1977 National Soccer League

National Soccer League
Season	1977
Dates	2 April — 26 September 1977
Champions	Eastern Suburbs; 1st title
Matches played	182
Goals scored	498 (2.74 per match)
Top goalscorer	Dixie Deans; (16 goals)
Best goalkeeper	Allan Maher; (12 clean sheets)
Biggest home win	Adelaide City 10–3 Mooroolbark; (5 September 1977)
Biggest away win	Fitzroy United 1–8 Marconi Fairfield; (20 June 1977)
Highest scoring	Adelaide City 10–3 Mooroolbark; (5 September 1977)
Longest winning run	6 matches; Fitzroy United
Longest unbeaten run	17 matches; Eastern Suburbs
Longest winless run	12 matches; Mooroolbark
Longest losing run	5 matches; Brisbane Lions
Highest attendance	15,000; South Melbourne 2–3 St George-Budapest; (13 June 1977)
Lowest attendance	300; Mooroolbark 1–3 Adelaide City; (5 June 1977)
Total attendance	706,009
Average attendance	3,901
	1978 →

The 1977 National Soccer League season was the first season of the National Soccer League of Australia. The league was not only the first national soccer league in Australia but the first of any of the forms of football in Australia. Clubs predominantly joined from the top leagues in each state, with the exception of Tasmanian and Western Australia, and Canberra City forming in 1977 to join the league. The inaugural champions were Eastern Suburbs.

Background

Attempts had been made to start a national league several times during the 1960s and 1970s, however it wasn't until 1975 that the talk became serious. In April 1975, nine clubs from New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia agreed to form a national league in either 1976 or 1977. Frank Lowy, president of Hakoah-Eastern Suburbs and Alex Pongrass, St George-Budapest president led a concerted effort to bring in teams from Victoria over objections from the state association. Eventually, four Victorian clubs joined with the addition of a team from the Australian Capital Territory.^[2]^[3]

Teams

Stadiums and locations

Sydney teams:
Eastern Suburbs
Marconi Fairfield
St George-Budapest
Sydney Olympic
Western Suburbs

Melbourne teams:
Fitzroy United
Footscray JUST
Mooroolbark
South Melbourne

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Locations of the 1977 National Soccer League teams

Table lists in alphabetical order.

Team	Location	Stadium	Capacity
Adelaide City	Adelaide	Olympic Sports Field	5,000
Brisbane City	Brisbane	Perry Park	5,000
Brisbane Lions	Brisbane	Perry Park	5,000
Canberra City	Canberra Queanbeyan	Manuka Oval Seiffert Oval	16,000 15,000
Fitzroy	Melbourne	Olympic Park Stadium	18,500
Footscray	Melbourne	Middle Park	18,000
Marconi	Sydney	Marconi Stadium	9,000
Mooroolbark	Melbourne	Middle Park Esther Park Wembley Park	18,000 ? ?
South Melbourne	Melbourne	Middle Park	18,000
St George	Sydney	Sydney Sports Ground Marconi Stadium	35,000 9,000
Eastern Suburbs	Sydney	Sydney Sports Ground	35,000
Sydney Olympic	Sydney	Sydney Sports Ground Wentworth Park	35,000 10,000
Western Suburbs	Sydney	Sydney Sports Ground Englefield Stadium	35,000 ?
West Adelaide	Adelaide	Hindmarsh Stadium	16,500

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Relegation
1	Eastern Suburbs (C)	26	13	11	2	52	28	+24	37
2	Marconi Fairfield	26	15	7	4	42	21	+21	37
3	Fitzroy United	26	12	8	6	41	34	+7	32
4	Adelaide City	26	12	7	7	50	31	+19	31
5	Western Suburbs	26	11	7	8	38	29	+9	29
6	St George-Budapest	26	7	14	5	39	35	+4	28
7	West Adelaide	26	8	10	8	38	32	+6	26
8	Footscray JUST	26	9	6	11	36	39	−3	24
9	Brisbane Lions	26	9	5	12	27	41	−14	23
10	Brisbane City	26	8	6	12	30	35	−5	22
11	South Melbourne	26	7	8	11	27	35	−8	22
12	Sydney Olympic	26	7	7	12	25	38	−13	21
13	Canberra City	26	5	7	14	22	39	−17	17
14	Mooroolbark (R)	26	5	5	16	31	61	−30	15	Relegation to the 1978 Victoria Metropolitan League Three

