Working On Records

So with the the A3 scanner having packed it in, and the A4 scanner not being much use scanning A3 newspapers and being temperamental itself as well, my focus has turned to tidying up a very messy hard drive.

Over the years I've started records for both Moorabbin City and Richmond Alemannia, but it was very piecemeal. Seasons here and there, some detailed, some with next to nothing.The formats of the records varied from season to season, and between the clubs. Most team line-up files included just a surname, some had a first initial. So getting these records in order is long overdue.

When it comes to match records, the starting point is obviously the date of the game, score and goalscorers, with a venue, referee name and team line-ups all preferable.

Sadly, over the years, goalscorer information for anything below the top tier in Victorian football has been abysmal. Official top goalscorer awards for leagues only regularly commenced in the early 1980's. Even the Soccer News, the "Official Organ of the V.A.S.AF.A." did not publish goalscorers alongside it's results from the 1940's through the 1970's. 

Venues can be sourced from VASFA/VSF Yearbooks, in most cases. There will be the odd club that was still searching for a home at the time of publication. Sometimes these can be picked up in a news item in Soccer News, sometimes they can't.

Referee's names were often published in the mainstream media alongside fixtures for that week's games at times from the 1920's to the 1930's. Soccer News only did this with much frequency in the late 1960's.

Team-line ups were a feature of early newspaper match reports, at least for the top levels, that began to wane after World War II. With the advent of Soccer News, you could get predicted line-ups for that weeks games, but match reports of the previous weeks games would not have any. Sadly most clubs did not take up the offer to have their teams listed in Soccer News by sending them through, despite constant appeals and threats of fines and leading to this part of the magazine eventually being dropped.

Moorabbin City

Richmond Alemannia

The files above are what I've gathered for both clubs up to the end of 1964 so far. It gives an indication of how much of this information is missing. Later seasons will be easier and be more comprehensive when I work up to them, my greatest task there being adding first names to the existing line-ups I have.

In the era covered above, we find that grounds were still being referred to as the street or road they were on before a park had been given a formal name (see Patterson Road, Bentleigh being the latter Victory Park and Olive Street, Hampton being Sillitoe Reserve). Richmond have gone from the Migrant Hostel in Maribyrnong to Survey Park and Burnley Oval to Olympic Village and Schintler Reserve for their Victorian State League home games (with Olympic Park appearances as well).

We can also see how much use the parks of Middle, Yarra, Princes and Royal got. 

When they are both finished, maybe the State Library will be open and accessible once again to see if any more information can be added.