Episode 18 - Victor Brincat, George Cross and the Australia Cup

Download and listen to episode 18 here.

A little bit on listener Paul Nicholls' father Don reuniting with an old teammate Bruce from their days playing together Gladesville Methodists 70 years ago.

Garry McKenzie finds the original source for an 1870 game of soccer mentioned in Peter Kunz's Chronicles of Soccer in Australia - and the problems of figuring out where the 19th century and early 20th century Australian press sourced their stories from.

Then on to a TV clip that came up on Twitter discussion, about the time the 1970s American cop drama McLeod filmed an episode in Australia, which included a game with APIA as part of their story.

Following is a quick digression about what soccer films exist in Australia, including ex-NSL player Leigh Tsoumerkas' recollections of the VIS team's cameo in The Heartbreak Kid.

And for some reason some chat about Craig Johnston and comments he made about political correctness.

After the break we chat with Victor Brincat, soccer historian interested in the club now known as Caroline Springs George Cross. We cover:

• The difficulty of getting any information from the early days of clubs like George Cross.
• The practical priorities of club committees ignoring the importance of the proper maintenance of historical records.
• George Cross' bridesmaid's role during the 1960s and 70s in Victorian soccer, and the hollowness of the eventual title breakthrough in 1977.
• The 1964 Australia Cup, and the permanent donation of the Australia Cup to George Cross, after its rescue from the rubbish and its subsequent restoration.
• The assumption by many that Sydney clubs, with their superior financial backing would dominate the Australia Cup.
• The habit of Australia Cup winners - Yugal, Slavia, Melbourne Hungaria - of eventually going defunct.
• The decline of clubs soccer alongside the demise of the Australia Cup.
• Victor's recollections of the 1964 Australia Cup final.
• George Cross' excellent presentation of history in their social club.
• The mini-documentary made by Ben Coonan for Fox Sports, of the Australia Cup being presented to George Cross including footage of the 1964 Australia Cup final.
• The story of how that footage came to light.

Then 100 Years Ago Today where we being with Dockerty Cup results, and where does Preston play? Next we go to Bowral, aka the middle of nowhere; then to Lithgow, and what else is there to do there? And accusations of sabotage! 

Episode 2 - Australian soccer and literature; Extended trophy discussion

Download and listen to episode 2 here,

Rudderless without George Donikian's guiding hand, Ian and Paul cast off into uncharted waters. The first ten minutes meander with attempts to put forward a manifesto, or at least some sort of method - only committed listeners will find out if any of these regular segments actually materialise.

The whole world then celebrates Paul's finally getting his thesis passed. The thesis was about the relationship between Australian soccer and literature, and soccer and Australian literature,

• the difficulty about talking sport and the arts at the same time in Australian culture.
• the paucity of academic and community awareness of Australian sporting literature.
• the Austlit database, which is accessible via university databases for those in the tertiary sector, and via state library websites.
• the many ways in which the literature differs in its discourses from the ways in which journalism and mainline histories discuss the experience of Australian soccer
• the ways in which the literature challenges monolithic understandings of Australian soccer in terms of ethnicity and gender readings.
• the idea that demographers, historians, sociologists etc have not taken literature seriously when looking at the Australian sporting experience.
• an extended discussion on The Earth Cries Out, Harold C. Wells' novel on mining in the Hunter, which includes occasional snippets on soccer.

After the break, the discussion moves to missing trophies, and particularly Victoria's Beaney Cup, and the George and George Cup, and the sage of their theft, pawning, and involvement in court cases. The discussion also touches on the virtual disappearance of soccer from Victoria during the 1890s and early 1900s.

Then onto the Gardiner Cup, New South Wales' long-running knockout cup, and a discussion of the nature (and material value) of trophies, and the cultural difference between trophies and pennants. Then a discussion on the FA Trophy, which was donated by the Football Association for interstate competition in Australia, which was assumed missing... but is it actually?

And then onto the very well-known story of the fate of the Australia Cup trophy... and how soccer cultures evolve in the things that they care (and don't care about), and the ways in which people in the game take care of historical artefacts - and what happens to a club's trophies if the club goes defunct? And who is responsible for maintaining those artefacts? Oh, and that dreaded museum debate...