The 2003–04 National Soccer League season was the 28th and final season of the

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 ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

Perth Glory Perth Glory Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Perth, Western Australia. It competes in the country's premier men's competition, A-League Men, under licence from Australian Professional Leagues. Founded in 19 ...

were crowned both premiers and champions after winning both the league and grand final.

Overview

The season was remembered as the end of an era for the national league, following the announcement in 2003 that the national competition would be wholly scrapped in response to the Crawford Report into soccer in Australia. The end of the NSL led to the formation of the

A-League A-League Men (known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons) is the highest-level professional men's soccer league in Australia and New Zealand. At the top of the Australian league system, it is the country's premier men's competiti ...

, a new national competition that began in 2005. The season was played as a single league, home-and-away format with top six teams qualifying for a finals series.

Adelaide City Adelaide City Football Club is a soccer club based in Adelaide, South Australia. The club was known historically as Juventus — the original name given to the club by its founders in Adelaide's Italian community. Adelaide City is one of Aust ...

withdrew from the competition shortly before the start of the season, leading to the hasty formation of

Adelaide United Adelaide United Football Club is a professional Association Football, soccer club based in Adelaide, South Australia, Australia. The club participates in the A-League Men under North American professional sports league organization#Systems ar ...

to take their place. At the beginning of the season, it became obvious that the title would be fought between Perth Glory and Parramatta Power. The Champions Glory lost several of their title-winning squad, most notably their dominant midfield, most of whom to the Power. Parramatta, backed by the Leagues Club, bought big for the last year including notably

Ante Milicic Ante Milicic ( ; hr, Ante Miličić ; (born 4 April 1974) is an Australian soccer manager and former professional player. Personal life The son of Croatian immigrants, Milicic grew up in Strathfield, a suburb in the Inner West of Sydney. Mi ...

and

Sasho Petrovski Sasho Petrovski ( mk, Сашо Петровски, ''Sašo Petrovski'') (born 5 March 1975) is an Australian football (soccer) player who plays for South Coast Wolves. Petrovski has two caps for the Australian national team. Petrovski was know ...

, looking to simply buy the title. This tactic seemed to be working for a large part of the season, as Power held off major challengers Perth, including a memorable 6–0 hiding, Glory's worst-ever loss. However, a turning point came and Perth began to close the gap both in results and performance terms, and won the Premiership by 6 points in the end. Neither of these sides were ever really matched by other sides during the season. Perhaps the surprise of the season was

, who surprised all by making the finals and nearly breaking Perth's all-time average season record attendance in the process, with the biggest crowds of the season. This was most notable as the club was thrown together just a few weeks before the season to take the place of former heavyweight

. In the finals series, notably Perth were comprehensively beaten in both legs of the major semi-final, while Adelaide progressed to the minor semi-final in their first ever season, only to be thrashed by Glory, just highlighting the gap between the top two sides and the rest of the league. The last ever NSL Grand Final was held at Parramatta Stadium, due to Power winning the major semi-final. The Final was attended by a very measly crowd of just over 9,000, and played in thick rain from kick-off. Power's slick passing game was somewhat hurt by the poor conditions, and the game turned into something of a scrap. No goals were scored in 90 minutes of football, so the game went to extra-time where young Glory striker

Nik Mrdja Nikola "Nik" Mrdja (born 30 November 1978) is an Australian former soccer player, who played as a striker. Mrdja had a career spanning several National Soccer League (NSL) and A-League clubs from 1998 to 2011, as well as a brief spell in Swede ...

slotted to give Glory their fifth National League title and second NSL Championship, while Power finished the season with nothing to show for their quality and dominance.

Regular season

League table

Home and away season

Round 1

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Round 2

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Round 3

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Round 4

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Round 5

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Round 6

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Round 7

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Round 8

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Round 9

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Round 10

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Round 11

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Round 12

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Round 13

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Round 14

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Round 15

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Round 16

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Round 17

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Round 18

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Round 19

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Round 20

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Round 21

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Round 22

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Round 23

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Round 24

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Round 25

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Round 26

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Finals

Bracket

Elimination Final 1 (3rd v 6th)

---- ---- *''Adelaide United progress on away goals rule (4–4 on aggregate)''

Elimination Final 2 (4th v 5th)

---- ---- *''South Melbourne progress 2–0 on aggregate''

Major semi Final (1st v 2nd)

---- ---- *''Parramatta Power progress 6–2 on aggregate''

Minor semi Final

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Preliminary Final

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Grand Final

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Individual awards

Johnny Warren Medal The Johnny Warren Medal is awarded to the best player of the Australian national soccer club competition. It was first awarded in the National Soccer League in 1990, and upon the NSL's demise in November 2004, was carried forward into the new na ...

(Player of the Year):

(

Parramatta Power Parramatta Power Soccer Club were a professional association football club who were based in the Western Sydney city of Parramatta. They played in the National Soccer League from season 1999-00 until the league folded in 2004. The Power were ...

) * U-21 Player of the Year: Alex Brosque (

Marconi Stallions Marconi Stallions Football Club is an Australian semi-professional soccer club based in Fairfield, Sydney, New South Wales. The club has been crowned Australian champion four times. The Stallions are the soccer team of Club Marconi, a social ...

) * Top Scorer(s):

(

– 20 goals)

References

External links

OzFootball Archives - 2003–04 NSL Season
{{DEFAULTSORT:2003-04 National Soccer League National Soccer League (Australia) seasons 1 1 Aus Aus