The National Soccer League 1981 season was the fifth season of the Australian

National Soccer League The National Soccer League (NSL) was the top-level soccer league in Australia, run by Soccer Australia and later the Australian Soccer Association. The NSL, the A-League's predecessor, spanned 28 seasons from its inception in 1977 until its d ...

(NSL). The league was known as the Philips Soccer League (PSL) in a sponsorship arrangement with Dutch electronics company

Philips Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), commonly shortened to Philips, is a Dutch multinational conglomerate corporation that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, it has been mostly headquartered in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarters i ...

. The champions were Sydney Slickers, winning their third title.

Changes from 1980

The league increased from 14 to 16 teams prior to the 1981 season. Despite finishing second last—ordinarily a relegation position—in 1980, West Adelaide (known as Adelaide Hawks in 1981) were retained for 1981. Wooden-spooner

St George Saint George (Greek language, Greek: Γεώργιος (Geórgios), Latin language, Latin: Georgius, Arabic language, Arabic: القديس جرجس; died 23 April 303), also George of Lydda, was a Christians, Christian who is venerated as a sa ...

were the only team to be relegated, with three new teams being introduced -

Preston Makedonia Preston Lions Football Club (formerly Preston Makedonia Soccer Club) is a soccer club from Preston, a northern suburb of Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. The club was established in 1947 to play non-professional soccer matches against other tea ...

(nicknamed Rams in 1981)

Sydney Olympic Sydney Olympic Football Club is an Australian semi-professional association football, soccer club, based in Belmore, New South Wales, Belmore, Sydney, New South Wales, that plays in the National Premier Leagues NSW. The Club was founded as Pan- ...

(Sydney Olympians in 1981) and

Wollongong City Wollongong ( ), colloquially referred to as The Gong, is a city located in the Illawarra region of New South Wales, Australia. The name is believed to originate from the Dharawal language, meaning either 'five islands/clouds', 'ground near wat ...

(Wollongong Wolves). Prior to the season commencing, in what was described as "Australianisation" of the national league, nicknames were imposed on the clubs, some of which were not popular with the teams themselves. Marconi President, Tony Labbozzetta expressed his dislike of the enforced nickname Leopards, suggesting "Call us Datsun", referring to a naming rights deal the club had made with the Japanese carmaker. Along with the new nicknames, new macho logos were introduced. John Clark, a marketing executive at the Australian Soccer Federation, claimed that "we are not trying to take ethnicism out of soccer" and that they were trying to appeal to boys "not following in their fathers' footsteps, boys now into space invaders, Buck Rogers in the 25th century, who aren't following soccer." The league consisted of a double round-robin format, played between February and September. The league was required to finish by the end of September due to Australia's hosting of the

1981 FIFA World Youth Championship The 1981 FIFA World Youth Championship, the third edition of the FIFA World Youth Championship, was held in Australia from 3 to 18 October 1981. The tournament took place in six venues—where a total of 32 matches were played. Adelaide, Brisban ...

in October. Unlike the 1980 season, a post-season finals series was not held and the league championship was awarded to the team at the top of the table. The final series was reintroduced the following year.

Teams

League table

Results

Individual awards

*Player of the Year: Bobby Russell (

Adelaide Giants The Adelaide Giants are a professional baseball team that plays in the Australian Baseball League. They are one of the six foundation franchises of the league, in its first incarnation from 1989 to 1999. The team adopted the name Bite or Adelaid ...

) *U-21 Player of the Year: David Mitchell (

) *Top Scorer(s):

Gary Cole Gary Michael Cole (born September 20, 1956) is an American television, film and voice actor. Cole began his professional acting career on stage at Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Company in 1985. On television, he has had starring roles in the T ...

( Heidelberg Warriors – 16 goals) *Coach of the Year:

Eddie Thomson Eddie Thomson (25 February 1947 – 21 February 2003) was a Scottish association football player and coach, who played as a defender. He played for Heart of Midlothian and Aberdeen in Scotland, San Antonio Thunder in the United States and ...

( Sydney Slickers)

Footnotes

References

OzFootball Archives - 1981 NSL Season