Episode 81 - The ongoing process of making this a Victorian soccer history show

Download and listen to this episode here.

Paul ponders the personal impact of Marxist alienation.

Then the clean up, with the usual suspects, with veiled references to copyright infringement debates. And book launches to look forward to, eventually.

Then to the show proper - and an update to the Geranium story from last week, including Australian Rules historians backsliding into claiming any archival photographs of football teams as belonging to their sport. 

The Footscray Historical Society is looking for volunteers to help digitise parts of its photographic collection. But the members of the FHS are continuing to provide a wealth of treasures for Ian's research into Footscray soccer, but also school soccer - and thus Ian looks into the ongoing matter of senior ethnic backed clubs from Victoria's State League in the 1960s (and thereabouts), creating relationships with extant non-affiliated junior soccer teams. Ian reads out a letter from Greg Daglis, reminiscing about playing for Sunshine Heights Slavia's junior teams in the 1960s and 70s. And some discussion, too, about the gradual erosion of the importance of public school soccer in Melbourne.

During the break we got a phone call from a listener, which confused the crap out of everyone in the studio. Thnaks Greg Werner, for providing some background on Sydney school soccer from the early 20th Century. Then onto Swinburne Tech and its student journal Open Door, and a poignant story about the death of a soccer loving teacher at the school - and clues into the "40 Thieves", British teachers brought to Australia in the 1920s and 30s. What influence did this teacher intake have on Victorian soccer?

Then more research of Ian's (and the folk at the FHS) on the late era of Footscray Thistle - on the vandalism of the clubrooms, the number of club members serving in the war, and what clues this might offer to the end of Thistle.

Then Ian ruminates on British writer Harry Pearson's The Far Corner, a book on cultural aesthetic of football in the north-east of England. This discussion is meant to illustrate the low value we as a society place on the interests of working class and ordinary people, including their sporting interests. Paul mentions how it's a matter of culture - and mass, low culture especially - moves on relentlessly and unapologetically. And an example of how that football across the world is not popular across all levels or strata of society - see Antony Sutton's reminiscences here as an example.

Then 100 Years Ago Today, where we begin in Kalgoorlie publishing an article from Sydney, where someone's rambling about cricket and football, and the rise of Australian Rules as the "modern game", supplanting other older codes; then to Armidale in New South Wales, and an increase in soccer memberships, and a very early morning start to get to Tenterfield by train; then to Geraldton, for the opening of the local season; then down to Midland Junction and Perth; then still in Western Australia, with Katanning, and Sunday recreation rules; back to Perth, and Aussie Rules and soccering the ball; and Melbourne results.

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.