Episode 65 - Lawrie McKinna's Political Football; Australian soccer's optimism

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By the time this post is up, the Football Writers Festival will have come and gone. Then there's the usual brief spiel on Mark Boric, and the lifting of restrictions on in person library visits.

We look at Tim Sherratt's list of non-English language newspapers on Trove. Wel also take a very quick look at the soccer references on a new database, Digital Pasifik.

Then a digression into a non-soccer project of Ian's - namely an Australian rules project called "make footy great again" - which leads to an odd discussion about how such an equivalent discussion work within the context of Australian soccer. You can see the bit that Ian's reads out abut the optimism of Australian soccer in 1913. Do we always look forward to better times, as opposed to "footy" always looking back to a mythic golden age, and both rugbys already being assured that they are and always have been,

In 100 Years Ago Today we look at a report on crowd violence at English football matche; s; a report on soccer and betting and wowserish anti-working class attitudes to soccer supporters, also from the UK; a report from a game between Bowen and the crew of the HMAS Melbourne, and what that report might indicate about why so many ships seemed to be inclined towards soccer; and the soccer finals at last in Newcastle, with a bonus supplementary photo from the 1960s of a later grand final.

In the final segment Paul looks at Lawrie McKinna's autobiography Political Football (as told to Adrian Deans). Paul looks at:

• McKinna's upbringing in Australia and Scotland.
• His unorthodox rise through the ranks of Scottish football, eventyually becoming a professional with Kilmarnock.
• The nature of Scottish football at the time - ncluding the revelation to Paul that even in the top-division, there were teams made up of semi-pros.
• The particular conditions of Scottish football which would see players like McKinna try their luck in Australia.
• McKinna's time as a player in Australia at a variety of NSL and state league clubs, and the often less than stellar conduct of those clubs towards players - especially injured ones.
• McKinna's transition into coaching, first as an assistant at Sydney Olympic, and later as head coach at Northern Spirit and Central Coast Mariners - and his eventual move into the corporate side of the game, as well as a move into local politics.
• The insights into the final seasons of the National Soccer League, the transition into the early A-League era, and the difficulties of being a small club with limited cash.