Simon Hill: The best A-Leagues kit of all time, the only one I own, and how kits help breed culture

It’s kit reveal season in the A-Leagues.

Today, every kit tells a story, whether it be through a combination of colours, textures or fine details paying homage to the city and the fans that club belongs to.

Kit culture has a prominent place in football today, but when the Isuzu UTE A-League kicked off in 2005, the meaning behind a kit wasn’t even an afterthought – it wasn’t thought of at all. 

Network 10 commentator Simon Hill shares with KEEPUP the kits that attach themselves to memories he’s collected throughout 16 seasons covering the A-League Men.

Your relationship with your football club is very personal. 

The A-League Men is still young, so we’re still kind of building that heritage, that generational link that I had to my football club, Manchester City, through my dad and my granddad, and all those successes, failures of 1930’s/40’s/50’s before I was even thought of, but you get to learn through osmosis because of that.

I’ve got maybe 30 Man City jerseys from down the years, but I don’t buy one every single year out of habit – I buy the ones I like.

I wouldn’t say I’m a fanatic about jerseys. The thing for me, which I think is common for a lot of people of European, and specifically British backgrounds, is it’s about your club.

For example, this year’s shirt with the plain sky blue and the maroon trim: that’s a throwback to the 70’s which is when I started watching City. So for me, that evokes a great deal of nostalgia for the guys I watched when I was a kid, so I bought that shirt straight away.

That’s my story with shirts, anyway. I guess for A-League supporters it’s probably similar. They have to mean something – or, you simply have to like the design.

I remember the early years of the A-League kits being rather bland, to be honest. They did that deal with Reebok – and they all looked pretty similar. Unimaginative.

Certainly in the early days I used to think they didn’t make enough of their individuality. I thought it was all cookie cutter stuff. And if you remember the away kits were all white, all throughout the league.

There was all this sort of bland uniformity. I remember thinking they could do a lot better – and they have done since. 

Players from the eight founding A-League teams pose in their new kits before the inaugural campaign on July 26, 2005.

But the first A-Leagues kit that does springs to my mind is that Newcastle Jets gold jersey from year one. I think that stood out because it was a little bit different. I don’t think it was a colour normally associated with Newcastle – and I thought it looked pretty good.

I only started covering the A-League in the second season, because I was at SBS in the first year. I did a lot of Newcastle games, and they were just building the team that would ultimately go on to win the championship in 2007/08. 

But my standout memory is that Nicky Carle goal where he picked up the ball inside his own half, and dribbled all the way through and scored against Adelaide. That was the game, and the player, that stood out for me in that jersey.

Nick Carle of the Jets in action during the first round of the 2005-06 A-League Mens season on August 26, 2005.

I think it’s a good example as to the relevance of a shirt, because I’m sure it’s associated for a lot of Newcastle Jets fans with the fact that they won the championship that season.

I can understand in many ways why that’s a significant jersey for them. It stood out for me because it was just a bit different from all the reds and blues that we had at the time.

Wellington’s yellow and black stripes were similarly eye-catching – and different. Because of that deal with Reebok all the A-League clubs had in the early years of the competition, we didn’t have any team with stripes. It was all reds, blues – or gold for Newcastle – and there wasn’t any variation.

I remember at the time, one season after Wellington took over from the New Zealand Knights, the fact they were playing in stripes was seen as quite revolutionary.

The game that symbolises that was their first match against Victory in 2007/08, and Daniel scoring their first goal. He’s the player that springs to mind when you’re thinking of that kit – not just because it was stripes, but because it was a new era for New Zealand. They had a big crowd that day, about 15,000, and there was real optimism that after the disaster that was the Knights, this was going to be the big lift-off for football across the ditch. 

Paul Ifill (left) Eugene Dadi (centre) and Daniel (right) pose with family after Wellington defeated Newcastle Jets in the A-League Men minor semi-final at Sky Stadium on March 7, 2010.

The high watermark for that team was when they got to the preliminary final in 09-10 when they lost to Sydney in extra time. They were very close to the grand final under Ricky Herbert. 

Andrew Durante celebrates scoring for Wellington against Sydney FC in the 2009/10 preliminary final against Sydney FC on March 13, 2010. It remains the furthest the ‘Nix have progressed in a finals series to this day.

The North Queensland home shirt is the only A-League jersey I actually own.

I can’t even remember who gave it to me, to be honest – but it was sort of iconic, because it was green… it was something completely new. I guess, again, you think back to the time they were coming into the league with Gold Coast, and we were bidding for the World Cup, there was such a sense of optimism around the competition. We were expanding and going into new markets. 

I remember my first trip to North Queensland thinking: ‘Bloody hell, this is great! I’ve never been to Townsville, I wonder what Townsville is like?’ And I soon found out it was bloody hot!

They had Robbie Fowler as well, so there was a bit of a buzz about them, and Ian Ferguson as coach. It all seems a long time ago, doesn’t it?

Robbie Fowler of the Fury during the 2009-10 A-League season.

I still think we should have toughed it out in North Queensland, because we lost a generation there, and there was no need to, really. 

I’ve got the kit somewhere at home. To be fair, I’ve probably been given a couple of other A-League jerseys throughout the years as well, but that’s the one that sticks out.

But Melbourne Heart’s white kit with the sash: I think that’s probably the best A-League kit of all time. I really liked that kit.

There’s no particular standout memory, but it just looked so good. It looked like River Plate – even if they didn’t play like them! 

Melbourne City have replicated the sash in recent times, and that buys into the idea that over time you build history, you build tradition. 

Just to give you an example of that from my club, it wasn’t until the 1960’s that Manchester City started wearing red and black stripes as an away kit. The reason we did that is because Malcolm Allison saw AC Milan play and thought they looked really stylish and threatening in that kit – so he decided to introduce it.

So it didn’t have any history then, but of course we won a few trophies in it, and now it’s iconic.

Just because there’s not so much history now, it doesn’t mean there’s not going to be in the future. All those things build over time, they evolve into something bigger, and all that history and tradition seeps into fans over the decades.

We’re still building that at the moment, but it will come. Long after you and I are gone – but it will be there.