Source: rsssf.com
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Goals scored
(C) Champions; (R) Relegated

Results

Home \ Away	ADE	BRC	BRL	CAN	FIT	FOO	MAR	MOO	SOU	STG	SYC	SYO	WSA	WST
Adelaide City	—	1–2	0–0	2–0	1–0	4–1	1–0	10–3	2–0	1–1	1–2	3–0	2–2	1–2
Brisbane City	1–0	—	3–1	0–1	1–1	1–3	0–1	3–1	2–0	1–1	0–0	3–0	1–0	0–1
Brisbane Lions	1–1	2–1	—	0–1	2–1	2–0	1–1	2–1	2–0	1–1	0–4	0–2	1–4	4–0
Canberra City	1–1	2–0	1–2	—	0–1	0–1	1–0	1–4	0–2	2–2	0–0	4–0	1–3	0–3
Fitzroy	1–0	3–2	4–1	2–0	—	2–0	1–8	2–0	5–2	1–2	1–3	2–0	0–0	2–2
Footscray	3–4	2–1	4–2	3–0	1–3	—	3–4	1–0	2–2	0–0	2–2	1–0	0–1	2–1
Marconi Fairfield	0–4	1–0	0–1	0–0	0–0	1–0	—	1–0	3–0	0–0	1–1	0–0	2–1	3–0
Mooroolbark	1–3	1–1	0–1	3–2	1–2	2–2	2–3	—	2–4	1–0	2–2	1–1	1–1	0–2
South Melbourne	0–0	0–1	1–0	1–1	1–1	0–2	1–2	2–0	—	2–3	0–0	1–1	1–2	2–0
St George-Budapest	0–2	3–2	0–0	2–0	1–2	2–2	1–3	5–1	1–1	—	1–1	3–3	1–0	1–1
Eastern Suburbs	6–1	3–1	2–0	2–1	1–1	4–3	2–4	3–0	0–1	2–2	—	2–0	1–1	2–1
Sydney Olympic	3–1	4–0	1–0	2–2	3–1	0–0	0–2	1–2	0–2	2–0	0–0	—	0–4	0–3
West Adelaide	1–3	3–3	5–1	0–0	1–1	1–0	0–1	1–2	0–2	2–0	1–3	0–4	—	0–3
Western Suburbs	0–0	0–0	3–0	3–1	0–1	0–0	1–1	5–0	2–0	3–2	3–4	0–2	1–1	—

Source: OzFootball
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
For upcoming matches, an "a" indicates there is an article about the rivalry between the two participants.

Season statistics

Top scorers

Rank	Player	Club	Goals^[4]
1	Dixie Deans	Adelaide City	16
2	Terry Smith	Eastern Suburbs	14
3	Murray Barnes	Eastern Suburbs	12
3	John Kosmina	West Adelaide	12
5	Gary Cole	Fitzroy United	11
6	Geoff Morris	Brisbane Lions	10
7	Branko Buljevic	Fitzroy United	9
	Graham Norris	Western Suburbs
	John Nyskohus	Adelaide City
	Peter Sharne	Marconi Fairfield

Hat-tricks

Player	For	Against	Result	Date	Ref
Murray Barnes	Eastern Suburbs	Adelaide City	6–1 (H)	7 May 1977	^[5]
Terry Smith	Eastern Suburbs	Brisbane Lions	4–0 (A)	5 June 1977	^[6]
Ernie Campbell	Marconi	Fitzroy	8–1 (A)	20 June 1977	^[7]
Tom Murray	Brisbane Lions	Western Suburbs	4–0 (H)	25 July 1977	^[8]
Peter Ollerton	South Melbourne	Mooroolbark	4–2 (A)	29 August 1977	^[9]
Dixie Deans	Adelaide City	Mooroolbark	10–3 (H)	5 September 1977	^[10]
Dixie Deans	Adelaide City	Footscray	4–3 (A)	12 September 1977	^[11]

