Long before "pillars", long before "culture", there was Sydney City. Long before "awareness training" there was the late Eddie Thomson. Presiding over all this was the all-seeing eye of Frank Lowy.
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If you think a demanding, professional, aspirational, environment has only emerged in the A-League era, think again. Sydney City remain Australia's most successful club ever, and 29 years after they abruptly left the big stage they're finally back in the spotlight. Not the A-League, true enough, but the next best thing.
On Sunday afternoon, Hakoah Sydney City East open their NSW NPL season with a match against Wollongong Wolves.
It's a mouthful of a name that panders to the various vested interests and will hopefully be a temporary one. Sydney City is the name that struck fear into a generation of opposition footballers, and delivered a run of success unlikely to be repeated. It's got cachet.
Instrumental in forming the NSL in 1977, Sydney City dominated the competition for the next nine years. Four titles, two other minor premierships, and a lowest finishing position of third.
In their 10th season they dropped to fifth, and after the first match of the following season – a 2-0 win over Marconi Stallions – Lowy contentiously ripped the team out of the league despite a rescue package offered by a former secretary Harry Lakmaker.
It wasn't one of Lowy's finest moments, and caused huge rifts within the local Jewish community, but it's instructive that Lowy is back involved almost three decades later.
Time heals all wounds, and in Frank's retirement don't be surprised if the past and present FFA chairmen become occasional supporters at the Hensley Athletic Field, the modest, temporary home of the team opposite one of the Westfield shopping centres at Eastgardens.
Steven spent his youth following his father to matches at the E.S.Marks Field, so there'll be a powerful sense of deja vu.
History is important, of course, but it's more important if it's relevant. It wasn't just the collection of trophies which made Sydney City so iconic.
It was the environment. A team which never attracted crowds (their best season average was 2500, and crowds had slipped into the hundreds in their final season) had to find its motivation from within. Lowy demanded excellence from Thomson, and the coach in turn demanded even more from his players.
The standing joke was that the training sessions were tougher than the matches. To get into the first team you not only had to be strong mentally, but fearless physically.
The perception that Sydney City bullied their way to success is not without foundation. But what should never be forgotten is the quality.
Steve O'Connor, Joe Watson, Murray Barnes, Kevin Mullen, Todd Clarke and Agenor Muniz were in the first championship-winning team (1977), and were all Socceroos.
By the time Thomson became player-coach and made it a hat-trick of titles, the likes of John Kosmina, Frank Farina, David Mitchell and Jim Patikas were prominent. When Sydney City departed the NSL, the likes of Tom McCulloch, Abbas Saad, Jean Paul de Marigny, Andy Harper, Grant Lee and Robbie Hooker had emerged.
What a powerful legacy. Kosmina, Farina and Hooker have all been involved in the Socceroos coaching ranks. Mitchell and De Marigny have been involved in coaching in the A-League. O'Connor was head coach at the AIS. Lee coaches Sydney Olympic in the NSW NPL. Harper and Saad have developed influential careers in punditry. That's not counting the continuing power of the Lowy clan.
The influence of club in general, and Thomson in particular, has left an indelible mark. That Alec Roberston – the father of the current Sydney City first team coach, Mark – remains on the staff keeps the flame alive. Alec was a multiple championship-winner during the Thomson era.
For more than two decades following their exit from the NSL, Sydney City seemed content soldiering on in the lower reaches of state league football.
But the sale of the Hakoah Club at Bondi six years ago for $19.5 million, and the subsequent purchase of the old White City tennis complex at Rushcutter's Bay (a deal which left $5.5million in the bank) re-ignited a sense of ambition.
After four successive promotions, Sydney City are back in the NSW top flight for the first time since leaving the NSL. More importantly, football has won the internal battle for a prominent place in the planned $45 million redevelopment of White City, thanks largely to the intervention of Lowy.
A community stoush which a year ago threatened to head to the courts has been resolved, and a boutique stadium which includes the heritage-listed tennis grandstand will now be the central feature of a project which is likely to start this year. Lowy doesn't have to say what this means to him. You can see it in his eyes.
Sydney City can never scale the heights they reached in their golden era. But it will be a long time before anyone else does, if at all. In a salary-capped competition, dominating the A-League for nine successive seasons will probably be beyond even the likes of Melbourne Victory, Western Sydney Wanderers, Sydney FC and Brisbane Roar.
What matters is that after almost three decades in the doldrums, Sydney City are finally back in the conversation. With a future as well as a past.
