The History of Soccer in New South Wales

It seems the appalling lack of decent record keeping in Australian football is not a nationwide phenomenon. Thanks to Greg Stock sending me a USB full of pure football history porn, I've seen the work of Sid Grant and Harry Hetherington in documenting NSW football history, and it is breathtaking in it's detail.

I haven't really had a chance to go through it, as there is so much there plus I've had to do a bit of work to make it more shareable. Using www.ilovepdf.com I converted hundreds of single jpg images into pdfs at 20 a time, then merged those pdfs into larger ones to produce the following 17 volumes.


History of Soccer in New South Wales Volume 1

History of Soccer in New South Wales Volume 2

History of Soccer in New South Wales Volume 3

History of Soccer in New South Wales Volume 4

History of Soccer in New South Wales Volume 5

History of Soccer in New South Wales Volume 6

History of Soccer in New South Wales Volume 7

History of Soccer in New South Wales Volume 8

History of Soccer in New South Wales Volume 9

History of Soccer in New South Wales Volume 10

History of Soccer in New South Wales Volume 11

History of Soccer in New South Wales Volume 12

History of Soccer in New South Wales Volume 13

History of Soccer in New South Wales Volume 14

History of Soccer in New South Wales Volume 15

History of Soccer in New South Wales Volume 16

History of Soccer in New South Wales Volume 17

Sid Grant was the man behind Jack Pollard's Soccer Records, the first book to chronicle the game in Australia to a wider audience.

The book, of course, is only a small glimpse of the records he, and later Hetherington, kept. Final tables, results grids, goalscorers, appearance records, they are all there. It's an incredible volume of work, and anyone wanting to research the history of the local game can now freely do so online.

The links will also be permanently added to the History Documents page.

Enjoy!

New South Wales Soccer Football

The scope of the archiving on this blog of football documents expanded beyond merely Melbourne Soccer a fair while ago now. Recently I was contacted by Greg Stock, one of the powerhouses behind the OzFootball.net treasure trove of football history. He has sent me a bunch of scans (and one lot of photocopies to scan myself) to add a whole batch of New South Wales Soccer Football Association material to add to the Yearbooks & Annuals Archive. They can also be found in the list below:

New South Wales Soccer Football Association Annual Report 1921

New South Wales Soccer Football Association Annual Report 1922

New South Wales Soccer Football Association Annual Report 1923

New South Wales Soccer Football Association Annual Report 1924

New South Wales Soccer Football Association Annual Report 1926

New South Wales Soccer Football Association Annual Report 1927

New South Wales Soccer Football Association Annual Report 1937

New South Wales Soccer Annual 1933

New South Wales Soccer Football Association Handbook 1942

New South Wales Soccer Football Association Handbook 1947

Now I've only had the time to really get much of a look at the one I scanned, the 1947 Handbook, and what a masterpiece it is. Sid Grant sure knew how to compile records, the detail is immense. There's a huge pictorial section, all well labelled. Compare it to the simple fixture list that is the 1948 VASFA Handbook provided to me by Tony Persoglia earlier this week, and, well, there is no comparison.

It's great to be able to share these with fellow researchers and fans of soccer nostalgia. Thanks Greg and Tony for your ongoing work in preserving the game's history.

Victorian Soccer Season Files - 1928

1928 was the second, and final, divided season in the wake of the 1927 schism. The previous year a District system had been brought in to replace the old League structure. The clubs opposed to it, or not accepted by it, established the Melbourne and Districts Association. The Melbourne Soccer Football Association, with the authorisation of the Victorian Amateur Soccer Football Association, ran the Metropolitan League and the Suburban League.

The established body weakened the rebels at the end of the 1927 season by poaching that League's top team Naval Depot before they could play in the M&D Association League's Grand Final. For 1928, the Metropolitan District League was expanded to two divisions, of Southern and Northern Sections with the winners of each to meet in a Grand Final. Below that sat the Suburban League. Conversely, the rebel league went from having two divisions (A & B) to a single league.

Having two divisions tested the depth of the top league, and lead to some one-sided match-ups, none greater than Naval Depot thrashing Richmond 14-0 on July 14, with Percy Lewis notching nine goals. Naval Depot were unbeaten in winning the Southern Section, as were Footscray Thistle in claiming the Northern Section. In the Grand Final at the Motordrome it was the Navy who emerged triumphant, a 2-1 win taking the title to Crib Point. They made it a double by defeating the country team of Wonthaggi Magpies 6-0 in the Dockerty Cup Final.

Essendon won all their games in winning the Suburban League then disappeared before the 1929 season. The District League ran two reserves divisions, with the intention of staging a Grand Final between the two winners. This was scuppered when the northern section saw Footscray Thistle and Williamstown finish level on points. With goal average or goal difference not yet in vogue a Championship Play-Off was held, which ended up going to five replays before Thistle claimed honours. By then it was cricket season and the Grand Final was abandoned.

A new team, Caledonians (Scots playing out of Royal Park) took the M&D Association League by storm in taking a League and Cup double. After the split was resolved they were added to the new Second Division in 1929. Their rivals, former powerhouse Melbourne Thistle, were welcomed back into the First Division with the reunion of the factions.

There is one result missing from the Suburban League, as well as known results not matching up with the final published table in two cases, Alphington and Albert Park so something has happened there.

There are many more missing results in the "rebel" M&D Association League. The Age didn't give it much coverage, and only one table was published all season, in The Herald making it hard to determine any of the missing results.

Anyway, here it is:

1928 Victorian Season File