Another batch of VSF Yearbooks have been scanned and uploaded, so time for another review.
Not a VSF Yearbook, it's the Australian Soccer Yearbook
Australian Soccer Year Book 1963
Or more accurately, the Soccer World Yearbook for 1963. This is a treat, a wonderful record of the season in NSW and pretty good coverage of other states. All the line-ups for the interstate championship and Australia Cup are there and player appearances for the NSW top tier. The great names leap from every page, Marston, Baumgartner, the brothers Ninaus, Jaros, Warren, Watkiss etc
Not a VSF Yearbook, it's some Queensland Soccer Federation Yearbooks
Queensland Soccer Federation Yearbook 1968
Queensland Soccer Federation Yearbook 1969
These are also great, up there with the early 1960's VSF Yearbooks and better than what the VSF was offering at the time.
About to enter the Golden Age, the 1974 VSF Yearbook
1974 VSF Yearbook
The new World Cup trophy on the cover. All the framework for the classic Yearbooks of 1976-78 are there without the fancy extras. Lots of fixtures, tables and cup charts.
From the top shelf, the 1976 VSF Yearbook
1976 VSF Yearbook
Another trophy on the cover, this time it's the Rothman's State League Championship Trophy. Tons of fixtures and tables. There's results grids and cup charts, and a list of VSF Cup Finals for the year prior. There's a list of the state team games from a tour of New Caledonia, and the Bendigo League gets a mention.
Returning to the Dark Ages, the 1980 VSF Yearbook
1980 VSF Yearbook
Plain, lame cover. Fixtures and club contacts book, more like. Not even tables from the previous year, let alone results grids or cup charts. Nothing about the juniors. A few pictures and the state team line-ups for the season the only highlights. Pocket sized, but no pocket rocket like the 1960's VASFA versions.
Same crap as the year before, the 1981 VSF Yearbook
1981 VSF Yearbook
Did Oliver Twist ask for some more slop? It's delivered here in spades, another shocker with the plain lame cover now a signature for mediocrity.
Page size is bigger, just makes it a bigger waste of space, the 1983 VSF Yearbook
1983 VSF Yearbook
The pocked size has been increased a bit, but the plain, lame cover offers the same dire content as it's 1980's predecessors. Scanning it made me sad.
Tuesday, 12 September 2017
Friday, 8 September 2017
The 2017 NPLV Grand Final Soccer Marathon
One of the great Melbourne institutions is the HSV7 (7 Network) Grand Final Footy Marathon. Late night on Grand Final Eve the station would run highlights or full games of previous VFL/AFL Grand Finals all through the night, leading in to the coverage of the Under 19's then Reserves Grand Finals leading up to the main event.
This year I start what will hopefully be a new tradition, the NPLV Grand Final Marathon as we build up the big clash between Heidelberg United and Bentleigh Greens at Lakeside Stadium on Sunday. There's all the links to the highlights or full games of previous VPL/NPLV Grand Finals that I have found so far.
Maybe next year we can find a few more videos to add for the next marathon.
1992 North Geelong v Brunswick Juventus
1995 Altona Magic v Bulleen Lions
2003 Green Gully v Frankston Pines
2005 Green Gully v Heidelberg United
2006 South Melbourne v Altona Magic
2009 Altona Magic v Dandenong Thunder
2010 Green Gully v Richmond
2011 Green Gully v Oakleigh Cannons
2012 Dandenong Thunder v Oakleigh Cannons
2013 Northcote City v Bentleigh Greens
2015 Bentleigh Greens v South Melbourne
2016 South Melbourne v Oakleigh Cannons
This year I start what will hopefully be a new tradition, the NPLV Grand Final Marathon as we build up the big clash between Heidelberg United and Bentleigh Greens at Lakeside Stadium on Sunday. There's all the links to the highlights or full games of previous VPL/NPLV Grand Finals that I have found so far.
Maybe next year we can find a few more videos to add for the next marathon.
