1985 National Soccer League

The 1985 National Soccer League was the ninth season of the National Soccer League. The season was again played with two Conferences as separate leagues, followed by a conference playoff final. The Grand Final was won by Brunswick Juventus 2–0 on aggregate over Sydney City. The season began on 9 March 1985, and concluded on 8 September 1985.

National Soccer League

Season	1985
Dates	9 March – 8 September 1985
Champions	Brunswick Juventus 1st title
Premiers	Sydney City (Northern) South Melbourne (Southern)
Relegated	Penrith City
Matches played	276
Goals scored	769 (2.79 per match)
Top goalscorer	Charlie Egan (21 goals)
Biggest home win	Marconi Fairfield 6–0 Penrith City (28 July 1985)
Biggest away win	APIA Leichhardt 0–4 Sydney City (17 March 1985)
Highest scoring	Brunswick Juventus 5–4 Brisbane City (19 May 1985)
← 1984 1986 →

Teams

Twenty-four teams competed in the league (twelve in the Northern Conference and twelve in the Southern Conference) – the sixteen teams from the previous season and eight teams accepted from their respective state leagues.

Stadiums and locations

Note: Table lists in alphabetical order by conference.

Team	Location	Stadium	Capacity
Northern Conference
APIA Leichhardt	Sydney (Leichhardt)	Lambert Park	7,000
Blacktown City	Sydney (Seven Hills)	Gabbie Stadium	5,000
Canberra City	Canberra	Canberra Stadium	25,011
Inter Monaro	Queanbeyan	Seiffert Oval	15,000
Marconi Fairfield	Sydney (Bossley Park)	Marconi Stadium	9,000
Newcastle Rosebud United	Newcastle	Adamstown Oval	2,000
Penrith City	Penrith	Cook Park	1,000
St George-Budapest	Sydney (Mortdale)	St George Stadium	12,000
Sydney City	Sydney (Bondi)	ES Marks Athletics Field	8,000
Sydney Croatia	Sydney (Edensor Park)	King Tomislav Park	10,000
Sydney Olympic	Sydney (Waterloo)	Pratten Park	15,000
Wollongong City	Wollongong	Wollongong Showground	22,000
Southern Conference
Adelaide City	Adelaide (Kensington)	Olympic Sports Field	8,000
Brisbane City	Brisbane (Newmarket)	Spencer Park	5,000
Brisbane Lions	Brisbane (Inala)	Lions Stadium	5,000
Brunswick Juventus	Melbourne (Brunswick)	Olympic Park No. 2	6,000
Footscray JUST	Melbourne (Footscray)	Schintler Reserve	?
Green Gully	Melbourne (St Albans)	Green Gully Reserve	10,000
Heidelberg United	Melbourne (Brunswick)	Olympic Village	12,000
Melbourne Croatia	Melbourne (Essendon)	Olympic Park	18,500
Preston Makedonia	Melbourne (Fitzroy)	B.T. Connor Reserve	5,000
South Melbourne	Melbourne (Middle Park)	Middle Park	18,000
Sunshine George Cross	Melbourne (City of Melbourne)	Chaplin Reserve	5,000
West Adelaide	Adelaide (City of Adelaide)	Hindmarsh Stadium	16,500

Head coach changes

The Australian Soccer Annual 1985 reported seven managerial changes.^[1]

Team	Outgoing head coach	Date of vacancy	Position in the table	Incoming head coach	Date of appointment
Adelaide City	Frank Pimblett	1985	Pre-season	Tony Lowndes	1985
Brunswick Juventus	John Margaritis			Tommy Traynor
Inter Monaro	—			Josef Procop
Melbourne Croatia	Tony Vrzina			Tommy Cumming
Preston Makedonia	Frank McAleer			Willie Murray
Sunshine George Cross	Billy Wilkinson			John Gardiner
West Adelaide	Sam Salabsides			Neil McGachey

