Central Coast Mariners are done with flying under the radar. The reigning A-League Men champions have floated through a whirlwind week that started with sealing the premier’s plate with victory in the final match of the regular season, and ended with clinching the AFC Cup in Oman.

The Mariners will next take the first of three remaining steps towards a historic treble when they face Sydney FC in the first leg of their A-League semi-final on Friday night. The unprecedented haul of titles that is now within reach would rubber stamp the Mariners’ remarkable resurgence that could just as easily have hit its peak when stunning Melbourne City 6-1 in last year’s grand final.

The departure of head coach Nick Montgomery in the off-season along with five key players lowered expectations for a championship defence that then began with four consecutive defeats. But the Mariners have since gone on a run of 17 victories with only two more losses in 23 matches to claim their third premiership, along with Australia’s second-ever AFC club crown.

“We were the underdogs last season and it might have changed a bit,” Mariners midfielder Max Balard said on Thursday. “But I think losing the first four games of this season put us back into the ‘underdogs’ space. No one really believed we’d be in this position at the end of the year.

“It’s a very special moment for us and a lot of people have Sydney FC written down as the winner of this two-leg tie. But you shouldn’t put us as the underdog.”

The Mariners travelled more than 100,000km for their 13 matches in the AFC Cup, finishing in Oman where they claimed the trophy with a 1-0 victory over Lebanon’s Al Ahed. But the A-Leagues have done the Mariners few favours. After the club added more than 20,000km to their travel log with a return journey to Muscat to play in the AFC Cup final last Sunday, the league scheduled the first leg of their semi-final tie with the Sky Blues at Allianz Stadium on Friday night. Melbourne Victory and Wellington Phoenix will meet in the other semi-final at AAMI Park on Sunday.

The premiers can at least be buoyed by confirmation from the A-Leagues late on Thursday that if they progress past the Sky Blues then the grand final will be played on home soil in Gosford. The announcement ensures this week’s visit to Sydney will be the last time the Mariners will be on the road this season, while they will also enjoy an eight-day break between the first and second legs.

“When you’re winning games and you’re on that run, it’s a good feeling to be on,” Mariners coach Mark Jackson said. “They want to play football, it is what players want to do, they want to play games, they want to play in big games as well. [They’re] very, very hungry. It doesn’t come around in football very often, the opportunity to win trophies and titles, and the players are really hungry for that.”

While Central Coast will take winning momentum and extra motivation into the semi-final, Sydney FC have been one of their few remaining obstacles over the past year. Both of the Mariners’ two A-League losses since turning around their early season form came against the Sky Blues, most recently a 2-0 defeat at Allianz Stadium that might have been heavier if not for some wayward finishing from the hosts.

It is an all too familiar scenario for the Mariners, as Sydney FC have too often been their bogey team ever since they met in the inaugural A-League grand final. Even as Central Coast have returned to playing finals and winning titles in recent seasons, they have only beaten Sydney four times and managed as many draws in their past 26 A-League clashes.

The Sky Blues also had to recover from a slow start to their campaign that led to cutting ties with club stalwart and head coach Steve Corica, who scored the only goal to break the Mariners’ hearts in that inaugural grand final. This will be the first time the two clubs have met in an A-League final since 2006 decider, but Jackson has little doubt the Mariners can beat the hosts at their own game.

“They’re a very good team with exceptionally good players in there as well,” Jackson said. “I like the style of their play, what they do, how they play.

“I’m sure they’ll be confident in what they can achieve, but we’ll be confident in what we can achieve as well. We know what they do. We know where we can expose them.”