Victory travel north this evening to take on Beard’s former side Brisbane Roar at Dolphins Stadium  and look to rebound from their opening 3-0 defeat against Big Blue rivals Sydney FC,

“Obviously, it wasn’t the ideal start to the season,” Beard told The Women’s Game.

“It was a bit slow from the girls if I’m honest. The shorter pre-season might have had a big effect on that but at the end of the day, we have to take the result and take the positives out of it and move forward from there."

Victory's clash in Brisbane will be Roar's first match of the season after being on a bye for round one, making the task facing Victory coach Jeff Hopkins potentially even harder and trip into the unknown.

Beard added: “[Sydney FC and Roar are] quite similar sides.

"Both teams have very high-quality players from the national team, and they’ve all recruited and brought back international players of top quality as well.

“At the end of the day we can’t see how [Roar] are playing, we just judge off last year and they were very effective in wide areas and on the counter, so we’ve been preparing to counter what they’ve done on the past."

Following the Roar fixture, the defending W-League Premiers will then head to the Korean city of Yongin for clashes with Japanese club Nippon TV Beleza, South Korean club Incheon Hyundai Steel Red Angels and Chinese club Jiangsu Suning in the debut of the AFC Women's Club Championship from November 26 to 30.

The Red Angels enter the tournament as the seven-time defending champions of the WK League, Nippon arrives as 15-time champions of the Nadeshiko League and Jangsu are two-time champions of the Chinese Women's Super League.

“It’s a very unique experience and one that we’re very lucky to have,” Beard said.

“With the extended squad that we’re bringing over there, it’s giving a lot of players that haven’t had a lot of spotlight the opportunity to show their qualities and show they can fit into the squad in the future.

“I don’t think the team or the coaching staff are looking at Korea in terms of that’s our main goal but obviously it would be amazing to go over there, perform well and show the world we’re a top-quality side and bring some good results.