Author of Mr Cleansheets releases new book

Those of you who loved Australia's greatest soccer novel Mr Cleansheets may or may not love author Adrian Deans' new novel, Straight Jacket. I'm sure you will enjoy the free beer at the launch this Thursday though.

If you head over be sure to take your copy of Mr C for Adrian to sign. You might also take your copy of Australia United for Tony Wilson to sign.

Did I mention the free beer?

South of the Border: A Consumate Manifesto

This is a response by Paul Mavroudis to a Joe Gorman post on his web site. It's a manifesto and a contribution to the recent  local soccer coverage twitter debate.

For my blog, at some point I developed a rationale or manifesto of sorts, and for the most part it still holds true.

"I started this blog mostly to practice my writing and to establish a public space that was independent of the official South Melbourne media juggernaut and the closed off smfcboard; a place where South fans could read and provide independent views on all the club's happenings."

Notice what's absent? No mention of the mainstream media. Probably because I'd come to the conclusion very early on that they had no interest in what South were doing - and off the record conversations with others who've had to deal with them have only confirmed those suspicions - it didn't even occur to me to include them.

But at the same time, the internet is not an entirely new platform for people like me. Soccer fanzines have existed for decades around the world, and have even existed in Australia before the internet really took off. Club match programmes in Australia, prior to the A-League starting anyway, have often been the default fanzine, created and maintained by ordinary supporters rather than as part of an organised marketing department. Peter Desira started his career by doing the Green Gully match programme way back when.

Certainly, I see myself as part of a continuing tradition, in both a literal and cultural sense. Literal, because my blog started off as a failed takeover of another, dormant South blog. Cultural, because I know that people like Damian Smith (a real inspiration to me) were doing the things I'm doing now (and then some) long before I arrived on the scene.

The internet makes it perhaps a little easier - if you use a free platform, costs go way down - but the investment of time and effort is still pretty much the same, the kick in the teeth when no one reads your work is still the same, the thrill of a re-tweet or hearing about how someone liked your work is still the same. And if like me you have a real reticence for self-promotion, then it's also hard to get the word out there, which is bad enough when you are focused on a niche interest like I am.

But it's not just the mainstream media who create boundaries of taste, style and content. The blogosphere and aggregators also do it. We all choose who we follow and re-tweet on Twitter, who we link to on our blogs. People have followed and unfollowed me on there. Australian Football pRSS followed Ian Syson, made him 'blogger of the week', then started following me, then unfollowed me.

I might be confused by how and why people make these decisions, but at least when it comes down to individual tastes, an argument can be made that it's based on a democratic process. No one's obliged to like the things I or other bloggers do. I do the same - I have my biases, based mostly on a lack of interest in bloggers and members of the Twitterati whose main avenue of football discourse is overseas football or the A-League, and thus I don't follow, link or promote their work.

But the issue then becomes for me, that the mainstream press is not so democratic, and yet they often feel they can dictate what we can and should read - and then get annoyed when we call them out on that. OK, so for whatever valid or invalid reasons the VPL doesn't get coverage in the daily press. But the NPL is a huge story affecting the sport and thousands of players in this state as a whole, and not just my bitter ex-NSL brethren - where's the coverage?

Twitter, Journalism and the Great Unwashed

Australia's second-best soccer writer, Joe Gorman has generously allowed us to publish his latest piece summarising and reflecting on a mad day on twitter. My name is taken in vain (and probably appropriately so) but as Joe explains . . .

On Sunday, Bonita Mersiades tweeted a link to Australian Football pRSS, a new content-aggregating portal that brings together the best football news from various blogs, club press releases, podcasts and daily newspapers. It's a wonderful service, and I believe it to be responsible for Frank Farina following me on Twitter. If Twitter was around when I was a kid, I'm sure this would be the fulfillment of a childhood dream, and so I remain eternally grateful to Bonita and her "business partner" for their efforts.

Michael Lynch, the senior football writer from The Age, took umbrage to her tweet, mistakenly believing it to be a "cheap shot" at the mainstream media. To his credit, he later corrected himself, but the damage was done. After a few smart-arse responses from this humble keyboard conspiracist, over the next forty-eight hours 220 tweets had shot back and forth between the Fairfax sports writer and the great unwashed who wish his job theirs.


Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Being a soccer journalist in this country mustn't be a lot of fun sometimes. On the one hand, over-enthusiastic supporters egg you on to write puff pieces and 'promote' the sport, while on the other hand sports editors would rather see articles on how Nick Riewoldt or Benji Marshall like their coffee. And so a lot gets left out. We are fed a fair bit on transfers and player profiles, plenty of match analysis while the A-League is in season, and the occasional piece on the direction of the sport. Then we get Craig Foster telling us how football is going to save the world every Sunday.

