Perth's 2-2 draw at home against Brisbane Roar on Saturday night leaves it three points ahead of second-placed Victory, but with a goal difference that is eight goals inferior.
Plus, even after taking on Phoenix, Victory will still have a game in hand over Glory due to last week's cyclone-forced postponement of its game against Roar in Brisbane.
Perth has been on top of the table coming out of every round from the fifth through to round 18. It also led after the second round.
Victory is the only other team to have been on top of the table this season - after rounds one, three and four.
Now is the chance for Victory to take the step up again and Finkler said although the team is expecting a very tough game against Phoenix it is ready to grasp the opportunity.
"We're in control of our own destiny now," Finkler told The World Game. "But we need to do our job against Wellington to make sure the situation is in our favour.
"We look at the table and we get excited because if we win the games from now on it's in our hands. The confidence, for us, gets even better when we know that."
Phoenix has an awful record against Victory in Melbourne. Victory has won nine and drawn the other three of the 12 clashes, scoring 27 goals to seven in the process.
It is a different Wellington team this season. Under former Victory coach Ernie Merrick's direction it has been in the top six ever since the second round, but it didn't come out of the AFC Asian Cup 2015 break well and has since dropped from second to fifth.
The only clash between the two teams this season saw a 2-0 win to Victory in Melbourne in early November, but Finkler said that if his team started thinking it has got Phoenix covered it will get a rude shock.
"No, no, no, we can't take anything for granted, definitely not," he said.
"Every game is a different story, so this game is going to be different as well. They've been good this season, so we've prepared ourselves this week to be ready for a big challenge.
"We've prepared very well. The style they play, we know their strongest part and their weakness and we've been working on that during the week.
"They've been very good out of the midfield this season, with Roly Bonevacia and other players. They've been in good form and we hope our midfield can get the better of them and we can start a good result from there.
"We know it will be a fast game and we're preparing ourselves for such a battle."
Midfielder Finkler is a dead-ball specialist with the ability to beat a goalkeeper by curling the ball at speed into the top corner of the net from outside the penalty box, but he can also finish off from other scoring movements.
He has scored three goals in Victory's last six games - the same number that attacking king-pins Besart Berisha and Kosta Barbarouses have each scored during the same period.
"My first job is to assist the guys in front of me, but we've always said that from my position I have to be able to score as well," Finkler said. "When I have an opportunity to be inside the box in a goal-scoring position I always try to capitalise on it."
Victory coach Kevin Muscat named Matthieu Delpierre in an extended squad for this match, with two players to be omitted.
It remains to be seen if the star central defender, who has been out since early in the competition with a foot injury, makes his comeback against Phoenix and whether Muscat starts him or plays him off the bench, but whatever the case he is obviously close and that is great news for Victory.
"He's been in full training with us for a couple of weeks and he'll be an important player for us in the run towards the finals," Finkler said.
"He's really close to being a part of the team. The coaching staff was mindful that he hasn't played for a long time, so they wanted to bring him through properly at training first."
Finkler said last week's washout was frustrating for Victory, particularly since it had made it all the way to Brisbane before the game was called off, but that it had replaced it with an intense field training session on the weekend.
"Yeah, it was funny, it was the first time it happened in my career to have a game called off like that," he said.
"We came back on the Friday. It was raining and I'm not that good to fly, but it was safe. It bounced around a bit coming out of Brisbane, so, happy to come back.
"We're bursting to play a game now, so hopefully that will lead to a good performance."
