1984 National Soccer League

The 1984 National Soccer League season was the eighth season of the National Soccer League in Australia. This season saw a restructure of the league, introducing a split into two geographical divisions, and an expansion from 16 to 24 teams. A Northern Conference comprised 12 clubs from New South Wales and Australian Capital Territory, and a Southern Conference consisted of 12 Victorian, South Australian, and Queensland clubs.

National Soccer League

Season	1984
Dates	4 March – 28 October 1984
Champions	South Melbourne 1st title
Premiers	Sydney City (Northern) South Melbourne (Southern)
Relegated	Melita Eagles
Matches played	350
Goals scored	969 (2.77 per match)
Top goalscorer	Duggie Brown (22)
Biggest home win	West Adelaide 7–0 Sunshine George Cross (29 April 1984) Sydney City 8–1 Newcastle Rosebud United (9 May 1984) South Melbourne 7–0 Newcastle Rosebud United (22 July 1984)
Biggest away win	Penrith City 1–7 Marconi Fairfield (22 April 1984)
Highest scoring	Sydney City 8–1 Newcastle Rosebud United (9 May 1984)
Highest attendance	12,000 Brunswick Zebras 2–1 South Melbourne (8 April 1984)
Lowest attendance	250 Penrith City 2–0 Brisbane City (15 April 1984)
Total attendance	885,776
Average attendance	2,788
← 1983 1985 →

This season also saw the introduction of the two well-supported Croatian clubs, Melbourne Croatia and Sydney Croatia, both of which had had recent success in the state-leagues.

For the first time in the competition, a finals system was introduced, whereby the five highest finishing teams in each conference had a playoff to determine a conference winner. The two conference winners then played each other in a two-legged Grand Final to be declared champions. The Grand Final was won by South Melbourne over Sydney Olympic.

Teams

Twenty-four teams competed in the league (twelve in the Northern Conference and twelve in the Southern Conference) – the sixteen teams from the previous season and eight teams accepted from their respective state leagues.

Stadiums and locations

Note: Table lists in alphabetical order by conference.

Team	Location	Stadium	Capacity
Northern Conference
APIA Leichhardt	Sydney (Leichhardt)	Lambert Park	7,000
Blacktown City	Sydney (Seven Hills)	Gabbie Stadium	5,000
Canberra Arrows	Canberra	Canberra Stadium	25,011
Marconi Fairfield	Sydney (Bossley Park)	Marconi Stadium	9,000
Melita Eagles	Sydney (Parramatta)	Melita Stadium	10,000
Newcastle Rosebud United	Newcastle	Adamstown Oval	2,000
Penrith City	Penrith	Cook Park	1,000
St George-Budapest	Sydney (Mortdale)	St George Stadium	12,000
Sydney City	Sydney (Bondi)	ES Marks Athletics Field	8,000
Sydney Croatia	Sydney (Edensor Park)	King Tomislav Park	10,000
Sydney Olympic	Sydney (Waterloo)	Pratten Park	15,000
Wollongong City	Wollongong	Wollongong Showground	22,000
Southern Conference
Adelaide City	Adelaide (Kensington)	Olympic Sports Field	8,000
Brisbane City	Brisbane (Newmarket)	Spencer Park	5,000
Brisbane Lions	Brisbane (Inala)	Lions Stadium	5,000
Brunswick Juventus	Melbourne (Footscray)	Olympic Park	18,500
Footscray JUST	Melbourne (Footscray)	Schintler Reserve	?
Green Gully	Melbourne (St Albans)	Green Gully Reserve	10,000
Heidelberg United	Melbourne (Brunswick)	Olympic Village	12,000
Melbourne Croatia	Melbourne (Elsternwick)	Olympic Park	18,500
Preston Makedonia	Melbourne (Fitzroy)	B.T. Connor Reserve	5,000
South Melbourne	Melbourne (Middle Park)	Middle Park	18,000
Sunshine George Cross	Melbourne (City of Melbourne)	Chaplin Reserve	5,000
West Adelaide	Adelaide (City of Adelaide)	Hindmarsh Stadium	16,500

Managerial changes

The Australian Soccer Annual 1984 reported 11 managerial changes.^[1]

