These days Wollongong Wolves have to be content with living vicariously through the exploits of their former players, but the two-times former champions of Australia haven't yet given up on the dream of returning to the grand stage.
Last month three Australian teams participated in FIFA tournaments, and no local club boasted a bigger representation of talent than the Wolves, who have been left to lick their wounds in the NSW Premier League after missing out on a place in the brave new world of the A-League.
Historically, the Illawarra has always been fertile football nursery, but it is doubtful whether the region has ever produced such an impressive crop.
Three locals - Scott Chipperfield, Mile Sterjovski and Luke Wilkshire - were involved in the Socceroos squad at the Confederations Cup in Germany. Five others - Justin Pasfield, Jacob Timpano, Ruben Zadkovich, Jay Lucas and Adam Federici - travelled with the Australian under-20 team to the World Youth Championships in the Netherlands. And at the Oceania Club World Championship qualifiers in Tahiti, Sydney FC relied on two adopted sons of the Illawarra - Saso Petrovski and Alvin Ceccoli - who moved to Wollongong to win titles in the old NSL and liked it so much they stayed to raise their families. Another Illawarra product, goalkeeper Mitchell Blowes, was drafted in at the last moment by coach Pierre Littbarski to sit on the bench.
That's a full team on the world stage, and the Wolves can only ponder what might have been. When the time came for applications to join the A-League midway through last year, the Wolves decided they weren't ready. With a spot reserved specifically for a regional side, the Central Coast Mariners gleefully jumped into the breach.
"My only regret is being truthful," says Wolves chairman Doug Symes.
"When the deadline came up, we had most of what we wanted in place, but not everything. It was a matter of a couple of weeks. Subsequently, we found that Sydney, Central Coast and Melbourne were all granted extensions. Looking back, there's no doubt we could have made a bid, and a very good one, if we'd had the extra time. But that's history, and we have to move on."
Moving on involves the completion of a long-awaited pet project of the consortium which owns the Wolves - a new stadium and headquarters in Figtree. If you've ever wondered what happened to the old Seagulls Stadium at Tweed Heads - which housed the former NRL team - you'll find out in 12 months.
The Wolves consortium purchased the 'stadium' - which included an electronic scoreboard, grandstands with 3500 seats, and 40 corporate boxes - and trucked it down the Pacific Highway. It's been sitting around various Wollongong industrial estates for the past five years and is about to be dusted off and resurrected.
Together with the old two-tiered brick grandstand at Brandon Park - which holds 2800 seats - the various pieces of the jigsaw will be put back together again at Lysaght's Oval to create a new home ground for the team. Not only that, the surrounds will incorporate a licensed club, a swimming pool, gymnasium, and sports injury centre, and up to seven training fields. The sod-turning ceremony has been held, and, with government funds secured for the rebuilding project, the Wolves hope to move in before the end of next year.
That will give the club the best of both worlds - their own 14,000-capacity stadium and use of the 20,000-capacity WIN Stadium if need be - and with it a launching pad back to the big time of football.
"It breaks our heart to see all our former players somewhere else," says Symes.
"It proves we don't have a problem producing good players in the Illawarra. Our problems in the past have been off the field. This project is all about providing a revenue stream, and the infrastructure, to go forward without relying on money coming through the gates."