Coming off a pre-season in which he was named the AFC Youth Player of the Year and helped the Jets to a breakthrough Australia Cup title triumph, Badolato set up his side's first goal at McDonald Jones Stadium on Friday night, before romping to a treble that delivered the Novocastrians their first win of the A-League Men season.
The 20-year-old's first and third strikes both came from outside the penalty area, as did his opening goal of the season in a loss to Central Coast last week, and he explained that he's been lighting it up from distance with the full backing of his coaches.
"At the start of pre-season, Millsy and the coaching staff put a lot of trust in me, a lot of faith to back my ability anywhere out there," Badolato told Paramount+.
"And they're flying in, so hopefully that can continue."
With Socceroo boss Tony Popovic watching on from the stands, Badolato whipped in a shot that Victory keeper Jack Duncan could only parry into the path of Ben Gibson in the 14th minute to set up the opening goal, before grabbing his first with a long-range thunderbolt six minutes later.
Denis Genreau would pull one back for the visitors when he followed in a Jason Davidson attempt and pounced on James Delianov's save in the 25th minute.
But the lead was restored to two when Will Dobson maneuvered past Sebastian Esposito and cut the ball back for Badolato to fire home two minutes into first-half added time.
"We expect that kind of performance from (Badolato) week in, week out," Milligan, who secured his first ALM win as a coach, said.
"And today he got his just rewards."
Genreau produced a superb pass to tee Keegan Jelacic up to cut the deficit to 3-2 in the 55th minute, but an unsavable blast from Badolato grabbed the Jets a fourth goal in the 79th, before Oscar Fryer sealed it with a fifth in the 92nd.
"You can have the conviction sometimes but without the quality, you're not going to score," Victory boss Arthur Diles reflected.
"You've got to marry the two together, and you get outcomes; that's what they did tonight."
One potential blemish on the  Jets' evening came in the 70th minute, when Xavier Bertoncello limped off.
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