1983 New Zealand National Soccer League

The 1983 New Zealand National Soccer League was the 14th season of a nationwide round-robin club competition in New Zealand football. Manurewa comfortably won the league for the first time, finishing eight points clear of second-placed Hanimex North Shore United. This was the first season in which a win scored three points; prior to this they were worth only two.

Promotion was automatic, with the three lowest placed sides in the 1982 league (Hamilton, East Coast Bays, and Invercargill Thistle) replaced by the winners of the northern, central, and southern leagues (Papatoetoe, Nelson United, and Dunedin Technical respectively).

From 1983 play-offs for promotion and relegation returned, with the bottom side in the league playing off with the three regional champions for a solitary league place. This was thus the last season in which the top teams from the regional leagues would automatically enter the league. In the event bottom-placed Dunedin Technical withdrew from the league at the end of the season, meaning that the three regional champions would play off for the vacancy.

It was Auckland's year, with all of the top four places filled by teams from the Queen City. The league was very close with teams who had led early ending in the bottom half of the table and vice versa. As the second half of the season started only two points separated second from ninth, and at the end of the season fourth and seventh place were separated on goal difference alone. Manurewa were by far the league's strongest side in 1983, and would have finished first by either the old or new points system. They scored five more goals than the second highest scoring team, and conceded fewer than any other side as well on their way to the title. Their season was topsy-turvy, and after three matches they were bottom of the league with just one point. Their remaining 19 matches contained only two further losses, however. Their team was bolstered by the twin acquisitions of Steve Sumner and Mark Armstrong, who between them scored 30 goals. Sumner was the league's top scorer with 18, and the inaugural winner of the league's Golden Boot award.

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