Coach Arthur Diles has hailed Melbourne Victory's "most complete" performance under his watch following a 3-0 dismantling of two-time A-League Men champions Central Coast.

Diles' decision to swing changes after a disappointing 1-1 away draw to Brisbane was vindicated as Nishan Velupillay and Bruno Fornaroli scored on their return to his starting line-up.

Diles dropped Machach, Nikos Vergos and Santos for Socceroos trio Velupillay, Fornaroli and Daniel Arzani.

Machach added a blistering strike in the 92nd minute to leave Central Coast's title defence on the brink.

"It just goes to show that everyone's position here is always up for grabs," Diles said.

Victory (33 points) charged to fourth on the table with Saturday's impressive win at AAMI Park, behind Auckland FC (40), Western United (35) and Melbourne City (34).

The home side had 24 shots (nine on target) while the Mariners registered just one shot, and none on target.

When asked if that was Victory's most complete 90-minute performance since he took the reins in December, Diles said: "Yeah, I think so.

"As close to 90 as possible, probably 70 (minutes) I'd say. But definitely overall, putting two halves of football together, that's probably our best one so far.

"It's probably the most complete performance over two halves this year. We've got to build on that and keep going."

Mark Jackson's Mariners (21 points, goal difference of minus-16) are in strife, sitting 10 points behind sixth-placed Western Sydney with six games to go - starting with next Sunday's trip to Auckland.

New loan signing Alex Badolato, the player of the tournament in the Young Socceroos' U20 Asian Cup triumph, came off the bench for his Victory debut and impressed in his half-hour on the pitch.

Victory's opener, in the ninth minute, was all but gift-wrapped.

Mariners goalkeeper Dylan Peraic-Cullen passed up the centre for Haine Eames but the 17-year-old didn't properly control the ball and it spilled into the path of Velupillay, who made him pay with a fierce strike.

"We actually started the game off early doors in the first few minutes quite well, then we concede a goal trying to play out," Jackson said.

"A young player makes a mistake, and listen, these things happen. He'll learn from that.

"These mistakes happen, and I think that knocked our confidence a lot and we never recovered from that."

Fornaroli doubled Victory's lead in the 41st minute after he timed his run to perfection, latching onto a long ball from Brendan Hamill with a wonderful first touch, before turning Brian Kaltak inside out and coolly lashing home.

Victory skipper Roderick Miranda limped off with a foot issue in the second half and will have scans.

In injury time, there was no stopping Machach when he received the ball 25 yards out and slammed into the top corner.

Victory next play the Wanderers away on Saturday.