Episode 89 - minimum standards of national league venues, with Les Street.

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Paul is joined in hosting duties by Les Street! The Be My Guest launch has been cancelled, but we were hoping to have on them the show next week. Then Paul discusses the rambling story of retired Scottish forward and current day pundit Gordon Dalziel, whose hazy recollection of playing against Ange Postecoglou in Australia was proven half right. Then Paul and Les segue into a discussion about Scottish football's commitment to accurate crowd numbers, as opposed to Australian soccer's reticence to ever tell the truth about its crowd numbers.

Garry McKenzie has a question about what happens to how records are counted for cancelled seasons - should matches and player records be counted in overall/all-time records? What practices have been used in the past in Australian soccer, like when teams failed to complete seasons - using the examples if Carlton and Eastern Pride in 2001, and Sydney City in 1987.

Then Les goes back to a question raised in episode 80, about where a certain round 1 NSL game was played - Olympic Park or Middle Park - and how Les found the answer. The search for an answer illuminates the nature of soccer reporting, deadlines, and schedules.

We finish the opening segment with a discussion about burnout and self-care. Mark Boric posted a notice of retirement from his blog which indicated a degree of battle fatigue. What are the risks of doing research as a hobby? Well burnout, disillusionment, and what is meant to be a hobby becoming a slog which consumes all your free time, all in pursuit of a "dragon" you can never catch. There'll always be more info and details to chase, spaces to fill, and the payoffs are often brief and fleeting in their ability to elicit pleasure. It's a reminder to take time off, and not let historical work take over - especially if you're not getting paid for it, and especially if it's not longer fun.

Our main segment this week is about the history of national venue standards - a discussion which was prompted by a Twitter discussion about fences at Australian soccer grounds. Les takes us through the history of various (and often) fleeting adherence to venue standards in the National Soccer League - starting with the perhaps surprising insight that the NSL began with the idea of playing at the best venues available to it, having a uniform, central kit supplier - which all sounds rather like the early A-League.

We talk about the way and the reasons for standards slipping - and fences, a discussion prompted in part by this online discussion which kicked off the 2016 Year of the Australian soccer fence. And we chat about the ways that the deterioration ground standards acted to dissuade families and the non-hardcore people from going to games - see the state of stadiums of English football. But also - other sports in Australia also had crowd problems, which prompted thinking from them about similar solutions to what were adopted in Australia. We also look at seating and cover, briefly mention broadcasting. For the A-League match day requirement spreadsheet mentioned in this segment, see this link; also, what happened to the NSL's match day requirements lists?

In 100 Years Ago Today, England vs Scoland match; a quick look at New Zealand debates about the suitability of football for women; correcting scurrilous rumours from Broken Hill that fundraising money for orphans has been squandered; Tasmania invites Victoria for an interstate match; soccer firms in Newcastle; and thorough match reports on New South Wales' tour of Queensland - against the home state, and an even more thorough report; a toast from the Mayor; and a match against West Moreton.

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.