The result was already out of sight when Sydney FC midfielder Sarah Hunter looked up and saw the final, prescient pass.
Her team were 3-0 up against the Newcastle Jets with just seconds of injury time remaining. The premiership trophy was theirs; goals to Mackenzie Hawkesby and Cortnee Vine earlier on in the match all but guaranteed they'd lift it. They were simply waiting for the referee's whistle for confirmation. There was no need to do anything more than they had already done.
But when Hunter received the ball from the right wing, rolled it beneath her foot, and gazed up at the white wall of Newcastle Jets shirts, she glimpsed the future before anyone else did.
"What a wonderful ball through from Sarah Hunter!" former Sydney captain Teresa Polias said on the live broadcast as the tiny white dot sliced the field in two to find Cortnee Vine, who'd ghosted in behind them all before sliding the ball beneath the goalkeeper.
"Have a look at this ball through. The vision! The vision of Sarah Hunter! Phenomenal. And once again, Cortnee Vine shows us what she's been working on: one-on-one finishing. Too good."
It was the final play in Sydney's 4-0 victory over Newcastle: a game they had to win in order to leap-frog Western United and finish first on the ladder to secure their third consecutive premiership.
Their fourth goal was, in the end, unnecessary. So dominant had the Sky Blues been in their final regular-season game that there was no prospect of Newcastle finding a way back in.
But the fact that they continued to push for it — and that it unfolded the way it did, with these particular players — spoke to something else about this club that is now, far and away, the most successful in A-League Women history. And it started with one particular vision.
In 2017, when head coach Ante Juric was hired, Sydney FC were a fading light. Eclipsed by the money and might of Melbourne City, who swept through the league in their inaugural season of 2015/16, as well as then-powerhouses Canberra United and a Sam Kerr-led Perth Glory, Sydney needed a new approach.
Joining the club after coaching stints with the Football NSW Institute, as well as the youth national team programs, Juric was one of the few coaches in the country who had been watching the next generation emerge, writing down the names of players he thought had something special in the hopes that, one day, he'd be able to give them an opportunity to shine.
But he knew it wouldn't happen in the space of a single 14-round season. He knew it would take time and incremental change. From the very beginning, the former Socceroo centre-back's sight stretched beyond the horizon.
"When I initially came in, I did think the team was stale and old-ish. We got to the [2017/18] grand final, but we needed to change things," he told ABC last year.
"So that first year, we had a lot of movement of players. We brought some in: a couple of foreigners, as well, in that second year. From there, we started to develop a bit of a core of around 10 players.
"Then from that, we try to bring in players that I've scouted throughout the year or that I'd known over the years due to my work with the national teams. So I got an early start in terms of that.
"I knew the players I wanted, the players that suited my style. So it was a gradual process of moving a couple players on: either they wanted to leave, they weren't able to step up when we needed them to, or they've gone overseas, like the Matildas did when we lost them [in 2019].
"But I always knew where I wanted to go."
Veteran players who had carried Sydney to great heights in the past like Leena Khamis, Kylie Ledbrook, Teresa Polias, Kyah Simon, Renee Rollason, and Servet Uzunlar were slowly replaced by young players plucked from relative obscurity: Hunter, Remy Siemsen, Cortnee Vine, Taylor Ray, Princess Ibini, Mackenzie Hawkesby, Clare Wheeler, Natalie Tobin, Charlotte McLean, Jada Whyman.
Complemented by a sprinkling of international players, but never more than what was needed, Juric continuously struck the balance between fulfilling the potential of its future while also maintaining the competitiveness of its past.
Several players who Juric recruited over the years have gone on to represent the Matildas, with many more being called up to Australia's youth teams for camps and major tournaments. Under his watch, Sydney FC have become one of the most productive national team greenhouses in the country.
"Whoever takes over from me, they'll be in a good place," he said.
"They'll have a great team, a young team; a team that could be successful for at least four or five more years. We're in that place now.
"It probably sounds easier than it is. Because it's a lot of work, a lot of thinking, some tough calls sometimes with people. But it's all about looking towards the future."
Captain Natalie Tobin, the second-oldest member at just 26, remembers Juric's arrival in 2017. As one of the younger and more peripheral players back then, she'd watched the club slowly stagnate results-wise and with no clear succession plan in place. But then it all started to change.
"I remember there was a big clean-out, and it was well-needed, to be honest," she said.
"Before that, the culture wasn't great. That's half the reason I took a year off: I wasn't enjoying it as much. So then Ante's come in and took charge in a way that you need in a coach. You can't let the players be running the show.
"He's been here for six years now. He's been here long-term, so I think he had to have that [plan] in his mind. He was contemplating last year whether to keep going or not, and we're so glad that he stayed on and continued doing what he's done for so many years now.
"He hasn't won Coach of the Month once this whole year. I don't know why. The man's won the last three premierships, obviously he's doing something right, and to do it with such a young team, as well.
"I have so much respect for Ante and what he's done. I really appreciate him and how much he can motivate our team and drive it towards success."
This past weekend, Sydney FC became the first ALW club to win three successive premierships; their fifth season title overall, and their eighth trophy since the league's inception in 2008.
They now sit alone, having won two more titles than their closest rivals Melbourne City, all while breaking multiple records (most successive clean sheets, most grand final appearances, the only club to never finish lower than fourth) with a team that has become gradually younger as the seasons have progressed.
This campaign was their youngest yet, with a squad averaging just 21 years old, and featuring the club's youngest-ever goal-scorer in 15-year-old Indiana Dos Santos.
While maintaining a core of players is one thing, but maintaining the culture they create is quite another.
For Tobin, the culture that has been built under Juric's tenure has been the driving force behind their record-breaking past three seasons. Even as players have come and gone, the foundation of togetherness, hard work, discipline, and sacrifice that Sydney has remained solid year after year.
"You can be a fantastic player, but if you don't have a great head on your shoulders, you're not going to fit in here," Tobin said.
"You've got to be someone who's going to work hard for the team regardless. Like, if we're down, you have to believe that we can come back and you have to work for that, like the semi-final against Melbourne City last year: we were down one-nil and we came back to win 4-2.
"He also sees potential in players. They may not be the best player, but he can bring out the best in someone.
"A good example of that is Mackenzie Hawkesby: when she first came into the team, she didn't have a reputation at all and hadn't achieved much in her football career. Now ... she's workhorse and one of the best players in the league.
"Ante has a really good eye for choosing not just good players, but good people, and getting the best out of us all."
But true to their character as a club, they are not content with where they are: the premiership-championship double — which they last achieved back in 2009 — is still within their grasp.
They came tantalisingly close the past two times, but had the trophy snatched from their fingertips by Melbourne Victory on both occasions.
Like every season that's come before, their eyes are firmly fixed on their own horizon; forever hunting for the next pass.
"Last year, after the grand final, we decided: we're never doing this again. We're never losing this match again," Tobin said.
"I think it's really driven us so much more. This year feels different in that way ... When we're on, we can beat any team.
"We are overwhelming favourites going into finals, but in saying that, history shows that, in the same way, we're not. So we really need to break that trend, and I think we have the capacity to do that."
