Adelaide Screenwriter: "Total Football: the Movie"

Adelaide Screenwriter: "Total Football: the Movie": Here's the story of two brothers, a suburban soccer team in Adelaide , the 2006 World Cup , traditional Australian mateship , a crew o...

Looking for Buddy Newchurch

Lancelot "Buddy" Newchurch

This is an awful story. At least its conclusion is. As soon as I came across this article in the Sydney Morning Herald I was filled with a mild dread. There was no way this could end well: a lone 16-year-old Aboriginal boy left Whyalla for the pressure cooker of professional football in the English Summer/Autumn of 1971. In the shadows cast by giants like Peter Bonetti, Peter Osgood and Alan Hudson, trialling with Chelsea seemed like a recipe for loneliness, despair and inevitable retreat. Only the strongest of the strong could possibly compete and survive. How strong was Buddy Newchurch?

Sydney Morning Herald July 29, 1971 (p11)

The first reference to Buddy I had found was actually in the Canberra Times, in an article noting that he was returning to Australia from his trial at Chelsea on October 27. Google subsequently led me to the Herald story which filled in a lot of the immediate detail. A diminutive player, he shifted from Australian rules when he was 10. His brothers all played soccer. The community raised $1071 (a lot in 1971 - today's equivalent is $14,000) to get him to England after he was spotted by Chelsea's assistant manager Ron Suart, in Australia with the touring English FA team. The only interim conclusion we can reach is that Buddy spent three months away and the trajectory is not clear.

This would merely be one more incomplete story on the backburner waiting for fuller details if not for the material revealed by one simple Google search.

The search revealed some minutiae: that he had played for Whyalla club teams, Croatia and Wanderers. But it was ultimately a truncated story, not because, as I might have originally suspected, he simply burnt out young and faded away. No, Buddy Newchurch was murdered, bashed to death outside the Westlands Hotel, Whyalla in 1982, a crime that remains unsolved. A $200,000 reward stands for information leading to a convinction in the case.

And that seems to be that. Though it should be noted that his community thought enough of him to name a Whyalla street after him (Buddy Newchurch Place intersects with Carl Veart Ave and Neil Kerley Court). I am gathering snippets of information - for example, there seems to be a connection between his family and the Agius family (that produced NSL and A League player Fred Agius) - but I would appreciate any communication on the matter.

I'd like to know: who was Buddy Newchurch? How good was he? Taken in his prime or lost to the game already? While he is one more forgotten (some might say abandoned) player in the history of Aboriginal soccer, it seems that there is so much more to tell. Sent to England as a 16-year-old to trial with Chelsea by a community that probably failed to understand and account for the pitfalls waiting for him; murdered outside a pub. A story with such and bright optimistic beginnings; such a sad and tragic tale in the offing. I will try to tell the story of Buddy Newchurch in such a way as to give him the kind of dignity he seems to deserve.

PS Feedback. I have received some further information about Buddy. This is from 'Soccerroo' on Football News

Talked to one of my ex-team mates of years ago who played with Croatia Whyalla, knew him and played against him in his later playing days. Apparently he was a very skillful left footer midfield-striker, and a real gentleman on and off the field. Struggled with the cold weather in London and home-sick badly, he returned home although Chelsea were quite impressed with his skills, attitude and potential.

Other information confirms a general sense of respect for Buddy as a person and as a footballer within the soccer community in Whyalla and beyond.

Another respondent informed me that his "late uncle played against Buddy Newchurch in the NASA league and spoke very highly of his ability".


 _________________________________________________________________

The Canberra Times 27 July 1971 p 22

ABORIGINAL IN U.K. FOR SOCCER TRIAL

LONDON, Monday (AAP. — A sixteen year-old aboriginal boy, Buddy Newchurch, has the chance   millions of British schoolboys dream of — a trial with top English football club, the Daily Express reported.

Buddy, who comes from Whyalla in South Australia, was spotted by Chelsea's assistant manager, Ron Suart, in Australia earlier this year.  

And yesterday he arrived in London for a three months trial, which, if he passes, will make him an apprentice with the club.

Buddy flew in on a £500 ($ A 1.071) subscription raised by the people of Whyalla, the Express reported.

He also has the cash backing of a soccer scholarship awarded by the Aboriginal Sports

foundation. 
The Express today featured a picture of Buddy showing English boys in London's suburban Streatham a demonstration of his soccer skills. 

 

The Canberra Times Thursday 29 July 1971 p 26

Aboriginal Buddy Newchurch, 16, from Whyalla, South Australia, takes part in soccer training with Chelsea FC apprentice players at Mitcham, London. He is with the Chelsea club for a three-month trial period. — AAP-AP cable picture. (illustrated article)

 

The Canberra Times 1 September 1971 p 31 

Try out

LONDON, Tuesday (AAP); - Sixteen-year-old Whyalla soccer player Buddy Newchurch, who is trying out with the London club, Chelsea, still does not know whether he will make professional football his career.

"Frankly I don't think I'm up to English Standard", he said.

 

The Canberra Times 26 October 1971 p 18

Aboriginal Soccer player to return

LONDON, Monday (AAP). - Aboriginal socccr player, Buddy Newchurch, of Whyalla. South Australia, will arrive home tomorrow after a three-month trial period with Britain's Chelsea football club.

A Chelsea spokesman' told AAP today that the young Whyalla star had played "reasonably well" in trial games, "but wasn't quite up to our standard".

"He played in two friendly games, and showed tremendous improvement during his time with us", the spokesman said.

