One of the most important things to know about Australian football is that it possesses a character all its own, one shaped by decades of relative isolation from the rest of the soccer world, and marginalisation within the sporting scene inside the national border.
For those new to it, it can seem almost contradictory, with physicality and an obsession with results blended with a sense of irreverence, gallows humour and willingness to embrace the absurd. It's important to know that before one attempts to assemble a list of the most iconic footballing kits in Australian domestic football history. Because that adjective in there is an important one. It's not necessarily the best kits in Australian football history that this list is searching for but the most iconic ones.
These kits aren't just kits, they're time capsules, capturing a moment, an emotion, or a vibe -- be it a good one, a bad one, or a funny one -- that makes them instantly memorable and, ultimately, iconic.
The Del Piero kit | Sydney FC, 2012-13
Since the A-League's birth in 2005, Sydney FC and Melbourne Victory have consistently produced memorable kits, the former donning sky blue and their bitter rivals, fittingly, navy blue. And even without the backstory associated with it, the Sky Blues' 2012-13 offering from Adidas is one of their better ones, with the pinstripes, dark blue piping along the sleeves and sides, and collar (which always makes a kit better) creating a memorable offering. Even the giant sponsor logo somehow fits.
But nice as it is, what makes this kit truly iconic is that it was the one worn by megastar Alessandro Del Piero when he signed with Sydney after nearly two decades with Juventus, bringing a level of excitement and buzz to the league that, combined with a thriving fan culture and the arrival expansion franchise the Western Sydney Wanderers, helped the competition reach its zenith. The league may have drifted steadily away from those heights since then, but the moment the Italy legend buried a free kick in his home debut will live long in the memory of not just Sydney fans, but followers of the A-League in general.
Of course, making it a bit more special for Sydney fans, it's also the kit that Sam Kerr wore as she helped the Harboursiders to a W-League crown that season.
The AAMI Park Grand Final kit | Melbourne Victory, 2014-15
Victory and Sydney may not agree on many things, but both have had a rather fruitful partnership with Adidas over the years, with Victory's 2014-15 offering one of the strongest by the manufacturer -- the white piping and white collar complementing the most important part of any Victory kit: the chevron emblazoned across the chest.
This kit, however, stakes its place as one of the most iconic in Australian domestic league history as the one worn by Victory as they triumphed in one the most famous Grand Finals ever: beating Sydney FC 3-0 in a "Big Blue" decider in front of a sold-out AAMI Park, to complete their third premiership-championship double in just the 10th season of the league.
The 30,000- seater AAMI Park wasn't even supposed to host a game of this magnitude but with Marvel Stadium and the MCG unavailable, it was called into action, providing a cauldron of noise as the Victory romped to a title.
The Palm Tree kit | Central Coast Mariners, 2015-16
The Mariners have had some soaring highs and crushing lows over their existence -- mostly highs in recent years -- but, throughout it all, the club from Gosford has developed an identity and culture unique unto itself. Be it the picturesque scenes provided by the waterfront stadium, the cannon that is fired when the Mariners score, the sponsored giant inflatable sauce bottles that are erected behind the goals, or the osprey family that nests in one of the light towers, everything about the venue is distinct.
And that same reasoning is behind their 2015-16 kit's inclusion here. It's probably not the best kit the Mariners have produced over the years -- they've had some good ones, but also some shockers -- but bearing the design of the palm trees that dot the southern end of the stadium, adding to the views of the water behind the goal, it's perhaps the most uniquely, unapologetically Mariners one. And in Australian football, that makes it iconic.
The Freedom of Speech kit | Gold Coast, 2011-12
A kit that has become iconic not because of any sort of memorable highs or soaring victory -- at the time, it was pretty representative of a league low point -- but because the passage of time has allowed it to become appreciated for its sheer ridiculousness.
In the final weeks of Gold Coast's third and what proved to be final season as an A-League franchise, the club's billionaire owner Clive Palmer -- a week after declaring the league "a joke" and that he preferred Rugby League -- outfitted his side with shirts bearing a "Freedom of Speech" motif (in the same black-and-yellow colour scheme that he would later use for his political party) plastered across the front, with similarly designed sponsor-boarding around the stadium.
It was Palmer's latest salvo in his battle with then-league administrators Football Federation Australia and the club's actual front-of-shirt sponsor, Hyatt. Days later, Palmer's licence was terminated by the federation and the Freedom of Speech kit passed into legend -- and the wishlists of kit collectors around the world.
South take on the world kit | South Melbourne, 1998-99
Representing the A-League's predecessor competition, the National Soccer League, on this list, South Melbourne became the fourth team to go back-to-back in the Australian top flight in 1999 -- a time that serves as something of an inflection point for Australian football. Two years earlier, the Socceroos had missed qualifying for the 1998 FIFA World Cup in heartbreaking fashion against Iran, and two years later they would fall just short again, this time against Uruguay. The NSL would go on to collapse in 2004, before Australia qualified for the 2006 World Cup and gave the birth of the A-League a supercharge.
A year out from the millennium at Bob Jane Stadium, however, a young Ange Postecoglou was also winning his third trophy, setting the stage for a career that would one day see him stalk the touchlines of the Premier League. In their iconic royal blue kits, South would also go on to become the first club to represent Australia at the Club World Cup: facing Manchester United, Necaxa, and Vasco da Gama in Brazil, with John Anastasiadis writing his name into history as the only Australian to score at the iconic Maracanã in a 3-1 loss to Necaxa.