It's the day before Besart Berisha's move to Melbourne Victory is announced, and Mike Mulvey is on YouTube, looking at potential new strikers. So far, no good. "Nah, nothing's caught my eye, mate," he says with the frankness of a coach whose only pretensions seem to be about winning the title.

There’s a ‘No Bullshit’ policy at Mulvey’s Brisbane Roar, and the coach comes across as a no bullshit kind of bloke. "I think I'm an honest coach. I'm fair,” he says. “I don't care who the player is, if you are honest with them, and you are leaving them out for a reason, players like to know. They want to hear it from you, rather than read about it.”

It seems to go both ways, explaining why Mulvey holds no grudge against Berisha and how the pair of them can continue to work together as the club track towards their third championship in four years. “We have a good rapport,” says Mulvey, of his squad, “and that will continue because of that honesty with each other."

Such honesty didn’t do Borussia Dortmund any favours last season, when Bayern Munich ahead announced a deal for Mario Götze before their clash in the final of the Champions League. You could see the timing of that deal as a deliberate – and effective – attempt by the Bavarians to put their opponent off their game.

It would be easy to paint the Victory coach, Kevin Muscat, as some kind of Dick Dastardly, using Bayern’s tactics to stop the Brisbane pigeon which has been setting the pace pretty much all season. Whatever Victory’s motivations, the recent case of Mitch Nichols shows a club of their standing might not be so accommodating.

Berisha has proved to be some find for the Roar. So too Mulvey. There have been times this season – many, many times – when watching Brisbane has been like watching a team out-Postecoglouing the Roar of a few years back. Seeing the shapes they make with the ball, it is easy to catch yourself wondering, “Is this really happening in the A-League?”.

As is often the case, it took Mulvey years to become an overnight sensation. He was part of Manchester United's youth teams, before his family emigrated to Brisbane. There, he took up with the Brisbane Lions (the NSL variety) for a few years, got his coaching certificates and eventually began work at the Queensland Academy of Sport, heading their football program and mixing with world and Olympic champion coaches, "inspirational people ... movers and shakers in their own sport”.

His first taste of the A-League came at the late Gold Coast outfit, initially as youth coach and then, following Miron Bleiberg’s departure, as something more akin to a palliative care nurse than a caretaker coach. His next gig was nothing to be scoffed at, coaching Victory's W-League outfit, but he never lost the belief that he could cut it at the country’s top level.

But is he surprised at how easily he has adapted to life at the top? "If you've prepared well, you should be fearful of no challenge. If you've recruited well, which I think we did, you should look forward to every challenge.

"It took a little bit of time to steady the ship last year [following the departures of Ange Postecoglou and Rado Vidosic], but we've hit the ground running this year. We went away, refreshed, regenerated, felt that pain [of the semi-final loss to Western Sydney] and came back in such great shape that we were ready to attack the season.

"And the pre-season. From 3 June, when we came in, we were preparing to play well in the A-League," he says with a strong determination.

Good communication and hard work are something of a mantra with Mulvey. He's also not one to settle for less than the three points, as evidenced by Brisbane's solitary draw this season (last weekend in Perth). "It's not a devil may care [attitude], it's more of a strong self-belief that we've got the ability to go and win games. We're a very attack-minded team. We want to go for the victory, even if takes to the last minute.” It's a strategy which can backfire, as it did against Adelaide United earlier this month, though Mulvey reels out plenty of examples where it has paid off.

It’s edge-of-your-seat football, and even in his downtime Mulvey throws himself into novels about a stage that can emulate the tension of a match: the criminal courtroom. He also likes the scrutiny involved, which makes a lot of a sense for a coach, as does his love of puzzles. "Crossword first. Sudoku second. But the hardest thing is turning off sometimes, to refresh yourself."

He encourages his players to use their free time wisely, and several will be undertaking coaching courses. Not that he's just thinking about their futures. "One way of explaining it is it takes the blinkers off a little bit. As a player, you see it only from a player’s perspective. When you start coaching, you see it from a coach’s perspective as well.

"I remember going to do coaching courses then going back to playing and getting quite frustrated, because I thought it should be done a different way. And that's why I had to tell myself to just play and enjoy playing and coaching will come around at another time."

Mulvey is chatty and open, though judging by the occasional blunt response, there are also some no-go areas. Like how to revive his beloved Manchester United. Or his own team's problems against Newcastle.

"No problem!" he lilts. So is it just coincidence they have outplayed you so often recently? "Next time we play them, we'll probably be the underdog."

We both laugh. It's absurd, but possibly true. With or without Berisha, it's probably the only time they'll get that tag all season.