"The decision for him to return to Australia was taken after he had had discussions with Chelsea coaches and staff.

"He left on Sunday morning".

Newchurch travelled to London after the people of Whyalla had raised money for the trip.

Maccabi-Palestine in Australia in 1939

James Hothersall sent us this piece which follows up on Neos Osmos' interest in soccer and the military. He reveals an interesting story about the racist contradictions inherent in the way we view some outsiders.

The role of Australia and its war mythology needs to be explored further. During the depression Australia had undertones of racism. According to Rutland in Edge of Diaspora (1988) anti-Semitic organisations in the Thirties included: The Australian Nazi Movement, The Australian Unity League, Eric Campbell’s New Guard and The Douglas Credit Party of Australia.

The rise of Nazi Germany and the displacement of Jews led to the 1938 conference in Evian in to discuss the problem. At the Evian the Australian delegate Thomas Walter White spoke against taking Jewish refugees: ‘As we have no real racial problem, we are not desirous of importing one by encouraging any scheme of large-scale foreign migration…..’

Non-Empire immigrants had to have 500 pounds and be literate in a European language. The financial stake was eventually reduced to 50 pounds for the Jewish diaspora which was little consolation when the fascists’ had stripped them their assets.

An interesting soccer tour took place during this time of increased tension. In 1939 The Maccabi-Palestine team arrived in Australia for 5 test matches. Overall media response was very negative with suggestions that future tours should only be accepted from members of the Empire. The Sydney Morning Herald of 7th August 1939 described play as ‘wretched’ and stated that it ‘caused resentment among paying spectators’. This assessment is bemusing as although the tourists lost the test series they won 11 and drew 3 of their 19 matches – including big wins over Queensland, Victoria, Melbourne, South Australia and Western Australia.

Despite the negativity Avraheim Reznik, Avraheim Beit HaLevi and Menaham Mirmvotich remained in Australia. According to records at the Australian War Memorial two were killed in action serving Australia:

• Menaham Mirvotich (2/11th Battalion - Infantry) died 12 May 1945 in New Guinea
• Abraham Bezalel Beth-Helevy [Anglicised] (2/12th Battalion - Infantry) died 21 January 1944.

What this story highlights is that the ANZAC story isn’t simple.

Maccabi-Palestine v Australia SCG, 1939

The Mav does Rugger Buggery

Paul Mavroudis

As a favour of sorts to Steve from Broady, who's been to several footy matches with me, even though he doesn't like the game - I think he mostly gets a kick out of watching me being sullen in a different context - I decided that it was time to make my debut at a rugby union match last Friday.

I bought my ticket from a scalper outside the gate. OK, he was probably just some guy with spare tickets, and honestly, I don't even know if I got a good deal or not, but man, did I feel like a badass by not buying a ticket at the gate.

Now I know the basic rules, some of the history, but otherwise don't give a toss about the game. I knew it was a Rebels' match I was going to, but I had no idea who their opponents were. Turned it was the Stormers from South Africa. I was hoping that it would have been one of the Kiwi teams, as that would have increased the Maori and Islander count a bit, but there were a few Saffas in the crowd at our end, including one who waved his flag around like nobody's business.

Otherwise, it was classic case of 'who are these people and why are they here?' Part of that answer was that a lot of them in our vicinity seemed to be from private schools. Marcellin was one of them (I have no idea who they are; their website seems to indicate they have a rugby program, but no soccer, even though I've read elsewhere that they have or had a soccer program). I could tell they were from Marcellin because it was written on their hoodies.

There were some others behind us in maroon tracksuits with blue and yellow trim, couldn't see what school they were from. And yes, there were blazers, and talk of whether one had ever been to Xavier or not. The rest of the crowd seemed to made up of a certain upper middle class type of person, in that they wore tasteful scarves, cheered and occasionally jeered at the appropriate moments and mostly kept to themselves. Pretty boring.

Every time there was a break in play, there was music. Not just for injuries, not just after tries, but even every time the ball went out of play. And I thought the AFL was bad in this department. There was scarcely a free moment to think, and considering the copious amount of time lost due to as far as I could tell, not much at all, it was bloody irritating. The Mexican style trumpet at the start of each also grated.

Though this was of course not a Wallabies game, it has always confused me as to why the upper classes, those descendants of the squattocracy, who watch this sport at a national level, have somehow chosen Waltzing Matilda as their song. It makes no sense. It's an anti-authoritarian song you goons. Anyway, the game of the upper class calling their Melbourne franchise the Rebels is also a bit of a laugh - more so when you see people displaying the Eureka flag as well. Jas H. Duke might have had something to say about that. Or perhaps not.

I used to think, perhaps in my own Victorian way, that the extra kicking in rugby union made the game more watchable than its league cousin. Seeing it in person made me realise how wrong I was. While I still think there's a place for kicking in rugby league - if they bring back unlimited tackles - the kicking in this match was terrible. More often than not, when the Rebels were resorting to kicking it was also unnecessary.

And the knock ons! So many knock ons! I suppose it was a combination of the quick play - somehow I had this idea that rugby union wasn't quite as fast as that - and the relative crappiness of the two teams on show. But back to the fast play for a moment. Rugby union on a pristine surface didn't make sense to me - shouldn't these matches be played on a mud pile? But there wasn't much time to ponder that because of the classic 'What was that for? Oh, you've got it on the screen' moments.

