Bolton’s former Sydney Olympic teammate Nicky Carle doesn’t have a bad word to say about NSL fans. The Socceroo feels he owes a lot to the NSL for giving him his start. “It was a lot more ethnic, I played for a Greek club in Olympic for five to six years,” Carle says. “The majority of the supporters were Greek, but they were football supporters. So I never felt there was anything wrong with that. As long as people supported football regardless. Because it was seen as a Greek club and appealed to that, whereas now every nationality is supporting the one club which is a great concept.”

To Archie Thompson, the NSL provides both good and bad memories. “It gave me my first professional contract,” he says. “And I met my wife in Gippsland. I met some good people. Eddie Krncevic helped me immensely to go to Europe. Carlton and Gippsland supporters have followed my career, and it’s great to have that connection with supporters.”

According to Lyall Gorman, passion is building in the A-League but the transition takes time. “We don’t necessarily have that head-to-head fan support that was in the NSL,” Gorman says. “We don’t have the generational hand-me-downs that other sports benefit from, like Rugby League and AFL where you’re born and the first thing in your crib is your Collingwood or St George scarf. But when you get around our venues and you start to see the amount of young people in them, that tells me in five, 10, 15 years’ time we will have that generational change occur. When that happens we’ll have the highest amount of passion we’ve ever seen for football or for any code in Australia.”

The differences between the NSL and the A-League remain stark, and proud advocates of each find it tough to share common ground. But one thing remains clear; a divide between followers of former NSL clubs and A-League supporters still exists. Old soccer is still not totally aligned with new football. FFA’s current ‘We Are Football’ marketing campaign is an attempt to unite the Australian football family and to convert fans of the NSL, English Premier League, La Liga, Serie A and other football competitions to get behind the A-League. One vehicle that is seen as a powerful way to bring football fans down under together is the proposed FFA Cup. “It will be all-embracing across the country,” Gorman says. “The opportunity to live out the boy’s own dream. It’s a tremendous platform for fan and community engagement. I see if as being one of our major unification, fan engagement programs coming up.”

A-League players who have also experienced life in the NSL are clearly behind the cup competition. “It would be great for a Marconi or Sydney Olympic to play an A-League team,” says Thompson. “Put their money where their mouth is.” Tom Pondeljak agrees: “The FFA Cup is long overdue. What better way of getting these former clubs involved in Australian football? It’s just awesome.” To Nicky Carle, the FFA Cup is a “great idea”. “I’m a big fan of it,” he says.

Recognising the role the NSL has played and the efforts of past players, coaches, fans and officials in Australia is something that few feel the A-League has done adequately. Many players and supporters are alienated from the swift break with the past that occurred with the formation of the A-League seven years ago, and remain disenfranchised. With a raft of new football fans discovering the sport for the first time following the start of the new competition and the Socceroos’ triumphant march in the Round of 16 at the 2006 World Cup, Australia’s rich football history pre-2005 is rarely recognised.

Reddy believes FFA has helped to create that mindset. “As a player all your stats start from the A-League,” he says. “So FFA, to me, have pushed that way. That’s their prerogative, but you still have to recognise the NSL and your older clubs, and the players that have played in that league. Because there was a league 20 or 30 years before the A-League started.”

Carle wants more credit for the Sydney Olympics and Melbourne Knights for their contribution. “It’s important that everyone recognises these clubs because we need them for football to go forward,” he says. “The A-League is the pinnacle now but these clubs are very important for producing players.”

For Pondeljak, it’s up to the current players and officials to educate the newcomers. “It’s a matter of time, it’s up to us to educate them a bit better,” he says. “Some don’t know who Johnny Warren was. I think we’re on the right track.” According to Branko Culina, “ignoring the past is disrespectful to thousands and thousands of good people, players, officials and supporters who were instrumental in getting us to where we are today”. “You can’t take the history away,” he says. “If we don’t do it we’ll drift further apart from each other.”

The simple fact is that without the NSL, despite all its faults, axed clubs and lowly crowds, there would be no A-League. Apart from the streams of players the NSL has given to the A-League – not to mention infrastructure – there are officials, referees and coaches who learned the ropes in the A-League’s much maligned predecessor.

“I think this league has clearly benefited from the NSL in the area of coaching,” Gorman says. “There’s been a number of past players who have developed from the NSL, and coaches like Ange, Lawrie, Mehmet, Muskie, Arnie, Francis and Steve Mautone, Kossie.” In the eyes of Gorman, “old football” still has some tremendous things to teach us and FFA is seeking to recognise the heroes of the past. “We invite all the old Socceroos to our national matches, there’s been Men of Football groups formed in Newcastle and Central Coast, and they’ll spread across the country,” he says. “I think we are starting to do it in many ways. I’ve got a very strong belief that in the growth of football for the future, part of that growth will be measured by the respect we have for the history and traditions of the past – and how we reflect that in what we did.”  

This article appeared in the February 2012 issue of Australian FourFourTwo magazine. To buy back copies of this issue call 03-8317-8121 with a credit card to hand.

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