The Books of Doug Butcher

It is with great pleasure that I am able to share with you all the brilliant work of Sydney football historian Doug Butcher. Doug has produced several booklets based on his research into early Australian representative games and international teams that toured the country. The links to the booklets can be found below:

Australia's International Socker Results 1922-1929

Australia's International Soccer Results 1930-1939

Australia's International Soccer Results 1940-1949

Soccer Touring Teams to Australia Results 1905-1929

Soccer Touring Teams to Australia Results 1930-1939

Soccer Touring Teams to Australia Results 1940-1949

These expand in greater detail what can currently be found on OzFootball. They also contain searched and explanations for the issues behind various name discrepancies amongst touring players. In the early part of last century newspapers often had various spellings for simple British surnames, so it's no surprise that more exotic foreign names posed problems. Christian names were not always published, in fact sometimes even an initial didn't appear and Doug has endeavoured to uncover as much about these players as he can.

He also explains the make-up of the touring sides, in a time when match organisers were part-wrestling promotors, looking to add more lustre to their teams. This is when the public accepted Hajduk Split being billed as Yugoslavia, and Bohemians of Prague were advertised as a Czechoslovakian national team.

In the days when travel was more by boat than plane, we see how tours were longer as teams were made to make the most of having made long voyages. These were not one-off friendlies, but massive tours often with a series of test matches.

Thanks to Doug for sharing, hopefully a few more people get as much out of going through these booklets as I did.

Moorabbin City 1994 - The Video

Edited to add: The video has been blocked in some countries due to musical copyright claims by that prick Billy Joel's reps. I'll carry around a USB with it on me for those keen to get a copy. You just need to get in touch. markboric@bigpond.com

Predating the great Football Chaos, Moorabbin City had most of their games in 1994 filmed by former first team and then reserve team player Rob Mihalek. I now present that video in it's entirety, complete with some graphic I made up on the old Amiga 1200.

It was Moorabbin's first on field (there had been some league re-structures) promotion in almost 20 years. Initially coached by the late Billy Whiteside, it was Dave Christians who led the side into securing a place in Division Two. Stevie Irvine (Jackson's dad) was Billy's assistant.

The first team squad was:
Bertie Arlove, Ray Bryden, Paddy Cooper, Davie Fourna, Tony Hermus, Dom Iasenza, Gerry Lepkowski, Mickey Maguire, Craig Miller, Jimmy Nelson, Brian Smith, Jimmy Stewart, Iain Stirton, Brian Sweeney, Brendan Thomas, Rob Tobin, Stan Webster, John Whiteside and Troy Williams.

                                               (Click on images to enlarge)

Promotion was secured on the final day of the season, in dramatic circumstances which is of course the highlight of the video, along with the reserve team celebrations after winning their championship under Sven Helbig on the same day. Other highlights (some may say lowlights) are Mickey Maguires knockout v Fitzroy City and the smart work to prevent Jimmy Nelson battering a referee. The home ground for the year was Gaelic Park, Keysborough. The best game there was the defeat of South Dandenong (now Dandenong Thunder).

If you it and want to keep it, use one of those video downloader thingies in case the use of music sees the sound taken from the video at some point in the future due to certain violations.

Anyway, behold Moorabbin City 1994:

Another Project For The Backburner

A few years ago Pave Jusup asked if I'd kept any records on junior leagues. I said no, as given the obscurity of finding some senior and reserves final tables I figured I would be on a hiding to nothing attempting to compile that data.

Well, like the glutton for punishment that I am, I've decided to have a crack. This preliminary attempt is based of what could be found in VSF Yearbooks, FFV Annual Reports and the current FFV website. I've yet to go through the Soccer Action era to fill in more of the 1970's and 1980's but most of that should be covered. I will make notes in the comments section below on my success in that area.

As usual, there is a void in the years 2002-2003 where official record keeping did not keep up with changes in the digital age. If anyone can help, please contact me at markboric@bigpond.com
That goes for any other of the gaps throughout time. Once again, I will be using the comments section to provide updates.

Compiling this list emphasised the growth of the game over the years, most especially the recent boom in female football. The changes in junior boundaries can also be observed. Then there are the experiments like dividing the 1996 season into Autumn and Winter Competitions.

I will soon go through the Soccer Action collection to update those years, but this project is very much on the backburner, down the list of my other historical searches. Unless there is a flood of information supplied (I'm happy to do the typing) further updates may be some time coming. There are the usual issues of VSF Yearbooks neglecting junior details in many years.

Here is the link to the file:

Victorian Junior League Champions

Things have been a little quiet on the blogging side recently, as I'm going through old notes to double check and reorganise my records as I try and track down what is missing to complete the seasons from 1910-1949. I've made a few State Library visits for very little reward.

If anyone wants some clip art, here is my current collection:

Clip Art File

I've also got this Sportsworld magazine article on the 1974 Socceroos to add to the historical documents:

Sportsworld - 1974 Socceroos

In the next month I'll also be adding some great content on early Socceroos and representative games sent to me by Doug Butcher.