Soccer: Glory days count more than cash

Football players are often criticised for the amount of money they chase, even at Auckland club level.

In 1970, when the first National League was played for, Eastern Suburbs players were each paid the princely sum of $14 for a win and $7 a draw.

It was also the year they started wearing brown suits and were known as the Brown Canaries.

It was the golden age of Eastern Suburbs football and the first team was littered with internationals with the likes of player-coach Ken Armstrong, Paul Rennell, Bill de Graaf, Tom McNab, Ray Mears, John Staines and John Legg.

They were also under the watchful eye of canny Scot Charlie Dempsey, whose association with Suburbs spanned from the 1950s until his passing in 2008.

The famous club, which is celebrating its 75th anniversary in a fortnight, won the Chatham Cup five times, including three in the 1960s ('65, '68 and '69).

The Lillywhites also won the National League in 1971 and missed out on the 1970 title to Blockhouse Bay on goal difference.

"It was a golden era," says Rennell, the last Eastern Suburbs player to lift the Chatham Cup in 1969. "Everything seemed to click on the park and we had so much fun."

Before the 1969 Cup final, the committee planned to pay their players if they won. Rennell refused. It wasn't a decision that went down well with some of his team-mates.

"We played Chatham Cup for the honour and glory of your club," he says.

"I don't think club football today is as strong because money has spoiled it. We played for enjoyment."

Eastern Suburbs have played in two more Chatham Cup finals, losing to Christchurch United in 1976 and Wellington's Western Suburbs on penalties in 2006, but were relegated from the National League in 1979.

Their first team's fortunes suffered a downturn in the 1980s and 1990s and it is only recently that they have started to re-emerge.

They are one of the strongest clubs in Auckland and their membership of 1490 playing members across 171 teams makes them the biggest club in the region.

When it was first formed in 1934, out of an amalgamation of Glen Innes and Tamaki United, they fielded three teams.Eastern Suburbs celebrate their 75th anniversary on the weekend of September 4-6. Anyone interested should contact the club.