Regular season

League tables

Northern Conference

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Sydney City	22	15	5	2	42	19	+23	35	Qualification to Finals series
2	Sydney Croatia	22	14	5	3	50	22	+28	33
3	Marconi Fairfield	22	11	7	4	44	23	+21	29
4	Sydney Olympic	22	12	3	7	29	25	+4	27
5	St George-Budapest	22	7	8	7	31	26	+5	22
6	Canberra City	22	8	6	8	33	35	−2	22
7	Inter Monaro	22	7	6	9	29	37	−8	20
8	Blacktown City	22	7	4	11	30	34	−4	18
9	APIA Leichhardt	22	7	2	13	20	34	−14	16
10	Wollongong City	22	5	6	11	29	46	−17	16
11	Penrith City (R)	22	4	6	12	24	35	−11	14	Relegation to the 1986 NSW State League
12	Newcastle Rosebud United	22	4	4	14	20	45	−25	12

Source: rsssf.com
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored.
(R) Relegated

Southern Conference

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	South Melbourne	22	14	5	3	39	21	+18	33	Qualification to Finals series
2	Brunswick Juventus (C)	22	11	7	4	33	19	+14	29
3	Heidelberg United	22	10	7	5	29	17	+12	27
4	Melbourne Croatia	22	9	6	7	29	21	+8	24
5	Preston Makedonia	22	9	6	7	30	28	+2	24
6	Sunshine George Cross	22	8	7	7	25	22	+3	23
7	Brisbane Lions	22	9	4	9	29	29	0	22
8	Green Gully	22	6	6	10	24	29	−5	18
9	Adelaide City	22	6	6	10	29	35	−6	18
10	West Adelaide	22	6	5	11	24	37	−13	17
11	Brisbane City	22	6	5	11	25	42	−17	17
12	Footscray JUST	22	5	2	15	25	41	−16	12

Updated to match(es) played on unknown. Source: rsssf.com
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) goal difference; 3) number of goals scored.
(C) Champions

Results

Northern Conference

Home \ Away	API	BLA	CAN	INT	MAR	NRU	PEN	STG	SCI	SCR	SOL	WOL
APIA Leichhardt	—	0–3	0–1	0–1	4–1	1–0	1–0	1–4	0–4	1–3	1–2	4–2
Blacktown City	1–1	—	2–3	1–0	0–2	4–0	1–1	0–3	1–2	1–1	1–0	3–0
Canberra City	0–0	3–2	—	1–2	1–1	3–1	2–2	0–1	1–3	2–4	1–3	1–1
Inter Monaro	0–3	2–1	0–3	—	1–0	1–2	3–1	1–1	2–3	1–1	3–1	1–1
Marconi Fairfield	0–0	2–1	4–1	4–1	—	2–2	6–0	1–0	0–0	0–2	0–0	6–1
Newcastle Rosebud United	2–1	0–3	2–2	1–0	0–2	—	1–1	3–4	1–1	1–2	0–1	1–3
Penrith City	0–1	0–1	1–2	3–4	1–3	4–1	—	0–0	1–2	0–1	0–1	3–0
St George-Budapest	2–0	1–1	1–1	1–1	0–1	3–0	3–2	—	0–1	1–3	0–1	1–1
Sydney City	2–0	3–1	4–2	2–2	1–1	2–0	0–1	1–0	—	2–0	2–1	5–2
Sydney Croatia	3–0	4–0	1–0	2–0	3–3	2–0	2–2	2–2	2–0	—	5–0	5–1
Sydney Olympic	2–1	3–2	0–1	1–1	2–2	2–0	0–1	3–1	0–1	3–1	—	2–0
Wollongong City	1–0	3–0	0–2	4–2	2–3	1–2	0–0	2–2	1–1	2–1	1–2	—

Source: OzFootball
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
For upcoming matches, an "a" indicates there is an article about the rivalry between the two participants.

