The NSL had been the premier Australian football competition for 27 years, although it never gained mainstream acceptance. Clubs came and left, the format was tinkered with time and time again and ethnic tensions made it difficult for the league to establish itself as a competition for all Australians to enjoy, as it so desperately wanted.  The continuity of clubs was never certain.  Teams such as Mooroolbark, Collingwood Warriors and Canterbury-Marrickvale lasted no more than two seasons, while Blacktown City was in and out of the league three times in one decade.

The format of the league was also never settled.

In the beginning, a finals series was played but teams gained more pride from winning the league, so the series was scrapped after seven years. In 1984, a conference system was introduced which saw the competition split into two groups. Teams from New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory played in the Northern Conference while teams from Victoria, South Australia and, interestingly, Queensland were grouped into the Southern Conference. The winners of each conference would play off in a two-legged final at the end of the season. This system proved to be unpopular and after two seasons the league became a single division competition again.

In 1990, the league changed from a winter to summer schedule to avoid competition with the other football codes.

Dwight Yorke celebrates, after his Sydney FC win the first A-League Grand Final and hoist perhaps the most unusual trophy in football.

This change also prompted the then governing body, Soccer Australia, to attempt to remove ethnic ties to clubs, which frequently led to tension and drove neutral fans away from games. Ethnic flags were banned from games while clubs changed their names and logos to become more fan friendly.  New clubs were introduced with hopes of spicing up the competition, however, most of them failed to make an impact. The only club that was a hit was the Perth Glory, who won the final two NSL championships and was eventually accepted into the A-League. This neutering of cultural identities was the NSL’s last shot at entering the Australian sporting mainstream

In 2004, after staggering on weak legs for some time, the NSL finally collapsed.  When Seven Network decided not to renew its broadcasting deal with the league, the remainder of its sponsors soon followed suit.  The league’s failure prompted a major overhaul of the Australian football system.

Soccer Australia was replaced by the Football Federation Australia (FFA), in an effort to make the game familiar as football rather than soccer.  The A-League was developed as the new national competition, promising to be a competition that anyone could enjoy. Eight teams lined up for the first season in 2005, including Perth Glory and Adelaide United, the only teams unchanged from their NSL existence. The Newcastle Jets and  Brisbane Roar were born out of the old Newcastle United and Brisbane Lions NSL sides, respectively, while Melbourne Victory, Sydney FC, New Zealand Knights and Central Coast Mariners were all new clubs.

The format of the league was, and still is, nothing like your traditional European football league. Teams play each other three times over the season. In the current 11 team competition, six teams make the finals series. The top two teams clash in a two-legged play off with the winner going straight to the Grand Final as hosts, not just in name but on their own ground. The other four teams play knockout football until one team remains. That team faces the loser from the top two, with the winner going to the Grand Final.  Still with me?  Maybe the graphic, below, of last year’s play-off will help.

This format means any of the six teams can become the eventual champion, though no team from outside the top two has yet managed to go all the way.

Sydney FC won the inaugural title with help from Dwight Yorke, formerly of Manchester United fame, who topped the goal scoring charts. Crowds were decent and the competition was healthy, with none of the ethnic tensions that had crippled the NSL.  The trophy, a uniquely shaped ring, which is a hybrid of the traditional cups and shields found in other leagues, was the victor in an intensely competitive contest, held by the FFA, to design the A-League’s championship prize.  D3 Design, the firm which produced the winning entry, was inspired by the laurel wreath originally awarded to ancient Olympic champions.

Season two saw a boost in crowd numbers, thanks largely to the Socceroos qualification for the 2006 World Cup in Germany, the nation’s first real achievement in the sport in over 30 years.  The sophomore campaign also saw the A-League gain its first major TV rights deal, pay TV company Fox Sports signed a $120 million/7 year deal.  It was a controversial move for a fledgling league looking to crack an established market, considering that the PPV set-up would only provide viewing access to proven fans already sold on the product.

Robbie Fowler has made an impact in the A-League but backroom issues have hindered his rising to the heights which Dwight Yorke reached with Sydney.

In the ensuing years, the A-League has seen one club fail, the New Zealand Knights, while the Wellington Phoenix, North Queensland Fury, Gold Coast United and Melbourne Heart have all joined the competition. The addition of the Heart has made football much more popular in Melbourne thanks to the Heart-Victory derby, while Queensland’s three teams have also attracted large turn-outs on derby days.

Robbie Fowler has become the biggest name to venture to Australia, originally playing for North Queensland before moving to Perth to play for the Glory. Other big name players who have joined Australian clubs include Dwight Yorke, Francis Jeffers and the well-travelled Scotsman, Charlie Miller.

In recent years, falling crowds have led to financial troubles for some clubs.  That and the failed Australian World Cup bid have threatened to undo the FFA’s hard work in setting up a top class Australian league. Despite the empty seats and backroom difficulties, the competition on the pitch remains top-notch, with the current 2010/11 season shaping up as the most exciting in the A-League’s short history.

If the FFA is able to secure the future of competition, ensuring no more clubs go out of business and boosting crowd figures, then the Hyundai A-League may one day grow into the most watched competition in the country. Hopefully, we will be able to entice some of our top internationals, like Tim Cahill, Harry Kewell and Mark Schwarzer into coming home while they still have some matches in them, possibly bringing a few top foreign players with them, to try their hand in a truly unique football league.