Ian Syson, a Melbourne-based academic whose ability for forensic historical research is only matched by his wonderful ability to fall out with everybody he meets, charged Lynch with neglect of the local game. I'm reliably informed by the nation's most under-appreciated football writer, Paul Mavroudis, that this is a ritual slanging match.

Still, Syson's charges, and subsequent spot-fire arguments with Lynch's Fairfax stablemates Ben Cubby and Daniel Oakes got me thinking about the nature of sports writing in this country. As newspapers move away from a local to a national audience, what room is there for journalists to report on local State League football? Can we reasonably expect the handful of full-time soccer journos to do a weekly whip around of semi-professional park kick-abouts? Ian may be right about a fundamental lack of coverage, but the point is that the daily press have long ceased to become newspapers of record. Football coverage is just part of a broader story.

A former lecturer of mine once informed me that "the best journalism is about people, not power." It's a wonderful idea, but one that seems to be inverted when it comes to sports writing. Stories about those at the top sells newspapers. If you want to be informed about what the ordinary person thinks of the direction of those who run the game, you'll have to put down the paper and rock up to your local ground and ask any parent on the sidelines.

Not that there aren't potential stories at State League soccer matches. Last Sunday, former NSL giants Melbourne Knights played South Melbourne in the VPL, while Bonnyrigg White Eagles won a hard fought contest in the cow paddocks of western Sydney against their eternal rivals Sydney United. I was at the game at Edensor Park, which I must say looks resplendent with its new astro-turf fitting, and the match had all the ingredients for the savvy sports journo.

There was the ludicrous 10am kick-off, the over-zealous security guards and a band of boys in blue policing just a few hundred spectators. It was a veritable cook-pot of nationalism, rivalry and penalty shoot-out induced tension. Further south in Sunshine, I'm informed that Andrew Barisić performed a touching goal celebration in memory of his late grandfather in the Knights 2-1 win.

Furthermore, where structural issues are concerned, like the rollout of the National Premier Leagues, surely these are worth covering in the mainstream press. Instead, it's been left to websites to fill the void, most notably Donald Sutherland at MFootball in Victoria and Shaun Mooney at Leopold Method, a website I write for. Four Four Two's Kathy Stone, perhaps the least ego-driven journalist in the country, has done all the legwork for the 'mainstream' football websites, with the major mastheads and The World Game conspicuous in their silence on the issue. It's like 'On The Ball' never existed. Kyle Patterson has certainly forgotten all about it.

The rise of what Greg Jericho calls "the fifth estate" has done much to alter the way in which we receive information about football. And as Michael Lynch has said in his tweets, many of the bloggers write "opinionated, often single-sourced claptrap." However, the fifth estate presents other challenges quite apart from grammar crimes and conspiracy theories. These bloggers are doing Lynch's job, but usually for free, and with wildly varying degrees of competence.

The scarcity of football writers means that blogging has become a crucial source of information. Some of it is utter crap, but sites like Overseas Aussies, The Women's Game and Neos Osmos suit a deceptively simple niche that even the FFA would envy.

Gideon Haigh writes that "in Australia, journalists have held aloof from blogs, when they have not been actively hostile", while Annabel Crabb puts it more simply - "wow, lots of people like to do what we do for nothing. Tell me an industry that wouldn't be freaked out by that."

This issue of hierarchy speaks to the very heart of the issue. Up-and-coming writers routinely whore themselves to websites for little-or-no pay, in turn creating a culture whereby payment becomes a privilege, not a right. But in a cottage industry like the football media, there is always going to be an over-supply of willing writers. And the reserve army of soccer scabs cares little for the longevity of senior sports writers' careers.

Technically speaking, this is a merciless mass of scabs. Chris Corrigan would be salivating at the sight of the soccer bloggers. But what are we supposed to do? Not write in fear of ruining the etiquette of a historically indulgent industry? Freelancers don't make good unionists, especially when that solidarity only serves the very few.

Just as Indian-American political economist Jagdish Bhagwati argues that western unions only serve to entrench the advantage of first world labour, bloggers might argue that media alliances and associations only prop up the careers of senior journalists. We're being asked for solidarity in the fight for another man's tenure. But for what? Another profile of Archie Thompson?

The more things change . . . Whinging about the media in 1892

We socceristas tend to get our knickers in a twist at the very sniff of media bias. Seems it was ever thus. In 1892, 'Centre Half' complained to the Referee in Sydney that our game wasn't being given a fair go in the media. This was one of the reasons that the game was not moving onwards and upwards.

The following is a response by another soccerite, 'Left Half' who agrees that the club secretaries need to get their act into gear in relation to publicity but puts the problem as one of the unavailability of enclosed grounds. Interestingly, this is not so much to charge spectators an entry fee as it is to keep the games private. It certainly points to a kind of class snobbery among some immigrant soccer players in 1880-90s Australia who would rather give the game away than consort with the common folk. It also gives some possible insight into why the game didn't take off in important parts of Australia.

