Episode 39 - Greg Stock and the future of Australian soccer history

Download and listen to episode 39 here.

On this week's episode we begin by catching up with the Mark Boric Express where, apart from his uploads, he's been attempting to improve upon the extant records from Victorian soccer's 1910s, 20s, and 30s - and looking especially at the many difficulties in reconciling obviously incorrect and/or competing archival narratives. We then move on trying to understand why Rale Rasic and Bob Marley are posing with a stuffed panda at Adelaide City in the late 1970s - including an answer from current member of the South Australian partliament, Frank Pangallo. And then a quick update on Paul's map, and some audience feedback on using the Ancestry.com database for Australian soccer research.

Then to 100 Years Ago Today, beginning in Western Australia and Ian's fascination with the perplexing change in writing style within the article; then to Sydney, where we look at the rugby league news, and the noting that soccer has established itself in one-time rugby league strongholds. Still in Sydney, and a discussion about amateurism in rugby league from an important Australian historical figure. Then to Melbourne's results, and looking forward to the Prince of Wales' tour. And finally, a note on so-called "Germanised sport", as opposed to proper English conduct on the sporting field - and the hypocrisies of an Australian writer discussing this within the context of the Australian spotting public's love of gambling, barracking, and win-at-all costs mentality.

After the break we talk to returning guest Greg Stock, to talk about how Australian soccer history and historians moves forward after the pandemic. We discuss the possibility of history being placed into the "too-hard basket" in amid the financial and logistical constraints brought upon by the pandemic; the placing of history within the need to be "valued adding", that is history not being valuable in and of itself; the different ways soccer historians and non-soccer historians value Australian soccer history; the historic trends of volunteers and enthusiastic entrepreneurs filling in gaps in mainstream and official soccer media infrastructures; the history of amateur collaborative work in spite of the lip-service paid by official bodies.

Paul seems particularly keen on just pushing ahead with the Australian soccer tradition of quasi-anarchic, decentralised historical work; the unlikely scenario where federations hire historians; Greg notes the fact that federations still handle their own current statistical records poorly, but Paul also adds the lack of interest from ordinary soccer participants in maintaining contemporary records, including of their own participation - this is the idea that if change is to come from anywhere, it must come from soccer's mainline participant base, not from niche historical busybodies. But how do we get those people interested? How do we convince them that they are living in history, and that their presence matters?

In the final segment, Ian revisits some earlier work on soccer in the regional Queensland town of Warwick.