FIRST of all this week, I must congratulate Melbourne Victory for their fantastic season.

While Adelaide's impressive Asian Champions League run was impressive, Melbourne's achievement surely stands them out as the best team of the season and indeed the best team to grace the A-League's fields.

Secondly, I have to highlight my amusement at newspaper reports highlighting Tom Pondeljak and his final atonement for two failed Grand Final campaigns with the Mariners. "Third time lucky" was the general theme. This of course conveniently ignored Pondeljak's three previous national titles in the old NSL.

While I'm sure Tommy was delighted to finally get his hands on the toilet seat, I'm also sure he was equally delighted with his three previous title wins with Melbourne Knights, Sydney Olympic and Perth Glory. For all the off-field troubles that plagued the NSL, on the park the standard was at the very least comparable with the A-League.

In 2003 Pondeljak's opponents included Clint Bolton, Jade North and Joel Porter. In 2002 he was up against Matt Horsley, Bobby Despotovski and Damian Mori. Back in 1995 it was Tony Vidmar, Alex Tobin and Milan Ivanovic.

And of course some of Pondeljak's teammates through these years included Horvat, Viduka, Milicic, Gumprecht and Colosimo.

The reason I highlight all this is because there is a real sense of denial in the A-League community that any football before 2005 is best forgotten. Not even consigned to memory, it is completely truncated as statistics and reports count only what has happened since the A-League formed.

Ironic, then, that so many of the best A-League players spent their developmental years plying away in the league that shouldn't be mentioned. Along with this year's Grand Final hero, previous Joe Marsten Medallists Andrew Durante and Archie Thompson both played four seasons of NSL football. Johnny Warren Medallists Bobby Despotovski, Nicky Carle, Joel Griffiths and Shane Smeltz were all NSL players before 2005. Even Goalkeeper of the Year winners Michael Theoklitos and Eugene Galekovic cut their teeth with the NZ Football Kingz and Gippsland Falcons respectively.

Don't get me wrong, I think the A-League is great. It's a platform for the game better than anything we've had in Australia in the past. But to deny that which came before is to deny much of what has made the A-League the success it is.

Which is why I worry that Gold Coast Utd will miss the one thing the NSL did better then the A-League. No I'm not talking about sneaking flares into grounds, muddy cow-paddock style pitches and sub-3,000 crowds. I'm talking about the sense of association fans have with the actual club.

Many A-League clubs, I feel, treat both their players and their fans like mere commodities. People through the gate are a dollar figure. Players are just names on a squad list that can be kept or released based on whether more room is needed in the salary cap to sign the latest returning Socceroo.

This is not a successful long-term strategy to establish a football club in a community. Fortunately Central Coast Mariners have realised this, but I wonder whether the same can be said for Newcastle Jets? Fury are well on their way to bucking the commercialisation trend, but will GC Utd be able to do the same? I've talked in the past about the pitfalls associated with Clive Palmer as owner. In particular, fans will be asking whether the club will be competitive for years to come and not just while the billionaire is enjoying his newest toy.

They may have kicked clubs like Melbourne Knights, Marconi and Adelaide City out of the top flight of Australian football but they still endure and still connect with their communities. This level of support is what makes football far more than just a game. Hopefully the Gold Coast community will be able to enjoy these aspects of football culture and not just the on-field theatrics that seem to dominate "new" football.