Southern Conference

Home \ Away	ADE	BRC	BRL	BRU	FOO	GRE	HEI	MEL	PRE	SOU	SGC	WES
Adelaide City	—	1–1	1–1	2–1	2–1	1–1	0–1	3–0	1–2	2–2	1–1	4–1
Brisbane City	2–1	—	0–2	0–0	3–2	3–0	0–3	1–1	0–0	2–1	0–1	0–0
Brisbane Lions	3–0	3–0	—	0–0	1–0	3–1	1–2	0–1	1–2	1–1	1–0	1–0
Brunswick Juventus	3–1	5–4	2–1	—	3–2	1–0	2–0	1–1	2–0	2–2	3–0	0–1
Footscray JUST	1–0	1–3	1–2	1–1	—	1–0	3–3	0–2	1–2	0–1	0–3	2–1
Green Gully	2–3	4–1	2–0	0–2	2–1	—	1–1	0–0	1–1	0–1	1–1	1–1
Heidelberg United	0–0	2–0	2–0	1–0	4–0	1–3	—	0–1	0–0	0–1	1–1	1–0
Melbourne Croatia	3–0	4–1	2–3	0–1	0–1	0–2	1–2	—	2–0	1–1	1–1	0–0
Preston Makedonia	4–2	3–0	4–0	0–0	2–0	0–1	1–4	3–2	—	0–1	2–1	1–1
South Melbourne	2–1	4–1	0–0	1–3	3–1	3–2	1–0	1–2	3–0	—	2–1	4–2
Sunshine George Cross	1–2	3–0	3–2	0–0	2–1	2–0	0–0	0–2	2–2	0–1	—	1–0
West Adelaide	2–1	1–3	5–3	2–1	1–5	2–0	1–1	0–3	3–1	0–3	0–1	—

Source: OzFootball
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.
For upcoming matches, an "a" indicates there is an article about the rivalry between the two participants.

Finals series

Northern Conference

	Elimination and qualifying Finals					Semi-finals					Preliminary Final					Northern Final
						1	Sydney City	1								1	Sydney City	2
						2	Sydney Croatia	0								3	Marconi Fairfield	0
	2	Sydney Croatia	2								2	Sydney Croatia	0
	3	Marconi Fairfield	1								3	Marconi Fairfield	1
						3	Marconi Fairfield	3 (7)
						4	Sydney Olympic	3 (6)
	4	Sydney Olympic	1
	5	St George-Budapest	0

Southern Conference

	Elimination and qualifying Finals					Semi-finals					Preliminary Final					Southern Final
						1	South Melbourne	0								2	Brunswick Juventus	2
						2	Brunswick Juventus	1								5	Preston Makedonia	1
	2	Brunswick Juventus	2								1	South Melbourne	4 (4)
	3	Heidelberg United	0								5	Preston Makedonia	4 (5)
						3	Heidelberg United	0
						5	Preston Makedonia	2
	4	Melbourne Croatia	1
	5	Preston Makedonia	2

Grand Final

Sydney City	0 – 1	Brunswick Juventus
		Incantalupo 38'

First Leg
4 September 1985

St George Stadium, Sydney

Attendance: 2,491

Referee: Peter Rampley

---

Brunswick Juventus	1 – 0	Sydney City
Incantalupo 41'

Second Leg
8 September 1985

Olympic Park Stadium, Melbourne

Attendance: 7,560

Referee: Don Campbell

• Brunswick Juventus win 2–0 on aggregate

Individual awards

Award	Winner	Club
National Soccer League Player of the Year	Graham Honeyman	West Adelaide
National Soccer League Under 21 Player of the Year	Alan Hunter	Brisbane Lions
National Soccer League Coach of the Year	Eddie Thomson	Sydney City

References

1. Australian Soccer Annual 1985 – Seven coaching changes for 1985. Soccer Action. p. 7.

• OzFootball Archives - 1985 NSL Season