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1977 has gone down in the football history of Australia as the year that a giant, courageous step was taken. It was the year when football became a national club competition for the first time.
It was also the year when big business started to see the potential of the game and a future in football sponsorship in this country. Companies like Philips, Coca-Cola and Ericsson put in millions of dollars into the NSL to help it get off the ground and kept it running for twenty-eight years.
It also saw the establishment of a football philanthropy which continues to this day, the scale of which was never seen before in this country. Some of Australia’s richest men, who had made their fortunes in the lucky country and had a great love of football, put their own money back into the game. Some of these wealthy Australians also sat on the board of Soccer Australia.
In the early years of the NSL Frank Lowy and a number of successful Jewish businessmen from the Eastern Suburbs poured millions into Sydney City in the NSL. The team did spectacularly well on the field. With their sponsors backing, Sydney City was able to assemble the best team in the NSL and won four of the first six NSL titles.
This success was not reflected off the field and even as four time NSL champions, Sydney City were never profitable and only averaged crowds of about 600 per game at best, while the overall average game attendance during the first few years of the NSL was about 3000 to 4000.
As crowd averages started falling, Soccer Australia and the NSL backers decided to re-structure the league.
In 1984, among other things, they agreed on a new, revolutionary championship format with a twofold aim; to reduce the expensive interstate travel costs and to increase the “local derby” content of NSL matches.
Firstly, the NSL was split into two conferences:
• the Australian Conference, with teams from NSW and the ACT, and
• the National Conference, consisting of Victorian, South Australian and Queensland clubs.
Secondly, the winner of each conference played off in an end of season two legged home and away final to determine the NSL champion.
In 1984, the first year of the re-structured league, astonishingly there were 24 teams who entered the new NSL competition – 12 in each division. This is the highest number of teams in any national domestic club competition in Australia and remains a record till this day.
The Australian Conference (Northern Conference) consisted of teams from Sydney City, Sydney Olympic, Marconi-Fairfield, APIA Leichhardt, Blacktown, Sydney Croatia, Penrith, Newcastle, Canberra, St George, Melita and Wollongong City.
The National Conference (Southern Conference) consisted of teams from South Melbourne, Heidelberg United, Melbourne Croatia, Brisbane Lions, Brunswick, Preston, Adelaide City, Footscray, Green Gully, West Adelaide, Brisbane City and Sunshine George Cross.
The top five teams in the points table at the end of the 28 round competition from each conference played off in an elimination series to determine who would represent their conference in the two legged NSL grand final.
1984 NSL Australian Conference semi finalists – Sydney Olympic, Marconi, Blacktown City, Sydney City and APIA.
1984 NSL National Conference semi finalists – Preston, Heidelberg, South Melbourne, Brunswick and Brisbane Lions.
1984 NSL Grand Final First Leg – South Melbourne 2 Sydney Olympic 1. Second Leg – Sydney Olympic 1 South Melbourne 2.
1984 NSL Champions – South Melbourne.
Ange Postecoglou played left back for South Melbourne and won the first of his four NSL titles – two as a player and two as a manager.
1985 NSL Australian Conference semi finalists – Sydney City, Sydney Olympic, Sydney Croatia, Marconi and St George.
1985 NSL National Conference semi finalists – Preston, Melbourne Knights, Heidelberg, Brunswick, and South Melbourne.
1985 NSL Grand Final First Leg – Sydney City 0 Brunswick 1. Second Leg – Brunswick 1 Sydney City 0.
1985 NSL Champions – Brunswick.
Sydney City boasted a forward line of Socceroos Frank Farina, John Kosmina and David Mitchell, but couldn’t manage a goal over two legs in the final against Paul Wade’s Brunswick.
1986 NSL Australian Conference semi finalists – Sydney City, Sydney Olympic, Sydney Croatia, Marconi and St George.
1986 NSL National Conference semi finalists – Footscray, Adelaide City, Sunshine George Cross, Heidelberg and Brunswick.
1986 NSL Grand Final First Leg – Adelaide City 0 Sydney Olympic 1. Second Leg – Sydney Olympic 1 Adelaide City 3.
1986 NSL Champions – Adelaide City.
The re-structure had been in many ways successful, creating more interest in the competition, more games, and more local derbies. Crowds during the regular season remained around the three to four thousand mark average, but the finals series average attendances rose to about nine thousand.
It was great that so many teams around the country had entered the NSL, however it still didn’t introduce enough financial stability into the competition, so after only three seasons the two conference system was scrapped.
The NSL reverted back to the one single competition and a new set of rules were introduced to cull the number of teams. About half the teams were dumped back to their respective state leagues.
The criteria used to decide who stayed and who went was based 50 per cent on the 1986 playing record, 40 per cent on past playing record, and 10 per cent on crowd support. The result was that only one team from outside Sydney and Melbourne was retained, reigning champions Adelaide City.
In another major blow to the NSL, Sydney City and its backers pulled out of the revised NSL competition in 1987, after only one round. They were frustrated by the major changes and the lack of support for their team and withdrew leaving a big hole, as the most successful team in NSL history at that point in time.
Apart from returning to a thirteen team single division, the league also dispensed with finals series for the 1987 season, reverting back to first past the post championships.
1987 saw APIA Leichardt become NSL Champions for the first time heading off Preston by six points and great rival Marconi in third position.
Attendances didn’t improve much that year and many considered the lack of finals as a backward step, so a five team NSL finals series was re-introduced from 1988 and were to remain with the competition until the NSL’s demise in 2004.
The 1988 season saw Sydney Croatia, Marconi, South Melbourne, Sydney Olympic and Wollongong make the finals series. Marconi went on to be crowned NSL champions for the second time.
The 1988 NSL grand final against Sydney United finished two all at full-time. Marconi eventually won on penalties in one of the most exciting NSL grand finals. Robbie Slater and Graham Arnold played in the Sydney United NSL grand final losing side.
Marconi then picked up their third NSL title in 1989 beating Sydney Olympic 1-0 at Parramatta Stadium in front of about 12,000 spectators.
The 1989 season would be the last NSL competition to be played in winter.
In part three of our brief history of the NSL we will see why the NSL reverted to a summer competition and how the change affected the fortunes of the clubs and their backers.
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