Sure it started well. Pierre Litbarski had them working well and with the touch of Dwight Yorke class in the middle it was a romp to the inaugural title. It was fun. But how things changed. The Terry Butcher years, John Kosmina, Branko Culina, all promising so much.

But the problem… oh the problem. Players were scouted. They were seen performing well for other A-league teams, teams with a work ethic and organisation. They were purchased. They were shoved on  the pitch and they were left to get on with it. Excellent cogs in well run machines were being dumped in a bucket and asked to tell the time. It didn’t work, it couldn’t work. Until now.

Because  Vítězslav Lavička has come in and turned them in to a team, a team moreover that it more than the sum of its parts, that has a game plan, that uses it’s player to their abilities and, most of all, a team that does not feature John Aloisi. The A-league’s highest paid player gets left on the bench to stew, given a late cameo when the games stretched, a simple and effective indictment of his ability to play as part of this team.

Instead Alex Brosque and Mark Bridge have formed a devastating partnership up front. Brosque is slighter, but he is faster, and Bridge, no slouch, has that extra burst of pace aligned with his more muscular and powerful build.  Given an extended run up front this season they’ve produced some dazzling performances. True, Brosque should score a few more goals, and likewise Bridge should set more up but on current form they’re the most lethal double act going, and both these players having been bought from other A-league franchises, poorly used and both in danger of seeing their natural talents squandered.

A good example was against Wellington Phoenix last weekend. The Phoenix had, in their previous game, thrashed the stuffing out of Gold Coast Utd 6-0 and have, since, comfortably beaten the Newcastle Jets2-0 but in Sydney they were never in the game. First the Sydney front two combined with a neat one-two to set Bridge free and plant a powerful shot just inside the far post with venom. Next up Brosque just refused to give up the ball in the opposition area before finding some space to fizz a favoured left foot shot low at goal which the keeper could only parry before Steve Corica tapped it away and, saving the best for last, Brosque ran half the length of the pitch before delivering the ball in low for Bridge to sweep in to the net. Game over.

There was a scare when Wellington won a dubious penalty but justice was served when it was ordered retaken for encroachment and Clint Bolton got down easily to scoop up the second attempt. Sydney are back. Enjoyable to watch, enthusiastic, looking like they’re enjoying their football and even space in the team for fan favourite and foundation player Terry McFlynn of whom it was announced this week that he’d signed a contract extension keeping his at the club till the end of the 2012/13 season.

Sydney sit atop the table, 1 clear of Melbourne Victory and 5 of Gold Coast, who they face next at Skilled Park. A win will keep them top but also send out quite a message, since it would mark victory over every opponent they’ve thus far faced, and should they follow it up the following week against Perth Glory it will mean a win against every other team in the league. That may be no great achievement, and there’s  sure to be losses to come, but knowing that on your day your team can beat anyone has got to be good for the confidence and with an ethic, a tactic and a well balanced team, that top spot is theirs to lose.

Having moved to Australia just in time to get a season pass to the inaugural season I was treated to a deep lying Dwight Yorke dictating the play for Sydney as they romped to the title under world-cup winner Pierre Littbarski’s management, as the rest of the league struggled to find marquee players of note or a tactical system as rigidly enforced.

With the loss of Yorke, who returned to Sunderland, there were the odd interlopers, Juninho and Romario to name two, but the league was struggling under the fact that in such a small competition it seemed like pretty much any one could lose to anyone on their day and it was hard to imagine any huge talents coming in to the game. Mark Bosnich coming out of retirement to stand between the sticks for the Mariner was notable, but mainly for the schadenfraude prospects.

Partly this is because the salary cap system controls club finances and introduces an upper limit on the skills importable, and partly because the standard, throughout, was simply not that high. This season that’s changed. Things have, without a doubt, got better and it’s looking like now, anyone could beat anyone else and, increasingly, through beautiful goals.

The New Zealand Knights in their time were lamentably bad but Wellington Phoenix most certainly give a good account of themselves and New Zealand. The two new teams have invigorated the league by introducing more competition for the top places, more quality plays in the league and a playing schedule that’s less repetitive.

Admittedly, there’s been a few coups like Fowler and Jason Culina bringing their skills to the league, but more that that, the general level has improved considerably. Last year we saw a youth league and a woman’s league playing concurrent to the A-league with players from the former now breaking through to the first teams.

This means that within two seasons we’ve gone from a situation of players being sourced either from regional clubs (a big leap up) or from overseas to the nurturing of in house talent which can, of course, be custom trained to the necessities of the A-league, which remains a physical league.

So yes, the crowds are down a bit, but once the oval ball seasons are out of the way I’d expect that to change. More to the point, the A-league is beginning to make it in to the public consciousness as the media pick up on it and start running with it further and further up the news agenda. Last weekend’s clash between the Fury and Sydney was widely billed as Aloisi vs God and God, of course, won in the end, but the fact that an A-League match could produce such a headline, or such hyperbole, is a sign of how far it’s come.

Next season will see two new teams with one, based in Western Sydney, touted as being the jewel in the A-league crown even though the complicated bidding process saw a Lucas Neill backed bid fall apart following the murderer of a notorious business man. With no name, players or backroom staff yet in place, the new conglomerate creating this franchise will none-the-less be well placed to bring in some good names to what is one of Australia’s football heartlands if this season, and this league, continue to improve at this pace.