1984 National Soccer League

NSL 1984
League	National Soccer League
Sport	Association football
Duration	1984
Number of teams	24
NSL season
Champions	South Melbourne
Top scorer	Doug Brown (22)

The National Soccer League 1984 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 NSW and ACT, and a Southern Conference consisted of 12 Victorian, South Australian, and ironically, Queensland clubs.

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

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	Qualified for the 1984 National Soccer League Northern Conference Finals
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 Tigers	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 KB United	28	11	4	13	35	52	−17	26
9	Canberra City	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	Relegated to the 1985 NSW Division One
12	Wollongong City	28	5	5	18	22	59	−37	15

Source: rsssf.com
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored.

Finals

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

Southern Conference

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	South Melbourne (C)	28	18	4	6	48	20	+28	40	1984 National Soccer League Champions
2	Heidelberg United	28	14	7	7	37	27	+10	35	Qualified for the 1984 National Soccer League Southern Conference Finals
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

Source: rsssf.com
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored.

Finals

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

Grand Final

South Melbourne v Sydney Olympic

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

---

Sydney Olympic v South Melbourne

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

• Player of the Year: Sergio Melta (Adelaide City)
• U-21 Player of the Year: Tony Franken (Canberra City)
• Top Scorer(s): Doug Brown (South Melbourne – 22 goals)
• Coach of the Year: Eddie Thomson (Sydney City)

References

• OzFootball Archives - 1984 NSL Season