At the end of the 1979 National Soccer League season, South Melbourne Hellas experienced the ignominy of finishing in last place for the first time in its history. The club had not adjusted well upon entering the national competition in 1977; it recovered briefly in 1978, and then tanked hard in 1979 - finishing one and a half games behind Sydney Olympic at the foot of the table. In truth, it should have been two clear games, but South had earned a bonus point for winning a match by four goals, which was the style at the time. By rights this should have seen us relegated, but the powers that be had decided that they needed to cull some of the Sydney teams, and thus Sydney Olympic was sent down to the state leagues, probably very much to their chagrin - it would be the only season they would spend outside the NSL during its existence. What influence South Melbourne Hellas president and NSL chairman Sam Papasavas had on that process I haven't bothered to look up, and it's not like I haven't had the time - I wrote this piece in 2017. For its part, South recovered well in 1980, finishing in the upper reaches of the league, and was usually near the top of the table, eventually culminating in its first national title in 1984. Mark Boric put up this photo when he was scanning and uploading
Soccer Action back in the day, around the time the new Lakeside social club was opened, and he asked if we still had the wooden spoon. If it did exist, I didn't see it when I had been packing away items in the social club. One suspects it went missing a lot earlier than that.
