Australia Cup
Organising bodyAustralian Soccer Federation
Founded1962 (1962)
Abolished1968
RegionAustralia
Most successful club(s)Sydney Hakoah
(2 titles)

The Australia Cup was an annual knockout soccer competition in men's domestic Australian soccer. First played during the 1962 season, it is the first national soccer competition in Australia.

The inaugural season of the tournament was contested by biggest teams from Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Newcastle. In 1963 the Australia Cup grew to take in teams from throughout Tasmania, and from 1964 Perth and Canberra clubs were represented, giving the competition a truly national feel.

Played throughout football's first real boom period in the 1960s, the Australia Cup was a refreshing competition for the sport. Though as the tournament grew, interstate travel provided difficulties and the decision was taken to abolish the Australia Cup after the 1968 season. However, the new national stage in which the tournament provided fuelled an expansionist desire across the big state league clubs ultimately leading to the creation of Australia's first national league in the 1970s, the National Soccer League.

In its seven-season run, six clubs from around Australia won the tournament, with Sydney Hakoah the only team to win it on two occasions.[1]

History

The origins of the Australia Cup are stemmed from September 1961, when Henry Seamonds, chairman and Treasurer of the NSW Federation of Soccer Clubs, met with Victorian counterparts at a time when the Australian Soccer Football Association was suspended by FIFA. Seamonds put forward plans to not only form a new national governing body for the sport, but to also create a national knockout cup. The competition was ambitious, with clubs to be flown to Sydney for matches that were to be played over a five-week period starting later that year.[2] Although the tournament did not go ahead, in November of that year Seamonds summoned a meeting of all state representatives to Sydney. There the Australian Soccer Federation was formed with Seamonds made chairman, and in 1962 the Australia Cup was founded.[3]

Initially the competition was confined to clubs from New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland and South Australian, with the draw including 16 teams - four each from Victoria and the Sydney competition in New South Wales, three from South Australia and Queensland, and two from Northern New South Wales. The inaugural season of the Cup was won by Yugal who defeated St George Budapest 8–1 at Wentworth Park in the final. The third place playoff, between Juventus and Juventus (from Melbourne and Adelaide respectively), was won by the South Australian team on penalty kicks.[4]

The 1963 season saw four Tasmania teams taking part, with the big Sydney and Melbourne clubs entering the tournament in the second round. The final was contested by two Melbourne clubs, with Port Melbourne Slavia beating Polonia Melbourne 3–2 in a replay, after a scoreless draw. In the final, Des Palmer scored a hat-trick for the winners. Melbourne's George Cross went on to win in 1964 after downing APIA Leichhardt from Sydney by three goals to two in front of a 15,000 crowd at Olympic Park Stadium. Archie Campbell scored the winner in extra-time. The following year Sydney Hakoah beat APIA Leichhardt by the same score, but in 1966 APIA claimed the title against Hakoah.[4]

In the final of 1967, Melbourne Hungaria defeated APIA 4–3 at Olympic Park Stadium. Former Irish international and Manchester City player Bill Walsh was coach, and Australian international Attila Abonyi scored a hat-trick for the winning side.[4]

In what proved to be the final year of Australia Cup in 1968 Hakoah clubs of Melbourne and Sydney won through to the final, with the Sydneysiders triumphing over Melbourne Hakoah by six goals to one over two legs.[4][5]

The prize money for the first season of competition was A£5,000, claimed to be the richest football prize in the country. Fred Villiers, in the Victorian Soccer News wrote that the first competition was so successful the New South Wales rugby league administration had stolen the idea to promote their game. Yet the Australia Cup never proved to be a financial success. Supporters were more interested in domestic league competitions and visits by overseas touring sides than they were in interstate club competitions.[4] The tournament proved that a national cup competition could be staged, but also showed up many of the problems of such a concept. If strictly knock-out from the beginning it risked losing the big draw-cards early, while a seeded draw potentially reduced the attractiveness to smaller teams who might be faced with prohibitive travel costs if they succeeded in getting through early rounds.[6] Though the Cup was also an early indication that the focus of the game in the Australia was beginning to shift away from a state level towards a national and international level. In 1965 Australia attempted qualification for the FIFA World Cup for the first time, and just over a decade later the first national league in Australia of any of the football codes was established - the National Soccer League.[7]

Trophy

The Australia Cup trophy was a large silver traditional cup style trophy. It had two handles with a laurel wreath design on the underside and figures studded on the top of each handle. The trophy featured a football as a trim on the very top of the cup lid, and it was mounted on a wooden base which had silver plates attached with the names and years of Cup Champion inscribed. After the passing of founding Australian Soccer Federation Chairman, Henry Seamonds, in 1963, the name The Henry Seamonds Memorial Trophy was also inscribed on the trophy.[8]

The legacy of the Australia Cup trophy extends to the FFA Cup. Established in 2014 as the first national cup competition that encompasses clubs on all levels of the Australian league system, the design of the tournaments trophy was influenced by that of the historic Australia Cup trophy.[9]

