It's still dark as the players shuffle carefully down the grassy slope and spill out onto the training field at Macquarie University in Sydney's northern suburbs.

The pitch sits in a shallow basin ringed by pale gumtrees, backing onto a national park threaded through by walking trails and a clear, twisting river.

They only take what they need across the car-park from the main building to the quiet field near the back of the complex: water bottles, balls, cones, poles.

Everyone helps carry things; it's just what you do at Sydney FC.

Although it's near the motorway, you can still hear the birds begin to stir as the sun gently rises over the buildings to the east. There aren't many cars on the road at this time of morning, anyway.

Remy Siemsen is awake earlier than most during the A-League Women season. She sets her alarm for 5am every Monday and Tuesday, arriving at the training base for a 6am start.

Even over the past few weeks, as the sky opened up and the nearby river swelled with cold, relentless rain, Siemsen and her team-mates were out there in the dark: getting touches on the ball in small sheva circles, focusing on their form as they skipped over ladders and wove around poles, scything their arms through the drizzle to clock their high-speed metres.

Then their thoughts turned to whichever game is next, working on half or full-field formations and passages of play. These sessions are over by 8am, giving the players enough time to shower, change, and rush off to work or school.

Every training session – whether in the early mornings or the late afternoons – is a battle. It's a battle against themselves as much as it is against each other; pushing one another ever-further towards where they believe they can be.

And that, for Siemsen, is what makes Sydney FC different. It's what makes them winners.

And now, it's what has made them the A-League Women's most successful club, having claimed their record seventh trophy - and their second consecutive Premiership - last weekend.

"The most important thing is the environment that we're in," Siemsen told ABC.

"Every session, we're all competing for spots. There's not one person that's complacent with their starting position. We all fight for game-time.

"We have players who are on the bench who could potentially be starters at other clubs, but they wanted to come to Sydney because that's where they know they're going to develop the best.

"Our pre-season was really heavy and difficult, but it has prepared us for this season. I think this is the fittest we've ever been.

A moment years in the making

Despite being one of the most dominant A-League Women's clubs throughout the competition's 14-season history, Sydney FC have experienced several sliding-doors moments that could have spun them off in a totally different direction.

One of the most significant came in 2017 when former head coach Dan Barrett, who handed Siemsen her league debut, quit unexpectedly.

He was replaced by Ante Juric, whose long playing career led to coaching stints within the Football NSW Institute and Junior and Young Matildas set-ups, as well as Sydney Olympic in the NPL.

It was through these pipelines that he first met several players who have now become key to his Sky Blues team: Jada Mathyssen-Whyman, Taylor Ray, Natalie Tobin, Charlotte McLean, Mackenzie Hawkesby.

In fact, his exposure to these emerging talents firmed up his belief that the future of the A-League Women's competition was centred around developing young players. But he'd never coached at this level before, and knew it wouldn't happen in the space of the league's too-short 14-round season. His vision from the very start, then, stretched over the horizon.

"Obviously you want to keep the success going – you always want to do that – but you also want to leave a legacy," Juric told ABC.

"And that takes time. When I first got there, the first team I inherited […] I had about six weeks to get them going. A lot of the players had already been signed. It was a bit of an ageing team. So from there, I thought about what I'd do. I was hoping to stay at the club for a long time, so you plan for the future.

"From that first season, I tried to look around for youngsters. Move a few players out, bring a few in. Gradually, I wanted it to get to a stage where whoever is coaching – if it's me or someone else – you've got a team that will be successful over the next couple of years because of the age and quality of the players.

"In all honestly, all my thinking was based around belief. Belief in not thinking I need Matildas; not thinking I need foreigners. Banking on the young ones coming through and banking on the players we had.

"So it was forward-thinking, but also I had been in the game with these girls for a long time. I had the Junior Matildas at one stage; I knew them when I was a technical director at Football NSW.

It was a daunting task, taking over a club that had never finished lower than fourth since the league's inception in 2008. Sydney had also won the Premiership-Championship double in 2009, as well as two more trophies in the following three seasons.

Not only did they develop several future Matildas – including current captain Sam Kerr – but was also the springboard for future Australia coach Alen Stajcic.

Juric, then, had big shoes to fill.

His tenure started poorly, losing his first three games in charge; practically unheard of for the Sky Blues, and an unusual string of results for a team filled with stars like Caitlin Foord, Chloe Logarzo, and Lisa De Vanna.