In soccer there seems to be a limited number of infractions, and thus you can pretty quickly get on with the game while abusing the referee for giving the opposite decision of what he should have awarded. In the footy, the umpires make it up as they go along, but at least provide clear signals most of the time as to what made up decision they actually decided on, and then we have the pantomime of everyone craning their necks towards the scoreboard for the replay to justify to ourselves that they got it wrong.

In rugby, it goes like this. Everyone gets in a big pile. At random moments during these piles - and not at every pile - the official in charge declares that some sort of infringement has happened. And apparently we look to the screen not for a replay, but for a text message telling us what it was for. Good luck to people like for whom every one of these piles looks exactly alike.

It may be due to my own petty Victorianism, but I could not this question out of my head. Why is this team in existence? Whose needs are they serving? Yes, I understand that as a city with a certain amount of people in it that we 'need' to have one of everything when it comes to sports franchises, but someone should have drawn the line here.

Finally, two things stood out above all else. Firstly, South needs to play at this stadium. Hurry up and make the grand final you clowns. And secondly, tries mean nothing to me. Seriously.

FFA Fans Forum, Perth

Chris Egan

I have to say this blog for Neos Osmos is going to be a little self indulgent, however as it’s a history blog I wanted to expand on the historical notions and themes of the question I asked at the FFA Forum.

What do Perth Glory fans want as part of their history? Do they want to continue to challenge the narrative? Or are they happy with recognition only. I’ve come to the conclusion it’s a divided view from the feedback I received on my facebook page – www.facebook.com/gloryNSLyears. I am lucky that people are comfortable in delivering feedback, likes and discussing the issues on the page. 

At the forum I put a question to David Gallop about whether statements to the press have to be logical and defined by facts, or whether he can deliver his own interpretation of ‘unprecedented growth trajectory’ in regards to Western Sydney.

The question sought to challenge this narrative of disconnection the past from the present. Now I am not saying the FFA are anti-history at present, but the narrative that continues, that the past is not connected to the future, is something I disagree with.

When David Gallop says, “Western Sydney are on a growth trajectory unprecedented in Australian Sport” I sit back and wonder is that a reflection of reality or can it be challenged.

I am used to asking hard questions of sports administrators, so I asked, “Will the FFA continue to denigrate the Glory’s legacy to promote Western Sydney?” I come to this question, based on the evidence from the interviews I have conducted for the book I am currently writing.

One individual, who had been on the Glory board during the first season of the A-League and had been part of the NSL era as well, gave me this insight on how the FFA viewed Glory’s legacy: “The FFA didn’t really give enough respect for what Nick Tana had done for Australian Football."

So wanting to hear his answer, I asked a direct question regarding how Glory’s legacy should be looked at.
Gallop's response was to the point. He said, “You are wrong, what I was getting at was that we had started from an idea in April to what it is now.”

His statement was a disconnect from the past, but in saying it he didn’t want to diminish Perth Glory’s history.

As a Historian I questioned on my facebook page whether I had a legitimate gripe.

The response was mixed, half said I had overstated the word ‘unprecedented’, that Gallop was not making a statement against Glory’s role in moving Australian football towards professionalism. The other half said it was a legitimate question, because the A-League doesn’t recognise anything pre-2005. But was it right for me to challenge the FFA’s narrative?

One of the central purposes of the book I am writing is to challenge the narrative of the FFA, to assert that it must show more attention to the Glory legacy as part of the story of the A-League. The challenge is embedded in the title of the book, playing on the view that New Football only began in 2005.

In his response, Gallop delivered his perspective on the history narrative of the FFA. He doesn’t see the links many see with the rich football past of Western Sydney and that this automatically connects to season one of the Wanderers. He sees only the growth trajectory of a club grown from ‘an idea’ to a very impressive first season. And that he says is why he made that statement. 

I challenged the FFA narrative on football’s past in this country. Some supporters of the club agreed with me, others are simply happy for our history to be recognised but for it to be disempowered by statements David Gallop makes. We should not see the past in the Wanderers, because they are the creation of an idea in April.

There is no right way to interpret and utilise history. But the responses deliver a fascinating insight into whether Glory fans in 2013 believe the FFA’s A-League narrative of the past has to be changed.

Channelling Migrants to Sydney for Nefarious Soccer Purposes

Kevin Sheedy. All is forgiven. You were right. The Department of Immigration seems to have been involved in the illicit practice of moving English migrants to Sydney, in 1947, 66 years ago. Though perhaps the dept wasn't involved; perhaps it just turned a blind eye . . . OK, maybe it wasn't involved at all. 

This is from the Goulburn Evening Post, 15 January 1947.

SOCCER CLUBS' BID 

Recently - Arrived Players 

SYDNEY: A report that Soccer clubs were inviting some of the British immigrant builders to leave Canberra and work in   Sydney may he investigated by the Soccer board of directors at the meeting in Sydney next Saturday. One club is said to have communicated with members of the British party aboard ship at Fremantle, offering jobs in Sydney to any with outstanding Soccer ability.

Some of the men, it is believed, are considering traveling from Canberra to Sydney at week-ends for matches. It was claimed in Canberra last night that a representative: of Metters, Ltd., interviewed a number of the men on the day of their arrival in Canberra, Including Eddie Robertson; formerly a prominent player for Dundee United.

The president of. the N.S.W. Soccer Association, Mr: C. Sullivan said last night that reports of  any move to take members of the party away from their employment at Canberra were, if true, "most distressing." The Soccer directors might find it necessary to adopt methods to prevent clubs from such action he added.

