Football NSW introduces inaugural heritage round
Date
June 6, 2015 - 3:15PM
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Dominic Bossi



On June 13, clubs will wear vintage jerseys and promote stories of the past when the likes of Marconi, Sydney United, Sydney Olympic and APIA Leichhardt Tigers reigned supreme in Australian football.

It will be the first time the competition acknowledges the history of some of the powerful National Soccer League clubs that now struggle in front of low crowds in the top-tier of state football.

Sydney United coach Mark Rudan remembers those days well and speaks fondly of a club that was part of his childhood. As a son of Croatian migrants, Sydney United – then known as Sydney Croatia – played a pivotal role in the assimilation of a new community to Australia.

"It was fun times, good times, I could not wait for the weekend. Sydney Croatia felt like home, it felt like I was part of something and part of the community," Rudan said.

It's the same story for former Sydney Olympic technical director Arthur Diles, whose childhood was spent following Pan Hellenic around the state almost every weekend. "We would load up the car with uncles, cousins, a couple of car loads and then go to games. On Sunday night we would come home and I couldn't wait until the game next week, that's how it was," Diles said.

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"It was a way of life. People came with nothing and had to start a new life. Olympic was beautiful because it was ours to grow and we lived it."

Marconi remains the equal most successful club in the history of Australian football, having won four national titles. Those days are well gone at Bossley Park as the famous Stallions who gave birth to the likes of Steve Corica, Paul Okon, Christian Vieri and Alex Brosque now languish at the bottom of the National Premier League's NSW Men's 1 table, but the history remains important.

"The club is synonymous with football and always has been. We're proud that we've done our part as pioneers with football in Australia and we're proud of how many Socceroos that we've produced and that memory lives on," Marconi president Vince Foti said.

The likes of Olympic and United continue to invest heavily in football despite the financial hardships such clubs endure. For Untied, there's a cyclical nature about those involved with the sons of some of the club's famous alumni of Zeljko Kalac, Ante Milicic and Tony Popovic all now playing in the youth teams.

Rudan jumped at the opportunity to return to his childhood club, one so loved that he was almost more proud to play for the United than debut for the Socceroos.

"It's respect rather than anything else knowing how much that club did for us and what that club meant to us that we want to in someway give back. We still hold true about being United and looking after each other. Growing up, it was a great place," Rudan said.

There was heavy investment beyond just the National Premier League's NSW Men's 1, such as Blacktown City Demons purchasing marquee players such as Kevin Keegan in 1985.

Of course, much has changed since these clubs founded the first national league in Australia and many have been forced to adopt less ethnic names. Sydney Croatia became Sydney United, Avala renamed Bonnyrigg White Eagles, Pan-Hellenic became Sydney Olympic, Associazione Poli-sportiva Italo Australiana are now APIA Leichhardt Tigers, while Llinden are Rockdale City Suns.

While those names won't return for the weekend, it's a start for their history to be acknowledged despite being out of sight and out of mind of the new mainstream of football.

Dress in the flags of the country you came from?

-PB