1992 North Geelong v Brunswick Juventus
1995 Altona Magic v Bulleen Lions
2003 Green Gully v Frankston Pines
2005 Green Gully v Heidelberg United
2006 South Melbourne v Altona Magic
2009 Altona Magic v Dandenong Thunder
2010 Green Gully v Richmond
2011 Green Gully v Oakleigh Cannons
2012 Dandenong Thunder v Oakleigh Cannons
2013 Northcote City v Bentleigh Greens
2015 Bentleigh Greens v South Melbourne
2016 South Melbourne v Oakleigh Cannons
Saturday, 12 August 2017
Boo Reviews Some Yearbooks
Some more old VASFA and VSF Yearbooks have been scanned and uploaded to the Yearbooks & Annuals archive, and I thought I'd discuss their relative merits in a blog post.
Not a VSF Yearbook, the 1968 Victorian Soccer Yearbook
1968 Victorian Soccer Yearbook
Although a VSF product, this is not the actual VSF Yearbook for that year which can be found here.
It is basically a laws of the game booklet with last season's tables thrown in. Maybe they gave them out to schools for promotion/publicity, but even today I wouldn't waste thirty cents on it.
It cost shillings and pence, the 1959 VASFA Yearbook
1959 VASFA Yearbook
VASFA emblem on the cover, a lion and a kangaroo around a football with a crown on it. You could buy Stanley Matthews brand boots and balls in Queen Street. Good solid yearbook, list of VASFA officials and fixture list all nice. Slight shame the players are not identified in the picture of the previous year's State League Champions. Tables perfect, great results grids and cup charts. Slight let down with the list of champions, it's a shame Cup finals don't have further details as in scorers and line-ups. Some reasonable history with lists of previous champions and tours results. A quality production.
Here comes another one, just like the other one, the 1960 VASFA Yearbook
1960 VASFA Yearbook
Very similar to the previous year's version. The pic of the previous year's champion was ditched, and profiles of the leading officials was added. A good historical record.
It's a little bit different, but not in a good way, the 1966 VSF Yearbook
1966 VSF Yearbook
Cover photo is nice, Mike Jurecki of Victoria taking on Torpedo Moscow. Lists of officials and fixtures are all there, as well as additional editorial content with plenty of club profiles an a few photos. It fails to pass muster as a paper of record though, with the results grids and tables on covering the State League and Metropolitan League seniors only. No Cup charts, or even a list of winners, no state team match details, no reserves tables and no junior tables. G.T.Edgar, you are/were a fraud. Not fit to shine Stuart Beaton's shoes.
Gold on the cover but not enough gold, the 1970 VSF Yearbook
1970 VSF Yearbook
Nice action shot on the cover, but sadly the Hakoah and Hellas players aren't identified. Tables still unsatisfactory, none for reserves, the District League or the juniors, but some from interstate and country leagues. Cup charts are back, as are state team match details. Passable.
As old as me, the 1972 VSF Yearbook
1972 VSF Yearbook
Another unidentified player on the cover. Tables issue improving, with reserves, thirds and the District League back in the fold and only the juniors lacking. Cup charts and state team details all there, now with a review of all the State League clubs and a piece on the Argus Medal winner. There are team pics from state team games, again sadly unlabelled. Improving.
Entering the vintage era, the 1975 VSF Yearbook
1975 VSF Yearbook
Cover photo, with the team identified on page 8. What is this sorcery? Fixtures - even the Industrial League is included. Tables - seniors, reserves, thirds, District League and Provisional League. Only junior table included is an Under 20's league though. Gone - State League club reviews, results grids and state team details. Plenty of Cup charts though. On the verge of the Golden Age that was the 1977 and 1978 editions.
Not a VSF Yearbook, the 1968 Victorian Soccer Yearbook
1968 Victorian Soccer Yearbook
Although a VSF product, this is not the actual VSF Yearbook for that year which can be found here.
It is basically a laws of the game booklet with last season's tables thrown in. Maybe they gave them out to schools for promotion/publicity, but even today I wouldn't waste thirty cents on it.
