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National Soccer League
Season	1980
Dates	9 March – 28 September 1980
Champions	Sydney City; 2nd National Soccer League title
Relegated	St George-Budapest
Matches played	182
Goals scored	513 (2.82 per match)
Top goalscorer	Gary Cole (21 goals)
Biggest home win	Marconi Fairfield 9–0 Blacktown City; (16 March 1980)
Biggest away win	APIA Leichhardt 0–5 Heidelberg United; (17 June 1979)
Highest scoring	Marconi Fairfield 9–0 Blacktown City; (16 March 1980)
Longest winning run	5 matches; Heidelberg United; Marconi Fairfield; Sydney City
Longest unbeaten run	10 matches; Marconi Fairfield
Longest winless run	14 matches; Brisbane Lions
Longest losing run	5 matches; Blacktown City; West Adelaide
Highest attendance	15,000; Heielberg United 1–2 South Melbourne; (6 July 1980)
Lowest attendance	800; Footscray JUST 0–1 Canberra City; (28 June 1980)
Total attendance	670,068
Average attendance	3,682
	← 1979 1981 →

The 1980 National Soccer League season was the fourth season of the National Soccer League in Australia. The champions were Sydney City SC, their second title after winning the 1977 season (as Eastern Suburbs).

Teams

Fourteen teams competed in the league.

Stadiums and locations

Note: Table lists in alphabetical order.

Team	Location	Stadium	Capacity
Adelaide City	Adelaide (Norwood)	Olympic Sports Field	8,000
APIA Leichhardt	Sydney (Leichhardt)	Lambert Park	7,000
Blacktown City	Sydney (Seven Hills)	Gabbie Stadium	5,000
Brisbane City	Brisbane (Newmarket)	Spencer Park	5,000
Brisbane Lions	Brisbane (Inala)	Lions Stadium	5,000
Canberra City	Canberra	Canberra Stadium	25,011
Footscray JUST	Melbourne (Footscray)	Schintler Reserve	?
Heidelberg United	Melbourne (Brunswick)	Olympic Village	12,000
Marconi Fairfield	Sydney (Bossley Park)	Marconi Stadium	9,000
Newcastle KB United	Newcastle	Newcastle International Sports Centre	30,000
South Melbourne	Melbourne (Middle Park)	Middle Park	18,000
St George-Budapest	Sydney (Mortdale)	St George Stadium	12,000
Sydney City	Sydney (Bondi)	ES Marks Athletics Field	8,000
West Adelaide	Adelaide (City of Adelaide)	Hindmarsh Stadium	16,500

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification or relegation
1	Sydney City (C)	26	16	5	5	51	26	+25	37	Qualification to Finals series^[a]
2	Heidelberg United	26	15	6	5	55	33	+22	36
3	South Melbourne	26	15	5	6	42	21	+21	35
4	Marconi Fairfield	26	14	6	6	53	32	+21	34
5	Adelaide City	26	13	4	9	40	27	+13	30
6	Newcastle KB United	26	12	6	8	32	31	+1	30
7	Brisbane Lions	26	7	11	8	28	32	−4	25
8	APIA Leichhardt	26	8	7	11	27	35	−8	23
9	Footscray JUST	26	7	9	10	32	41	−9	23
10	Canberra City	26	7	7	12	34	33	+1	21
11	Blacktown City	26	9	3	14	34	55	−21	21
12	Brisbane City	26	4	10	12	29	36	−7	18
13	West Adelaide	26	7	3	16	24	46	−22	17
14	St George-Budapest (R)	26	5	4	17	32	65	−33	14	Relegated to the 1981 NSW State League

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
Notes:

^ The Finals series was not considered the championship for the 1980 National Soccer League.

