History doesn’t repeat, they say – but it often rhymes. And in Australian soccer right now, poetry is in motion.

On Saturday, Victorian NPL side Heidelberg United will face off with the A-League’s Newcastle Jets in the final of the Australia Cup, their first national decider in almost 30 years.

Their last one was in the 21st and last edition of the NSL Cup – a pre-season tournament, then known as the Johnnie Walker Cup for sponsorship reasons, held in September 1996. And they won. But they weren’t known as Heidelberg.

For one crazy season, they were called the Collingwood Warriors, having formed a joint venture with the AFL club that was either 50 years ahead of its time, or doomed to failure from day one.

The more time that passes, the harder it is to believe this actually happened.

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