Clean sheets

Rank	Player	Club	Clean sheets
1	Alan Maher	Marconi Fairfield	12
2	Terry Eaton	Western Suburbs	11
3	Peter Blasby	Fitzroy United	9
3	Roger Romanowicz	Adelaide City	9
5	Gary Meier	Sydney Olympic	8
6	Dennis Boland	Footscray JUST	7
	Osvaldo Borzi	Brisbane City
	Jack Reilly	South Melbourne
9	Martyn Crook	West Adelaide	6
9	Phil Dando	Brisbane Lions	6

Discipline

Player

Most yellow cards: 7
- Kevin Mullen (Eastern Suburbs)

Most red cards: 2
- Alan Niven (Brisbane Lions)
- Graham Norris (Western Suburbs)
- Graham Honeyman (West Adelaide)
- Dave Pillans (West Adelaide)

Club

Most yellow cards: 29
- West Adelaide

Fewest yellow cards: 5
- Fitzroy United

Most red cards: 5
- West Adelaide

Fewest red cards: 0
- Seven teams

Awards

Award	Name	Club
Player of the Year	Jimmy Rooney	Marconi
Young Player of the Year	John Kosmina	West Adelaide
Coach of the Year	Rale Rasic	Marconi

Source:^[12]

References

Footnotes

^ "Striker made his point". The Sydney Morning Herald. 8 October 1977. Retrieved 21 May 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
^ "National Soccer!". The Sun-Herald. 6 April 1975. Retrieved 27 May 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
^ Mossop, Brian (10 July 1976). "National Soccer of 14 clubs". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 27 May 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
^ "1977 National Soccer League Top Goalscorers". OzFootball. Retrieved 7 June 2021.
^ Curran, Brian (8 May 1977). "Barnes hits form with three goals". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 21 May 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
^ "'Supermac' spot on for new club". The Sydney Morning Herald. 6 June 1977. Retrieved 21 May 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
^ "City hit back for top spot". The Sydney Morning Herald. 20 June 1977. Retrieved 21 May 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
^ "Footscray's star guests clinch it". The Sydney Morning Herald. 25 July 1977. Retrieved 21 May 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
^ "Marconi and East head Soccer table". The Sydney Morning Herald. 29 August 1977. Retrieved 21 May 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
^ "Thirteen-goal Soccer spree - Deans hits four". 5 September 1977. Retrieved 21 May 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
^ "Upset by 'basement' team". The Sydney Morning Herald. 12 September 1977. Retrieved 21 May 2020 – via Newspapers.com.
^ "Rooney's award". The Sydney Morning Herald. 7 October 1977. p. 27. Retrieved 12 December 2022.

General references

OzFootball Archives - 1977 NSL Table

[1] "Striker made his point". The Sydney Morning Herald. 8 October 1977. Retrieved 21 May 2020 – via Newspapers.com.

[2] "National Soccer!". The Sun-Herald. 6 April 1975. Retrieved 27 May 2020 – via Newspapers.com.

[3] Mossop, Brian (10 July 1976). "National Soccer of 14 clubs". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 27 May 2020 – via Newspapers.com.

[4] "1977 National Soccer League Top Goalscorers". OzFootball. Retrieved 7 June 2021.

[5] Curran, Brian (8 May 1977). "Barnes hits form with three goals". The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 21 May 2020 – via Newspapers.com.

[6] "'Supermac' spot on for new club". The Sydney Morning Herald. 6 June 1977. Retrieved 21 May 2020 – via Newspapers.com.

[7] "City hit back for top spot". The Sydney Morning Herald. 20 June 1977. Retrieved 21 May 2020 – via Newspapers.com.

[8] "Footscray's star guests clinch it". The Sydney Morning Herald. 25 July 1977. Retrieved 21 May 2020 – via Newspapers.com.

[9] "Marconi and East head Soccer table". The Sydney Morning Herald. 29 August 1977. Retrieved 21 May 2020 – via Newspapers.com.

[10] "Thirteen-goal Soccer spree - Deans hits four". 5 September 1977. Retrieved 21 May 2020 – via Newspapers.com.

[11] "Upset by 'basement' team". The Sydney Morning Herald. 12 September 1977. Retrieved 21 May 2020 – via Newspapers.com.

[12] "Rooney's award". The Sydney Morning Herald. 7 October 1977. p. 27. Retrieved 12 December 2022.

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