It cost shillings and pence, the 1959 VASFA Yearbook
1959 VASFA Yearbook
VASFA emblem on the cover, a lion and a kangaroo around a football with a crown on it. You could buy Stanley Matthews brand boots and balls in Queen Street. Good solid yearbook, list of VASFA officials and fixture list all nice. Slight shame the players are not identified in the picture of the previous year's State League Champions. Tables perfect, great results grids and cup charts. Slight let down with the list of champions, it's a shame Cup finals don't have further details as in scorers and line-ups. Some reasonable history with lists of previous champions and tours results. A quality production.
Here comes another one, just like the other one, the 1960 VASFA Yearbook
1960 VASFA Yearbook
Very similar to the previous year's version. The pic of the previous year's champion was ditched, and profiles of the leading officials was added. A good historical record.
It's a little bit different, but not in a good way, the 1966 VSF Yearbook
1966 VSF Yearbook
Cover photo is nice, Mike Jurecki of Victoria taking on Torpedo Moscow. Lists of officials and fixtures are all there, as well as additional editorial content with plenty of club profiles an a few photos. It fails to pass muster as a paper of record though, with the results grids and tables on covering the State League and Metropolitan League seniors only. No Cup charts, or even a list of winners, no state team match details, no reserves tables and no junior tables. G.T.Edgar, you are/were a fraud. Not fit to shine Stuart Beaton's shoes.
Gold on the cover but not enough gold, the 1970 VSF Yearbook
1970 VSF Yearbook
Nice action shot on the cover, but sadly the Hakoah and Hellas players aren't identified. Tables still unsatisfactory, none for reserves, the District League or the juniors, but some from interstate and country leagues. Cup charts are back, as are state team match details. Passable.
As old as me, the 1972 VSF Yearbook
1972 VSF Yearbook
Another unidentified player on the cover. Tables issue improving, with reserves, thirds and the District League back in the fold and only the juniors lacking. Cup charts and state team details all there, now with a review of all the State League clubs and a piece on the Argus Medal winner. There are team pics from state team games, again sadly unlabelled. Improving.
Entering the vintage era, the 1975 VSF Yearbook
1975 VSF Yearbook
Cover photo, with the team identified on page 8. What is this sorcery? Fixtures - even the Industrial League is included. Tables - seniors, reserves, thirds, District League and Provisional League. Only junior table included is an Under 20's league though. Gone - State League club reviews, results grids and state team details. Plenty of Cup charts though. On the verge of the Golden Age that was the 1977 and 1978 editions.
Wednesday, 19 July 2017
Completing The Set? VicSoccer '89
Earlier this year Paul Mavroudis of South of the Border scanned and shared my copy of VicSoccer '88. Now I'm able to share with you all the copy of VicSoccer '89 loaned to me by George Cotsanis of My World Is Round.
As noted back in May, VicSoccer was the annual/yearbook of Les Shorrock's Soccer Star newspaper. In a way it was a local successor to the Australian Soccer Annual's of Australian Soccer Weekly. While Soccer Star went on into 1990, I'm not sure there was a VicSoccer '90 as the paper didn't last beyond that year.
Personally I prefer the 1988 edition, finding squeezing multiple team photos onto the one page a bit of a let down. Though the records of the State League clubs is nice.
Anyway check it at the link below:
VicSoccer '89
Sunday, 25 June 2017
State of the Blog 2017
I'm doing a bit of housekeeping on the blog as I prepare for a bit of a revamp in the coming weeks.
I will be keeping the existing major pages, but by adding pages within pages in the History Documents section I hope top make it less unwieldy. The same method will be used to clean up the Video Archive as well.
End of Financial Year Stocktake
Soccer News Archive - 76 items
Soccer Action Archive - 387 items
History Documents - 201 items
Posts Record Statistics
Page Statistics
(Click on images to enlarge)
I will be keeping the existing major pages, but by adding pages within pages in the History Documents section I hope top make it less unwieldy. The same method will be used to clean up the Video Archive as well.
End of Financial Year Stocktake
Soccer News Archive - 76 items
Soccer Action Archive - 387 items
History Documents - 201 items
Posts Record Statistics
Page Statistics
(Click on images to enlarge)
Wednesday, 14 June 2017
Not So Random Pictures
Yes, it's the return of one of the Blog's franchise series, a Random Pictures post. Only not that random as they are all from a collection of photos loaned to me by Heidelberg United, so there's a strong Alexandros theme.
