Did a bit of tidying up of the old hard drive, and noticed I really do have a lot of pictures stored. Most are pretty ordinary, but some are worth sharing.
R.I.P. old scoreboard at Lakeside (Bob Jane) Stadium
It may not have been a glittering career, but it had it's moments.
Club members building the foundations of the new rooms at Bastow Oval, to become Kevin Bartlett Reserve. Stand up and salute them.
Trainspotting, Richmond Under 21's v Bentleigh Greens Under 21's, 2012.
Thanks to Markian Jaworsky, Buddy's Mobile Disco was the iconic VPL sponsorship sign. Green Gully Under 21's v Richmond Under 21's, 2012.
The big stage. 2010 VPL Grand Final.
South Melbourne fan's make a fine political statement on Heyington Bridge in 2010.
Iain Stirton carries son David as he walks off the park after Moorabbin City defeated Eltham/Diamond Valley United away in 1994.
1970's George Cross at Olympic Park.
1932 Hakoah, Metropolitan League Division Two Champions.
I never expected researching football history to be easy. Some setbacks are to be expected. A six hour stint in the State Library Victoria newspaper microfilm archives to yield just three new match results was a tad disappointing. I'd noticed Croydon results were often missing in the late 1920's. I suspected it was the tyranny of distance to the then outpost which meant results weren't getting through in time for publication rather than the games not being played.
Searching for a local paper, I uncovered the Ringwood Mail and Warrandyte Gazette. Local papers, coming out once a week, had much later deadlines. I found a great match report for a 2-0 win (Benson double) over Kingsville on Saturday July 20, 1929. It had the local team line-up and everything. Sadly, there were only two such reports for that season. Did the club publicists only sing when they were winning? It may account for such patchy coverage in those days.
It's not just the olden days where information may have vanished out of existence. Back in January I emailed the FFV requesting information from this century that was no longer available on their website (click on image to enlarge).
I got the level of service I've come to expect of the FFV i.e. poor. I shouldn't have been surprised, it's a fact of the history that I'm studying.
To me, that is the greatest wrestling promo (interview) of all time. The Rock, Chris Jericho and the various incarnations of Mick Foley were all better performers on the mic, but Bret Hart nailed this classic to perfection.
Maybe it's because I've always enjoyed the comedy of the absurd more than most. I always thought nominating Cotton Eye Joe by Rednex in every forum thread discussing the greatest song of all time far funnier that it probably really is. Building up the perpetual loser that El Dandy as a legitimate contender strikes a chord in that regard.
The Hitman's eye rolling can top any teenager's sarcasm. Mocking Booker T by using "aks" instead of ask is gold. Claiming Mean Gene Okerlund is trying to "tear these guys down" when calling Psicosis "Hypnosis" and following up with "whatever" when corrected is brilliant. Works on another level as well, considering it was obvious WCW was continually tearing the Mexican luchadores down. The "he's a high flyer of the highest magnitude" line reminds me of the Fistful of Yen sequence from The Kentucky Fried Movie, and that just doesn't happen often enough.
Even Bret's stutter in delivering the "who are you to, to doubt El Dandy" line works. Is he incredulous the superbly earnest Mean Gene is not buying it?
Now the only thing that packs so much gold into one package more than this are the ads placed in Soccer Action in the 1980's by prospective coaching superstar Ratko Crnic. And there's two packages! As well as a rare case of not being able to determine which is better, the original or the sequel, because they are both so damn good.
So who are you to doubt Ratko Crnic? He was born for football. The authorities wanting badges and credentials try to tear him down, but that's because he has the secret to success that they don't. And is there a more random line of genius anywhere ever than "My dream is to see England at the top in world soccer". Not in this universe.
