Silly Second Divisions

This week's trip to the SLV didn't yield too much to add to the work in progress that is the Statistical History. Opting to take a spell from the early 1920's Second Divisions that make no sense (Is it a Second Division? Is it a Reserves League? Is it one League? Is it divided into two Sections? Is it a bit of all of these?) I started looking for details on the Dockerty Cup Finals that are lacking in information at the moment.

Firstly, there is the return to action after World War I, the 1919 edition. All I had was the date, September 6 at Middle Park, and a final score of Footscray Thistle 2 Windsor 0. One was an own goal, the other scorer not known. No line-ups at all have been revealed, and nothing was found yesterday. Worryingly, with The Sun and The Sporting Globe not yet in existence, I'm running out of places where more information may be found.

From just after a War, to slap bang in the middle of one, the 1942 Dockerty Cup Final is also scarce for detail. Every report gives the same information, on September 5 at Olympic Park it was Prahran A who defeated Moreland-Hakoah 3-0. Glasson got two goals, the other coming from H.Gray. No other players get mentioned in reports of about three sentences. Another cause for concern is that even the VFL coverage in the papers was greatly reduced. There was a push for sport to be abandoned to aid the war effort, so it seems everyone was trying not to draw too much attention to themselves.

I ended up checking out Nimrod's coverage of the 1946 season in The Sun, looking for Division Two results. It was a classic season of the times, with the Division split into North and South Sections with a mixture of senior and reserves teams. There didn't always seem to be a full complement of results, and it takes a few weeks into the season to work out how many teams are in each Section. This also gets turned on it's head mid-season in the North Section when Hakaoh B seem to disappear. They are probably replaced by the R.A.F. (or R.A.A.F. as it does vary) who start to appear in July. In the South Section, Flinders Naval Depot also seem to join in a little late. Curiously, Northcote High School Old Boys fielded a team in each Section, with no indication as to which was the senior side.

So the tables I made on the basis of these results are all over the shop. In North Section I've got 5 games out of Hakoah B, going up to 14 for Moreland B. Still, it's pretty clear Coburg took the title. In the South Section it ranges from 6 games for Flinders Naval Depot through to 15 for their Northcote. Park Rangers took the title.

Other items of interest include the Second Division having it's own Cup that year, the Final seeing Sunshine United beat Park Rangers 2-1 after extra-time. Shellackings were commonplace, and in an epic 15-1 win over Hakoah B (you can see why they packed it in) T.Sharp racked up a solid 8 goals.

I've added a few new pages to the blog, where you can download some of the documents I have scanned. The old Soccer News magazine has it's own page, and I will be going through them again as I add them to the page to check if any clues to the 1942 Cup Final are found in the early post-War editions. If anyone has access to any copies that I can scan to add to this library, don't hesitate to get in touch.