Tales of the Countryside

The above is a song that may get a run as teams make road trips up to the country for NPLV fixtures this year. Hopefully no one will make a wrong turn and get lost in a backwater where "Dueling Banjos" is the number one tune in town.

In a previous blog I referred to the non-metropolitan Melbourne clubs as "country bumpkin clubs" which is a little disrespectful. Then again, respect is something that should be earned, which is hard to have for clubs being placed in higher leagues at the expense of ones that have earned their place on merit. That's an issue for another blog however, as this time I will be looking at the history of country teams in Melbourne/Victorian competitions.

The first non-metropolitan side to make an impression on Melbourne football was Submarine Depot in the early 1920's. Also known as Osbourne House, the Geelong-based sailors won all their games in the debut in the top flight of 1920. Unfortunately they pulled out of the League after just four games, finishing fourth in Section B. The following year they competed in the Dockerty Cup, where they reached the Final. After a 1-1 draw, they were beaten 2-0 in a replay by Northumberland and Durham United.

In 1924 Naval Depot, based at Crib Point, won the Second Division and made it a double by taking out the Dockerty Cup with a 1-0 defeat of Footscray Thistle in the Final. Another Cup win would follow before 1928 saw them take the District League Championship and Dockerty Cup double.

Wonthaggi Magpies, beaten by Naval Depot on the Cup Final of 1928, were the next country team to make a mark. In an epic series in 1931 they claimed the Dockerty Cup by finally defeating Brunswick 1-0 in a Second Replay.

Following World War II the first country team to join the League competition was Yallourn, who finished 8th in Section B of the First Division of 1947. Struggling at the foot of the First Division, they were relegated in 1949. Bouncing back as Runner's-Up in the Second Division the following season, they continued their momentum by storming to the First Division Championship in 1951.

In 1952 Yallourn finished 5th in the First Division. International Harvesters (Based in Geelong) and Flinders Naval Depot were competing in the Second Division. Another relegation and promotion followed before Yallourn departed the top flight for good at the end of 1955.

With new migrant clubs beginning to dominate the football landscape, leading to the formation of the State League in 1958 country clubs struggled to reach the highest level. Geelong had a top flight stint in 1959. In the lower reaches, Seymour and Bendigo United competed in the Provisional League in that year, with Seymour rising to Division Two North after finishing 3rd. Norlane Olympia competed in that division until being relegated in 1963 in a season in which Geelong Scottish took 3rd place.

As those clubs faded out of the scene, Yallourn bounced back by taking out the Fourth Division and then Third Division in 1967 and 1968. Their successors as Fourth Division Champions were Ballarat. Yallourn were unable to breakthrough beyond the Second Division this time, and in the mid-1970's the next big thing from the Latrobe Valley was just starting to make it's mark as Morwell Falcons won the Provisional League in consecutive years in the time before automatic promotion to the Metropolitan League.

Despite only finishing Runner's-Up to Geelong in the Provisional League of 1976, the Falcons were finally accepted into the Fourth Division and another Runner's-Up finish saw them win promotion instantly. Reaching the Second Division, it was expansion of the Leagues rather than promotion which took them to the top flight for 1982, when they finished in 4th place. At that time Corio and Yallourn were in the Third Division, with North Geelong, Geelong and Hamlyn Rangers giving the Fourth Division a strong Sleepy Hollow-flavour. Ballarat, Kyneton and Shepparton City were all competing in the Provisional League which now had three Divisions.

Morwell Falcons became State Champions in 1984, backing it up by being Runner's-Up the following season. Another State League title was claimed in 1989. When the new Victorian Premier League first adopted a Grand Final to determine it's Championship, it was North Geelong who took out the first showpiece at Middle Park with an extra-time defeat of Brunswick United Juventus the season after being promoted as Champions of the State League First Division.

Morwell Falcons, who had finished 8th that season, were accepted into the National Soccer League that year. As an NSL club, they would win the Dockerty Cup in 1994, before changing their name to Gippsland Falcons and then Eastern Pride before folding in 2001. When North Geelong were relegated from the VPL in 1997, it would be the end of a provincial presence in the top flight until the NPL Victoria came into existence this year.

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.

'Cause Night is Day and Day is Night - Bits and Pieces II

Another random thoughts column, losing on penalties in the indoor soccer semi-final taking up most of the time tonight. Making the loss worse is the preliminary final is on Sunday afternoon and will clash with VPL game between Oakleigh Cannons and Richmond, which is where I will be.

Great win by the Socceroos last night, giving us the reasonable equation of winning against Iraq next Tuesday equaling World Cup qualification. Milligan, Kruse, Holman and Bresciano amongst our best with opening goalscorer Bresciano far and away still the best passer of a ball we have. Or maybe it just stands out more amongst those that are more athletes than footballers like Wilkshire.

The things that infuriate most when going through The Age and The Argus online archives can be too numerous to mention. But I will have a crack. Results are often listed in the format of Winner 2 d Loser 1, rather than Home Score Away Score. Results are pretty consistent, but actual league tables are few and far between. Some years the results are conveniently placed at the bottom of the match reports, but some they are not and you have to read the full match reports to determine final score and scorers which is fairly time consuming. There are some times when not all goalscorers are listed in high scoring games, with only those that, in Aussie Rules parlance, "kicked a bag" rating a mention. 

In the time before lights and longer working hours, there were no midweek catch-up games. There were no penalty shoot-outs, so postponements and replayed cup ties would often extend the season to the point where it could not be finished because clubs lost venues when the cricket season began.

I would probably change my stance on the whole NPLV shambles if Flinders Naval Depot had put in an Expression of Interest and were brought back to top flight Victorian football. Is there a scoreboard big enough to accommodate the name Northumberland and Durham United? Footscray Thistle and Melbourne Thistle used to give us a great Thistle Derby. 

John Wren's Motordrome was one of the early homes of Melbourne football. The pitch was surrounded by a concrete saucer track used for cycling, motor bike and speedway racing. The latter two were not particularly safe events, and it's a sobering thought that more than a few lives were lost at the arena.

The above mentioned online archives are all well and good, but the true gold can only be found on the microfilm at the State Library Victoria, in the little reels marked Sporting Globe. I'm old enough to remember The Sporting Globe being in publication, with the primary sport if covered always having been horse racing. Many pages were devoted to Aussie Rules (for a long time the Victorian Football Association (VFA) was almost on par with the VFL (now AFL) and other sports though. Soccer was usually pretty well covered, exceptionally so in the 1960's in the post-War migrant boom years. The Globe came out twice a week, a midweek edition on Wednesday, and a Saturday evening edition which contained all that days race results and footy match reports. This was of course largely in the pre-television era.

Actually, there is greater gold than even The Sporting Globe. Accordingly it is also even harder to come by. Have a look at:

http://www.ozfootball.net/museum/index.php/en/downloads

where you can find a few of these beauties:

http://www.ozfootball.net/museum/downloads/SoccerNews1953May16.pdf

Next bits and pieces I will ponder the question, does the FFV have a copy of each of the Yearbooks the VASFA and VSF used to produce?