Today (2 April 2017) marks the 40th birthday of the Australian national league. In what was a revolutionary move for any football code in the country, the round ball version created the first national competition 40 years ago.
On the weekend of 2–3 April 1977, 14 teams embarked on the first round of the National Soccer League (NSL). The NSL brought together 13 of the best clubs from Australia's state leagues plus a brand new entity in Canberra City, coached by Johnny Warren.
In an era of expensive air travel, modest state league crowds and general uncertainty about how a national competition would fare, the creation of the NSL was a bold undertaking.
While the league wasn't truly national – a Perth team did not join until 20 years later – there was still a wide representation in the first season 1977 with teams from Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Melbourne and Sydney taking part. A Newcastle club entered in 1978 and Wollongong came in three years later.
Electrical giants Philips Industries provided a sponsorship of $450,000 for the league's first three seasons, while television coverage for the early years was provided by the 0-10 Network who broadcasted two or three matches per round. This was investment and coverage way above anything seen before for football in Australia.
At 2.30pm on Saturday the 2 nd April 1977, almost in the shadows of Old Parliament House, the first national league match kicked off as Canberra City hosted West Adelaide at the leafy Manuka Oval.
In front of a mere 1,550 people, John Kosmina netted the historic first goal for the visiting team in the 7 th minute. By the end of the match two Canberra players had been sent off and West Adelaide were 3-1 winners.
A little later that day Footscray held St George to a 0-0 draw at Middle Park in Melbourne, a field the Formula One Grand Prix now runs over, while at the old Sydney Sports Ground (where the Allianz Stadium carpark currently lies) Sydney Olympic lost to South Melbourne 2-0.
The following day Adelaide City and Brisbane Lions drew 0-0, Brisbane City lost to Marconi 1-0, Heidelberg went down 3-1 to Sydney City, and Round 1's biggest winners Western Suburbs from Sydney thumped Mooroolbark 5-0.
By Round 5 Western Suburbs had won all matches so far, and were ahead of the more fancied and higher-profiled Marconi, Sydney City, South Melbourne and Adelaide City clubs on the NSL ladder.
However by the end of the 26-round season Sydney City reigned supreme and took out the first Australian national title. In the NSL's early years, the champion was the team on top of the final ladder. Sydney City secured 1977 honours in the final round after drawing 0-0 with fierce rivals Sydney Olympic with just below 3,000 in attendance.
In 1978 Newcastle KB United took the place of Mooroolbark, and the following season APIA Leichhardt effectively took Western Suburbs' spot. While these were two 'convenient' promotion-relegation scenarios, in that strong clubs were taking the places of less viable ones, the relegation drama in the following off-season was a messy affair.
South Melbourne finished at the bottom of the 1979 ladder, yet second-last Sydney Olympic were demoted back to the state league in a move that beset the NSL over the off season with legal challenges and wide-scale threats of protest. The saga was the first of many complicated relegation stories that plagued the national competition for the next two decades as the league searched for the ideal promotion-relegation formula, one which never really eventuated.
The NSL rollercoastered its way over the following 25 years, experimenting with many different formats (including a two-conference system from 1984 to 1986), a move from winter to summer (in 1989) and several other initiatives that gave the league a fascinating history to look back on when it eventually closed down in 2004.
There were many success stories from the NSL years, with Sydney City, Marconi and South Melbourne each winning four championships, Alex Tobin (522 appearances) playing the most games, and Damian Mori (225 goals) scoring most goals. Players originating from the NSL clubs provided the backbone for an ever-improving Australian national team, culminating in the Socceroos' first World Cup appearance in over 30 years in 2006. Crowds of over 40,000 saw NSL grand final spectacles in Perth and Brisbane.
The formation of the Hyundai A-League in 2005 took Australian national league football up an extra notch, with financial investment, media coverage and match attendances all raised to much higher levels.
In the A-League's first 11 seasons Melbourne Victory and Brisbane Roar each won three championships; Adelaide United reached the final of the Asian Champions League in 2008 while Western Sydney Wanderers took out the continental championship in 2014.
On the eve of the 40 th birthday of the national league, Sydney FC are dominating the 2016/17 competition to an extent never before seen in the previous 39 seasons.
Off the field, Round 1 of the 2016/17 season saw the Sydney derby attract an all-time record national league crowd of 61,880 people to ANZ Stadium.
Back in 1977, the revolutionary NSL started boldly albeit from humble beginnings on April 2 when John Kosmina scored the league's first goal in front of one and a half thousand people at Canberra's Manuka Oval.
With the Hyundai A-League's most successful clubs to date Melbourne Victory (v Wellington Phoenix) and Brisbane Roar (v Central Coast Mariners) hosting games on April 2 this year, the 40 th anniversary of the NSL's first game provides some connection between the new and the old, and a good opportunity to reflect on an exhilarating four decades of national league football in Australia.
And while the 40 th birthday reveals a league that is in a stronger condition than in earlier birthdays, it's also a foundation for an even bolder and brighter future for national league football in Australia.
Follow Andrew Howe’s Australian football stats updates on Twitter @AndyHowe_statto
Facts from the first season
Champions – Eastern Suburbs (Marconi finished 2 nd )
Player of the Year – Jim Rooney (Marconi Fairfield)
U21 Player of the Year – John Kosmina (West Adelaide)
Top goal scorer – Dixie Deans (Adelaide City) 16 goals
Coach of the Year – Rale Rasic (Marconi Fairfield)
