paid tribute to the club implicitly signalling, perhaps, remorse for the delayed admission: "of the entrants, Alexander proved themselves champions when they easily won the League Championship with a total of 34 points. Their attack was the best of any team competing in Victorian soccer this season, with 113 goals scored." With its successful appearance in competitive soccer, the club received an additional boost in the following years (1961–1963), winning all league competitions and climbing to the State League in 1964. In 1965 Alexander's activities declined due to internal administrative problems and the team was relegated. Next year (1966) the club again won the first division premiership and was promoted to State League only to drop back in 1969. In 1970 it survived the transition and became a leading force when it won the 1975 Victorian State League (today's Victorian Premier League) Championship under its then name of Fitzroy United Alexander Soccer Club under coach Manolis Poulakakis. National Soccer League (1977–1996) Fitzroy United Alexander was a founding member of the National Soccer League and proved to be a model team for consistency, since it managed to score, throughout the years, the second best performance rate of all Australian teams competing in the highest league. At one stage (1982–1985) seven of the 16 national Socceroo players were players from the club. Following the formation of the National Soccer League in 1977, the club commenced negotiations with the Heidelberg City Council to move its grounds from Fitzroy to Heidelberg. The local council decided to lease the historic Olympic Village (the training venue for the Melbourne 1956 Olympics) to Alexander. The terms and conditions of the lease were advantageous to the Club which was obtaining access to a prestigious soccer field, with a pavilion and track and field facilities. The committee, led by a solicitor and ex-player of the team, James Mangopoulos, began in November 1977 negotiating the possibility of leasing the grounds surrounding the pitch at the Olympic Village. In 1978 the Mangopoulos Committee announced its plan to move to Heidelberg and advertised the erection of a covered grandstand seating 1,500 spectators, turnstiles and public facilities for 3,000 people, incurring a cost of $400,000 out of a total cost of the overall scheme of about $950,000. The contracts, however, were not finalised until 1982. The City of Heidelberg agreed to lease the land for thirty years, charging the Club a nominal amount.