Both sides will be desperate for a win in Friday night's clash at AAMI Park, with Melbourne Heart bottom of the table and Brisbane just one spot above them in ninth place.
Date: November 9, 2012 Kick-off: 7:30pm AEDT Venue: AAMI Park, Melbourne
Head-to-head Played: 6, Melbourne Heart 1, Brisbane Roar 3, Draws: 2
Previous encounter Brisbane Roar 1, Melbourne Heart 1, March 2 2012
Form: Past five matches: Melbourne Heart: LLLDW Brisbane Roar: LLDWL
The Game Both sides will be desperate for a win in Friday night's clash at AAMI Park, with Melbourne Heart bottom of the table and Brisbane - unthinkably - just one spot above them in ninth place.
Both teams enjoyed an early-season win against Melbourne Victory, but since then it has been slim pickings, with the Heart taking just one point from a possible 12 heading into the match and Brisbane claiming only one from a possible nine.
In their most recent games, the Roar were beaten 1-0 at home by Adelaide United, while the Heart suffered the ignominy of being beaten by competition new boys the Western Sydney Wanderers - 2-1 at Parramatta Stadium.
How each first-year coach - the Heart's John Aloisi and Brisbane's Rado Vidosic - handle what are sure to be a pressure-filled few weeks, will go a long toward determining the success of their campaigns.
The big issue Melbourne Heart: Motley Crue may have sang Girls, Girls, Girls but Aloisi's refrain around the Heart's training ground is more likely to be goals, goals, goals - and where exactly he can find some. The Heart have scored just four so far in 2012/13, with no one scoring more than one.
Dylan Macallister and Josip Tadic have each found the back of the net once for the struggling club, but Aloisi would dearly love a return to top form from youngster Mate Dugandzic, who is yet to score this season.
Brisbane: As hard as it is to comprehend, the nerveless A-League champions of the last two years are also having trouble putting the ball in the back of the net. They have scored six goals so far this term, but when you consider that five of those came in a 5-0 thumping of Melbourne Victory early on, it has been a very lean spell for the Roar front men.
They created plenty of opportunities in their 1-0 home loss to Adelaide at the weekend, and will be hoping for a better conversion rate on Friday night.
Gamebreaker Thomas Broich sets the tone for Brisbane, and the German's form is always a good barometer for how the men in orange are tracking. Just as his team haven't been travelling particularly well so far in 2012/13, Broich is yet to truly hit his straps. John Aloisi will be praying it doesn't happen on Friday night.
Prediction Melbourne 1 Brisbane 3 - While not many tipped the Heart to be challenging for top honours this season, the Roar's sluggish start to the campaign has taken a lot of observers by surprise.
Vidosic's side have scored just one goal in their past three games, and they will desperately hope to break open the floodgates on Friday night.
While both Aloisi and Vidosic are taking the helm of A-League clubs for the first time, Vidosic has a clear edge in experience after serving a long apprenticeship as an assistant and youth team coach.
Aloisi, meanwhile, is having a baptism of fire to his managerial career, after only drawing the curtains on his playing days in 2011. How much influence the rookie coach has had on the sub-par performances from his team so far is hard to gauge, but he will want to reverse their fortunes quickly if he wants his top-flight coaching adventure to continue for a while yet.