All 14 NSL teams from around Australia entered the competition and it immediately followed the home and away season, as there was no final series.
The NSL Cup became a concept in January 1977 by the Australian Soccer Federation (now Football Australia) adopting the proposal to introduce a national knock-out competition for the first time in Australian soccer.
[4] It was proposed that all 14 NSL teams would enter along with other state league champions, but didn't feature state league teams for this edition until the next edition in 1978.
The NSL Cup was a knockout competition with 14 teams taking part all trying to reach the Final in October 1977.
[5] The competition consisted of the 14 teams from the National Soccer League.