The ‘Chimera’ of Origins: Association Football in Australia before 1880

These are the first three pages of my recent academic essay on the origins of soccer in Australia. If you want to read the whole thing you will need to go to the International Journal of the History of Sport.

__________________________________

The ‘Chimera’ of Origins: Association Football in Australia before 1880

Sydney 1880

In the July of 1880, a movement in Sydney seemed to crystallise. A number of letters to the editor of the Sydney Morning Herald were published, advocating the playing of football under the English Association rules.

This long letter from John Walter Fletcher published on July 17, 1880 summed up the level of interest and took the important step of suggesting a meeting.

Sir, - I was glad to see in your issue of this morning a letter advocating the introduction of the English Association game into New South Wales, and I am a little surprised that some old English player has not made the suggestion before. I have reason to think from conversations I have had on the subject that if the game could properly be started it would become very popular, not only with players, but with the public. Unfortunately, a very general misapprehension appears to exist as to the nature of the game, a great many people I have spoken to evidently confusing it with the Victorian Association game, whereas the two games have not a single point in common. As to its chances of popularity, let any one read in Bell’s Life the accounts of International or club contests in Glasgow, Sheffield, London, &c. witnessed often by from 10,000 to 12,000 spectators. It is, I think, about twelve years since the game was first started in England, though its principle, that football is a game for feet and for hands, had long existed in the Eton and Harrow games. At the present time the football players of Great Britain, playing under Rugby and Association rules, are about equally divided, and the two games exist side by side without one interfering in the least with the other, save that of late the value of good dribbling has become universally acknowledged in the Rugby game. I feel that we are rather late in writing in advocacy of the English Association game, inasmuch as a large section of the football players of New South Wales, dissatisfied with Rugby rules, appear to have committed themselves to the adoption of Victorian rules. Nevertheless, there must be many old English and Scotch Association players, or old Eton and Harrow men, who would be glad to see their old game played here, and who would make an effort to introduce it; and I am quite sure that the principle of the game, which forbids the use of the hands, except by goalkeeper, and does away with scrummaging, collaring, mauling, &c, will commend itself to a very large section or this community. The game is essentially a scientific one, requiring, above everything else, unselfish and organized combination. I do not wish to attack the old Rugby game, which, properly played, is interesting and exciting to players and spectators; but must enter a protest against the introduction of the Victorian game, which, though certainly interesting and amusing to look at, is, I believe, rougher than the Rugby, and violates the fundamental principle of all games like football – I mean the law of off side. The very thing condemned under the name of ‘sneaking’ in the Eton game is here encouraged and applauded, and in fact may almost be said to be the chief art of the game. In the brief space of a letter it is impossible to say all that one would in behalf of the introduction of the rules of the English Association; but I hope that, since at the present time a radical change is demanded in the present code, football players and the public generally will give the matter a more thorough investigation than it has yet received before committing themselves to the Victorian game. I should be willing to communicate with gentlemen willing to assist in starting a club under the rules of the English Association, and perhaps it might be possible to convene a meeting to consider the whole question. I am, &c.,

J. W. FLETCHER.
Union Club, July 14.

This is a remarkable and important letter, one that has claims to be a kind of founding document along the lines of Tom Wills’ letter to the editor of Bell’s Sporting Life in Victoria in 1858 in which he advocated the formation of a football club (or, failing that, a rifle club) in Melbourne. This moment is generally (though not universally) understood to be the wellspring of Australian Rules football.

Fletcher believed a large participation and spectator base existed for Association football in New South Wales that was as yet untapped and unsatisfied. The potential contributors to the game came from the English and ‘Scotch’ Associations or Eton and Harrow. He also made it clear that the Victorian Rules (the game which developed into Australian Rules), despite the similarities that some had observed, was for him and his ilk an oppositional code with ‘not a single point’ in common with Association football. The letter picked no fight with Rugby, seeing the possibility of the two codes subsisting.

After what seems to be very little time, a meeting was convened for August 3 by Fletcher and J. A. Todd. Its purpose was ‘to consider and promote the introduction of football under English Association rules.’ Therefore, all ‘football players and others who may be interested in the improvement of the winter pastime are invited to attend.’

The plan was not to supplant Rugby but to benefit football generally by 1) introducing Association rules and 2) staving off the challenge from Victorian Rules. Two weeks later, the first game was played.

The first match in New South Wales played under English Association rules was played on Saturday last, by the newly formed club, against the King’s School boys at Parramatta. The visitors had a very fair team, allowing for the fact that hardly one of them had played football for some years. This advantage was, however, balanced by the fact that the boys had not played these rules before. The game was well contested for an hour and a half, and terminated in favour of the visitors by five goals to none; the number of goals must not, however, be taken as a criterion of the play, which was remarkably even, particularly after half time, the boys on several occasions only failing to score on account of their want of familiarity with the art of passing and middling the ball. On the side of the English Association Club all played up well, but the play of D. Roxburgh as back was remarkably good and invaluable to his side, and Scott’s goal-keeping deserves praise. On the King’s School side the play of Fenwick was very fine, and he would make a grand Association player; all, however, played well. Mr Savage, an old International player, played with and coached Kings School. The names of the club players were – T.A .Todd (captain), W.J. Baker, J.W. Fletcher, C.E. Hewlett, C.F. Fletcher, Wastinage, W. Robertson, W. Simson, Chapman, D. Roxburgh, J Scott (goal).

The article concluded by pointing out that a further ‘match has been arranged, under English Association rules, on Moore Park, for next Saturday, against the Redfern Club.’

