A rivalry 21 years in the making, and a glimpse of what the A-League could become

A-League chief executive Steve Rosich’s seven-word answer to a question that Australian soccer has wrestled with for decades offers a tantalising glimpse into a future that, not so long ago, seemed unthinkable.

Will South Melbourne Hellas’ Greek heritage count against them in their latest attempt to return to the top flight?

“It’s certainly not something I think about,” Rosich told this masthead.

That sounds like poetry to South Melbourne Hellas co-president Bill Papastergiadis, who wants his club to become a “Trojan horse” for all the fallen giants of the old National Soccer League, and indeed, any other club across the country with aspirations to play at the highest level.

“It’s the first time I’ve actually heard that it’s not an issue. It’s a positive step, and one which we embrace.”

On Saturday night, South Melbourne will face Melbourne Victory in an Australia Cup final that is about much more than a trophy. A sold-out AAMI Park will host the first competitive meeting between two clubs that represent opposite sides of Australian soccer’s great divide: one a powerhouse of the old NSL, the other among the most successful products of the A-League era.

The creation of the A-League in 2005 under Frank Lowy’s Football Federation Australia was a much-needed reset after the slow, painful demise of the NSL, ushering in a bold commercial era for the sport - but it also deliberately broke with the past, replacing clubs closely associated with the migrant communities that had built Australian soccer with broad-based franchises designed to attract mainstream support.

The extraordinary appetite for this occasion, with tickets snapped up within 48 hours of going on sale, has reignited debate over whether clubs like South Melbourne should have been left behind in the first place, and how that divide can be bridged.

Spat out into the Victorian system when the A-League launched, and forced to watch Victory take their place as the state’s leading club, South Melbourne have spent the past 21 years agitating for a return to the national stage, sometimes with an air of entitlement that suggested their illustrious history should have been enough to get them in.

Papastergiadis led their last bid for an A-League licence in 2018, when FFA overlooked South in favour of Western United and its promise of a privately funded stadium for a supporter base that had also yet to be built on Melbourne’s western fringes.

“I was told, ‘Bill, great bid. We loved what you did. We love what you offered. But we couldn’t knock back new stadium infrastructure for football in this country, and that was the determining factor for us,’” he recalled.

South Melbourne argued they not only had a ready-made fanbase, but a generous, long-term deal at an existing venue: Lakeside Stadium.