South Melbourne’s Michael Eagar and Milos Lujic are on the brink of a Victorian league treble, spanning over two clubs.
Both were part of the triumphant Northcote City side that pipped Bentleigh Greens to the title in the 2013 VPL final, before being lured to Lakeside by Chris Taylor in 2014.
With no finals system last season, South Melbourne won the league after finishing top of the table over second-placed Oakleigh Cannons.
The team once more finished top this season to win the minor premiership, but with the finals re-instated, had to work their way to the Grand Final with a last gasp victory over Pascoe Vale.
Eagar said his side thrived on the pressure and expectation brought about by playing for the former NSL giants.
“South without a doubt have the biggest following in Victoria, if not outside the A-League in Australia,” he said.
“We enjoy that pressure and expectation and last week, along with a few other games this year… they’ve helped spur us on and we’re hoping they’ll turn out in big numbers on Sunday and find their voice as they do always.
South have made a knack of pulling off late results this season, claiming the Community Shield, an FFA Cup clash against fierce rivals Melbourne Knights, and last weekend’s semi-final with come-from-behind victories.
The club captain said the belief shown by his teammates on the pitch every game has held the side in good stead throughout the season.
“It’s quite a bullish thing,” Eagar said.
“We never feel like we’re out of a game, no matter if we’re one goal or two goals behind in the first miute or the last minute
“We’ve been good this year in the sense that we’ve had plenty of players step up when they’ve needed to.
“We made our objectives clear at the start of the season that we wanted to win everything and so far we’ve gone along nicely.
“It’ll be a very tough game on Sunday, probably our biggest challenge of the season.”
For Lujic, a third championship would accompany an already impressive CV, with the striker also boasting a hat-trick of Golden Boot awards and an NPL Player of the Season award.
“It would mean a lot to be honest, you can’t ask for anything more then three titles in a row, but for me if we win this one it would be the biggest achievement,” he said.
“Six weeks ago people wrote us off when we had injuries, players missing and plenty of ups and downs.
“To go through all of that and be in the grand final with the minor premiership and Dockerty Cup already wrapped up is a massive achievement.
“The club the coach and players have a winning mentality that has been our 12th man all year and hopefully on Sunday we show that again.”