1985 in Australian soccer

Soccer in Australia
Season	1985
Men's soccer
NSL Premiership	Sydney City; South Melbourne
NSL Championship	Brunswick Juventus
NSL Cup	Sydney Olympic

The 1985 season was the 16th season of national competitive association football in Australia and 102nd overall.

National teams[edit]

Australia men's national soccer team[edit]

Results and fixtures[edit]

Friendlies[edit]

27 September 1985 Ampol Cup	Australia	3–0	China	Brisbane, Australia
	Kosmina 9' Crino 14' Watson 63'	Report		Stadium: Lang Park Attendance: 4,823^[1] Referee: Bill Monteverde (Australia)

1986 FIFA World Cup qualification[edit]

Group stage[edit]

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Australia	6	4	2	0	20	2	+18	10	Advance to Inter-confederation play-offs	—	1–1	2–0	8–0
2	Israel	6	3	1	2	17	6	+11	7		1–2	—	3–0	5–0
3	New Zealand	6	3	1	2	13	7	+6	7		0–0	3–1	—	5–0
4	Chinese Taipei	6	0	0	6	1	36	−35	0		0–7	0–6	1–5	—

Source: RSSSF

21 September 1985	New Zealand	0–0	Australia	Auckland, New Zealand
		Report		Stadium: Mount Smart Stadium Attendance: 14,286 Referee: Keith Hackett (England)

8 October 1985	Israel	1–2	Australia	Ramat Gan, Israel
	Armeli 65'	Report	Mitchell 46' Kosmina 50'	Stadium: Ramat Gan Stadium Attendance: 45,000 Referee: Luigi Agnolin (Italy)

20 October 1985	Australia	1–1	Israel	Melbourne, Australia
	Ratcliffe 32'	Report	Cohen 47'	Stadium: Olympic Park Attendance: 27,000 Referee: José Rosa dos Santos (Portugal)

23 October 1985	Chinese Taipei	0–7	Australia	Adelaide, Australia
		Report	Dunn 2', 89' (pen.) Chiang 13' (o.g.) Mitchell 57', 59', 87' Arnold 68'	Stadium: Hindmarsh Stadium Attendance: 2,000 Referee: John Cameron (New Zealand

27 October 1985	Australia	8–0	Chinese Taipei	Sydney, Australia
	Odžakov 41', 56', 69' Crino 52' Kosmina 65' (pen.), 72', 88' Gray 89'	Report		Stadium: St George Stadium Attendance: 2,694 Referee: Bill Munro (New Zealand)

3 November 1985	Australia	2–0	New Zealand	Sydney, Australia
	Kosmina 12' Mitchell 48'	Report		Stadium: Sydney Sports Ground Attendance: 21,910 Referee: Gerard Guerds (Netherlands

Inter-confederation play-offs[edit]

20 November 1985 First leg	Scotland	2–0	Australia	Glasgow, Scotland
	Cooper 53' McAvennie 59'	Report		Stadium: Hampden Park Attendance: 62,239 Referee: Vojtech Christov (Czechoslovakia)

4 December 1985 Second leg	Australia	0–0	Scotland	Melbourne, Australia
		Report		Stadium: Olympic Park Attendance: 29,852 Referee: José Roberto Wright (Brazil)

Domestic soccer[edit]

National Soccer League[edit]

For the second season of the conference format in the National Soccer League, Sydney City and South Melbourne won the Premierships from their respective conferences.^[2] The Grand Final was played between Sydney City and Brunswick Juventus, which Brunswick won 2–0 on aggregate winning their first national title.^[3]

Northern Conference

Pos	Team v t e	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

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

Southern Conference

Pos	Team v t e	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	Preston Makedonia	22	9	6	7	30	28	+2	24
5	Melbourne Croatia	22	9	6	7	29	21	+8	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

NSL Cup[edit]

Final[edit]

11 August 1985

15:00 AEST

Sydney Olympic	2–1	Preston Makedonia
Soper 80' Raskopoulos 82'	Report	Cole 13'

St George Stadium, Sydney

Attendance: 6,187

Referee: Don Campbell

Managerial changes[edit]

This is a list of changes of managers within Australian league soccer:

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of departure	Position in table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment
West Adelaide	Sam Salabasidis		29 January 1985	Pre-season	Neil McGachey^[4]	29 January 1985

Retirements[edit]

29 January 1985: Michael McLaughlin, 20, former Blacktown City striker.^[5]

References[edit]

^ "Socceroo Internationals for 1985". OzFootball.net. Retrieved 28 January 2023.
^ Howe, Andrew; Punshon, John; Stock, Greg. "1985 National Soccer League Final Tables". OzFootball.net. Retrieved 8 October 2021.
^ "BRUNSWICK JUVENTUS CHAMPS OF AUSTRALIA". Australian Soccer Weekly. Vol. 6, no. 231. 9 September 1985. p. 1.
^ "McGACHEY HOPES TO RECAPTURE SPIRIT OF '78". Australian Soccer Weekly. Vol. 6, no. 199. 29 January 1985. p. 10.
^ "DEMONS' YOUNG STAR QUITS". Australian Soccer Weekly. Vol. 6, no. 199. 29 January 1985. p. 2.

External links[edit]

Football Australia official website

[1] "Socceroo Internationals for 1985". OzFootball.net. Retrieved 28 January 2023.

[2] Howe, Andrew; Punshon, John; Stock, Greg. "1985 National Soccer League Final Tables". OzFootball.net. Retrieved 8 October 2021.

[3] "BRUNSWICK JUVENTUS CHAMPS OF AUSTRALIA". Australian Soccer Weekly. Vol. 6, no. 231. 9 September 1985. p. 1.

[4] "McGACHEY HOPES TO RECAPTURE SPIRIT OF '78". Australian Soccer Weekly. Vol. 6, no. 199. 29 January 1985. p. 10.

[5] "DEMONS' YOUNG STAR QUITS". Australian Soccer Weekly. Vol. 6, no. 199. 29 January 1985. p. 2.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]