Joe Gorman’s excellent article on South Melbourne’s attempts to buy into the A-League via the Melbourne Heart have raised some fascinating and spirited discussion on the legacy the National Soccer League (NSL).
It’s worth remembering that the NSL was a truly ground-breaking concept for sport in Australia; the first-ever national domestic competition, launched in 1977.
In comparison, Australian rules did not cross state lines until 1982, and rugby league’s first club outside of New South Wales came in 1988 (I know the Canberra Raiders came into the competition in 1982, but they played all their home games in Queanbeyan for almost a decade).
The NSL should be applauded for its audacious vision, even if that wasn’t backed up with sound management for a lot of the time.
The fact the competition survived as long as it did was due to the dedication and hard work of a host of administrators at many of the foundation clubs, who were no more than fans of the game fueled by their passion for football.
To me, it’s immaterial where that passion was born, whether it was imported from Europe with Australia’s first wave of 1950s migration or whether it was a second or third generation passion developed in Australia.
These were rusted-on dedicated football people and their contribution to the game should never be buried under the hysteria of crowd violence or so-called ethnic clashes.
There is always the argument about many NSL clubs being ‘mono-cultural’. No doubt this is true and it was both the clubs’ and the league’s greatest strength and greatest weakness.
Many of the clubs who were built on the backs of European migrants were, towards the latter stages of the competition, caught in the classic bind of being unsure or unable how to expand beyond their traditional roots.
There were notable exceptions such as the early days of Newcastle KB United, the first few seasons of Northern Spirit and Perth Glory, but in the main, the biggest crowds at NSL games were drawn by clubs with firm ties to the Greek and Croatian communities of Sydney and Melbourne, as well as the Adelaide derby between West Adelaide and Adelaide City.
The NSL’s greatest problem was not its ethnicity but its management. There was more tinkering than a Rafa Benitez selection meeting in the format, the number of teams, the criteria, club names, stadium requirements, you name it.
The original league had 14 teams for the first four seasons, then 16 teams for the next four, blowing out to a 24 team, two-conference system for the next three, before culling 10 teams to go back to a single competition in 1987 (and then being reduced to 13 when Sydney City pulled out after one round).
It was chaotic and by 1987 was “national” in name only, with only Adelaide City representing any area outside of Sydney or Melbourne.
From a pioneering position, the league had fallen behind the other codes, who were more professionally run and administered, and were far less haphazard with their expansion models.
It is miraculous that clubs were able to survive this management vacuum, let alone prosper.
The NSL’s enduring gift to domestic football and one that the A-League adopted without question was “summer soccer”. It was a no-brainer in 1990, and to this day is the saving grace of top-level club football.
However, think of the work needed to get a team ready for an NSL season if a club won promotion from one of the state leagues only a couple of months earlier.
Many fans regard Western Sydney Wanderers as a latter-day marvel in being able to command an A-League place on six months’ notice.
The likes of Newcastle Breakers, Brunswick Pumas and Morwell Falcons took an admittedly existing structure into the NSL on about six weeks notice in the 1990s!
There are hard-learned lessons from club football’s 26-year ‘experiment’ with a national competition. However, it’s pointless being revisionist about how the early NSL clubs were born.
That they were conceived out of a collective passion for a game by people who left their original homes to come to Australia makes absolute sense.
That’s no different to Asian cities with their ex-pat communities or seemingly having an ‘Irish’ rugby club in the main cities of rugby-playing nations.
Were those same clubs equipped to prosper in a professional national competition?
Clearly they were at the time, though the winds of change blowing through both the game and general society by the early part of the century were terribly hard for most to negotiate.
The A-League has just had its most lauded and successful season in its eight-year history. It has built on the hard work, successes and mistakes of the National Soccer League.
It has made mistakes of its own but its acceptance and visibility as a club competition is higher now than ever, and certainly greater than the NSL had at any time in its history.
Crowds are bigger, the quality is better and the media coverage is more widespread, and dare I say, more positive.
The A-League has advantages that the NSL never had; a more professional administration, a lucrative TV deal, an involvement with Asia, and the profile of a national team that now plays regular, meaningful qualifying games in the World Cup.
That NSL clubs of any demographic survived and at times thrived as long as they did without those assets should be celebrated, not denigrated.
And if any of those former NSL clubs put themselves up for inclusion in the A-League at any time in the future, their application should not be assessed by what they offered in the past, but what they can offer now and in the years to come.
