National Soccer League
Season1987
Dates27 March – 1 November 1987
ChampionsAPIA Leichhardt
1st title
RelegatedHeidelberg United
Matches played162
Goals scored391 (2.41 per match)
Top goalscorerFrank Farina
(18 goals)
Biggest home winSydney Croatia 6–1 Melbourne Croatia
(29 March 1987)
Biggest away winSydney Croatia 0–5 Marconi Fairfield
(11 October 1987)
Highest scoringHeidelberg United 6–2 Sunshine George Cross
(10 May 1987)
Highest attendance9,000
Heidelberg United 1–1 South Melbourne
(24 May 1987)
Lowest attendance400
Brunswick Juventus 0–1 Adelaide City
(27 September 1987)
Total attendance500,763
Average attendance3,091
← 1986
1988 →

The 1987 National Soccer League season was the 11th season of the National Soccer League, the former top Australian professional league for association football clubs since its establishment in 1977. The season saw the format returned to a single league of fourteen teams instead of the two-conference system. Sydney City SC withdrew from the competition after round 1, reducing the competition to 13 teams. The finals series for the Championship was also removed and replaced with the standard non-Championship defining play-offs with the actual Championship determined by a first past the post, won by APIA Leichhardt.

Teams

Note: Table lists in alphabetical order.
Team Location Stadium(s) Capacity
Adelaide City Adelaide Hindmarsh Stadium
Olympic Sports Field		 16,500
8,000
APIA Leichhardt Sydney (Leichhardt) Lambert Park
Belmore Oval		 7,000
19,000
Brunswick Juventus Melbourne (Brunswick East) Olympic Village
Olympic Park		 12,000
18,500
Footscray JUST Melbourne (Footscray) Schintler Reserve ?
Heidelberg United Melbourne (Heidelberg West) Olympic Village
Deakin Reserve		 12,000
10,000
Marconi Fairfield Sydney (Fairfield) Marconi Stadium 9,000
Melbourne Croatia Melbourne (Sunshine North) Olympic Park 12,000
Preston Makedonia Melbourne (Preston) B.T. Connor Reserve 8,000
South Melbourne Melbourne (Albert Park) Middle Park
Olympic Park		 18,000
12,000
St George-Budapest Sydney (Albert Park) St George Stadium 12,000
Sunshine George Cross Melbourne (Fraser Rise) Chaplin Reserve 5,000
Sydney Croatia Sydney (Edensor Park) Croatian Sports Centre 12,000
Sydney Olympic Sydney (Belmore) St George Stadium
King Tomislav Park		 12,000

Regular season

League table

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts Qualification or relegation
1 APIA Leichhardt (C) 24 13 9 2 39 21 +18 35 Qualification for the Finals series
2 Preston Makedonia 24 11 7 6 32 22 +10 29
3 St George-Budapest 24 12 5 7 31 24 +7 29
4 Marconi Fairfield 24 11 5 8 41 25 +16 27
5 Sydney Croatia 24 10 6 8 31 25 +6 26
6 South Melbourne 24 9 7 8 32 34 −2 25
7 Sydney Olympic 24 7 9 8 29 32 −3 23
8 Brunswick Juventus 24 9 5 10 18 23 −5 23
9 Melbourne Croatia 24 9 5 10 22 30 −8 23
10 Adelaide City 24 6 10 8 29 23 +6 22
11 Footscray JUST 24 7 8 9 17 27 −10 22
12 Sunshine George Cross 24 3 9 12 26 42 −16 15
13 Heidelberg United (R) 24 3 7 14 25 44 −19 13 Relegation to the Victorian State League
14 Sydney City 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Withdrew
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; (R) Relegated

