1997–98 National Soccer League

The 1997–98 National Soccer League season, was the 22nd season of the National Soccer League in Australia.

NSL 1996-97
League	National Soccer League
Sport	Association football
Duration	1997–98
Number of teams	14
NSL season
Champions	South Melbourne
Top scorer	Damian Mori (19)
National Soccer League seasons
← 1996–97 1998–99 →

Overview

It was contested by 14 teams, and South Melbourne won the championship. First year Carlton SC competed.

Regular season

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	South Melbourne (C)	26	13	9	4	56	41	+15	48	Qualification for the Finals series
2	Carlton	26	12	9	5	44	24	+20	45
3	Adelaide City	26	13	4	9	45	30	+15	43
4	Sydney United	26	11	10	5	37	26	+11	43
5	Marconi Fairfield	26	12	7	7	33	25	+8	43
6	Wollongong Wolves	26	13	3	10	51	33	+18	42
7	Melbourne Knights	26	11	6	9	37	35	+2	39
8	Perth Glory	26	10	6	10	35	40	−5	36
9	UTS Olympic	26	10	5	11	37	43	−6	35
10	West Adelaide	26	10	4	12	32	38	−6	34
11	Gippsland Falcons	26	8	7	11	28	36	−8	31
12	Brisbane Strikers	26	6	5	15	23	40	−17	23
13	Newcastle Breakers	26	4	9	13	30	50	−20	21
14	Canberra Cosmos	26	3	8	15	29	56	−27	17

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

Finals series

Bracket

	Elimination Finals							Major/Minor semi-finals							Preliminary Final					Grand Final
																				16 May 1998
								2	Carlton	1	0	1								South Melbourne		2
								1	South Melbourne	2	1	3			10 May 1998					Carlton		1
															2	Carlton	1
	5	Marconi Fairfield	1	1	2
															5	Marconi Fairfield	0
	4	Sydney United	0	0	0
								5	Marconi Fairfield			2
								6	Wollongong Wolves			1
	6	Wollongong Wolves	3	2	5
	3	Adelaide City	0	2	2

• Marconi Fairfield 1-0 : 1-0 Sydney United
• Wollongong Wolves 3-0 : 2-2 Adelaide City
• Marconi Fairfield 2-1 Wollongong Wolves
• Carlton 1-2 : 0-1 South Melbourne
• Carlton 1-0 Marconi Fairfield

Grand Final

Main article: 1998 National Soccer League Grand Final

16 May 1998
20:00 AEST

South Melbourne	2 – 1	Carlton SC
Anastasiadis   9' Boutsianis   87'	(report)	Stergiopoulos   78'

Olympic Park Stadium, Melbourne

Attendance: 16,000

Referee: Eugene Brazzale

SOUTH MELBOURNE: GK 1   Michael Petkovic MF 2   Steve Iosifidis DF 3   Fausto De Amicis DF 5   Con Blatsis MF 6   David Clarkson MF 7   Steve Panopoulos FW 9   Paul Trimboli (c) MF 11   Bill Damianos MF 15   Goran Lozanovski   74' DF 16   Tansel Başer FW 17   John Anastasiadis   85' Substitutes: FW 8   Vaughan Coveny   74' FW 10   Michael Curcija MF 12   Con Boutsianis   85' MF 19   George Goutzioulis Manager:   Ange Postecoglou Joe Marston Medal:   Fausto De Amicis

CARLTON SC: GK 1   Dean Anastasiadis DF 2   Rob Trajkovski DF 5   Sean Douglas (c) MF 7   Krešimir Marušić MF 10   Lupo Lapsansky FW 11   Andrew Vlahos   65' DF 12   Simon Colosimo FW 14   John Markovski DF 15   David Cervinski   78' MF 17   Mark Atkinson MF 23   Mark Bresciano Substitutes: MF 3   Marcus Stergiopoulos   78' FW 9   Alex Josifovski DF 18   David Della Rocca FW 25   Adrian Cervinski   65' Manager:   Eddie Krnčević

References

• Australia - List of final tables (RSSSF)