2001 National Soccer League Grand Final

Football match

Event

2000–01 National Soccer League

Wollongong Wolves	South Melbourne

2	1

Date

3 June 2001 (2001-06-03)

Venue

Parramatta Stadium, Sydney, Australia

Man of the Match

Matt Horsley
(Joe Marston Medal)

Referee

Eddie Lennie

Attendance

13,402

← 2000

2002 →

The 2001 National Soccer League Grand Final was held on 3 June 2001 between Wollongong Wolves and South Melbourne at Parramatta Stadium. Soccer Australia deemed Wollongong's 14,000 capacity home ground WIN Stadium too small for the centrepiece of the NSL season. Ironically the crowd attendance was 13,402. Wollongong won the match 2–1, with two goals in as many minutes from Sasho Petrovski and Stuart Young putting them ahead. Although John Anastasiadis got a goal for South Melbourne, it wasn't enough. This won the Wolves their second consecutive National Soccer League championship and their second overall. Matt Horsley won the Joe Marston Medal.^[1]

Route to the Final

As top-two finishers, South Melbourne and Wollongong Wolves were placed into the second week of the final series, with the winner to host the grand final. Wollongong won both legs 2–1 to qualify for the grand final with a 4–2 aggregate. In the preliminary final, South Melbourne defeated fourth-placed Sydney Olympic to qualify for the final.^[2]

Soccer Australia chose Parramatta Stadium as the grand final venue, expecting a larger crowd than the WIN Stadium could hold.^[3]^[4]^[5]

The Soccer Australia board initially refused an offer from the Seven Network to show the match live on free-to-air television. The board intended for the match to be played at 3pm, however Seven had pre-existing Australian Football League (AFL) commitments. Eventually, the board changed the time to midday and Seven showed the match live outside of Sydney.^[6]^[7]^[8]

League Standings

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	South Melbourne	30	21	6	3	70	24	+46	69	Qualification for the Finals series
2	Wollongong Wolves (C)	30	18	7	5	80	40	+40	61
3	Perth Glory	30	18	7	5	73	33	+40	61
4	Sydney Olympic	30	17	6	7	58	37	+21	57
5	Marconi Fairfield	30	14	8	8	42	33	+9	50
6	Melbourne Knights	30	14	7	9	61	46	+15	49
7	Adelaide Force	30	12	7	11	54	54	0	43
8	Football Kingz	30	12	7	11	52	52	0	43
9	Parramatta Power	30	13	3	14	42	44	−2	42
10	Sydney United	30	12	6	12	46	56	−10	42
11	Canberra Cosmos	30	11	4	15	49	55	−6	37
12	Brisbane Strikers	30	9	8	13	52	56	−4	35
13	Northern Spirit	30	8	8	14	39	50	−11	32
14	Newcastle United	30	7	9	14	37	56	−19	30
15	Eastern Pride	30	5	5	20	32	61	−29	0^[a]
16	Carlton	30	0	0	30	0	90	−90	0^[b]	Withdrew

Source: rsssf.com
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Goal difference; 3) Goals scored
(C) Champions
Notes:

^ Eastern Pride were stripped of all their points following a breach of regulations.^[9]
^ Carlton withdrew after eight rounds. All games against them were awarded 3–0.

Finals Bracket


Elimination finals					Major/Minor semifinals					Preliminary final			Grand Final

													3 June 2001

					2	Wollongong Wolves	2	2	4				Wollongong Wolves	2

					1	South Melbourne	1	1	2				South Melbourne	1

										1	South Melbourne	2
6	Melbourne Knights (a)	0	2	2
										4	Sydney Olympic	0
3	Perth Glory	0	2	2
					6	Melbourne Knights			0

					4	Sydney Olympic			1
4	Sydney Olympic	3	2	5

5	Marconi Fairfield	1	0	1

Match

Details

3 June 2001
AEST

Wollongong Wolves	2 – 1	South Melbourne
Petrovski 56' Young 57'	Reports^[10]	Anastasiadis 78'

Parramatta Stadium, Sydney

Attendance: 13,402

Referee: Eddie Lennie


GK	26	Dean Anastasiadis
DF	2	George Sounis
DF	3	Alvin Ceccoli	79'
DF	5	David Cervinski
MF	6	Matt Horsley (c)
MF	7	Paul Reid
FW	9	Sasho Petrovski		73'
FW	10	Stuart Young
MF	15	David Huxley
DF	17	Ben Blake
MF	27	Robbie Middleby		90+1'
Substitutes:
GK	1	Daniel Beltrame
DF	4	Robert Stanton		73'
MF	8	Max Nicholson
FW	14	Jay Lucas
MF	23	Dino Mennillo		90+1'
Manager:
Ron Corry
Joe Marston Medal:
Matt Horsley (Wollongong Wolves)


GK	1	Michael Petkovic
MF	2	Steve Iosifidis	36'	71'
DF	3	Fausto De Amicis (c)	89'
DF	4	Mehmet Durakovic
MF	7	Steve Panopoulos
FW	8	Vaughan Coveny
MF	10	Con Boutsianis
FW	13	Andrew Vlahos
FW	14	Vas Kalogeracos		65'
DF	16	Zeljko Susa		65'
DF	25	Simon Colosimo
Substitutes:
GK	20	Chris Jones
MF	6	David Clarkson
FW	9	Paul Trimboli		65'
FW	11	John Anastasiadis		71'
MF	15	Goran Lozanovski		65'
Manager:
Mike Petersen

Assistant referees:
Fourth official:

Match rules

90 minutes.
30 minutes of extra time if necessary.
Penalty shoot-out if scores still level.

References

^ Cockerill, Michael (4 June 2001). "Wily Wolves fly like Hawks". The Sydney Morning Herald. p. 33. Retrieved 18 January 2021.
^ Desira, Peter (28 May 2001). "South wins final berth". Herald Sun.
^ Desira, Peter (22 May 2001). "In the South smiles". Herald Sun.
^ "Grand larceny; Kick in the guts as Wolves lose home grand final". Illawarra Mercury. 22 May 2001.
^ Cockerill, Michael (22 May 2001). "Wolves lose out as Sydney gets the grand final". The Sydney Morning Herald. p. 42. Retrieved 7 February 2023.
^ Lynch, Michael (18 May 2001). "Calls fail to change finals kick-offs for TV". The Age.
^ Taylor, John (25 May 2001). "At last some vision -- NSL final to be televised". Daily Telegraph.
^ Lewis, David (29 May 2001). "Wolves tip poor grand final crowd". Daily Telegraph.
^ "Australia 2000/01". RSSSF. 29 January 2003. Retrieved 31 May 2014.
^ "2001 National Soccer League Playoff results". www.ozfootball.net. Retrieved 30 December 2022.