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

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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 56 - Samantha Lewis and researching Australian women's soccer history

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We begin this week's episode with Paul getting increasingly upset at Ian's relentless desire for "banter". Then onto the clean-up, with Greg Stock and Mark Boric uploading 1930s and 1940s New South Wales newspapers and news items. George Cotsanis has unearthed a colour photo of Port Melbourne Slavia, winners of the 1963 Australia Cup, and the 1964 Dockerty Cup. We reminisce about Ian's research on this team, which was one the key moments in Ian's career as a soccer historian. We also answer Peter Eedy's question about the fate of the trophies, including the story of the salvaging and refurbishment of the Australia Cup. 

Paul Nicholls alerted us to an article about soccer in Moss Vale in 1891, which feeds into a segment we brought up early in 2019 about the origins or starting point of soccer in the Macarthur catchment in south-west Sydney.

We also foreshadow a possible look at the state of Australian soccer articles on Wikipedia, via a quick look at two tweets (this one, and this one) which look at the benefits of even minor improvements to articles on Wikipedia. 

In the middle segment we're joined by this week's guest, journalist Samantha Lewis, for this week's edition of 100 Years Ago Today, where there's no Melbourne news! Instead, we begin by following up on last week Newcastle area politicking; head down to Hobart, where the north of the state decides against sending a team south for the return leg of the North vs South fixture; we go back up to Queensland, and Toowoomba, where the town of Harlaxton seems to have produced quite a few school representatives - with Garry McKenzie offering the snippet via social media of a girls' team from Harlaxton in 1917; trying to figure out what it could possibly mean when someone on a team wears their sash over a different shoulder to the rest of the team.

Then on to an article about women bullfighters in Mexico, which leads nicely into a piece about whether women should play football, including references to the Irish feminist Sarah Grand (and thank goodness Sam, who has a background in women's literature, was with us to help us here), which leads to discussion about comparative liberalism of different nations and a whole range of issues. Oh, and there's also the piece by one FAM Webster about whether women should play football. 

In the final segment, we begin with looking at Samantha's article on the Australian representative team which took part in the first Asian Women's Cup in 1975. In this and the previous segment, we have a lengthy and wide ranging discussion, we cover 

• The legitimacy of the 1975 team which represented Australia at the 1975 Asian Women's Cup.
• Commentary on feminism
• Women not being asked about what they think about playing football; commentary is almost exclusively from male points of view
• Ideas of grace and symmetry as they relate to female athletes
• Should women athletes try to replicate "male" sporting traits in attitude and culture.
• History as a cumulative process
• Women footballers as victims of violence for playing or following football.
• Women self-regulating their behaviour in order to preempt criticism.
• Learned vs natural behaviour around soccer.
• The processes of researching women's soccer history.
• The prevalence and dominance of oral histories when researching women's soccer.
• The recurring disappointment of the contextual place of news material about soccer.
• Lack of continuities in women's soccer, and the struggle in the search for deep cultural perspectives, because of the lack of documentary evidence of women's soccer.
• Cultural self-doubt and internalisation of the lack of importance of what women athletes do.

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!