On the eve of appearing in yet another title-decider, are Brisbane Roar on their way to becoming the A-League's first "super" club? Fans of Melbourne Victory, Sydney FC and even Western Sydney Wanderers may disagree, but three grand finals in four seasons – and they missed out last season by one match – suggests they are.

It's not just the fact they they've got the best players, or produce the best football, or are consistently among the best crowd-pullers, which necessarily sets them apart. It's the incredible potential of being the only team in Queensland that gives them a massive strategic opportunity – one now being realised by the Bakrie Group, which is setting the template for the way foreign owners should operate in the A-League.

Brisbane Roar fans show their colours during their championship run in 2011.

Benign is the best way to describe how the Indonesians have operated since taking full control of the club a couple of years ago. That doesn't mean they've been inactive, or disinterested. It's just the way they do things. The Bakrie Group has had a strategic stakeholding in Italian club Torino Calcio for almost 20 years, but few people know. They don't shout from the rooftops.

For instance, Nirwan Bakrie, the man who drives the company's global football investments (shareholdings in clubs in Italy, Belgium, Indonesia and Australia, and a football school in Uruguay), has attended multiple Brisbane Roar games during the past couple of years, but he buys a ticket and sits in the grandstand. No VIP functions, chairman's lounge or television interviews. Sometimes he even flies to Sydney or Melbourne to watch other matches, and his staff in Brisbane find out only when he's on the way home. Nobody knows if he'll be at Sunday's grand final. You've got to rate that.