He could have lost faith then and there. But then he got an email.

"It was from Han [Berger], the technical director. He said something like 'don't stress, all good, we've got your back. Is there anything you need from me?'

"That was it. I'll never forget that message. It was just about the support – knowing it was there. I've never stressed anyway, but just to see that, it was really cool.

"I can't be more positive about how they've treated me and let me do what I do and supported me whenever I needed to get players to build the team we have now."

Two steps ahead of the rest

That early vision and belief in young players paid dividends a few seasons later when the competition's big-name Matildas were snapped up permanently by clubs overseas.

While some clubs like Melbourne City lost almost the entire core group, requiring a years-long rebuild, Sydney's longer-term strategy meant the drop-off in chemistry, style, and talent was nowhere near as significant.

It was helped by the make-up of the club's technical advisory group that includes Juric, Berger, and youth academy director Kelly Cross; coaches largely geared towards youth. The latter two even spear-headed Football Australia's National Curriculum, which has a particular focus on developing the next generation of technical, attack-minded footballers.

"To do that, you start to drip-feed younger players in. I still get a couple of older players around,  but majority of my players over the past two seasons are young.

"We've got Charlotte McLean; we plucked her out of state league when no one really looked at her. We've got Macca [Hawkesby], who was playing reserves for Sydney University.

"We've been good in terms of eyeing off players we know could do a job eventually. And now they've shot through. They're key players in my book and on the verge of Matildas.

"I mention those two because they did come from nowhere, really. I had their names written down on a piece of paper and was surprised no one else picked them up.

"They're perfect for the way I like to play; they might not be flashy but they'll work for you, they play simple, and then they start to believe in themselves. And you're seeing the fruits of that come out now."

It helps that Juric knows exactly the kind of football he wants to play. Siemsen describes the team as "a machine"; so clear and precise are all its parts that players can slot in and out of the one moving unit with little disruption or fuss.

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Playing style is one reason why Juric worked hard to keep the same core group of players together over multiple seasons: so that there was a continuation and refining of the one philosophy rather than starting from scratch with a new group each year.

"It's difficult as a coach. You need a bit of time," he said.

"The first year, we got to the grand final, but it was messy. The year after, we had top-shelf players; it was good but we were not consistent. And again, it's because you're changing over teams.

"Once I managed to get 12 every year, I didn't have to re-coach them. Then it was just about refining, and for those new players coming in, they learned off the players already there and knew what I wanted.

"So that becomes easier, and that's what's made the last three years really good in terms of playing-wise; it's easy to structure and fit people in. But if you're starting with new players every year, you'll never achieve that."

More than just a football cliché

This multi-season consistency hasn't just helped maintain the football on the pitch, though. Perhaps more importantly, it's helped establish a strong, enviable culture off it.

"What we have every week – and most games, actually, apart from maybe one half this season – and what I'm most proud of is they work for each other until the end," Juric said.

"They're 100 per cent in every moment. And when you have a close-knit team off the field, a family, that comes through. That's why we win a lot of games. All the other stuff is what it is, but I'm a bit believer in doing everything for each other, working for each other, and caring about each other.

"I think we have a happy place. When the players come to Sydney, they can express themselves. Even though I'm a hard task-master, they have freedom. They know it comes from a loving place.

"We are a family and we play that way. You can tell which teams care for each other."

That's why they're out here now, sprinting through the rain at 6am on a Monday. That's why they want to come back, year after year, even if it's as a train-on player, even if it's to sit mainly on the bench.

It's why Sydney FC have won the past two Premierships with a group whose average age is just 22; why they've broken league records, provided the most Matildas debutants in the past twelve months, and made it all look so easy in the process.

"It's about success, of course," Siemsen said, "but also, we're all just really good friends off the field. There's not one person in our squad that we all don't adore or don't get along with; we're all best mates.

"I think when you're so close, that resonates on the pitch. It's evident in the way that we play: we're going to work as hard as we can for our team-mates beside us because we all genuinely have a love for one another.

"Ante has developed a lot of us players from a young age and continues to do so; he's an excellent coach and knows how to get the best out of us. We've made a grand final every single year he's been part of it.

"He's wanted to help me get into the national team – as well as other girls – so he pushes us to be competitive at training week after week, to work on individual things as well as collectively.

"This has been our best season yet. We've broken records despite having such a young team. I hope we can continue to win games and lift more silverware long into the future."