Episode 29 - Greg Stock & Studs Up; average ages; free dinners

Download and listen to episode 29 here.

On this week's episode Paul brings the show back from someone's unilateral declaration of a hiatus by bringing in local soccer historian, one time If You Know Your History guest, and former host of the Daily Football Show podcast Tony Persoglia to share hosting duties.

We begin the show with the usual catch up/clean up. We also out the call for anyone who might have the following episodes of Brogan Renshaw's Behind the Game podcast, with the interview subject listed where known:

7 (Ian Syson), 25, 26, 28, 43 and 54

Renshaw's podcast, dating from around 2015/2016, was a series of 60 long form interviews with a variety of Australian soccer personalities - historians, players, academics, writers, fans, volunteers, etc. It is a unique snapshot of Australian soccer fandom, and elements of some of the interviews were also used by Joe Gorman in his Death and Life of Australian Soccer. 

If you have any of these missing episodes please get in contact with us at the show, or contact Brogan Renshaw.

After that, we make the announcement that Fiona Crawford and Lee McGowan are launching their new book Never Say Die, about the history of Australian women's soccer, at the following two locations.

• BRISBANE: Friday November 29th, 6:30pm, at Riverbend Books, 193 Oxford Street, Bulimba.
• MELBOURNE: Monday December 2nd, at Heidelberg United Soccer Club, Catalina Street

During the previous week Australian soccer's stats guru Andrew Howe made the observation that the top five games in Australian top-flight soccer in terms of average age of a starting XI had all been made in the last couple of years. (for the record, the youngest average for a match was back in 1984) Tony and Paul look at some of the complicating factors in making broad brushstroke claims on what the available data can tell us about historical (and ongoing trends) about the nature of players and squad selection in the Australian top-flight.

Our interview guest this week is Australian soccer historian and stats man Greg Stock. Greg tells us about how he became involved with soccer, a story with many similarities to fellow stats man Andrew Howe's story. We then move on to talking about Greg's time at the storied Australian soccer fanzine Studs Up, talking about the nature of the magazine - its grassroots activist, progressive political edge, and its historical elements.

We also focus on Greg's 'Interview with a Formeroo' segment from Studs Up, where Greg would track down former Socceroos both well-remembered and long-forgotten, including a special focus during the interview on Joe Marston and Ken Vairy. We finish up with a discussion about the gradual snowballing in collaboration between local soccer historians centred on Mark Boric's projects.

In the final segment we do 100 Years Ago Today, where we look at Sydney Middleton, master athlete; then to Brisbane, where the Brisbane City club is coming back from its war enforced recess; to Newcastle, where various New South Wales soccer bodies are trying to create an overarching, state-wide structure of junior (and eventually senior) soccer; then Geraldton, where the local club is going to play a cricket match; and finally to Toowoomba, where the local soccer writer is miffed and not getting an invitation for dinner party.

And Paul ruins an otherwise perfect show by making the massive cock-up by stating that Victorian referee Perry Mur has a heavy Scottish accent. Ignore that, Mur has a bona fide Aussie accent, and who knows what Paul was thinking when he blurted out that line on the air.