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 ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

Perth Glory Perth Glory Football Club is an Australian professional Association football, soccer club based in Perth, Perth, Western Australia. It competes in the country's premier men's competition, A-League Men, under Professional sports league organi ...

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, also known as the Isuzu UTE A-League for sponsorship reasons, is a professional soccer league in Australia and New Zealand and the highest level of the Australian soccer league system. Established in 2004 as the A-League by the ...

, 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 semi-professional soccer club based in Oakden, a north-eastern suburb of Adelaide. The club was a founding member of the now-defunct National Soccer League (NSL) and currently competes in the National Premier ...

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 men's soccer club located in Adelaide, South Australia, Australia. The club was one of the eight founding members of the A-League Men and have competed in it concurrently since its formation, u ...

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 ( ; ; (born 4 April 1974) is an Australian soccer manager and former professional player who currently is the head coach of the China women's national football team. Personal life The son of Croatian immigrants, Milicic grew up i ...

and

Sasho Petrovski Sasho Petrovski (, ''Sašo Petrovski'') (born 5 March 1975) is a former Australian football (soccer) player who last played for Bankstown City. Petrovski has two caps for the Australian national team. Petrovski was known in the A-League as one ...

, 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 professional association football, soccer player, who played as a forward (association football), forward. Mrdja had a career spanning several National Soccer League (NSL) and A ...

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.

Clubs

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) * U-21 Player of the Year:

Alex Brosque Alex Jason Brosque (; born 12 October 1983) is an Australian former professional soccer player who was the captain of A-League club Sydney FC. He played primarily as a striker but played predominantly as a midfielder in central midfield during ...

(

Marconi Stallions Marconi Stallions Football Club is an Australian semi-professional association football 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 Marc ...

) * Top Scorer(s):

( Parramatta Power – 20 goals)

References

External links

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

Aus Aus