Results

Home \ Away	ADE	API	BLA	BRC	BRL	CAN	FOO	HEI	MAR	NKU	SOU	STG	SYC	WES
Adelaide City	—		3–2	1–1	0–0	1–1	4–1	1–0	0–1	1–3	0–1	6–1	1–0	1–0
APIA Leichhardt	2–1	—	0–0	2–1	0–0	2–1	0–0	0–5	2–2	1–0	1–0	1–2	2–2	2–0
Blacktown City	1–2	0–0	—	3–1	4–1	1–0	3–0	1–2	5–1	1–1	0–3	4–2	1–3	1–0
Brisbane City	1–2	1–0	1–2	—	1–1	1–1	1–1	7–0	2–1	1–2	0–1	0–1	1–0	1–1
Brisbane Lions	1–2	2–1	1–0	1–0	—	0–0	1–1	1–2	0–0	1–4	1–2	0–0	2–0	2–1
Canberra City	1–0	2–2	0–1	1–1	2–4	—	0–0	0–1	0–1	1–2	0–0	4–1	2–3	4–3
Footscray JUST	1–3	1–0	3–0	1–1	3–1	0–1	—	0–2	0–4	2–1	3–0	5–3	1–2	0–3
Heidelberg United	0–0	5–1	5–1	3–1	1–0	2–0	3–2	—	3–3	4–0	1–2	4–2	0–0	4–2
Marconi Fairfield	2–1	1–2	9–0	4–0	2–1	3–2	2–2	1–1	—	4–1	1–4	0–0	2–0	2–1
Newcastle KB United	3–1	1–0	1–0	1–1	0–0	0–4	0–0	3–1	0–1	—	1–0	2–1	0–3	2–0
South Melbourne	2–1	1–0	5–0	3–3	2–2	1–0	3–0	0–0	3–1	0–0	—	2–1	1–2	2–0
St George-Budapest	1–4	1–0	4–1	1–1	2–3	1–5	1–1	3–5	0–3	0–3	0–3	—	0–2	3–1
Sydney City	2–1	4–2	3–0	2–1	1–1	0–2	2–2	1–1	2–1	2–0	2–1	4–1	—	7–0
West Adelaide	0–2	0–4	4–2	1–0	1–1	2–0	0–2	1–0	0–1	1–1	1–0	1–0	0–2	—

Source: OzFootball
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Finals series

The Finals series was not considered the championship for the 1980 National Soccer League.


Semi-finals			Preliminary final			Grand final



1	Sydney City	2				1	Sydney City	0

2	Heidelberg United	0				2	Heidelberg United	4

			2	Heidelberg United	4

			3	South Melbourne	1

3	South Melbourne	4

4	Marconi Fairfield	3

Semi-finals

11 October 1980 Qualifying final	Sydney City	2–0	Heidelberg United	Sydney
	Trenter 35' Boden 39' (pen.)	Report		Stadium: Sydney Sports Ground Attendance: 3,457 Referee: Tony Boskovic

12 October 1980 Elimination final	South Melbourne	4–3	Marconi Fairfield	Melbourne
	Evans 49', 82' Xanthopoulos 75' Buljevic 80'	Report	Sharne 10' Byrne 19' (pen.) Krncevic 41'	Stadium: Middle Park Soccer Stadium Attendance: 4,500 Referee: Chris Bambridge

Preliminary final

18 October 1980	Heidelberg United	4–1	South Melbourne	Melbourne
	Paton 5', 85' Bozikas 26' Cole 67' (pen.)	Report	Buljevic 9'	Stadium: Olympic Park Attendance: 7,700 Referee: Tim Davies

Grand final

26 October 1980

Sydney City	0–4	Heidelberg United
	Report	Cole 32', 43' (pen.), 77' Paton 87'

