Episode 67 - the legacies of Max Lucchesi; with Col Forster, and Vanessa Lucchesi

Download and listen to this episode here. 

After some "banter", Paul returns to the subject of his Australian soccer cultural map, which he has recently updated. And he may have finally established some trends about how stuff gets named after soccer people in Australia. But also, some interesting entries that were not originally conceived as part of the scope of the project.

Ian then moves on to the topic of who should rightly own the trophy donated by the English for interstate competition in Australia. Also what Ian calls a new twist on the soccer "naming" controversy.

For 100 Years Ago Today, it's photo day for the Claremont club in Western Australia. Then to New South Wales for Balgownie vs Cessnock in the Nurse Cup, and the Hunter Cup.

Then we move on the main theme this week, which is discussing the legacy of the recently deceased Italian-Australian player and coach Max Lucchesi (whom we also discussed in episode 34). We first speak with Col Forster of Weston Bears, who discusses Lucchesi's influence on Weston back in the 1970s, where Lucchesi led the club to significant success in two short stints there. We talk tactical approaches, character, and the bridging of cultures, as well as Lucchesi's focus on home grown talent.

Then for a different perspective on Max's legacy, we speak to his grand-niece Vanessa (whom we also spoke to back in episode 8), where we look at the reasons why Max might have failed to play for Australia; Max's importance across clubs in three states; Max influence on Vanessa, both in terms if Vanessa as a player, but also for her love of Adelaide City Juventus; unlabeled photos; the lost-era of centre-backs being ranked highly in best and fairest polling; the difficulty of broken continuities of public memory, especially where oral histories, non-English languages, and the passage of time render the era harder to understand; 

Episode 49 - The name of the game is...

Download and listen to this episode here.

Another week, another episode beset by technical problems. But we soldier on!

We note that Mark Boric's second-hand scanner has gone kaput, and that George Cotsanis is uploading the latest of his interview series to his My World Is Round social media pages.

We also note that Greg Stock has been updating the New South Wales and Tasmania sections of OzFootball.

Altona City senior squad, 1967.
Back row: Jim Mather, Billy Coles, Jim Balish, Bobby Milloy,
 Chris Kalamidis, Steve Herman, Craig Copley, Billy/Andy Rice.
Front row: Ian Roberts, Billy Wilkie, Mario Grego, Davie Cook,
Bernie McCluskey.
Source: Chrsitine Grego-Davis.

Paul begins the main part of this week's discussion by relating a convoluted story of artefact discovery, retrieval, recording, and identification - with a particular focus on nine photographs of the 1950s and 60s Victorian player Mario Grego. A fitter and turner by trade, was born in what is now Pula in Croatia (then Yugoslavia), before moving to Trieste and eventually to Australia. A defender, Grego's career included stints at Footscray Capri, Footscray JUST, an Altona City, representative duties with the Yugoslavia side in the Laidlaw Cup, with a possible temporary stint at an early version of Triestina (today's Essendon Royals. Paul looks at, among other things:

• The joys ad frustrations of accidental and serendipitous discoveries.
• The holders of such artefacts not realising the worth of said items, nor that there are people and communities interested in them.
• Problems with identification (and implied problems with copyright).
• The difficulty in translating passive social media "likes" into more serious engagement from both individuals and clubs.
• The tantalising (and yes, frustrating) prospect of more such material being out there in cupboards and boxes.

After the break, in the wake of a trademark tribunal ruling that included the assessment that Australian Rules is not the only type of football played in Australia, Ian and Paul revisit the matter of word "soccer", and the history of its usage in Australia. These are issues we also covered to varying degrees in episode 1 and episode 7. This time we look at several aspects of the issue, including:

• Briefly, what the trademark tribunal had to say on the matter.
• The contested origins of the term "soccer".
• The cultural importance of the term "football" in Australia, to demonstrate cultural centrality.
• The nature of the word's introduction to Australia, both in terms of timelines, but also where it was most heavily used - initially seemingly a Western Australian phenomenon
• The usage of the term in times and places where there was no organised soccer in Australia.
• Soccer being both a word/term that has been forced upon, but also chosen by Australian soccer to define and distinguish itself.
• The transition from being football clubs, to soccer clubs, and back again - as well as the politics and marketing considerations involved with those decisions.
• The "Socceroos" name, and Australian soccer fans who hate the term soccer.
• The word "soccer" becoming a verb in certain contexts, especially in Australian rules football
• The Heroes of Waterloo song "Soccer, Soccer"

Finally, we wrap up the show with 100 Years Ago Today, where we travel to Weston, where we begin to realise that teams protesting results in Newcastle and its surrounds seems to be exceptionally common; we check in on the boy scouts of Kogarah; look at the death of a racehorse; and note the 150th anniversary of the first game played by the Port Adelaide Football Club, by casting doubt on what kind of football they were actually playing.

Episode 34 - Paul Hunt and early Tasmanian soccer; Weston Bears and Max Luchessi

Download and listen to episode 34 here.

In this episode we note that Mark Boric has a new secondhand A3 scanner, which as per Mark's nature, has already been to put good use.

Paul discusses some updates to his cultural map, including overseas additions, as well as the ultimate indication of mainstream acceptance of soccer - being asked to the grand opening of a Bunnings Warehouse store.

In 100 Years Ago Today, we visit Newcastle, Albany, and Ipswich, covering politics, grounds, reporters and the persistentence of the club vs district issue.

After the break we chat with Paul Hunt, who recently graduated with honours from Deakin. Hunt's honours thesis was on Tasmanian soccer before 1915, and throughout our chat we cover a number of the themes that Hunt's thesis covers. This includes:

• The difference between a moment (scattered games) vs a continuing culture (leagues and organisations) 
• The impossibility of knowing if there was any soccer played in between 1881 and 1897
• Methodological problems of having to challenge established texts and narratives, such as Chris Hudson's A Century of Soccer 1898-1998, especially when it comes to an era that's poorly documented.
• The space left behind in Tasmanian soccer in the 1890s, by Australian Rules' moral collapse due to gambling, violence and corruption, and the way it allowed other sports (including soccer) to briefly flourish.
• What kind of people played soccer in Tasmania before 1915, including the centrality of military, religious, and British participants.
• The effect of the Boer War on the 1898-1902 competition, in effect the first (known) time that a war had derailed the growth of Australian soccer.
• Emphasising that there were people other than the Honeysetts instrumental to the re-emergence of Tasmanian soccer.

In our final segment, Ian Syson talks about his trip late last year to Newcastle and Adelaide, where his focus ends up on storied Hunter club Weston Bears, and on its great coach (and Adelaide City playing great)  Max Lucchesi who Ian interviewed in Adelaide. Oh, and Ian finds pit village clubs and fields like the ones he grew up with in England.