When I left you on my stroll down the national league memory lane last week, Newcastle KB United had been dissolved six games into the 1984 season and Newcastle Rosebud had taken their place in a competition divided into Northern and Southern conferences.
Newcastle Rosebud competed with mixed fortunes - apart from a remarkable win in NSL Cup - for the next two-and-a-half seasons. In 1987, the NSL reverted to a single division and Rosebud were one of the teams culled.
It would be five seasons, a move to summer soccer and a lot of commuting on the F3 for the region's better players, before Newcastle returned to the national scene.
Newcastle Breakers were born out of Newcastle Australs, which had played in the NSW State League. The facilities at Birmingham Gardens had been upgraded and a competitive team assembled, apparently at considerable cost, because within two years the financial wolves were at the doors yet again.
In the 1993-94 season, the club had to rapidly reduce the wage budget, contracts were honoured, but extensions on the existing wage structure were denied. The result was acrimony in the camp and a pretty talented team finished eleventh. Alarm bells were ringing and the club didn't participate in the 1994-95 season.
Socceroo legend John Kosmina was installed as coach for 1995-96, but most of the high-profile players had long since departed. A team of youngsters, willing honest journeymen and ageing veterans, tried hard but didn't really have the firepower to threaten consistently.
That season and the next aaw the emergence of several promising young players. Troy Halpin, Clayton Zane, Scott Thomas and Shane Pryce spring readily to mind. They would all move to "bigger" clubs in the next year or so. A familiar theme.
The following couple of seasons resulted in lower-to-mid-table battles the area's teams are often associated with by outside observers.
Lee Sterrey's "VW" team travelled across the country to take on the Rolls Royces and Ferraris of the league, flirted with championship glory at the turn of the century, but ran out of steam, depth and luck to just miss the finals.
Lee Sterrey's "VW" team travelled across the country to take on the Rolls Royces and Ferraris of the league.
But questions were being asked about the owners, money had dried up and once again the region's flagship soccer team needed urgent assistance .
Up stepped Greek Cypriot businessman Con Constantine, the Breakers joined KB United on the dissolved list, and the transformation to Newcastle United was made.
The transformation also included a return to a more corporate friendly location, back at whatever name the International Sports Centre was wearing at the time.
But Sterrey's team, minus a few key players and still with a limited budget, failed to fire .
In many ways the slate was wiped clean. A new coaching and management team was employed, the player budget increased, some important signings were made and lo and behold results improved markedly .
Newcastle United played finals football in consecutive seasons, before an apparent need to rein in spending led to a weakening of the squad in the 2003-04 season. Unsurprisingly results suffered and the team missed the finals. Anyone noticing a theme?
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Pre Covid 19, the only thing to halt the national soccer competition was a very large document called the Crawford Report - a review and analysis of the code in this country. It included far-reaching recommendations for a complete restructure of many aspects of the sport, perhaps most notably the national competition.
Out went ethnicity in came inclusivity. At least that was the plan. But these things are far more complex than simple decree or words, and any of those who had committed much of their lives to keeping the game alive in this country were suddenly disenfranchised. In fact, many felt scorned .
In many ways, like the Bosman ruling globally, things changed dramatically. Many felt that the great deeds pre-2005 were being completely overlooked. To this day, many of the older generation laugh and suggest sarcastically that the game was invented in 2005.
After the 2003-04 grand final there would be no NSL. The Italian, Croatian, Greek, Macedonian and Maltese clubs would no longer feature in the top echelon. Nor would the AFL interlopers Carlton and Collingwood, which had been lured perhaps by the prospect of year-round revenue but, more likely, the money to be made in international transfers.
Out with the old, in with the new. The A- League would start in late 2005 and on November 1, 2004, the Newcastle Jets were confirmed as one of the eight inaugural teams .
The new era was about to dawn.
