Australian Soccer History: A Sedimental Journey?

Greg Stock

It was fantastic to watch the recent Rale Rasic interview. Andy Paschalidis did a wonderful job in teasing out some of the myriad

great stories from his long and highly distinguished football career. I for one was spellbound for the entire two hours and hope we see more of this style of show in the months and years ahead.

In light of this interview it was interesting to read “XI Principles for the Future of Australian Football,” the new discussion paper provided by the Football Federation of Australia. It is abjectly clear in its intention stating that it represents a “fresh start” for football. It also uses terms like “new vision” and “strong culture” alongside Principle II “to develop a new narrative for football.”

But isn’t that the whole issue we have been wrestling with as a game?

Australian football has had way too many “fresh starts.” If we go right back to the 1920s we saw a state league in New South Wales breakaway from the then ‘establishment’ to take club football in a new direction. In the early 00s we saw a new political regime come in and tip out the old National Soccer League or as it was referred, ‘old soccer’ and start ‘new football.’ And in between all that we have seen the rise and fall of successive state and national organisations with almost monotonous regularity. The biggest being the Federation era of 1957. Yet the dialogue for each of those was the same – it was portrayed as a “new era in soccer.”

But can our game breed culture if all we seem to want to do is create something new?

This constant dislocation in our game is what separates us from the other sports in Australia. Cricket is a game that builds on the foundation of their history. Fred “the Demon” Spofforth is as important as Shane Warne or Tim Paine – that each season of their game is another layer on top of a sedimentary rock of history forged in the 1800s. AFL is the same – the Tigers won a flag in 2019 yet that victory is as important as Carlton winning in 1906. They didn’t draw a line through their game in 1982 when the Swans moved to Sydney or when Fitzroy merged with the Brisbane Bears – they have embraced their games history at every turn and built yet another layer on the rock of history forged generations prior. Their legends and clubs are household names because the dialogue reminds their fans of how strong their game is. It is what encourages parents to drive their child to a cold wet field on a Saturday morning that their son or daughter is walking in the footsteps of Ron Barassi or Roy Cazaly.

Yet in football we haven’t learnt that lesson. We are still talking about new directions and fresh starts in the same way we did in 1928. Our new CEO James Johnson should know this. He played the game at the highest level domestically and thus understands that the game is about the grass-roots clubs as much as it is about Melbourne Victory. His vision should be about embracing Judy Masters and Reg Date in the same way Rale was yesterday and having the name Joe Marston etched

Reg Date in NSW strip

alongside Tim Cahill in the minds of those that play the game.

He should understand our games “strong new culture” already exists. It lies in the clubrooms of Balgownie Rangers, Adamstown Rosebud, South Hobart and South Melbourne. It sits on the sidelines at every grassroots club in this wide brown land every Saturday.

There doesn’t need to be new visions requiring formal documents to embrace history. It should already be etched into our beings. It is however time to put resources into this thing. To start documenting the statistical and narrative history of our game. Aside from a few hearty souls we know little of anything. Andrew Howe has been fantastic to put together the details on the National Teams and the competitions but its just the tip of a massive iceberg. We need more. We need the information burnt into our footballing consciousness the same way Barassi is burnt into Aussie Rules.

Whether it includes the four walls of a museum or not is the key issue for if we don’t know the narrative of our past how can we go forward. Or do we just draw yet another new line in the sand? Do we put out another discussion paper call it “new soccer” and again fail to learn the lessons from the past.

Rale and his ’74 team were great footballing pioneers. They deserve all the praise we can muster for their tremendous achievements. Their legacy should be the fostering of our home grown football culture, the one that they helped create.