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)

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)