The mystery surrounding Brisbane City on its return to national stage in the Australia Cup – صحيفة الصوت

Walking into the clubhouse at Brisbane City’s Spencer Park ground in Brisbane’s inner north, you can’t help but feel the history of the club run through you.

It’s not hard — reminders of the club’s 70-year history are everywhere you look.

From the honours board that runs along the back wall, to the pictures of past teams framed around the walls and a trophy-stacked display case.

Those historic reminders extend to the recently refurbished dressing room, where a faded newspaper front page dominates the area above the player lockers.

In the photo, City skipper Ian Rathmell, surrounded by fellow players and hordes of supporters behind him, holds the first ever NSL Cup aloft.

City won that inaugural NSL Cup by beating Marconi Fairfield on penalties in front of 9,000 at Perry Park.

One year later, they repeated the trick, this time beating Adelaide City at the same venue.

Until Adelaide United won back-to-back FFA Cups in 2018 and 2019, no other team has ever retained the national cup in any of its three guises.

A crinkled programme from that 1978 final sits amidst the trophies on display in the clubhouse.

However, the replica NSL Cup that was awarded to the winners each year, is missing.

The common consensus is that it is probably hidden away for safekeeping in some long-past committee member’s garage some time between 1995 and 2005.

The club has made numerous pleas for its safe return in recent years to no avail.

“It’s been a long standing hunt for the missing cup,” Brisbane City coach Matt Smith told ABC Sport.

“No one has been able to find it. We have some board members and ex-board members who have taken it upon themselves to maintain the search and keep it front of mind, because obviously it’s a cup that the club have been trying to find for a long time.

“I’m sure it’s around somewhere.”

City played in the National Soccer League from its inception in 1977 through to 1986.

After its final NSL game, a 4-0 defeat away to Preston Makedonia, City played in the local Brisbane and state league competitions, and are currently in the National Premier Leagues Queensland. 

On Wednesday night, Brisbane City plays in the national rounds of the Australia Cup for the first time, taking on Western Australia side Cockburn City at Brisbane’s Perry Park

It will be the first time the club has appeared on the national stage in 36 years.

‘It adds to the stature of the club’

Smith is no stranger to making history.

As legendary skipper of Brisbane Roar during its greatest era, Smith helped win two premierships and three championships between 2010 and 2014.

After leaving the Roar in 2014, Smith went on to win the Hong Kong Senior Shield — Asia’s third-oldest cup football competition — as well as the FA Cup with Kitchee in 2018-19.

Now, the 39-year-old is player/coach at Spencer Park and, after leading his team through an unbeaten season in 2021, has successfully plotted his side’s path back to the national stage.

“I always think it’s a positive, for current players, young and old, to understand the history of the club they’re playing for,” Smith told the ABC earlier this week.

“It adds to the stature of the club. We are ambitious so, for me it’s positive and the club has been working hard in recent years to embrace its history.”

Embracing and engaging with that history includes a growing archive of newspaper cuttings and other memorabilia and an annual Legends Lunch where players can interact with former players, picking their brains on what it means to play for one of Brisbane’s most storied football clubs.

“When you look at the club’s vast history over the past 70 years, lots of it surrounds being on the national stage,” Smith said.

“To have the opportunity to play in the Australia Cup is great for professional and semi professional teams around the country, it gives clubs a platform to then return to [the national level]. 

“As a club, this is the first opportunity that we’ve had in the round of 32, which is another part of that history.”

One of the biggest carrots for state-level clubs who advance to the national rounds of the cup has always been the chance to take on an A-League Men’s team.

City have, instead, drawn Cockburn City of Western Australia, but Smith is under no illusions that Wednesday’s match will be anything other than a serious test against the side who controversially won the WA State Cup last weekend.

“Cockburn are going to be a very difficult team to beat,” Smith said.

“I’ve watched a few of their games now and they play an interesting formation and they’ve got some decent players.

“For our players though, it’s an opportunity to play a set of players from another state. For them as well as us, it’s exciting.

“Both teams are coming off the back of some good wins and they’ll be motivated and encouraged by that, just as we are.”

Smith has some mixed memories of his debut in the competition then known as the FFA Cup.

“I actually played against my cousin Rikki,” Smith said, referencing the Roar’s 2014 clash with Perth-based Stirling Lions.

The match was a successful one for the Roar, who won 4-0, with Smith even getting on the scoresheet for one of his six goals for the club.

After that though, his experience turned sour when he spent the night in hospital with a virus when his team took on Adelaide United in the next round.

While Smith was in hospital, the Roar suffered a 2-0 defeat.

Brisbane City’s mountain of history ‘a positive’

The Australia Cup is not an open draw from its earliest rounds.

Teams play off in state-based knockout matches first, before joining the A-League Men’s teams in the national Round of 32.

City have never reached this stage before, falling twice at the final hurdle to bitter cross-city rivals Olympic and Lions in 2018 and 2021 respectively.

Last year, old foes Lions — who played alongside City in the NSL during the 70’s and 80’s — progressed at City’s expense thanks to a 2-1 victory at Spencer Park.

This year, Lions once again stood in City’s way.

Lions, two-time reigning NPL Queensland champions and runaway league leaders this year, arguably posed an even tougher challenge this time: They’d beaten City 7-0 the Saturday prior to their midweek cup tie.

However, City upset the form guide and completed a nine-goal turnaround to register a 4-2 victory.

“It is different,” City skipper Daniel Bowles told ABC Sport of cup games when compared to their league equivalent, “they’re one off games so teams can approach it slightly different.”

“In our case, that turn around … we can put that down to hard work.

“The group showed fantastic character and resilience to bounce back and have that mindset.

Bowles, who played 114 times in the A-League Men’s competition for Gold Coast United, Adelaide United and Brisbane Roar, is coming at the Australia Cup from a different angle from what he was used to in the A-League.

“It is a different mindset,” he explains.