Scott Condon blogs on the Melbourne Victory for BPL. Click here if you want to join our A-League blog network.

Just out from the A-Leagues sixth season and you wouldn't know there was a second team here in Melbourne at the moment. Everywhere you look Melbourne's newest franchise Melbourne Heart are busy ticking all possible boxes put in front of them, while the sports biggest team in this country Melbourne Victory seem to be as active as Mount Vesuvius.

With Heart joining the league, the biggest argument between Victory supporters has been which team truly is our greatest rival. Surely after beating Adelaide time, time and time again puts them at a distant third. Sydney came, they saw and they conquered last year and then they lost the spine of their squad to the newly formed Heart. That would surely make the new cross town rival arch enemy number one. However as most Victory fans have mentioned (albeit under their breath), Heart are making themselves very hard to dislike right now. So life's big questions still remain unanswered.

The pre season has been extended and split; there was an Asian Champions League game, along with a testimonial for club great Kevin Muscat which coincided with the departure of Australia's best up and coming keeper Mitch Langerak. He left to join the big time in Germany after a drawn out transfer process which had young Mitch venting over Twitter.

Victory were quick to gain the services of ex Socceroo Michael Petkovic as replacement for Langerak. This spared us having to put Kiwi Glen Moss in goal who has been a great keeper but has had a awful spell between the sticks at Victory.

The two things that most of us Victory supporters are most anxious about is who we are going to get as a replacement for the A-Leagues best and most consistent goal scorer Archie Thompson, who was injured in that fateful grand final and isn't expected back until the new year. And when?

Ernie Merrick's squad looks to have enough depth to cover most positions for the upcoming season. However this is the first season Victory has gone in without the partnership of Allsopp and Thompson, who for the first 5 years were the mainstay up front. Robbie Kruse has the potential to be a very good player and Carlos Hernandez is a star. Billy Celeski, Tom Pondlejak and Nicky Ward are good for a goal every now and then, but who is going to be the target man up front? Victory need to sign a striker, a quality striker at that and they need to sign him soon.

Victory open the season away to Sydney in a blockbuster opening round before returning to Melbourne for their first game at the fantastic AAMI Park which will more than likely have the 'SOLD OUT' sign up more often than not, creating an unequaled atmosphere in the A-League.