40 years ago in Canberra

The Sheffield Shield was actually the first national league in any sport. Aussie Rules was the first football code to have a national club competition with numerous iterations of a national championship since 1888, though the first with four States represented was in 1972. The first national knock-out cup competition with more than two rounds was the 1974 Amco Cup in rugby league, though this only featured two States and a side from New Zealand, it still had teams from the two major Australian premierships who would usually never play each other, playing each other in the same competition However, soccer was the first football code to have a regular home-and-away season national league. Cheers.

I remember the Newcastle Kb united. And the fun of watching the Newcastle breakers at a suburban ground

Trouble with the "S" too, apparently they didn't know the name of their own sport.

#Evan That's a good point - the S,W & P line is often thrown at everyone outside of the game itself - however - it's clear that it was a pervading Australian social attitude that transcended sports themselves and with such obstacles even within the game then a certain pathway was assured - that of non-assimilation and ethnicised clubs.

#j Binnie Perhaps as you suggest in Newcastle and Ipswich. In the main centres of Melbourne and Sydney and Brisbane to a degree it was 3rd cab off the social rank - well behind the mark in Melbourne and just off the mark re Rugby in Syd/Bris. In many cases 'clubs' during the 1880s in Syd/Bris were voting which rules they'd play by for the forthcoming season. This wasn't happening in Melbourne and to the west (at least far from the same degree). In Brisbane in particular there had been clubs more willing to play be the Victorian rules as well as the Rugby rules (or 'old Rugby'??) however the code wars arguments that pervaded the newspapers of the day showed it was far less about the industrial bosses planting a worker level pastime. Ironically too - in the late 1850s/1860s as the industrial revolution brought along the prospect of a weekend....initially the Saturday afternoon off tended to be the domain of the shop/office worker more so than the labourer although Sydney & Melbourne stonemasons help drive the 8hr day but it was hardly universal. The notion of a workers led sports culture is actually a little off the ball as the initial Australian football establishments were more white collar - however - less educational institution based as had marred England (where the capacity to refine a single set of football rules failed as compared to the unified cricket or hockey rules). A clear distinction in Australia was the clubs became more 'community' clubs rather than the model in many parts of the world of being privately owned (by those shrewd business men). The immigrants of the late 1800s did bring this alternate set of football rules - but the horse had already bolted whereas to many other parts of the world the first rules known were either the FA rules or the RFU rules. The national league (NSL) was never created during the 'British Association Football' era (post WWI to the early '50s) - - it came about after about 25 years of the European ethnicisation of the game in Australia and that was reflected in the make up of the first NSL and it's clubs (and more to come Melbourne Croatia, Sunshine George Cross etc). I see both your point and that of #SmithHates Maxwell. I simply suggest that the 'world wide' spread of the game was not homogeneous - and certainly the Australian pathway of the game to a national league very much looked to have been drawn up on ethnic lines. I suggest #J Binnie that you have gone off on a tangent - you've ignored entirely the commentary being about the NSL establishment within Australia.

According to information from Johnny warrens book, Sheilas, wogs and poofters, many post war European migrants went to join the existing district clubs in the various state leagues. But they were knocked back because of their English language skills. Despite the fact that many of them were accomplished footballers in their countries of origin. Faced with such obstacles they then went on to form their own clubs which in a short time eclipsed the established district clubs on the basis of better support. Better footballing operations and the ability to recruit better footballers. Thus securing a spot at the pinnacle of the sport due to their superior merit as footballing organisations. No matter how the nsl turned out the ethnic clubs that played in the nsl did so by being among the best football clubs in Australia, that is to say by merit. If the very existence of these clubs is a source of shame, which is what is implied as far as I am concerned. Then the source of shame lies someone else in my opinion.

Ditto!!! JB you should write an article (your choice) on some of these historical events in the 70s & 80s. I was much more of a Eurosnob in those days. I know of the players, but very little of the history of the game.

Brilliant responses, jb. A real slap down for the 2 AFL fanboy groupies who like to hang around our discussions hoping for a bit of candy.