The new team did not yet have a name, a situation that was rectified at a ‘committee meeting of the newly-formed English Association Football Club’ on August 19 at which ‘The Wanderers’ were christened. A number of decisions were ratified at the meeting, along with the crucial ambition to obtain membership of the English Football Association. They were:

1. ‘That the club be called “The Wanderers.”’
2. ‘That the uniform be white jersey and cap, with badge southern cross, and blue stockings.’
3. ‘That an account of the proceedings be sent to England to the secretary of the English Association, for publication.’
4. ‘That the club be enrolled (with permission) in the English Association.'

The first game under the new name saw the team score another win, this time against a team from the Rugby club, Redfern FC.

The second match under the English Association Rules took place at Moore Park on Saturday last, and resulted in a win for the newly-named Wanderers by two goals to nil, both of which were secured in the first 10 minutes, after which the game was very even. Redfern Club, being strangers to the rules, played up well, ably assisted by W.J. Baker. For Redfern, J. Mulcahy and North played well, whilst for the Wanderers J. Fletcher, Harbottle, and M’Donald, were in grand form.

About this well-co-ordinated series of events a conventional and robust narrative has emerged: a club with a name, colours and rules to play by; a series of games played and planned; a desire to affiliate with the F.A. in England; and something resembling the founding document/moment so beloved of many football historians are all in place. Australian soccer had kicked off.

But the story is wrong. The narrative details may be correct but the idea of a starting point is wide of the mark. Unfortunately for the ‘Sydney-origin’ thesis, a similar series of events had occurred in the colony of Tasmania’s main city, Hobart one year before, albeit on a smaller scale.

Hobart 1879

The Hobart Mercury of April 28, 1879 reported on the City Football Club’s AGM and its adoption of the ‘rules of the British Football Association.’

The annual general meeting of members of the City Football Club was held on Saturday evening at the Town Hall. Mr. J. R. Betts took the chair. The attendance was good at first, but the proceedings being of a protracted nature, the members dwindled very much towards the finish. The committee recommended the adoption of a fresh code of playing rules, as the present code entirely prevented the club from meeting any foreign team. The rules of the British Football Association, with the addition of the drop kick, were recommended. The following officers were elected: – Captain, Captain Boddam; vice-captains, Messrs, Molloy and Pitfield; secretary, Mr. A. D. Watchorn; treasurer, Mr. Lindley; committee, Messrs. Lovett, Finlay, and Paul.

Captain Edmond Meyer Tudor-Boddam is a central figure in this decision. Boddam had arrived in Hobart via Sydney in May 1878 to take up a post as ‘Brigade-Major to the corps,’ the main function of which was to control public works projects. An Anglo-Indian and noted cricketer and footballer, he adopted a position insisting that an English code of football be adopted for the winter months. He had played Rugby in Sydney and seemed concerned to adopt a football code that would enable a sporting commerce with England (and New South Wales) rather than Victoria. In this regard he prefigures some of Fletcher’s anti-Victorian sentiments. It is clear that many City members were unhappy with this decision and Captain Boddam soon found himself on the outer. Undaunted, Boddam moved over to the Cricketers Football Club of Hobart where he directly influenced its decision to adopt the Association code. The Cricketers voted 10–9 to adopt English Association rules at their meeting on May 5. Boddam and his seconder would have preferred Rugby but acknowledged that its rules were too complex. Both were derisory about Victorian Rules.

Under his guidance, the Cricketers began their season with an internal scratch match on May 10, 1879. The sides were

picked by F. V. Smith and G. S. Chapman. The English Association Rules which have been adopted by this club were played. Chapman’s side proved victorious by two goals to one, both kicked by B. Stuart, well judged kicks. H. B. Smith with a good piece of dribbling secured the goal for the other side. Besides the goal kickers, the most prominent players were Boddam, F. V. Smith, Chapman, R. Kirby, H. Prior, L. M’Leod and Davenport (the last three hailing from the High School club). The natural amount of inconvenience was felt by most of the players who essayed the novel rules for the first time, the mysteries of off and on side and the obligation to leave the hands idle proving almost insurmountable. After some practice no doubt those difficulties will be overcome.

As if to foreshadow the sometimes dubious organisational skills of those running Australian soccer, it is reported that the ‘club played without goal posts; as Mr. Briant who had promised to bring them, did not do so, coats were used to mark the goal instead.’

On June 7, the Cricketers met New Town in a competitive inter-club match. ‘These clubs met for the return match on Marsh’s ground, New Town, on Saturday afternoon, playing the English Association Rules. The result was a draw, no goals being kicked by either side.’ The Tasmanian Mail also reported on the game, remarking on ‘Morriss for the New Town causing special amusement by playing the ball with his head’ – possibly the first in a long line of Australian media guffaws about the practice of heading. The writer also complains of the ‘absurdity’ of the keeper being allowed to throw the ball.

One soccer match in Hobart in 1879 might be a rogue occurrence; two games a month apart intimate a pattern. Moreover, it is reasonable to interpolate ‘soccer’ practice in-between these dates. However, this was no sparkling beginning of the beautiful game in Australia from which it leapt and bounded, despite the indication that the players intended to keep working at the game. The perceived need for conformity and the weight of numbers ultimately meant the rejection of soccer for the time being.

. . . continued at  the International Journal of the History of Sport.

