SBS World News Radio: It's been 13 years since the collapse of the National Soccer League and there are just 17 players from that era still playing in the A-League.
We look at the changes since those days - the good and the bad - through the eyes of some of those still lacing up the boots.
It was where legends walked and role models were created: Clint Bolton, Alex Tobin, Steve Corica, Brendan Renaud, Dominic Longo, Mark Babic just some of the names etched into Australian football folklore.
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The NSL was also a proving ground for up-and-coming stars.
In 2002, Alex Brosque - who now captains A-League side Sydney FC - was one of them.
"You definitely got knocked around. You definitely got hardened up."
Marconi Stallions was his club back then, based in Sydney's west.
But the 33 year-old says it felt like more than a club: it was a community.
"It was driven back then by where you were born. So Marconi is an Italian club, with a lot of Italian supporters. Sydney United was a Croatian club; Sydney Olympic - the Greeks."
These identities were a source of strength for the clubs in their heyday in the '80s and early '90s.
Indeed, many of the clubs were founded by migrant communities.
The players who wore the club crests with pride all those years ago are still split on the role of clubs with ethnic ties.
Brendon Santalab, who plays in the A-League with the Western Sydney Wanderers, made a name for himself with Sydney United.
"Back then it was really ... there was a lot of hatred happening, there was a lot of crowd trouble."
Alex Wilkinson began his career at the Northern Spirit, which played from North Sydney Oval.
Wilkinson would go on to play at the 2014 World Cup for the Socceroos.
He is somewhat more circumspect when recalling supportership in the former national league.
"It was well-documented that there were problems there, but just the general passion that the fans used to show and the derbies - it used to be fantastic."
As the league limped to its demise in the late '90s and into the new millennium, troubles at the top at some of the NSL's biggest clubs trickled down into the dressing sheds.
Brendon Santalab witnessed it first-hand: "There were times where there was no salary for players for three, four months. Was the club going to fold?"
So did Alex Wilkinson: "For the older players, (it was) very difficult. They've got an income then all of a sudden the League stops and they've got to find something else to do to support the family."
The NSL ended on a rainy day in 2004 with the grand final victory of Perth Glory over Parramatta Power.
After an 18-month recess, the 14 teams that competed in the 2003-2004 NSL season were whittled down to eight teams, some of which were completely new franchises.
These eight sides were to compete in the new A-League - the rebranded national competition.
Some fans made the switch.
As Alex Brosque attests, many others didn't.
"A lot of people got behind that but I feel like a lot more should have. So we're slowly starting to see that teenagers back then, they're adults now, they've got kids and their kids are seeing, okay the A-League is what we have."
It's a league somewhat more stable than its predecessor was in its dying days.
Brosque says it's only now, over a decade later, that the role the NSL played in laying the foundations for football's growth in Australia is being recognised.
"You can't forget it because it is a reason why we're here today and why the A-League is what it is today. Without the NSL, you don't have that."
