View from the Victory, Volume One: Victory the Brave and King Harry

This is a new feature to the View from Victoria Street and Bleacher Report that will highlight the 2011-12 season for the Melbourne Victory Football Club of the Hyundai A-League.

Melbourne. Simply put, this is a city that is built on sport and greatness.

Founded in 1835, it is the home of numerous sporting events—from matches in the Australian Football League held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, to tennis at the Australian Open, to auto racing at the Australian Grand Prix of Formula One fame and horse racing at Flemington Racecourse, the home of the Melbourne Cup, Australia's richest horse race.

Melbourne is also home to a couple of teams that compete in the young Hyundai A-League. There's Melbourne Heart, a second-year club looking to attach itself as a community-first, grassroots-laden club after a decent inaugural campaign.

Then there is the club that really defines soccer in Melbourne, more so than Victorian Premier League powerhouse South Melbourne.

That club: Melbourne Victory FC.

Established in 2004, the Victory are one of Australia's most accomplished clubs alongside interstate rivals Sydney FC. In their seven years of existence, the Victory are sowing the seeds of a new sporting tradition that involves a round ball and is played by millions around the world.

Great clubs have to take steps backwards in order to go forwards. Before the 2005-06 season, the Victory had acquired foundation players Kevin Muscat, Danny Allsopp, Archie Thompson, Michael Theoklitos and current captain Adrian Leijer and were considered a legit contender for Hyundai A-League silverware.

That turned out to be rendered false, as the Victory were eliminated in the semifinals of the preseason Challenge Cup and finished seventh in the overall standings with a record of 7-5-9 (26 points). Despite the result, the Victory recorded a number of notable victories, including a 3-0 shutout of the New Zealand Knights and a 5-0 hammering of Sydney FC.

The 2006-07 season would see Melbourne Victory garner their first pieces of silverware.

With the additions of Brazilian international Fred, Scotsman Grant Brebner, Rodrigo Vargas and Adrian Caceres, Victory shook off defeats against Adelaide and the Central Coast Mariners in the preseason Cup to roll to a 14-3-4 record (45 points), which included a 3-1 victory against Adelaide in Round 15 at Hindmarsh Stadium.

In the major semifinal, Melbourne Victory defeated Adelaide United on aggregate 2-1 but would face them again in the Grand Final.

Victory posted the most lopsided result in the club's history: a 6-0 annihilation of their South Australian rivals before a crowd of 55,436 at Docklands Stadium. Thompson—known for setting a world-record 13 goals against American Samoa in 2001—set a record for most goals in a Grand Final with five.

Melbourne Victory thus became the first-ever club to secure a Premiership/Championship double in the A-League.

The 2007-08 season was another disappointment for the Victory, who finished dead last in the preseason Challenge Cup and fifth place in the A-League. In spite of a dismal 6-9-6 record (27 points), the Victory posted impressive results over the Mariners and Wellington Phoenix late in the A-League season and finished second in their AFC Champions League group with a 2-1-3 record (seven points).

The 2008-09 season will go down as the Victory's most defining season, as they became the first and only club to have secured a possible treble in the A-League's young history.

In the preseason Challenge Cup, the Victory scored a 2-1 win over Adelaide, a 1-0 shutout win over Perth Glory, a 1-0 shutout of the Newcastle Jets and a 8-7 penalty shootout decision over the Phoenix in the final at the Westpac Stadium in Wellington, New Zealand.

League play saw the Victory garner a 12-2-7 record. Though they were even on points, with 38, as well as goal differential, with 12, the Victory won the Premiership Plate on superior goals scored (39 to 31).

After defeating Adelaide United 6-0 on aggregate in the major semifinal, Melbourne faced the Reds again in the grand final at Docklands. Both sides were forced to play down to 10 men in a brutal, physical grand final, but a goal from former Central Coast Mariner Tom Pondeljak at the hour mark completed the treble for the Victory in their 1-0 win over Adelaide.

In the 2009-10 season, Melbourne came close to defending their Premiership Plate, but a 2-0 defeat to rivals Sydney FC started a slide against their New South Wales rivals that would not end until Round 11 of the following season..

A 4-3 defeat on aggregate in the major semifinal was compounded further by a 4-2 defeat on penalties in the grand final after a 1-1 draw.

Adding insult to futility was an unacceptable performance in the 2010 AFC Champions League, which saw the Victory finish dead last with a lamentable 1-1-4 record (four points).

The 2010-11 season would be Ernie Merrick's last season at the helm for the Victory. The arrival of an inter-city rival club in Melbourne Heart meant that the situation would get out of hand for players like Kevin Muscat, whose career would forever be tainted by a rough tackle on the Heart's Adrian Zahra in Round 26 at the newly constructed AAMI Park. Muscat, a longtime captain of the club, would announce his retirement at the end of the season.

Melbourne did finish the season with a 11-10-9 record and qualified for the playoffs, but a 1-0 defeat to Gold Coast United in the playoffs saw Merrick sacked and replaced by current manager Mehmet Durakovic, formerly the manager of the Victory Youth.

It was the first of new changes that would dominate the leadup to the 2011-12 season for the Melbourne Victory.

Anthony Di Pietro replaced Geoff Lord as Chairman of the club, Francis Awaritefe replaced Gary Cole as Director of Football, and the biggest signing in A-League history would take place soon afterwards.

On Aug, 20, Melbourne Victory signed midfielder Harry Kewell to a three-year contract. Kewell is one of the most notable players in Australian football history, with a career that has seen him compete for Leeds United, Liverpool and Galatasaray. A member of the Socceroos since 1996, Kewell has recorded 16 goals in 54 appearances for the green and gold.

With the arrival of Kewell, the possibilities are plenty for Melbourne Victory, a club that has seen highs and lows but has endured to become a Hyundai A-League club built on tradition and success.

Keep it right here on the View from Victoria Street and Bleacher Report for continuing coverage of Melbourne Victory's 2011-12 Hyundai A-League season.