Soccer in Western Sydney

A response to Kevin Sheedy

So it has come to this. According to Kevin Sheedy, Western Sydney Wanderers have been successful because the Immigration Department recruited its support base.The whistler has whistled and the dogs are barking. The Victorian imperialist has inverted logic and history and turned the local game into the foreign one while his imported culture is promoted as the one that truly belongs.

Perhaps the whistler has a point. At least half of the members of Granville Magpies (pictured below) were migrants. Let's not let the fact that the photograph was taken nearly one-hundred years ago spoil the argument. The Magpies were a strong club in the early 1900s and continue today in various forms. [Happy to hear from people who want to point me at a good history]. They represent one of the many historical elements upon which the present support for the Wanderers rests.

Reading left to right. — Front Row: *J. W. Masters, E. Mobbs, *W. E. S. Dane. Second Row: *H. Wheat, J. Riordan (chairman G. and D.F.A.), R.H. Moore (captain), .T. Nobbs (patron), H. Hoffman, J. Tillman, L. Gill. Third Row: A.  Epps (hon. sec. G. and D.F.A.), *R. Fairweather, * J. W. Cottam, F. M. Smith, J. Davis, *E. J. Doherty, F. Robertson (hon. sec). Back Row: F. Waddell (manager), A. Peaty, S. Hilder, *Sergeant-major F. Doherty, P. T. Williams. Asterisk denotes those at the front. J. W. Cottam has been killed, and R. Fairweather is a prisoner in Germany.
The Cumberland Argus and Fruitgrowers Advocate Saturday 18 August 1917 p 4

Like many of the soccer clubs established in the pre-WW1 period, the Magpies contributed to the war effort. Seven of the twelve players pictured went to the front. In total 17 out of 22 Magpie players in 1914 could "be accounted for as having done or are doing their bit for King and country in foreign parts."

At least one, J.W. Cottam was killed in the fighting. Even the military circular announcing his death comments that he was a "paramount soccer player".

This is an extended notice of his death in the Cumberland Argus and Fruitgrowers Advocate on Saturday 5 May 1917:

The deceased soldier, John Willie Cottam was a great favorite in this district. He was a noted Soccer footballer, and many members - and high officials, too - of the G. and D.F.A. have this week quietly and unassumingly bowed their heads as they heard the sad news. He was a prominent member of the redoubtable 'Magpies, and played centre forward in the team that won the double event-  the Gardiner and Rawson Cups - in one season (1914), following it up in 1915 by again winning the Rawson Cup and only meeting defeat for the Gardiner Cup in the semi-final, in 1915. He also held an honor cap from the Sydney association. His only, brother, Private Albert Cottam, is 21 years of age, and is still fighting in France; He enlisted in November, 1915, was ill in Egypt, completed his training in England, and has been in the firing-line since November 10, 1910. He, too, was a footballer before enlisting, but was attached to the Parramatta Juniors, who won the Soccer medals in 1914.

Another Magpie not pictured in the team photo also met his death at the front. The Cumberland Argus Saturday 28 July 1917 reported:

PTE. WILLIAM ERNEST BRICKLEY, of Clyde, killed in action. Soccer enthusiasts in the Granville district will regret to learn that Private W. E. Brickley, better known as Billy Brickley, paid the supreme sacrifice on the battlefield in France on 3rd May last. He was a prominent member of the old Magpie team and one of its best players. His poor old mother, Mrs. A. Brickley, who resides in Factory-street, Clyde, received word from the Defence Department on 3rd June that Billy had been reported missing on 3rd April. Then on 10th July she got further word that he was killed in action on 3rd May. The last letter she received from him is dated 2nd May, the day before his death. He was then in cheerful mood and seemed pleased to let his mother know that after waiting anxiously for many months for a letter from home, he had just got a whole bundle of letters. He belonged to the 18th  Battalion and left for the front in October last year. He went straight to France after leaving Australia? He was 28 years of age, was married, and leaves one child. His father died about two years ago. He was the youngest son and was born at Kendal-st. Clyde. He went to North Granville public school and  afterwards was employed for years at the Clyde Engineering Co.'s Works and later at Messrs. Ritchie Bros.    

Other men is the district also fell. The Cumberland Argus Saturday 5 June 1915 reported that the

Granville and District Football Association, at its last meeting, carried votes of sympathy to Mr. Mills and family and Mrs Rea and family in the fate of their sons at the Dardanelles. The fathers of both these gallant boys were two of the earliest players of the Soccer game in the State, and are not yet forgotten by many friends they then made. Trooper Mills, of course, was only wounded.

SERGEANT WALTER E. REA. A promising popular Parramatta boy - at the time of his death 20 years of age - gave his life for his native land and for Empire, when Sergt. Walter E. Rea fell on the field of battle at the Dardanelles on May 24. The deceased soldier was the eldest son of Mrs. Rea, of Church-street, Parramatta North (widow of the late Mr. David Rea, a popular Parramatta citizen and footballer of 20 years ago). Sergt. W. E. Rea was grandson of the late Alderman John Saunders. He was an officer at the Parramatta North Methodist Sunday School for a time before he left. He was one of the first of the Parramatta lads to volunteer; and his high character and attention to his military duties soon won him promotion.

More work needs to be done on the commitment of the district's soccer players to armed service and this represents just a taste of it. But the point of this is not only to acknowledge this contribution but also to reflect on how the language of the obituaries indicates that these men and the game the played were embedded in their community. Soccer is celebrated as a central (and not peripheral or foreign) aspect of their social lives in Granville and Western Sydney.

