Episode 86 - the rise of women's football in Queensland and Sydney

Download and listen to this episode here.

Paul is here. Ian is sort of here. And the banter is also here.

The big news this week is that Mark Boric has retired from his research, archiving, and preservation work on his blog. For the time being at least however, Mark has committed to keeping up his site.

Ian has an update on a segment from last week's episode, where he digs further into the Edwin Aldred story, and the complicated backstory therein: including a contested military history, changing heights and hair colours, and hard fought insurance claims - a saga lasting even posthumously. Ian also follows up on "Pearce" from last week, finding that it's a Samuel Pearce, where we dig into the socio-cultural environment of Weston during that time, including its soccer, musical, and sectarian qualities. 

After the break we go into 100 Years Ago Today, where we get distracted by the history of accountancy and trade. The nurses at Toowoomba are considering starting a football team; more news of women looking to start soccer teams, and a curious reference to women's soccer in Melbourne; could such a thing have actually happened at that time? And plenty of other coverage of the rise of women's football in Queensland and Sydney, and the different ways in which this manifested itself. And Paul is trying to understand how the idea fermented among these women. Who initiated the discussions? What were the differences in approach and appeal for women from Britain compared to those from Australia? How much did the war time experiences influence the push for women's football? And the question which persists in the early history of Australian soccer: why play soccer in this country? And there's even a poem! 

Then the end of the show gets squeezed, hard.

Episode 14 - Adam Winkel & Copa del Rey; club nicknames; Reg Rapley

Download and listen to episode 14 here.

In this episode Ian is outed as an Adamstown shill. Then more chat on Reg Rapley, Broken Hill, and patterns of migration. And Ian comes to realise that there may be something in the "great man of history" approach after all.

Then a very broad question... when does the game become "soccer" instead of "soccerish"; that is, resembling soccer. And who gets to claim games of disputed or vague description as belonging to their code? Then follows a digression into false or wonky cultural memory, about the state of a game being better or worse - in standard or in popularity - than it actually was. And then looking at some of our favourite Australian club nicknames.

Visiting football scholar Adam Winkel spoke with us about
the history of changing fan reactions to the Copa del Rey

Then we chat with Adam Winkel, an academic visiting from the United States, to discuss the Spain Copa del Rey, and the ways in which fan reactions to the tournament have changed. Among the things we cover in this discussion:

• The popularity of the Copa del Rey across the decades, and its recent resurgence.
• How different fan groups have used the Copa del Rey as a stage for political purposes, as examples of regional tensions.
• Reactions for and against the national anthem.
• The kinds of sources used for Adam's research.
• Changes over time in terms of the kinds of dissent that were allowed - the role of the stadium within that scope of being able to dissent.
• Soccer as a propaganda tool of the Spanish state.
• Soccer's potential threat to bullfighting for popularity - and the phrase "bread and bullfighting". 
• The Copa del Rey's function as one of the few soccer matches in Spain where the national anthem is played, and also where away fans also make a 
• The points at which jeering the national anthem becomes performative (and counter-jeering) and expected.
• The scope for punishing clubs like Barcelona for its fans jeering the anthem, when Barcelona has so much financial and popular clout.

Then 100 Years Ago Today starting with Peace Day and Melbourne's upcoming fixtures. Then to Toowoomba, Adelaide, Ipswich, Brisbane, and soldiers returning to the game after the war.

And we finish with a poem by Paul Nicholls on club nicknames, in the style of old-timey Australian poetry.