Soccer in Mirboo North 1910

All the other football codes look after the memory of their pioneers. How do we in association football look after those who went before. For example, how well do we look after the memory of these guys in Gippsland?

Mirboo North "Soccor" team 1910

We know very little about the game as played in the coalmining districts of Victoria and yet we know soccer was very strong in the Hunter and West Moreton coalfields in the pre-WW1 period. Should this suggest a greater coverage in Gippland than the received history indicates. Soccer was played extensively in Wonthaggi but where else east of Melbourne?

Maybe some of the Mirboo North players photographed were involved in the following game in 1914, reported in the Argus 26 August.

MIRBOO NORTH- For the purpose of assisting the British soldiers the immigrants of this district on Saturday played a "soccer" football match. The teams represented Mirboo South and Mirboo North. The match resulted in a win for the former team by scoring 4 goals to nil. A goodly sum was raised by a collection.

These snippets represent the sum of our available knowledge of soccer in the Mirboo region before WW1. We need to do so much more.