Episode 73 - Paul Nicholls' 20 matches for the 20th century

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This begins with banter encompassing Paul being sick the week before, a scam that Ian and Paul during their time working at uni, and Ian's look at Patrick Skene's new book n rugby league player Olsen Filipaina. Oh, and a comment by Skene that the soccer community is not supportive of people taking the plunge writing important soccer books. That's followed by a promotion for Dylan Arvela's new book about Woonona's 2021 championship success. 

Then more on Footscray Thistle, including updates on a previous post by Ian, including information sent to him by descendants of some of the players in the photo, including leading Victorian player of the 1920s and 30s George Macauley. Some chat also about "lost 'insert suburb/locality/town'" pages on Facebook, which inevitably have little soccer content.

Then Footscray Park bingo and shenanigans with 'footy' posts. And some chat about a heinously mythmaking plaque in Ararat honouring the 'founder' of Australian Rules football, Tom Wills. Paul lets the audience know about how a recently established club in Port Fairy was educated about the history of soccer in the region by a former player from the 1950s Port Fairy.

After the break it's time for 100 Years Ago Today, beginning in Melbourne, and musings about Caledonian society involvement in the game; then across to Albany, with more Thistles and Corinthians... is there something in the existence of clubs named Thistle and Corinthians across the country? Then into a James George Beaney digression, with nothing to do with the segment. 

Back to the segment - in Brisbane, there's a huge increase in numbers and Brisbane and Ipswich, leading to the formation of a second division, and the barest hints of an unnamed professionalism and its effects on recruitment. 

Finally, we get to this week's guest is Paul Nicholls, who wrote an article for Fairplay's Play On magazine's December edition, picking 20 games for the 20th Century. To avoid contemporary biases, Paul limited himself to two games per decade, and this we scamper through his list to look for how he came up with his list. We look at:

• trying to look at the history of the game in Australia as an outsider
• important pre-NSL games, and the importance of pre-NSL era as a whole
• women's games
• the obsession with England
• district vs club debates
• novelty matches like Western Australia vs England cricketers
• Iran '97
• Paul Mavroudis' quibbles with certain selections
• the problems with trying to sort out any list from the hundreds of thousands, if not millions of soccer matches played during the 20th century in Australia.
• Trying to look forward and back at the same time.
• the lack of obvious legacies for many of the selections
• balancing the obvious with the obscure