Episode 36 - Footscray JUST and Schintler Reserve; A Letter From the Front

Download and listen to episode 36 here.

On this week's episode we welcome back Ian back from vertigo, and we look at the recent activity of some of our favourite local soccer historians.

In 100 Years Ago Today, it looks like the ground allocations in Albany aren't going so well; Toowoomba's soccer folk are looking forward to a promising season; in Brisbane, soccer has managed to secure the Gabba for its marquee matches in 1920; there's the usual flurry of activity in Newcastle and the Hunter; and in the Illawarra, attempts are being made to revive the Port Kembla club, which had disbanded due to the enlistment of its entire playing roster for the war effort.

Footscray JUST vs Fawkner at Schintler Reserve, in 1990.
Photo: Graeme McGinty.

 In our middle segment, we look at the demise of Footscray JUST via three prompts. First, beginning an preliminary examination of the various ways in which Australian soccer clubs perish. Second, what happens to the collective memory of an Australian club when it perishes. Third, looking specifically at the loss of Schintler Reserve as a soccer venue. In episode 16 we looked at the difficulties soccer had in securing a permanent (and preferably enclosed) venue in Footscray, which was an extension of the discussion in episode 15, where we looked at the contemporary attempt by Melbourne Victory to secure part of Footscray Park as a training base,

The shipping container lot on the current site of Schintler Reserve.
Photo: Les Street.

The ultimate loss of Schintler Reserve is examined through the lens of the July 1998 civil case Bulic vs Melbourne City Nominees Pty Ltd, whose details are accessible via the AustLII database we discussed in episode 35. The case shows the elongated and unusual demise of Footscray JUST, wherein it was split in two, with one part attempting to transform into a "broadbased" club; then having the football part taken over by an Argentine consortium, and the other becoming a lease holder of an inner city soccer venue without tenants, and with little apparent prospect of rejuvenating of said venue.

In our final segment Ian revisits a leftover item from last year - a rollicking report on the experience of the 34th Battalion from Maitland, and their experiences playing soccer against an English regiment on the war front in February 1918. Peter Coppock's report is both lively and modest, and an exemplary demonstration of how strongly soccer was embedded in Newcastle and its surrounds as a cultural force.