Speak of the devil....
No doubt there are some in football that will cringe at this image of our ethnic football past. Even less doubt that many of those aren't as tolerant of other cultures as they like to make out. Screw the hypocrites, all hail Alexander!
Ollie Norris interviewing then Sydney Olympic coach Tommy Docherty.
Manny Poulakakis and Ollie Norris present legendary VFL coach Tom Hafey with a commemorative Phillips Soccer League plate.
Ange Koutos presents Collingwood FC icon Lou Richards with a ball in the short-lived Collingwood Warriors era.
The multi-media mega star takes on Koutos.
A youthful John Anastasiadis.
Peter Tsolakis heads the ball under pressure from George Petrov.
Heidelberg's Phil Stubbins is tackled by Melbourne Croatia's George Hannah with Stuart Stevenson watching.
Jimmy Rooney tries to get away from Croatia's Ned Batinovic.
The third of the trilogy, Jamie Paton battles with Croatia's Steve Kokoska.
Celebrations for Gary Cole, Jimmy Tansey, Derek Hunter and Jimmy Campbell.
Heidelberg United from the Victorian Premier League in 2000.
Back (LtoR): Andrew Charalambous, Bill Makris, George Angelos, Peter Di Iorio, Alfonso Opazo.
Middle: Cameron Brown, Manny Pappas, Arthur Tsonis, Leigh Tsoumerkas, Sean Cunningham, Robbie Grakovski, Gerry McAleer.
Front: Jeff Stefanidis, David De Propertis, George Katsakis, Jeff Olver, Phil Peladarinos, Mile Medjedovic.
(Click on images to enlarge)
Speak of the devil....
No doubt there are some in football that will cringe at this image of our ethnic football past. Even less doubt that many of those aren't as tolerant of other cultures as they like to make out. Screw the hypocrites, all hail Alexander!
Ollie Norris interviewing then Sydney Olympic coach Tommy Docherty.
Manny Poulakakis and Ollie Norris present legendary VFL coach Tom Hafey with a commemorative Phillips Soccer League plate.
Ange Koutos presents Collingwood FC icon Lou Richards with a ball in the short-lived Collingwood Warriors era.
The multi-media mega star takes on Koutos.
A youthful John Anastasiadis.
Peter Tsolakis heads the ball under pressure from George Petrov.
Heidelberg's Phil Stubbins is tackled by Melbourne Croatia's George Hannah with Stuart Stevenson watching.
Jimmy Rooney tries to get away from Croatia's Ned Batinovic.
The third of the trilogy, Jamie Paton battles with Croatia's Steve Kokoska.
Celebrations for Gary Cole, Jimmy Tansey, Derek Hunter and Jimmy Campbell.
Heidelberg United from the Victorian Premier League in 2000.
Back (LtoR): Andrew Charalambous, Bill Makris, George Angelos, Peter Di Iorio, Alfonso Opazo.
Middle: Cameron Brown, Manny Pappas, Arthur Tsonis, Leigh Tsoumerkas, Sean Cunningham, Robbie Grakovski, Gerry McAleer.
Front: Jeff Stefanidis, David De Propertis, George Katsakis, Jeff Olver, Phil Peladarinos, Mile Medjedovic.
(Click on images to enlarge)
Thursday, 1 June 2017
Soccer Action Is Well And Truly Here!
Last August I started putting my Soccer Action collection online, and in under a year the task is now complete. Which is a bit ahead of schedule as I initially anticipated uploading just one or two a week and thought it would be something that would be completed in five or six years. The device of posting links to the new uploads on Twitter every Friday brought about the hastened completion of digitising the collection, making sure I did a few week then pushing me to do a few more than the week before.