The Cumberland Argus on Saturday 22 February 1919 reported on the return from duty of two of the Magpies in the team photograph.

Harry Wheat, the well-known Magpie player, returned from the war a week or two ago and visited Granville on Monday. He was captain of a Soccer team at the last camp he was at in England, where a competition. was held amongst the different companies, of soldiers. The final game was played on the Saturday prior to his leaving for Australia, and his team scored a good win. Ned Doherty, the well-known full-back of the Magpies, was also a player.    

Wheat and Doherty had played a fair bit of soccer while in the army, many Australian troops did, and they returned, expecting to resume their careers with the Magpies, which they duly did. They certainly wouldn't have expected to have been thought of as migrants and foreigners in their own country. Nor would they have expected their game to be seen as a curiosity played and supported by people who needed to be "channelled" and "brought" into the region by a government department. And they certainly wouldn't have expected a dog-whistling migrant from far away Melbourne to announce 100 years later that the game they played and nurtured in Sydney's west was anything other than a rich and established local culture of 130 years standing.

PS. Informants have indicated that two of the family names in the team photo live on in the names of the Eric Mobbs Reserve (a present day soccer facility) and the Cottam Cup, a Granville district knockout trophy that goes back to 1907 (resuscitated in 2011 after an eight-year break). Interestingly, the earliest reference I can find to the Cottam Cup is in 1920. Perhaps the name was changed after the war to commemorate John Cottam.

Indeed it was:

To-morrow will be a gala day at Clyde Oval and the whole of the net proceeds are to be donated to charities in the Granville district. The match of the day will be the Cottam Cup final between Two Blues and Granville Rechabites. Play will start at 2.30. The Cottam Cup is a memorial trophy. It was originally the trophy for the First League premiership, and was donated by the late Sir Harry Rawson and known as the Rawson Cup. It was won outright   by Granville, who handed it over to the Granville Association, to be played for annually as a memorial to Jack Cottam a clever forward, who made the supreme sacrifice in France. Arrow 15 October 1920 p 6 

See my follow up here on the Lidcombe Methodists.

An open letter to Greg Baum

Dear Greg
That must be the sourest column of yours that I have ever read. Fergie was no angel, but you do not rack up the contribution to the game of football that he has made over his career by luck, violence, bad manners and other people's money. If it were that easy everyone would do it. The dominance of Manchester United is not accidental as the careers of some of its managers demonstrates and Fergie's first half-dozen years in the post confirms.

Matt Busby built two great teams in his long tenure in the post on the basis of equally iron control of the whole operation, which he could hardly relinquish when it came to an end. Before and during Busby's career there were periods of less than stellar success, but usually attacking football and style even when the 'cattle' were not up to it. Fergie has done that and more. He did not inherit a youth team. He set in place the structure which enabled several cohorts to flourish and one to excel. Alan Hansen said you cannot win anything with kids, but Fergie did. He saw and moulded some of the fiercest men in the game making them better players and disposing of them when their contribution fell short of what he needed for his unrelenting pursuit of success.

In all high level competitive team sport if you do not have control of the dressing room and your working environment you don't last a week, something Ferguson learned as a player at Rangers and Ayr United and practised at East Stirling, St Mirren, Aberdeen and United. He learned the hard way and also from one of the greatest managers and another who insisted on control of his club, Jock Stein, both while Stein was at Celtic and in the sad final days with Scotland in 1985. I don't think you appreciate the apprenticeship he went through in the backwoods of Scotland, where he never had a fraction of the resources he was later to command. He did that with more than a little success. But that is only haggisography (Loved that opening line).

As to his contribution to the wider world, Ferguson is one of the largest individual contributors to the British Labour Party. He has just been lecturing to the Harvard Business School, not something that came the way of Kevin Sheedy. Sheedy went to Manchester to find out how Fergie managed his empire incidentally. He will be probably be offered a life peerage for his services to the game and the wider British society. He has worked hard to improve the status of managers in football as well as assisting many of them by helping them in finding and rejecting jobs. He has had a huge influence on the redevelopment of the Old Trafford stadium which is unrecognisable since the days when I used to watch United on alternate weekends with City at Maine Road in the 1950s.

You do not believe that sport is somehow divorced from business these days surely? So if someone is signally able to combine the two successfully, why should this be a strike against him? By the standards of some of the business leaders going around Fergie is far less duplicitous and a lot more transparent and he is judged every week in public in a way that most are not.

As to his attitude to referees. Of course they are always agin him when United lost and some of his rants and browbeating make me grue. Even though I was one for some years I still behaved badly towards them at times when I was coaching. I don¹t say that to excuse Fergie, but given what was a stake at top level he insisted on professional performance to the highest standards and when this was lacking, in his eyes, he spoke out. He did a lot behind the scenes to improve the quality of officiating.

I write this as a member of FC-United, which is in the play-offs for the Conference North. Just this morning the latest issue of the Pink Edition arrived by email.

On Saturday men, women and children all over Manchester will awake knowing that, by the end of the day, glory could be theirs. An armada of coaches will be filled with songs of hope, trains will clatter to the rhythm of excited chatter and mates will stuff themselves into reluctant, groaning cars as fans head south for the most important game of this season. This is it. FC United of Manchester, going out to play at 3pm on a Saturday, against HednesfordTown, in the play-off final.

This has been an amazing season. Not only has the team won a record points haul, but plans are finally being made to start digging in Moston. Owning our own ground is now more than a terrace song of intent. It's finally a clear and tangible reality. The club has arrived and the club is here to stay.

