Episode 41 - a potted history of coaching; Darwin soccer in 1941

Download and listen to episode 41 here.

This week sees us still broadcasting from remote locations. We begin the call asking if anyone can help us get in contact with Geoff Huxley, who is responsible for compiling this dossier on soccer in Murwillumbah. Likewise, we ask if someone who knows Rocco Di Zio could possibly give him a nudge in terms of getting back to Paul's messages looking for help with the ongoing Victorian Italian merger flowchart - some subsequent updates of which are provided in this week's episode.

Ian then follows up on his work on 1920s Mildura soccer, and the surprising strength of the game in the area being revealed as more material becomes available on Trove.

Following from last week's passing note of the 200 odd soccer references in the Army News (1940-1946) in Darwin, Paul looks into what was going on there in 1941, and some of the difficulties in making sense of the research. There are no mentions of soccer in 1940, though there does appear to have been soccer played, as there is mention of a previous armed forces league champion. The coverage begins some time into the 1941 season, which is played during the north Australian wet season.

There's a steep learning curve in looking at this material for those unfamiliar with military jargon, slang, and ranks. This includes references to ranks as abbreviations, which may sometimes look like initials preceding a surname.

Table from the Army soccer league in Darwin, from 11th December 1941.

Most of the articles seem to be written by members of the relevant battalions, as part of their coverage of the social life of the armed forces in Darwin during World War 2. Soccer is, of course, just one of a number of sports being played in Darwin by members of the armed forces. There are about 8-10 teams in the competition, although it is difficult to figure out fixtures, which are generally played midweek and on weekends. Each team also seems to have a variety of names - a battalion or company name, the battalion's nickname, a nickname such as Wanderers or Wombats, and sometimes a locale. This makes things more difficult to discern what's what.

Most players are unnamed, except for goalscorers, and even there it is usually only a surname, sometimes preceded by a generic nickname. It is generally difficult at this early part of the research to find whether players in this competition had also played in civilian soccer beforehand. One person who did play civilian soccer, and who is mentioned in these articles - but who was not involved with Darwin soccer - was Wally Magee, who represented Australia in the B Internationals against the visiting Chinese team in 1941. Magee, who had played for the strong Metters side in New South Wales, had most most recently played and dominated for Moreland in the less competitive Melbourne competition. Magee is noteworthy here for having died while on service in Port Moresby.

In this week's Mark Boric Express we note that Mark has uploaded some annual reports from New South Wales, while continuing to work in his Victorian season files - in this case 1932. We also note fellow Football Nation Radio presenter Joey Lynch having written a good little piece on Ferenc Puskas' time in Australia, on the ESPN site.

In our middle segment, we take a meandering look at the history of coaching in Australia, inspired by Vince Rugari's story on Roberto Venturato, an Australian-born coach on the cusp of taking a minnow club in the form of Cittadella to Serie A. It's essentially a rambling look at the history of coaching in Australian soccer. It begins with looking at some of the Australian coaches who have tried their hand at coaching in overseas competitions. Paul notes that a lot of the Australian coaches who have coached overseas have probably done so in the Pacific and South-East Asia - like Scott O'Donnell, Darren Stewart, and Mehmet Durakovic - and thus are not in competition which Australian soccer fans pay much attention to. Then follows some off the cuff comments on 'name' overseas coaches imported to Australia.

Ian then moves the discussion to trying to research soccer and coaching on Trove. There's the catch of "coach" often referring to travelling by coach, rather than the meaning of coach as instruction or training. Ian also expounds on the way the term "coach" means different things in different places and contexts - that in some times and places in means only the coaching of children, as opposed to being someone mostly responsible for fitness and team selection of men's teams. There are also the intermittent bouts of Australians attempting to improve and refine the nature of quality of coaching, from the 1920s through to the 1950s. Often times this is in the form of ambitious clubs and governing bodies seeking to import coaches from Britain.

Then Ian's doorbell rings and Paul and Ian try to hold the show together for dear life.

In 100 Years Ago Today, we travel to Brisbane for a civic reception for the visiting New South Wales state team, and the general joy in having soccer back after the war. Then we go to Melbourne for some quick results; we stay in Melbourne for what appears to be on the surface another sign of goodwill between Australian rules and soccer, as per last week's occurrence in Hobart - though one of regular correspondents, Paul Hunt, noted during the week that perhaps the Australian Rules people were on their best behaviour because the Prince of Wales was in town on both occasions. And finally to Newcastle, where a visiting Australian Navy ship will play against Adamstown - it is worth that he crew of this ship is predominantly English.