The 25-year-old came off the bench, in just his fourth A-League game, to score the winning goal in a 2-1 win over Wellington to help the club secure a home final.

He also scored in Melbourne's midweek Asian Champions League loss to Ulsan.

"Personally, for me, it's been a good week, scoring two goals, but obviously the result on Wednesday wasn't the one we wanted," Athiu said.

"Coming on against Wellington and scoring; I'm buzzing so I'm pretty happy with that."

The South Sudanese-born Athiu was scouted from Heidelberg United after scoring 21 goals in 28 matches in last season's National Premier League, earning the nickname "King Kenny".

While fans have been eager to see him get more game time, Athiu himself admitted it had been a big transition.

He was working fulltime and training three nights a week before joining the Victory in October.

"I've taken some time to adjust to the level," he said.

"My body is getting used to training every day; I struggled with that.

"It's been five months of hard training and now I feel like the coaches and players have been patient enough to let me develop, and I'm happy I'm now starting to give back."

Victory coach Kevin Muscat said he was proud of how far Athiu had come.

"You get players like Kenny coming from a semi-professional environment and we shouldn't underestimate the difference in training and habits," Muscat said.

"From working nine to five for the last however many years you create habits and then I'm asking him to change all of those habits, so it's taken him a while.

"He's worked tirelessly and I'm really proud of him."

Athiu said he was happy to continue in his super-sub role as Victory take on competition frontrunners Sydney FC in the remaining regular season game before the finals.

"I'm really looking forward to it and hopefully I do play some role and, hopefully, we go all the way," he said.

Australian Associated Press