History is there to be broken in Sunday’s A-League grand final, says Western Sydney coach Tony Popovic.

The Wanderers will attempt the rare feat of lifting the championship trophy away from home when they play Adelaide United at Adelaide Oval.

“They’re the premiers and deserve to have the grand final at home, but that does not mean we can’t win the final,” Popovic said on Saturday after his team’s final training session.

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Wherever Popovic goes, the incessant whirr of tactical analysis follows.

A perfectionist to the core, the 42-year-old former Socceroos’ defender is the personification of hard work, an ethos espoused by both the Wanderers and Sydney’s west where he was brought up.

In his eyes, the potential for improvement is infinite, despite the young club’s overachievements to date – a debut-season Premiers Plate and grand final.

Another grand final followed by a historic Asian Champions League title, which Popovic hails as a monumental feat, and one not yet properly understood within the Australian sporting landscape.

Then there were the trials of the last domestic campaign – a near-wooden spoon – before the sensational shift in modus operandi from counter-attacking to possession-based football.

Adelaide will be tough to topple at home. AAP

The accompanying off-season cleanout gave Popovic even more to think about.

New personalities, styles and bodies needed to gel and be converted to the Wanderers’ philosophy.

Much of that has occurred in his fastidiously planned training sessions.

During matches, he stalks the dugout with his signature black notebook, scribbling down an entry for every observation requiring further attention.

There are copious notes; they extend back to Popovic’s playing days when he was an aspiring coach.

“You can’t take anything for granted,” he says.

“That’s probably what drives me more than anything, that a win today can change everything but, a week later, it can be different.”

It’s an attitude explained by Popovic’s formative years in Fairfield, where his parents Bratislav and Rada settled after migrating in the 1970s from Croatia.

Bratislav was in construction and worked tireless hours to support a football-loving son and his sister.

“It was a kind of ‘How do you get ahead?’ mentality,” Popovic explains.

“Maybe that’s something that’s been instilled from my father and mother, and something I don’t want to ever lose.

“Hopefully, my children will be the same.”