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.

“I’ve had a couple of trips with U17 and U20 national teams in the past; been to Korea once, Vietnam a couple of times, China a couple of times. So, the long travel, the big commutes on planes and the bus trips are pretty familiar to me.

“It’s obviously a challenge on the body and the mind.

“But at the end of the day if we take care of our bodies and are smart the travel shouldn’t be too much of an issue.”

Beard started at left-back in Victory’s season-opener, handed the daunting task of attempting to marshal Sydney attacker Caitlin Foord.

It was a sharp contrast to her exploits during the W-League offseason, where the 22-year old was part of a lethal Calder United attacking triumvirate alongside Aleksandra Sinclair and Catherine Zimmerman.

The trio combined for an astonishing 90 goals between them in the 2019 NPLW Victoria season, with Beard scoring 31 of those.

Nonetheless, the 22-year-old is happy to be back on the left side of the defence.

“I think playing as a winger was a creative outlet for me in the offseason,” she said.

“Being able to bomb on forward and bang home 30-odd goals was amazing but I’m still focusing and working on my defending.

“I think the last season, my confidence and enjoying playing the game was a really big part of actually succeeding. Success doesn’t come without the two of those things.

“I think this league, and the national team, are looking for attacking fullbacks; fullbacks that can get up the line and then come back and do the dirty work down in their third as well – I think that’s super important.

“The Olympics coming up is still a massive goal but, for me personally, I think about just showing up every game and putting in a good performance.

“I don’t really fuss about being a standout player as long as my contribution is catering to the team and the team is succeeding.

“But in terms of call-ups? I wouldn’t be mad if I got a call up to the national team.”