Results

Home \ Away ADE API BRU FOO HEI MAR MEL PRE SOU STG SGC SCR SOL
Adelaide City — 0–1 4–0 0–0 4–1 1–2 3–0 0–0 0–1 0–1 1–1 0–0 2–2
APIA Leichhardt 2–2 — 1–0 3–1 1–1 1–1 3–0 2–0 4–0 0–0 3–1 1–2 2–1
Brunswick Juventus 0–1 1–1 — 0–0 3–1 2–1 0–1 1–1 3–1 1–0 1–0 0–0 1–0
Footscray JUST 2–2 0–0 0–1 — 1–0 0–2 0–0 0–0 1–2 0–2 1–1 0–0 1–0
Heidelberg United 1–1 2–2 0–1 0–3 — 1–5 1–3 0–1 1–1 1–2 6–2 0–2 3–1
Marconi Fairfield 1–1 0–2 2–0 4–0 1–0 — 0–1 0–1 0–2 2–0 3–3 0–1 1–1
Melbourne Croatia 0–3 0–1 2–0 0–1 1–0 1–0 — 0–2 0–2 1–1 1–1 3–1 1–1
Preston Makedonia 2–1 4–0 0–0 3–0 1–2 2–3 1–0 — 2–1 2–0 0–2 1–2 1–1
South Melbourne 1–0 1–1 1–0 1–2 1–1 0–2 2–1 2–2 — 2–1 3–0 1–1 2–2
St George-Budapest 1–0 1–3 4–1 1–0 1–1 1–2 0–2 3–0 3–2 — 2–1 2–1 2–0
Sunshine George Cross 0–0 2–3 0–2 1–2 1–1 2–2 0–2 0–1 3–0 2–2 — 0–0 2–1
Sydney Croatia 2–3 0–1 1–0 0–2 2–0 0–5 6–1 1–1 2–0 0–1 3–1 — 0–1
Sydney Olympic 1–0 1–1 1–0 3–0 3–1 2–1 1–1 1–4 2–2 0–0 2–0 1–4 —
Source: OzFootball.net
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Finals series

A top five Finals series was played at the end of the regular season. The Finals series was not considered the Championship for this season.

Preliminary semi-final

18 October 1987 Preston Makedonia 1–2 St George-Budapest Sydney
  • Slifkas 66'
 Report
Stadium: St George Stadium
Attendance: 3,964
Referee: Jim Reeves

Elimination semi-final

21 October 1987 Marconi Fairfield 3–2 (a.e.t.) Sydney Croatia Sydney
 Report
Stadium: St George Stadium
Attendance: 4,500
Referee: Chris Bambridge

Minor semi-final

25 October 1987 Preston Makedonia 2–2 (a.e.t.)
(5–3 p)		 Marconi Fairfield Melbourne
  • Smith 30'
  • Dimovski 56'
 Report
Stadium: Olympic Park
Attendance: 2,700
Referee: Rob Davies

Major semi-final

25 October 1987 APIA Leichhardt 1–2 St George Sydney
  • Phillips 77'
 Report
  • Moffitt 16'
  • Fletcher 85'
 Stadium: St George Stadium
Attendance: 3,400
Referee: Dennis Voutsianis

Preliminary Final

28 October 1987 APIA Leichhardt 0–0 (a.e.t.)
(3–1 p)		 Preston Makedonia Melbourne
Report Stadium: Olympic Park
Attendance: 2,700
Referee: Don Campbell

Grand Final

St George-Budapest4–0APIA Leichhardt
 Report
Attendance: 6,961

Season statistics

Top scorers

Rank Player Club Goals[1]
1 Australia Frank Farina Marconi Fairfield 16
2 Australia Rod Brown APIA Leichhardt 14
3 England Paul Lewis Melbourne Croatia 10
Australia Steve Smith Preston Makedonia
5 Australia Joe Mullen Adelaide City 9
Australia Robbie Slater Sydney Croatia
Australia Charlie Villani Adelaide City
8 Scotland Ron Campbell Preston Makedonia 8
Australia John Markovski Sunshine George Cross
Australia Paul Wade South Melbourne

Hat-tricks

PlayerForAgainstResultDate
Australia Robbie Slater Sydney Croatia Melbourne Croatia 6–1 (H) 29 March 1987
Scotland Frank McGrellis Brunswick Juventus Heidelberg United 3–1 (H) 5 July 1987
Australia Paul Trimboli Sunshine George Cross South Melbourne 3–0 (H) 19 July 1987
Australia Frank Farina Marconi Fairfield Heidelberg United 5–1 (A) 9 August 1987
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Goce Dimovski Preston Makedonia APIA Leichhardt 4–0 (H) 13 September 1987
Australia Frank Farina Marconi Fairfield Sydney Croatia 5–0 (A) 11 October 1987

Awards

Award Winner Club
Referee's Player of the Year Australia Andrew Zinni Brunswick Juventus
Player's Player of the Year Australia Frank Farina Marconi Fairfield
U-21 Player of the Year Australia John Markovski Sunshine George Cross
Coach of the Year Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Rale Rasic APIA Leichhardt

References

  1. ↑ Stock, Greg. "1987 National Soccer League Top Goalscorers". OzFootball.net.
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