Episode 31 - Les Street & Aussie rules grounds in Oz Soccer; Paul Connolly's 'The Mighty Bras'

Download and listen to episode 31 here. 

Tony Persoglia is still ill, so tonight Paul is joined in hosting duties by Jason Goldsmith, previously a guest on the show.

On the catch up we play our usual tribute to Mark Boric and his collaborators, and the great scanning and uploading work they're doing. We look at the apples and oranges comparisons made about Ange Postecoglou's J-League title success and the success of other coaches - and yes there are references to snake emojis. 

In 100 Years Ago Today, we critique the batting techniques and temperaments of Geraldton's soccer players... but does it even matter if their cricket match is going to be interrupted by a surprise soccer game; take a look at Eurosnob material in the Adelaide press; check out combination fundraiser and bragging rights matches still being played so late in the year in Newcastle; and finish up at Lithgow, where the local schoolboys are playing for what sound like some very nice trophies

After the break we chat with Les Street about the use of Australian rules football grounds for Australian top-flight soccer grounds, especially in the southern states. During the conversation we sweep across the country from Western Australia to Tasmania, covering grounds old, new and demolished, and grounds which were at least built to be nominally multi-sport venues. We also look at the reasons why some Aussie rules grounds were used by soccer - and why some were perhaps underused. We also cover issues such as pitch alignments, surface conditions, cricket wickets, spectator amenities and sight-lines - and we find that there's been so many "footy" grounds used for top-flight soccer, that we neglect to mention even obvious ones like Victoria Park!

In the final segment we take a look at a hidden gem of Australian soccer books, Paul Connolly's The Mighty Bras, Connolly's 2010 memoir about his first seven years coaching of the Brunswick Zebras senior women's team. This is the ultimate sweet-natured - but not saccharine - grassroots soccer story, about a bunch of women ranging in age from early 30s until early 50s, who suddenly find themselves playing organised soccer despite most of them having next to athletic background, let alone a soccer background. They are neither the pioneering women of yesteryear, who sought out soccer and made it their own (in the broader sense against men’s disapproval, and the disapproval of other women, establishing their own controlling body as well as clubs; neither are they (for the most part) part of the maturing of the girl footballers who had begun to swell junior numbers. 

The book focuses on the team's 2009 season, but also goes back to earlier games and season, covering the high, lows, and middles. When this team started, it was the only senior team for either gender at Brunswick Zebras – the senior men’s wing didn’t start until 2006, and perhaps unusually, the women's team has continued through to 2019. The book provides a snapshot of the kinds of opponents they faced, from across the city, and the conditions that these women played in, and under. The books also looks at the different motivations of the different teams (youth vs age, winning at all costs vs fun), and Paul’s motivations in being their coach. Perhaps most keenly observed, apart from the various characters in the book, are the difference between the expectations of men’s football (even “social” men’s football) and senior women’s football, as well as the culturally entrenched (though not unchangeable) psychological differences between men’s and women’s teams.