Bruce Stadium, Canberra

Attendance: 11,126

Referee: Don Campbell

Season statistics

Top scorers

Rank	Player	Club	Goals^[1]
1	Gary Cole	Heidelberg United	21
2	Mark Jankovics	Marconi Fairfield	16
3	Jamie Paton	Heidelberg United	15
4	Ken Boden	Sydney City	13
4	Eddie Krncevic	Marconi Fairfield	13
6	John Nyskohus	Adelaide City	12
7	Dennis Duarte	St George-Budapest	11
8	Murray Barnes	Sydney City	10
	Branko Buljevic	South Melbourne
	Phil O'Connor	APIA Leichhardt

Hat-tricks

Player	For	Against	Result	Date
Gary Cole	Heidelberg United	West Adelaide	4–2 (H)^[2]	16 March 1980
Eddie Krncevic	Marconi Fairfield	Blacktown City	9–0 (H)^[2]
Mark Jankovics	Marconi Fairfield	Blacktown City	9–0 (H)^[2]
Gary Cole	Heidelberg United	APIA Leichhardt	5–0 (A)^[3]	6 April 1980
Murray Barnes	Sydney City	West Adelaide	7–0 (H)^[3]	6 April 1980
Gary Cole	Heidelberg United	Blacktown City	3–1 (H)^[4]	13 April 1980
John Nyskohus	Adelaide City	St George-Budapest	4–1 (A)^[4]	13 April 1980
Barry Kelso	Brisbane City	Heidelberg United	7–0 (H)^[5]	27 July 1980
Dennis Duarte	St George-Budapest	West Adelaide	3–1 (H)^[6]	28 September 1980

Clean sheets

Rank	Player	Club	Clean sheets
1	Peter Laumets	South Melbourne	12
2	Allan Maher	Marconi Fairfield	10
3	Peter Marshall	Adelaide City	8
3	Greg Woodhouse	APIA Leichhardt	8
5	Dennis Boland	Footscray JUST	7
6	Martyn Crook	West Adelaide	6
	Tony Scalan	Brisbane Lions
	Richard Wilson	Canberra City
9	Yakka Banovic	Heidelberg United	5
9	Phil Dando	Newcastle KB United	5

Discipline

Player

Most yellow cards: 7
- Paul Ontong (Brisbane Lions)
- Warren Turnbull (Blacktown City)

Most red cards: 2
- Eddie Krncevic (Marconi Fairfield)

Club

Most yellow cards: 30
- Footscray JUST
- St George-Budapest

Fewest yellow cards: 13
- Heidelberg United

Most red cards: 3
- West Adelaide

Fewest red cards: 0
- Adelaide City
- Brisbane Lions
- Heidelberg United

Awards

Annual awards

Award	Winner	Club
National Soccer League Player of the Year	Jim Hermiston	Brisbane Lions
National Soccer League Under 21 Player of the Year	John Spanos	Sydney City
National Soccer League Coach of the Year	John Margeritis	South Melbourne

References

General

Stock, Greg. "1980 National Soccer League Results". OzFootball.net.

Specific

^ Stock, Greg. "1980 National Soccer League Top Goalscorers". OzFootball.net.
^ ^a ^b "SOCCER Drubbing for PSL newcomer". The Canberra Times. Vol. 54, no. 16, 244. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 17 March 1980. p. 16. Retrieved 29 November 2023 – via National Library of Australia.
^ ^a ^b "WESTFIELD SCOREBOARD". Soccer World. 10 April 1980. p. 4.
^ ^a ^b "PHILIPS SOCCER LEAGUE Cole takes Heidelberg to top of ladder". The Canberra Times. Vol. 54, no. 16, 272. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 14 April 1980. p. 18. Retrieved 29 November 2023 – via National Library of Australia.
^ "SOCCER". The Canberra Times. Vol. 54, no. 16, 377. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 28 July 1980. p. 15. Retrieved 29 November 2023 – via National Library of Australia.
^ "Final effort for 3 top teams". The Canberra Times. Vol. 55, no. 16, 439. Australian Capital Territory, Australia. 28 September 1980. p. 23. Retrieved 29 November 2023 – via National Library of Australia.