Tim of Sydney
Guest
The poor old NSL was never really given much of a chance eversince its inception because of AUSTRALIA's RACISM AND ETHNOCENTRISM in the mainstream society! Pure & simple! And so it goes on and on today! Despite the NSL's drawbacks & faults! They acted like vile animals & still do so to this day! But whatever slander & garbage these sorry case guys spew, I just IGNORE IT as do all the others! Because theyre the ones with the deep-seated mental problems, not the post-war migrants! Pure and simple!
Tim of Sydney
Guest
The poor old NSL was never really given much of a chance eversince its inception because of AUSTRALIA's RACISM AND ETHNOCENTRISM in the mainstream society! Pure & simple! And so it goes on and on today! Despite the NSL's drawbacks & faults! They acted like vile animals & still do so to this day! But whatever slander & garbage these sorry case guys spew, I just IGNORE IT as do all the others! Because theyre the ones with the deep-seated mental problems, not the post-war migrants! Pure and simple!
Tim of Sydney
Guest
Im not denying the NSL had its problems, its drawbacks, & lack of proper management. Much of the upper management of the old NSL clubs were corrupt! They made a lot of money off of it! BUT THE POOR OLD NSL DID NOT, DID NOT, HAVE TO COP THE HEAPS OF VILE, SATANIC SLANDER THAT IT COPPED! DESPITE ITS DRAWBACKS! I used to follow the NSL league faithfully & passionately, through SYDNEY OLYMPIC, but departed it wholly for the NRL Rugby League the minute they gutted it! Ive never supported modern day soccer or the A - League! And never will! That was due actually in large part to the Australian public deep-seated paranoia & psychotic mental condition with paranoid ethnocentrism & racism! AND THE POOR OLD NSL WAS IN THE WRONG PLACE AT THE WRONG TIME! SURROUNDED BY ANIMALS FROM THE OUTSIDE! Period!
Steven
Guest
Never heard of this book before. Looks very interesting but $130 is bloody steep. I'd check the libraries first.
Balance please
Guest
The $3.5m South were offering was not for the running of the club wages bills & costs. It was for the license fee. I'm sure they realise once they purchase the license fee they then need to 'run' the business which will cost more money than the initial fee South offered in the first place. Would they be so stupid not to have all this in their business plan they'd present to the FFA?? Again without all the facts we need to make sure we are, dare I say it, 'balanced' in our arguments. Who knows. Maybe South hasn't the money or the sponsorship or the business plan. But they'd be pretty stupid & ruin their chances forever if they turned up to any FFA bid without any of the required elements all 'ticked off' to make sure their bid for inclusion isn't a waste of time & an embarrassment. Time will tell with all this & it's never over till its over no matter what any of us on these forums think.
apaway
Roar Guru
Just go back to 1992 and '93, Towser, when the Owls finished equal 2nd in the title race and were runners up in both cup finals!
apaway
Roar Guru
Thanks JBinnie. It was pretty clear from the outset that the NSL lived season by season, given the very high number of clubs that came and went. I believe Mooroolbark were the first to go, after just one season.
apaway
Roar Guru
I was at St George at the time of the switch.
Stevo
Guest
I seem to recall Peter Sidwell, Melbourne Heart board chairman say at the last fan forum that it cost HeartFC around $7M to put the team on the field per year. So yes, $3.5M is way off the mark. It seems to me to have been more of a marketing exercise aimed as saying "look at me, look at me" during the HAL off season and drawing some attention to themselves. But of course that's only mere speculation :)
j binnie
Guest
Balance - Correction accepted,should have read, "cost to RUN" a franchise was $5,000,000. The "mistake" was not meant to mis-lead the reader but to highlight the differential in "start up" costs between 1977 and 2005. Todays wage bill for a squad of 23 at the minimum wage of $50,000 ($1,150,000) already has streaked past the $1,000,000 you cite from 2005 and that is only players wages,not coaching costs, administration costs,medical costs,ground rental,travel costs,I don't think I need to go any further to show the $3.5 miilions offer purportedly made by Sth Melb is not a realistic figure. Thanks again. jb
Balance please
Guest
The figure to buy a licence in 2005 was $1 million not $5 million. But why let facts get in the way of an argument
j binnie
Guest