It went from being happy with four uploads a week to trying to hit ten every Friday. I'd like to thank John Morris for giving me my original collection, and Damian Smith for the inspiration in putting them online. Thanks to Pave Jusup for allowing me to add to that collection by letting me copy from his own. Thanks also to Shahan Petrossian of Soccer Nostalgia, Miles McClagan and his amazing flickr scans, Paul Mavroudis of South of the Border and George Cotsanis of My World Is Round for further inspiration in making sure the collection was shared for all to enjoy.
Thanks also the the great statistician and historian Andrew Howe for providing me with a few missing pages and moral support. Thanks also to everyone who provided encouragement via the comments section of the blog or on Twitter, knowing people wanted to share the memories contained in the papers is what it was all about. The great Gary Cole falls into this lot, as well as the final group I need to thank, those that provided us with Soccer Action in the first place - Laurie Schwab, Les Shorrock and Craig MacKenzie.
Of course the the job is not quite finished, as my collection is not complete and after a break I will look towards finding and scanning the missing issues. The starting point to that, of course, is listing them here.
There are a few editions I have that are incomplete. They are:
1980
March 19 (pages 13 and 14 missing)
1981
March 25 (pages 13 and 14 missing)
July 1 (pages 5, 6, 7. 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 missing)
July 22 (pages 3, 4, 13 and 14 missing)
1986
July 16 (pages 1, 2, 15 and 16 missing)
And the editions I am missing completely are:
1976
February 4
March 31
1979
March 14
July 25
August 29
1980
May 28
June 4
June 25
September 10
October 15
October 22
November 5
November 19
1981
April 1
1982
January 27
February 10
March 3
March 10
March 17
March 24
April 14
May 19
June 30
July 14
August 11
September 22
October 20
1983
February 16
March 16
March 23
April 6
June 8
July 20
August 10
August 17
October 19
October 26
1984
April 4
September 12
1985
September 4
1986
April 9
May 14
October 8
So it's 387 down, 71 to go. Currently the file full of scans comes in at 5.96GB, so it may be that one day you can carry a complete set of Soccer Action's with you on an 8GB USB. The wonders of modern technology.
It went from being happy with four uploads a week to trying to hit ten every Friday. I'd like to thank John Morris for giving me my original collection, and Damian Smith for the inspiration in putting them online. Thanks to Pave Jusup for allowing me to add to that collection by letting me copy from his own. Thanks also to Shahan Petrossian of Soccer Nostalgia, Miles McClagan and his amazing flickr scans, Paul Mavroudis of South of the Border and George Cotsanis of My World Is Round for further inspiration in making sure the collection was shared for all to enjoy.
Thanks also the the great statistician and historian Andrew Howe for providing me with a few missing pages and moral support. Thanks also to everyone who provided encouragement via the comments section of the blog or on Twitter, knowing people wanted to share the memories contained in the papers is what it was all about. The great Gary Cole falls into this lot, as well as the final group I need to thank, those that provided us with Soccer Action in the first place - Laurie Schwab, Les Shorrock and Craig MacKenzie.
Of course the the job is not quite finished, as my collection is not complete and after a break I will look towards finding and scanning the missing issues. The starting point to that, of course, is listing them here.
There are a few editions I have that are incomplete. They are:
1980
March 19 (pages 13 and 14 missing)
1981
March 25 (pages 13 and 14 missing)
July 1 (pages 5, 6, 7. 8, 9, 10, 11 and 12 missing)
July 22 (pages 3, 4, 13 and 14 missing)
1986
July 16 (pages 1, 2, 15 and 16 missing)
And the editions I am missing completely are:
1976
February 4
March 31
1979
March 14
July 25
August 29
1980
May 28
June 4
June 25
September 10
October 15
October 22
November 5
November 19
1981
April 1
1982
January 27
February 10
March 3
March 10
March 17
March 24
April 14
May 19
June 30
July 14
August 11
September 22
October 20
1983
February 16
March 16
March 23
April 6
June 8
July 20
August 10
August 17
October 19
October 26
1984
April 4
September 12
1985
September 4
1986
April 9
May 14
October 8
So it's 387 down, 71 to go. Currently the file full of scans comes in at 5.96GB, so it may be that one day you can carry a complete set of Soccer Action's with you on an 8GB USB. The wonders of modern technology.
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