceroo attacker’s absence, with the benefit of hindsight, was clearly felt in the opening weeks.

While Ola Toivonen remains the club’s most potent attacking threat as well as a powerful facilitator, his attempts to drag Victory to wins at the beginning of the campaign show that, for all his talent, he can’t do it alone.

In Kruse, he now has a partner in crime up front that is capable of manipulating opposing defences, taking some of the creative load and, in partnership with the Swede, properly incorporate the power of fellow attacker Andrew Nabbout.

Nonetheless, potential pratfalls exist.

With international signings so often proving the difference between winning or losing a title, offseason signings Jakob Poulsen, Migjen Basha and Kristijan Dobras have been poor in their first year at AAMI Park and – barring any mutual terminations in the coming weeks – will need to lift their games if the club maintains designs challenging for silverware.

His troubles injury and not form related, defender Tim Hoogland will need to get, and stay, healthy.

Moreover, while Victory does sit well-poised to leap into the top six, they also maintain just a five-point gap between themselves and the tenth and eleventh placed Brisbane Roar and Newcastle Jets – with those two sides having two games in hand.

A lean run of form could just as easily reignite the wobbles that defined their start to the season and, once again, pile the pressure on Kurz and his squad.