This weekend, with just one game still to play, the Newcastle Jets will lift the A-League Men Premiers Plate in front of their own fans for the very first time in the club's 26-year history.
And for that, they can largely thank head coach, and one-time Jets midfielder, Mark Milligan, who some are hailing as Australia's heir apparent to Ange Postecoglou.
Milligan says he will let his young charges enjoy the moment -- which will come after they play rivals Central Coast Mariners on Saturday -- but not for long.
Milligan's achievements this season are almost unthinkable. In his first campaign as a professional head coach, the 40-year-old ended the Jets' 17-year trophy drought, lifting the Australia Cup before the regular season had even begun.
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There was talk the result could galvanise the youngest squad in the A-League as a competitive side, but it was still widely regarded as a "rebuilding project" at best, particularly after their ninth-place finish last season.
Yet here they are. A team of academy graduates and club cast-offs -- largely inherited -- with two trophies in the cabinet and on the brink of an unprecedented domestic treble should they win the finals series. Milligan could be forgiven for allowing his players to reflect on their success, and his own, but he is relentless.
"I don't want this group to ever be satisfied with where they're at," Milligan told ESPN. "I felt like if they achieved things like winning a trophy in the preseason, then they'd be happy with that. And I don't want that."
So where does that relentlessness come from?
An obvious place to start is Milligan's playing career. An aggressive, highly talented ball-playing box-to-box midfielder, who read the game like a manager early on, Milligan was also capable of playing in any role across the backline. Prioritising the Socceroos above all else earned Milligan 80 caps and four FIFA World Cup appearances -- a career any Australian footballer would envy.
It also came at a price. Visa issues and competing national team commitments cost him a dream move to Arsène Wenger's Arsenal, and a sustained crack at European football would not come until much later than he had hoped. But across 21 years, he was fortunate to work under some of the game's sharpest minds, and he was paying attention.
Early at the Socceroos, Milligan worked under Guus Hiddink, who took him to the 2006 World Cup as a 21-year-old. But it was two years later, at Japanese club JEF United, that his coaching education truly began. With Milligan sitting on the sideline due to injury, Dutch manager Dwight Lodeweges took him into his "inner sanctum," and the young player began watching sessions differently.
"That's where I really decided this was the path I wanted to go down. The preparations for post-career started back then," Milligan recalled.
Later in his international career, Milligan played under Dutch managers Bert van Marwijk and Mark van Bommel, both of whom he rates highly. But for the Jets boss, one person stands above the rest -- his former Melbourne Victory and Socceroos manager, Postecoglou.
"We knew what we were going to get from Ange every single day," Milligan said of the former Celtic and Tottenham Hotspur manager. "It wasn't even just about the brand of football he played -- it was the fact that he wanted to do something different, something very different to what I'd experienced before.
"He didn't look at certain players and say, 'they can't do what I want, so they're out.' He gave us the opportunity to become better. He didn't make a judgment call on what he'd seen previously."
That philosophy has become the foundation of Milligan's approach at Newcastle, moulding a squad composed of inexperienced and lesser-known players into the league's highest scoring, most entertaining, and successful side.
"What I want to do is very different [to other coaches]," Milligan said. "I have to be willing not to make a judgment, especially with the young ones, on what I'd seen previously. I needed to look a little bit deeper than that and see if I was going to be able to give them the tools, or if I had the capabilities to go to those levels."
From the academy, Xavier Bertoncello, 20, has scored seven goals in his first season, while 18-year-old Will Dobson, growing in confidence each week, has been one of the league's most effective attacking midfielders.
Milligan's clear, direct and, by his own admission, stubborn approach, has been key to making his players believe in his relentless, attacking style.
"I know that as long as I'm that way 99% of the time, it makes players comfortable," he said. "I'm clear in the way I want things done."
Take a player like left-back Daniel Wilmering, who produced just one assist during the previous season. Under Milligan, he has eight -- second in the A-League only to Melbourne Victory's Juan Mata. Clayton Taylor has enjoyed his highest scoring campaign. And Lachie Rose, a willing runner but never considered a player of European pedigree, has signed a pre-contract to join Dundee United next season.
Then there is Max Burgess, frozen out by two managers at two different clubs in the past few seasons, with question marks hanging over his attitude and work ethic. He has started all games under Milligan when fit, played close to the full 90 minutes in almost every one, and has worn the captain's armband. So much for the attitude concerns.
The season began slowly for Newcastle. Milligan's insistence on playing front-footed football early on yielded inconsistent results, with the side winning just one of their first five games and letting in 14 goals.
Doubts grew over whether Milligan's methods -- which had the fingerprints of a Postecoglou team in freefall -- would hold.
But midway through the season, the Jets clicked. They won eight straight games, and soared to the summit of the table, with their eye-catching style bumping up the crowds at McDonald Jones Stadium by 32%.
Asked what changed, Milligan's answer is simple: "Nothing."
He said the turning point came as players quickly realised that winning in his style was non-negotiable and key to winning back the club's fans.
"The long-term goal for us was to create an identity," he added. "The players sort of rode out that tough period, and started to see that I'm a bit of a stubborn old man and not going to shift in how we do things, and that's when we really started to see growth.
"We've known for a long time that if this team is representing the culture of the region and the dynamic of the region, then we're a good opportunity to get fans out to a game.
"So that was the first focus. We knew that was there, but we just had to earn that right. And, slowly, slowly, we're starting to see the fans come back to the stadium."
With the good times well and truly back in Newcastle -- a club that almost ceased to exist at one point -- it's worth considering: have Milligan's Jets peaked, and if so, does he want to capitalise on an overseas move?
"I'm very ambitious and I want to make a career out of what I'm doing," Milligan said. "But my focus right now is fully on helping these players be the best versions of themselves every day."
For now, that is enough. The Premiers Plate has a new home in Newcastle, and Milligan, as he has done for as long as he can remember, will be back at training on Monday, with the next goal in sight.