Heart football operations manager John Didulica said yesterday that Victory could no longer ignore his club, despite the fact that media interest in superstar signing Harry Kewell has constantly overshadowed the achievements of the team riding higher on the league table.

''I think we are absolutely coming out from their shadow this season and we have earned some respect for what we have achieved in a very short time,'' he said.

''Melbourne Victory cannot continue to operate as if we don't exist. I don't think they can ignore us any more. They have supposedly got the best players in the country playing for them, but at this stage they are sitting below us on the league table and they are not playing football as good as ours. It's about respect. We have had some great results recently and we are playing a good brand of football. And we are producing players at our club.''

Heart has felt increasingly aggrieved that so much of the focus settles on Victory, although Didulica accepts that is inevitable given the blue team's bigger fan base and longer history. The signing of Kewell, he says, was good for the A-League and good for the game, but also deflects attention away from Heart and its achievements.

''We have had to work hard to get noticed but we are going about our business and building the sort of club we want to be. We areestablishing our own paradigm and how we go about things,'' he said. ''We have signed young, developing players and brought them on and we want to evolve into a club that is doing something special.