Perry - It is widely thought that football as we know it was brought to Australia by migrants, and the first migrants to this country came from ------yes you've guessed it, England and other UK countries.That's why the game had such strong early roots in coal-mining districts like Newcastle and Ipswich. To the best of my knowledge the local indigenous people did not play the game in any form back in those early days. Just for your information, the first registered association football team in Australia was Wanderers, in 1880, and was started by a John Fletcher , yes you've guessed it again -------------an English emigrant, or if you prefer ,an Australian immigrant.. Cheers jb.

#j binnie Didn't happen that way in Australia. And that's a point implicit in #SmithHatesMaxwell comments.

"The NSL always struggled with the “N” portion of the title," Substitute the "S" for an "R" and it still applies!!!

SQ - When the NSL was first discussed ,a blanket order went out to interested parties all around the country whereby they would have to attend meetings chaired by the then States Federations. I attended such a meeting and it quickly developed into a farce when it was indicated that it would cost $50,000 to enter, in fact one well known ethnic club in Brisbane walked out of the meeting declaring they would never play in such a competition. It probably would be correct to say that that sum of money dismayed many of the "localised" clubs who made their money selling raffle tickets and running an occasional "boys only night", playing in front of a few thousand (if they were lucky) every game, and managing somehow to pay some of their players some of the time.. In such a financial climate it isn't hard to understand why so called ethnic clubs managed to get their hands on such an amount of money, many, like Marconi and Hakoah & St George,being sponsored by ethnic based social clubs who, with their "pokie machines", did turn over money. This of course did not last and accounts for the number of financial "failures" that saw many leave the competition for various reported reasons, but at the root, mainly financial. There was not a lot wrong with the football played in the NSL, the troubles all festered ,and finally erupted, to what would best be described as amateur administrators trying to run what was in fact the stepping stone to a full time professional football league. Hidden deep in that last sentence is the reasoning behind Frank Lowy setting up the HAL in the manner that he did. Cheers jb..

Personally I loved the NSL and fully support this article and those who have posted in a positive manner regarding the league. Many enjoyable moments were provided by this league as a football fan. You cant ignore history, its there it existed, it makes you what you are and the NSL paved the way for what has happened in Football in Australia since 2005.

Smith - This shameful statement shows up a complete ignorance as to how the game of football spread it's influence world wide. We have to go back to the industrial revolution as experienced in Britain and the subsequent spread of that same industry to countries far and wide as shrewd business men took their machinery to sources of cheap labour and availability of raw materials. There is much evidence to suggest these same industrialists chose the game of football to keep their workers happy and the natural spread and development of the game took over to establish it today as "the world game". History!!!! a source of intelligence often ignored by the younger generations. Cheers jb.

JEFF - Western Suburbs were the first full time professional team to set up in Australian football. I don't recollect who were the "behind the scenes "operators but they did make headlines by winning the then second tier in Sydney football,having signed "stars" from clubs all around the country .I remember my club playing a friendly against them in Brisbane around 1969/70,and even then they had built up a considerable amount of "international class players " into their team. By the time the NSL came into being they had scoured the Australian game to build up their team with players like ColCurran, Peter Wilson, Alan Ainsley and Dave Harding all having been lured to the club. But like others before and after I think the lack of finances overcame them and they only lasted 2 years in the NSL finishing fifth and ninth before being annexed by Apia, a NSW club that had not entered the initial league, In Apia's first year, many of the Western Suburbs "stars" had exited and Apia finished mid table. What people forget is that it cost a $50,000 bond to be posted to enter the NSL,and I can tell you from experience there were not too many clubs around Australia who could source that sort of money without going "cap-in-hand" to their benefactors. Cheers jb.

Kangaroos IFC had an interesting story..captured brilliantly as always by Joe Gorman in this 2014 The Guardian article.

Well put Ken. Thanks for the history information.

The backbone of Australian Western history.

Have to laugh at a national sporting league being drawn up on ethnic lines. A shameful episode in Australia's sporting history.