Team	Outgoing manager	Date of vacancy	Position in the table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
Adelaide City	Bobby Ferguson	1984	Pre-season	Edmund Kreft	1984
Brisbane City	Jim Hermiston			Joe Gilroy
Canberra Arrows	Attila Abonyi			Doug Collins
Heidelberg United	Jim Tansey			Brian Garvey
Marconi Fairfield	Tony Henderson (caretaker)			Les Scheinflug
West Adelaide	Peter Koulizos			Sam Salabasidis
Wollongong City	Willie Wallace			Adrian Alston
Green Gully	David Smallman			Jimmy Rooney
Melbourne Croatia	Tommy Cumming			Terry Hennessy
Sydney Croatia	Josip Kuže			Attila Abonyi
Penrith City	Inaugural			Willie Wallace

League tables

Northern Conference

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Sydney City	28	17	8	3	67	21	+46	42	Qualification to Finals series
2	Sydney Olympic	28	16	8	4	61	27	+34	40
3	Marconi Fairfield	28	12	8	8	58	39	+19	32
4	APIA Leichhardt	28	12	8	8	43	35	+8	32
5	Blacktown City	28	12	6	10	43	48	−5	30
6	Sydney Croatia	28	8	11	9	32	38	−6	27
7	Penrith City	28	8	10	10	29	41	−12	26
8	Newcastle Rosebud United	28	11	4	13	35	52	−17	26
9	Canberra Arrows	28	12	1	15	47	39	+8	25
10	St George-Budapest	28	8	9	11	38	41	−3	25
11	Melita Eagles (R)	28	8	8	12	23	38	−15	24	Relegation to the 1985 NSW State League
12	Wollongong City	28	5	5	18	22	59	−37	15

Updated to match(es) played on unknown. Source: rsssf.com
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored.
(R) Relegated

Southern Conference

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	South Melbourne (C)	28	18	4	6	48	20	+28	40	Qualification to Finals series
2	Heidelberg United	28	14	7	7	37	27	+10	35
3	Melbourne Croatia	28	13	7	8	38	31	+7	33
4	Brisbane Lions	28	12	6	10	38	36	+2	30
5	Brunswick Juventus	28	13	4	11	36	42	−6	30
6	Preston Makedonia	28	11	6	11	42	33	+9	28
7	Adelaide City	28	10	5	13	33	34	−1	25
8	Footscray JUST	28	10	5	13	29	33	−4	25
9	Green Gully	28	9	6	13	34	36	−2	24
10	West Adelaide	28	8	5	15	40	52	−12	21
11	Brisbane City	28	8	5	15	21	39	−18	21
12	Sunshine George Cross	28	5	6	17	24	57	−33	16

Updated to match(es) played on unknown. Source: rsssf.com
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored.
(C) Champions

