A rare reunion of former National Soccer League players, coaches and officials has brought home the stark reality that despite the many
problems at the top of Australia’s football pyramid the old fire is still.
Just under 300 football people associated with clubs and organisations from all over Australia gathered in Sydney at the weekend as part of a fund-raiser for the ‘heartbeat of football’ charity that yielded an estimated $55,000 profit.
The organisation set up by football identity Andy Paschalidis aims to promote healthy hearts in sport via player education, reduce health risks and install defibrillators at all sporting fields around Australia.
As the struggling A-League prepares to expand its boundaries to include some of the country’s more traditional clubs, two dozen former Socceroos answered a call to help the charity institution and took the opportunity to celebrate a period in Australia’s league football history between 1977 to 2004 that had its critics but that established a solid platform from which the game could prosper.
“This room is where our football was born,” said retired Socceroos legend and foundation ambassador Tim Cahill, who regards defender Charlie Yankos as his childhood idol.
“Clubs in the old days – even the smaller ones like Marrickville, Lakemba and Canterbury – were all about family, culture and tradition.
“The game needs harmony and everybody coming together to help in any way.”
The event drew many former NSL heroes like goalkeeper Ante Covic, defenders Milan Ivanovic, Alex Tobin and Yankos, midfielders Zarko Odzakov, Peter Katholos, Scott Ollerenshaw and Craig Foster and forwards Dez Marton, Graham Arnold, Robbie Slater and Scott Chipperfield.
It was a gathering of Australia’s football royalty in all its glitz and glamour.
It was a throw-back to an era when semi-professional footballers had to perform on many sub-standard pitches in between their full-time jobs and received scant recognition from a largely uninterested media that treated the competition as a hotbed for ethnic rivalries yet the NSL never failed to produce top players who would go on to represent their country with pride and distinction.
Clubs like Arnold’s former club Sydney United – “I never played for Sydney United but Sydney Croatia” he said – Adelaide United, Melbourne Knights, Heidelberg United, South Melbourne, Marconi and Sydney Olympic were able to do this because there was a common bond between club, coach, players and fans.
These clubs valued their loyal supporters who followed them every week and treated them as fans not clients or customers as many football entities do today.