apaway -Here are some figures that may interest you. In 1976 a meeting was set in every state for teams interested in joining a national football league. The concept had been proven 2 or 3 years earlier when a group of individuals staged matches at Perry Park (at their own expense) between their club team and some Sydney clubs (and the Socceroos).At this meeting it was advised that it would cost $50,000 to enter and that meant there was only one club in Brisbane,Hollandia,with access to that type of financial asset. History tells us what happened next,Azzurri walked out of the meeting loudly exclaiming they would never play in such a competition but 3 weeks later were granted admission as Brisbane City.Such was the financial state of most clubs attending these meetings. Money was said to be available but I suspect it was more because of contribution than actual fiscal strength.This situation never actually improved in the life span of the NSL,most clubs played on grounds leased from councils or ethnic based social clubs and lived week to week totally dependent on grants from these self same clubs,or their raffles, their social evenings or the monies generated by average "gates" of around 4-5000. Come 2005 .and the HAL. Cost to buy a franchise,around $5,000,000 (a 10,000% increase in 28 years).Note this figure well.The question now was had any of our remaining ex-NSL clubs improved their fiscal position by 10,000%. Probably nearer the truth was the fact they were still trying to recover fom their sojourn in the wreckage of NSL. HAL is a totally different concept,an attempt to lift the standard of our game to heights the NSL could never hope to do due to lack of funds.Therefore the administrators of this new concept have to keep examining what is happening in the league to date,how it can be improved and how the standstd of play not be allowed to slip below what has already been attained. That is the real problem to be addressed. jb
Balance please
Guest
Reading these posts the last week or so & it's time to put some facts right. A common thread - south were exclusionary & didn't allow others in so how do we respond?? By now 'us' being exclusionary & telling them we don't want you in the A-League.. Hypocrisy of the highest order. Point 2 - they play to crowds of less than 1,000.. Well I can't remember Collingwood or Essendon drawing crowds in the NAB cup competition. So using that as an argument is ridiculous. Point 3- if they have the money & business plan then that complemented with their history should make any other argument redundant. Point 4- what are people scared off & if they really as weak as people think then they won't get in & if they do they won't last so stop the paranoia.
greg
Guest
Collingwood warriors failed because the afl side of the merger did not take it seriously, they pulled funding very quickly, heidelberg at the time were smart enough to keep a team in the vpl and remained there after the collingwood debacle, that day at Victoria park I was there and it was basically heidelberg v Melbourne knights...why they introduced Carlton after that has always baffled me as well...could a Melbourne victory have worked in the nsl? The buzz around the nsl was pretty decent after Perth and northern spirit joined..Melbourne needed this type of club and its a shame we never got one...the fact that 20,000 watched northern spirit v Olympic, 18,000 watched Perth v sm etc is proof enough that these clubs could co exist with a sound governing.body..unfortunately we never had that either.
Joe Gorman
Expert
sad isn't it. Which club did you play for?
ZipGunBop
Guest
Why does every 2nd article now use the same picture of the RBB?
Minister for Information for the Democratic People's Republic of Football
Guest
HA,HA,HA,HA,HA........... GOLD!!!!!!
Socrates
Guest
Some people beleive that a "joint venture" between Melbourne Heart and South Melbourne Hellas is a good thing.They say that crowds with increase etc. People must have short or selective memories. I can recall a "joint venture" between Collingwood FC and Heidelberg Alexander Soccer Club. The club was known as the Colloingwood Warriors. I remember their first home game at Victoria Park againsted the Melbourne Croatia Knights . Their was a massive crowd. so big that the game was postpond by 30minutes to allow the crowd in. The crowd was well over 25000. I remember when Collingwood scored, the crowd started cheering "RAY RAY ALEX AND ROSS". I remember looking at the match day program looking for the players called RAY RAY ALEX and ROSS. The player name didnt appear on the program WTF. Collingwood won that day 4-1. The joint venture that was Collingwood Warriors didnt see out the season. A lesson not to be forgotten.
apaway
Roar Guru
I was playing in the NSL at the time it went from winter to summer, Joe. I remember the players in the league were polled to see if they agreed with the switch. It was the only time we were ever asked our opinion on anything!
Nick from Sydney
Guest
Many WSW fans are Sydney Olympic, Marconi, Sydney United. Bankstown City Lions fans etc etc I know this as I am one of them and interact with these fans at game day pubs, RBB etc. Interestingly, many of these guys still go to Belmore Sports Ground, King Tom etc watching the NSW Premier league. We are all passionate WSW, but will never forget our roots and lets the likes of the Herald Sun etc dictate us... Let's not forget two years ago,,11,000 fans turned up to Sydney Olympic v Sydney United.