Results

Home \ Away	ADE	API	BLA	BRC	BRL	BRU	CAN	FOO	GRE	HEI	MAR	MCR	MEA	NRU	PEN	PRE	SOU	STG	SGC	SCI	SCR	SOL	WES	WOL	ADE	API	BLA	BRC	BRL	BRU	CAN	FOO	GRE	HEI	MAR	MCR	MEA	NRU	PEN	PRE	SOU	STG	SGC	SCI	SCR	SOL	WES	WOL
Adelaide City				1–2		2–0	1–2	2–0	3–1	1–1		2–3				0–0	2–3	0–1	1–1				1–0					2–1																			3–2
APIA Leichhardt			2–1		0–1		2–0				1–0		1–2		1–0			3–2		2–1	0–1	0–2	4–1	1–1											3–3
Blacktown City		2–2		2–0	3–4		4–3				2–2		0–0		4–1	4–1		1–0		1–1	2–2	0–2		2–0																				1–4
Brisbane City		0–0			0–1	0–1				0–2	2–2	0–1	0–1				1–0				1–1			1–1					0–2								2–1
Brisbane Lions			2–2	2–0		2–1		0–1	2–1						0–3	1–0		3–2	4–2	0–2	2–2	1–1						2–1															3–0
Brunswick Juventus	1–0			2–3	1–0			0–2	1–4	5–1		2–1		2–0		2–4	2–1		4–2															0–1		0–3		1–1
Canberra Arrows			0–1			1–2		0–1		1–0	0–2	3–0	1–2	2–1			3–1			0–1	1–2		5–2	4–0
Footscray JUST	0–0					0–0	3–1		0–1	0–3		0–0				4–0	1–2		1–0				0–1										1–0								0–3
Green Gully	2–1			2–0		2–3	3–0	2–3		1–1		0–1				0–0	0–2		2–3				2–1	1–1				2–0
Heidelberg United	1–0	1–0			3–1	2–3	2–1	1–0	0–0			5–2		2–1		2–1	0–2		1–1				1–1							3–0
Marconi Fairfield		1–3	1–2		1–0	0–1							1–1	2–1	2–1			4–1	6–1	1–1	2–0	0–1		4–0		4–1													1–1
Melbourne Croatia	2–0				2–2	0–1		3–1	1–0	0–0				1–1		1–0	0–2		2–0			2–1	1–1											0–2						3–1
Melita Eagles		1–2	1–0		2–0			2–1			2–2			1–3	1–1			1–0		0–2	1–2	0–0		0–1			0–2												0–2						0–1
Newcastle Rosebud United	2–0	1–1	2–1				0–4	1–0	3–0						1–0	1–0		3–1	3–0			1–5									2–1		1–2															1–2
Penrith City		0–3	2–0	2–0			2–1				1–7		1–1	0–2				1–1		0–0		0–1		3–2				0–0
Preston Makedonia	1–2			1–2	0–0	3–0	1–2	1–1	1–1	1–0		2–2			6–0		0–1		5–2		3–3		5–1		2–0						1–2	1–0
South Melbourne	1–0					1–0		2–2	2–1	2–0		1–0		7–0		1–2			0–1	0–0			4–0						0–0							3–0								0–0
St George-Budapest		2–2	1–2	1–2			2–1				2–0		1–1	3–0						1–4	1–1	0–0		3–2			4–0																			2–2
Sunshine George Cross	0–1			0–1		3–0	1–4	0–2	0–0	1–1		0–0				0–2	1–2						2–0	1–1									1–0														1–2
Sydney City		1–2	4–0	3–1							3–1		2–0	8–1	1–1			0–1			1–1	4–3		5–0		2–1											6–0									1–1
Sydney Croatia	3–3		1–2	1–2	2–1		1–1				1–2		0–1	1–1	0–1			2–0		0–5		1–3		2–0				3–1
Sydney Olympic	1–1	4–2	6–1	4–0							2–2	1–3	2–0		2–0					1–2	2–0			3–0											4–2		3–0
West Adelaide	0–1					2–2		1–2	3–1	0–1		0–4		4–1		0–1	1–2	2–2	7–0						2–1																3–1		2–0
Wollongong City		0–3	1–2		3–2		0–1				1–3		1–1	1–0	0–2		1–2	1–2		1–3	2–1	0–3																							0–1

Source: OzFootball
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Five matches occurred where the fixture was played a third time in the 1984 season.

• St George-Budapest 0–1 Blacktown City
• Brisbane City 1–0 Brisbane Lions
• St George-Budapets 1–2 Sydney Olympic
• West Adelaide 0–3 Adelaide City
• Footscray JUST 1–3 Green Gully

Finals series

Northern Conference

	Elimination and qualifying Finals					Semi-finals					Preliminary Final					Northern Final
						1	Sydney City	1 (4)								1	Sydney City	1
						2	Sydney Olympic	1 (2)								2	Sydney Olympic	2
	2	Sydney Olympic	2								2	Sydney Olympic	3
	3	Marconi Fairfield	1								4	APIA Leichhardt Tigers	0
						3	Marconi Fairfield	3 (3)
						4	APIA Leichhardt Tigers	3 (4)
	4	APIA Leichhardt Tigers	3
	5	Blacktown City	1

Southern Conference

	Elimination and qualifying Finals					Semi-finals					Preliminary Final					Southern Final
						1	South Melbourne	3								1	South Melbourne	4
						3	Melbourne Croatia	2								2	Heidelberg United	2
	2	Heidelberg United	1								2	Heidelberg United	3
	3	Melbourne Croatia	2								3	Melbourne Croatia	1
						2	Heidelberg United	0 (3)
						4	Brisbane Lions	0 (2)
	4	Brisbane Lions	4
	5	Brunswick Juventus	2

Grand Final

First Leg
24 October 1984

South Melbourne	2–1	Sydney Olympic
Egan 43, 64'		Koussas 5'

Olympic Park Stadium, Melbourne

Attendance: 10,000

Referee: Doug Rennie

---

Second Leg
28 October 1984

Sydney Olympic	1–2	South Melbourne
Theodorakopoulos 34'		Crino 10' Yzendoorn 18'

St George Stadium, Sydney

Attendance: 11,221

Referee: Chris Bambridge

• South Melbourne win 4–2 on aggregate

Individual awards

Award	Winner	Club
National Soccer League Player of the Year	Sergio Melta	Adelaide City
National Soccer League Under 21 Player of the Year	Tony Franken	Canberra City
National Soccer League Coach of the Year	Eddie Thomson	Sydney City