City meet Melbourne Victory tonight in front of an anticipated bumper crowd at AAMI Park, with no A-League games being played this week because of the international break.

Dobson is in her second season at City and says she can tell how much interest in women’s football has grown.

“From what I’ve seen in the media of late, a lot of the two clubs' fans are supportive of the women and how they’re performing,” Dobson told The Women’s Game.

“I’ve chuckled at comments on social media saying ‘I wish our women’s team played after the men’, so it’s quite comical in a way to see how the women’s game is so appreciated compared to the men’s at the moment.

Dobson at AAMI Park. By Rachel Bach (@bythewhiteline)

“The derbies we’ve had in previous years have always had pretty good turnouts with both teams fielding strong teams with Matildas in them and great internationals.

"Locals will want to see that and the fact that it’s a standalone gives the opportunity for a lot of fans to come and watch both women’s teams.

“With the women, what you see is what you get with us but we also surprise you in terms of how technical we can be.

"I think the fact both Melbourne teams are performing well and we’ve both had good wins under their belts, it’s going to provide both clubs’ fans to see a really good contest.”

Dobson said she wasn’t surprised City were the first W-League club to instigate a standalone derby at a big stadium.

“It was always going to happen eventually, particularly with the movement of the women’s game,” she said.

“We’re a club who likes to promote the women’s side of things as much as possible and in turn it really spurs other clubs to follow suit.

“It’s phenomenal for the women’s game and the W-League. Hopefully other clubs take this on board, whether it’s this year or the future.”

Both sets of squads will have Matildas returning from the back-to-back friendlies against Chile and it is likely Elise Kellond-Knight will play at left-back to replace the suspended Chelsea Blissett.

City lost to Canberra United in Round 1 but are now coming off a 3-1 win over Sydney FC last week as Jasmyne Spencer scored a hat-trick at AAMI Park.

Victory have struggled since City’s induction into the league, but the navy blue of Melbourne find themselves above their counterparts before this derby.

Dobson said she was wary of the threats Christine Nairn and Natasha Dowie produce.

“Victory have been building over the last few years, they’ve kept a decent core and have picked up a couple of players again,” the 26-year-old added.

“The fact that Christine is back is a major player for their midfield. Their foreigners are a world of experience and they’ve been in this competition before, particularly Dowie is a very clinical player herself.

"We’ve done our research and they would’ve done the same on us, so it’s just about us implementing our strategy, game plan and making sure we keep our emotions in check.

“They’ve picked up Emily Gielnik as well who’s a Matilda who brings a lot of experience to the squad. They’re a team this year that clubs need to be wary of, they’re very strong on the ball and are quite clinical as well.

“We just need to play our game and the derby is always more of an emotional game more than anything else, so it’ll be who is the most switched on and who plays their best.

“The Sydney win was a major boost for us and it helped that we had almost a full squad which was a completely different line-up to the first week where just had to manage it to the best of our ability.

“We take a lot of confidence into this game, but we take every week as a brand new week and a new game.

"We take nothing for granted, we’ve got the biggest target on our back this season and the fact that we’ve done the threepeat, so every week is a Grand Final and that’s how we’re treating it.”