Manchester is more than United, and more than Fergie, but he is huge part of the city and the game and we would all be poorer without him.

Roy Hay

I come with the strength of the living day and the weight of the bureaucracy behind me

Victoria University is sending this press release out to all Victorian sports journos today. I don't know about 'leading sports historian' but that's spin for you. Do I expect some interest? Do I . . . .

130 years of organised soccer in Melbourne.

Also published at Oz Football Weekly

2013 represents the 130th anniversary of organised soccer in Melbourne. As the evidence shows, people began to organise association football clubs and played games in 1883. However, the FFV sees 1884 as the anniversary year because that when the Anglo-Australian Football Association was formed and four clubs started playing under its banner. It's a contentious decision (made more contentious by recent discoveries) which needs to be revisited.

The North Melbourne Advertiser of 6 April 1883 contained the following report:

"BRITISH" FOOTBALL. 
As advertised, the scratch match under the British rules took place on Saturday last [March 31], in the old Civil Service Football Ground [diagonally opposite AAMI Park]. There were about 25 players on the ground, besides a good many spectators, most of whom seemed to understand the game. It appeared rather awkward to some of the players, especially those who have been used to the Victorian game, as the rules are altogether different, but after a little practise it is the intention of the club to give the game a fair test before the Melbourne public. The game is "football pure and simple." A free kick is accorded for touching the ball with the hand or elbow and the foot and head are the only portions of the body allowed "in play." There were many old Scotchmen and Englishmen who declared the game a treat to witness, but many of our colonials thought the play very tame, there being no opportunity to show "skilful manipulations and get up a series of excitements" during the progress of the play. The club has already on its list 45 members, and after the meeting of tonight at Young and Jackson's it is expected the number will be doubled.

The Melbourne Argus of 20 April 1883 contained a brief notice indicating further developments.

FOOTBALL.
A general meeting of the members of the Anglo-Australian Association Football Club was held in Young and Jackson's Hotel last night (Thursday). Twenty-one members were present. The business of the evening consisted of drawing up rules for the management of the club. It was decided to practice again on Saturday afternoon at Albert-Park, near the railway, play to commence at half-past 3.

And so began the 130-year ongoing relationship between organised soccer and that wonderful mix of sportsgrounds and parklands located between South Melbourne and St Kilda. The home of South Melbourne FC, for over 50 years, Albert Park continues to be a place where the beautiful game flourishes. 

Yet Albert Park is not the home of the very first organised match (as opposed to practice match) in Melbourne. That honour might well belong to Richmond Cricket Ground [Punt Rd Oval]. The Argus of 12 May reported that a game of soccer was set to be played there that day. The regular Saturday fixture list included this notice: "Anglo Australian Association v. Richmond, on the Richmond cricket-ground." And it was reported on the following Monday that the

Anglo-Australian Association Football Club, having secured the Richmond cricket ground for the season, played there for the first time on Saturday, the time being filled up with a well-contested scratch match.

It's not an extensive write-up but it is there. The rather startling conclusion is that the first game of soccer in Melbourne might have been between the Anglo-Australian Association Football Club (the proto-association or organising body) and a football club named Richmond FC, possibly a forerunner of the present-day Tigers AFL club. Put that in your sports quiz! Though it may also simply be a cricketers XI from RCC. It may also be the case that Richmond didn't front and the Anglo Australian Football Club played amongst themselves.

Whatever the case, Melbourne soccer might have a significant anniversary coming up on May 12. I wonder if the Tigers would host a a re-enactment at Punt Road between its best XI and an FFV XI. The shame of such a suggestion is that it is absurd. In a mature and sophisticated sporting culture befitting the 'sports capital of the world' it wouldn't be.

If that game didn't eventuate then a month later, one most certainly did. The AAAFC played a game against South Park FC. The Argus reported that a "match, under the association rules, was played on the Richmond Cricket ground between the Anglo-Australian Association and South Park Football clubs. The former proved the best team, getting four goals to one." The first in a long line of footy types assuming they could beat a soccer team at their own game?

No more inter-club contests were forthcoming in 1883 and the AAAFC satisfied themselves with intra-club scratch matches for the remainder of the season. Nonetheless a challenge was in the offing for the Victorians, an intercolonial series of two games against NSW was played in Melbourne at the end of the season.Victoria performed well, drawing 2-2 with NSW on Wednesday 15 August at East Melbourne cricket ground. This game was followed up with a 0-0 draw three days later on South Melbourne cricket ground. While they couldn't scratch a win, the undefeated start to the intercolonial contests probably represented a good end to a successful first season of organised soccer in Melbourne.

Possibly suffused with the glow of their relative success, the AAAFC decided to move on to bigger things in 1884. The Argus of 14 September 1883 contained this report:

FOOTBALL.

The Anglo Australian football Club, at a meeting last night, appointed delegates from their club to make arrangements for forming other clubs next season in South Melbourne, Carlton, Richmond, South Yarra, Hotham, and Williamstown, so that the public may have opportunities of seeing the British Association game played. There is a probability of trophies being played for between the different clubs when formed, and of the Home Association being asked to send out a cup. Hopes are still entertained of sending home a team of footballers in 1885-6. 

As it turned out, this was a little optimistic, especially in regard to sending a team "home". Nonetheless, four teams were established and played competitively: South Melbourne, Prahran, Carlton and Richmond.

Others like Williamstown were formed but seem not to have made it onto the playing field.

Given this evidence is it time for the FFV to shift its anniversary date back to 1883?