The cup disappeared for decades, only to be discovered in a rubbish skip in 2011 by builders who were carrying out renovations at the Hakoah club in Sydney. FFA chairman Chris Nikou attended the Caroline Springs George Cross (formerly Sunshine GC) versus Preston Lions NPL game of August 2019, and left the trophy into the safe keeping of the George Cross administration.[10]

Results

Seasons Champion Score Runner-up Venue Ref
1962 Yugal 8–1 St George Budapest Wentworth Park, Sydney [11]
1963 Port Melbourne Slavia 0–0 (a.e.t.)
3–2 (a.e.t.) (replay)		 Polonia Melbourne Olympic Park Stadium, Melbourne [12]
1964 George Cross 3–2 (a.e.t.) APIA Leichhardt Olympic Park Stadium, Melbourne [13]
1965 Sydney Hakoah 1–1 (a.e.t.), 14–14 (p)[lower-alpha 1]
2–1 (replay)		 APIA Leichhardt Wentworth Park, Sydney
Sydney Showground, Sydney		 [15][16]
1966 APIA Leichhardt 2–0 Sydney Hakoah Wentworth Park, Sydney [17]
1967 Melbourne Hungaria 4–3 APIA Leichhardt Olympic Park Stadium, Melbourne [18]
1968 Sydney Hakoah 3–0
3–1		 Hakoah Melbourne Wentworth Park, Sydney (1st leg)
Middle Park, Melbourne (2nd leg)		 [19][20]

Records and statistics

Final

Teams

Individual

Notes

  1. ↑ penalty shootout abandoned in favour of a replay, due to diminishing light.[14]

References

  1. ↑ "Australia - List of Cup Winners". RSSSF. Archived from the original on 13 January 2010. Retrieved 12 January 2010.
  2. ↑ Hay, Roy. "Marmaras' Oyster or Seamonds' Baby: The Formation of the Victorian Soccer Federation" (PDF). Sporting Traditions. Australian Society for Sports History. 10 (2): 3–24. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 17 November 2014 – via LA84 Foundation.
  3. ↑ "Timeline of Australian Football". migrationheritage.nsw.gov.au. Archived from the original on 17 December 2014. Retrieved 17 November 2014.
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 Hay, Roy. "The Australia Cup". Goal! Weekly. Archived from the original on 30 October 2014. Retrieved 17 November 2014.
  5. ↑ "Hakoah - Sydney City Soccer Milestones". hakoah.com.au. Archived from the original on 27 March 2012. Retrieved 10 February 2015.
  6. ↑ Gorman, Joe (24 February 2014). "Will the FFA Cup help Australia's 'old soccer' clubs?". The Guardian. Retrieved 18 November 2014.
  7. ↑ Howe, Andrew. "FFA Cup a new old tradition". Football Federation Australia. Archived from the original on 12 July 2014. Retrieved 15 November 2014.
  8. ↑ "Australia Cup Found In Rubbish". OzFootball. 20 May 2011. Retrieved 15 November 2014.
  9. ↑ Bossi, Dominic. "FFA Cup: Minnows get a shot at A-League clubs". The Canberra Times. Retrieved 25 February 2014.
  10. ↑ Lynch, Michael (17 August 2019). "How an old trophy found a new home". The Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on 14 September 2019. Retrieved 8 April 2020.
  11. ↑ Smith, Terry (10 December 1962). "Crushing Yugal Victory Over Budapest In Australia Cup". The Sydney Morning Herald. p. 19. Retrieved 7 February 2022.
  12. ↑ Barr, Alex (4 November 1963). "Slavia Wins After Extra-Time Battle". The Age. p. 19. Retrieved 7 February 2022.
  13. ↑ "Apia Lose Fast, Rugged Australia Cup Final". The Sydney Morning Herald. 2 November 1964. p. 18. Retrieved 7 February 2022.
  14. ↑ Australia and its Cups: Then and Now. Roy Hay. Leopold Method. 25 November 2014. ISBN 9781921134470. Retrieved 24 April 2015.
  15. ↑ Wilkins, Phil (22 November 1965). "Sydney sides in 14-all Cup draw". The Sydney Morning Herald. p. 18. Retrieved 7 February 2022.
  16. ↑ Wilkins, Phil (25 November 1965). "Soccer cup to Hakoah". The Sydney Morning Herald. p. 20. Retrieved 7 February 2022.
  17. ↑ Clarkson, Alan (31 October 1966). "Apia takes Aust. Cup final 2 - 0". The Sydney Morning Herald. p. 19. Retrieved 7 February 2022.
  18. ↑ "Upset for Apia in Cup final". The Sydney Morning Herald. 30 October 1967. p. 14. Retrieved 7 February 2022.
  19. ↑ Basile, Vincent (2 November 1968). "Goals margin too great". The Age. p. 20. Retrieved 7 February 2022.
  20. ↑ Basile, Vincent (4 November 1968). "Sydney team wins Cup 6-1". The Age. p. 24. Retrieved 7 February 2022.
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