Gardiner's Creek Reserve

A few photos of the venue during the Melbourne Victory Youth v Eastern Lions Clash in NPL One East on Saturday:

The mighty Gardiner's Creek itself, flowing strong in the middle of winter.

New timber indicates a new scoreboard on the benches/Gardiner's Creek side.

Intrepid camera work on the roof of the clubrooms, provides a decent perspective.

Suburban soccer ritual, the half-time shots on goal from the youngsters.

Mitch Beamish ready for the second-half to kick off, he would later put Eastern Lions ahead.

Milos Ridesic marshalls his defense as they prepare for play to resume after his equaliser.

Not the flattest ground, it slopes downhill from the car park end. The centre is raised and also slopes off down both wings.

The surrounds are certainly leafy.

The playground at the southern end. No doubt a few kids have progressed from there, through the junior ranks and into the senior team over the years.

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Eastern Lions

Eastern Lions, formerly Waverley City and Old Scotch Waverley, are a stable club from Melbourne's Eastern suburbs that currently punches above it's weight in NPL One East.

More of their history can be found in this 40th Anniversary Dinner Dance Programme from 2003.

1974 World Cup Socceroo Jimmy Rooney can be found around the place on any match day carrying out coaching duties with both the junior and senior set-ups.

The clubrooms at Gardiner's Creek Reserve on Sixth Avenue in Burwood contain one of the best collections of photographs in Victorian football.

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                                                                  Waverley City 1984

Back: Vic Binbing (Physio), Alex Milevski, Bernard Redmond, Kyle Patterson, Sean Coulter, Terry Grimwade, Carl Egan, David Cooper (Coach).
Front: Gary Pierce, Ted Quy, Gary Darch, Paul Storey, Alex Wilson, Tom Gameras.

This Saturday the club is hosting Melbourne Victory Youth as well as a Sponsor's Day, a good time to get down to the club if you haven't been before.

More Random Pictures

More as in additional rather then extremely random.

The gratitude you get for getting a club promoted. Moorabbin City win promotion on the final day of the 1994 season, the banner reading "WHO ATE ALL THE PIES? STIRTS U FAT B'TARD".

No longer Croatia, not yet the Knights. Melbourne CSC 1993.

Pre-renovation (2010) home dressing room at Knights Stadium.

VSF President John Dimtsis gives junior State Team representative Mark Viduka his new gear at the Kevin Bartlett Reserve clubrooms.

Not Vin Cattoggio, but the enigmatic Ulysses Kokkinos. The greatest afro of 1970's Victorian State League soccer.

Richmond 1969 at a sunny Burnley Oval.

An earlier incarnation of Rosebud in the VSF leagues, Provisional League club Rosebud in 1981.

The great John Punshon takes a snap of a Richmond goal celebration against Bentleigh Greens at Kevin Bartlett Reserve in 2012.

Richmond skipper Erhan Karahan keeps an eye on Dandenong Thunder's Nate Foster at George Andrews Reserve in 2012.

The 1994 VSF Yearbook cover, featuring Bulleen and Paul Trimboli.

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Random Videos II: Less Random, More Videos

Both legs of the 2002 World Cup Qualification Play-Offs from November 2001. Narrow win at the MCG, disaster in Montevideo. What doesn't kill you makes you stronger.

VPL action from 2003. The late Whittlesea Stallions (including cut-off interview with Phil Stubbins) against Preston Lions (future Socceroo Sash Ognenovski with a goal) at Epping Stadium (with a crowd).

There is footage missing in the Essendon Royals v Bentleigh Greens clip, but the goals are repeated in the post-game review. Played at the old Reggio Calabria Club.

Great crowd at Jack Edwards Reserve in 2003 for State League Division One action between Oakleigh Cannons and Heidelberg United. The second video sees Western Suburbs take absolute liberties with Kingston City in the same league.

The Scottish pop classic this time around is Aztec Camera's Somewhere In My Heart. Black and white retro in the 1980's was the epitome of artistic.

History, Rewritten

Occasionally I will Google search "Victorian Soccer History", looking for something new or something that I may have missed previously. During such a search yesterday I thought I'd check out what the Wikipedia entry for Football Federation Victoria contained and was struck by some glaring "inconsistencies". Today I thought I'd check the FFV's own site to see if that is where the Wikipedia entry was lifted from, which was the case.

                              

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To claim the organisation dates back to 1884 is more than an inconsistency, it's an outright lie and fabrication. The 1880's body died out with the Depression of the early 1890's. When Harry Dockerty was instrumental in restoring the code in Melbourne in 1908, it was with a new association.

It would be a stretch to claim that was one of "several name changes". It is a downright lie, and a criminal one at that, to suggest the creation of the Victorian Soccer Federation in 1962 was merely a name change from the Victorian Amateur Soccer Football Association. The VSF was a breakaway from the established body, it was ugly split that went before the courts. It dishonours the VSF pioneers not to acknowledge this.

Such historic revisionism is particularly galling on a day in which Dawn Fraser's racial comments about Nick Kyrgios have made the headlines. Fraser harks back to an era where telling foreigners who did not fit in to return to their homeland was the norm. It cannot be denied there was a racial element to the VASFA/VSF battle. To pretend there wasn't disrespects the actions of the leaders of many ethnic clubs who stood up for themselves in rebelling and creating the VSF.

In fact, the main, genuine name change in the governing bodies history, from VSF to FFV is not mentioned at all! A further, shameful, insult.

The claim that the NPL brought "top flight football" to Geelong "for the first time" is a slap in the face of the North Geelong Warriors VPL Championship team of 1992. Rewriting history to suit a political agenda is pretty poor form, as is disrespecting a club and their achievements.

Maybe that's why they would prefer history not be researched? To allow it to be rewritten by themselves, unchecked?

Random Videos

I've picked up a vast collection of VHS with mainly Socceroos games, which I will gradually upload to share on YouTube. They are full length, and take a while upload which means the I will probably only do two or three a month.

First up, there is a game from the group stage of the 1995 World Youth Championships, Australia v Germany. Josip Skoko had a great game, and Mark Viduka showed his class. It was a fine Australian side.

Next up is a classic NSL Grand Final, South Melbourne v Carlton from 1997-98. Plenty of atmosphere and drama at the old Olympic Park.

And because it's the random video post, here's Deacon Blue on Top of the Pops with Real Gone Kid. Audience is well into it, Scottish pop at it's finest. Far better than the official music video.