RE BRITISH ASSOCIATION FOOTBALL.

(To the Athletic Editor of the "Referee")

Sir,— In your last issue I saw a letter from "Centre Half" deploring the luck of publicity given to games played under the British Association rules, and agree with him that the various clubs' secretaries should never omit sending in a report of every match that comes off. But nevertheless there has not been such an omission as to cause Association players from the old country to be unaware of the game being played here. The greatest bar I have met to players starting again in Sydney is the fact that none of the clubs have a private ground to play on, and consequently old country players, who have been accustomed to such things, with nice pavilions, &c, require a lot of coaxing before they care to play on a public park. I know there are lots of players in Sydney who could help to send along the game of "pure footbull," but the above fact deters them, and I am sorry to see that the game is not much more ahead than it was live years ago. Should "Centre Half" desire to join a respectable club, and bring along the many old players he seems to know of, I shall be only too pleased to introduce him and them to the secretaries of two or three respectable clubs that I know of if he will communicate with me. — I am, &c., Left Half.

It's like a polite version of discussions on the 'Smell the Fear' thread on the Melbourne Victory message board!

Soccer in Adelaide in 1881?

Snippets in the old papers like the following extract do my head in.

In 1881 in Adelaide it was claimed by the South Australian Weekly Chronicle that:

It is gratifying to find that the rules practised in South Australia are daily becoming more popular in England. In the latest accounts gathered from the home papers we find that the association rules are fest supplanting the Rugby union in metropolitan football circles, while new and important clubs are in course of formation having their laws based on the rules practised in this colony.

While the author is correct about the rise of soccer in England, what are we to make of his claim that the game of football as played in Adelaide is the very same one as Association football as played in England?

He is either wrong or right.

If he's wrong there is nothing to see here and he is just making the commonplace error of assuming games in different countries with the same name are in fact the same game.

But what if he is right? He could be right in two ways:

1. English association rules were actually played across Adelaide in 1881. I doubt this because there is little evidence that this is the case and we know that a game very much like Victorian rules has been established by the late 1870s.
2. The author is acknowledging the fraternity of Victorian rules and English association rules. This is more plausible. There a number of instances in the 1860s and 70s around Australia where the similarity of the two games is emphasised by journalists and correspondents. Soccer and footy in this formulation are identical twins separated at birth who grew up in very different environments, carrying in their DNA their fundamental similarities as kicking, goal scoring games as opposed to the other branch of the football family tree that gave us the running and handling games like rugby and American football.

These are just a few thoughts that will bear some further development but it is a significant problem for football historians to get their heads around.

From Plough Lane to Bob Jane Stadium

Here's a nice piece. Once upon a time (OK for 3 weeks in 2007), I edited and produced a matchday program for South Melbourne. I had plans, I had vision, I had a dream. Unfortunately South had no money and it fell by the wayside.

One of the initiatives I introduced was to get guest writers to write a match report. The one below was written by Jason Steger, books editor of the Age and all-round football supporter. It is a wistful piece that pays homage to grass roots football. Click on the image to make it readable.

If anybody wants PDFs of the programs I produced I'm happy to email them to you. You'll find me via google.

Vale Bobby Bignall

1956 Socceroo Ted Smith generously offered us his recollections of his captain and friend, Bobby Bignall who died on 11 August 2013 at the age of 91.

I am privileged to pass on my recollections of My Captain whose contribution to Football in Australia was unmatched, particularly on the South Coast of New South Wales over many years.

Most of you will have heard of his all-round Sporting ability over many Sports, including Football, Rugby League, Cricket, Tennis and later Bowls, when in that era it was possible to take part in the various Football codes without censure.

He was very fast in his Youth and took great pleasure in letting you know this, but it was accompanied by a laugh and the twinkle in his eye, meant that you took it as read, and there would be those here who can attest to this.

My first contact with Bobby was in 1956 when we were direct opponents in one of the trial matches where an Australian squad was selected to play the various State teams and I was in the Victorian team directly opposed to Bobby.

When I was ill with the Flue for the Second game, I was then taken to Sydney & played for NSW against the Australian Select and yes against Bobby again. The following day in Newcastle I played under Bobby against Northern NSW.

In the meantime Bobby had told My Club teammate Frank Loughran, a regular Socceroo, to pass on his good wishes and “Play the same way in subsequent trials” which for a 20-year-old was enormous encouragement from the Captain and regular Socceroo.

This encouragement continued when we were team mates at the 1956 Olympics – the first major World Football tournament we took part in, and the 6 weeks in the Olympic Village representing Football, which was a minor Sport then, as part of the team was a wonderful experience thanks to Bobby .

There was very little publicity of our matches and one of the few Photos, includes one of our Bobby in a classic Heading duel.

Although our disappointing exit against India – hit hard, Bobby’s main comments were that we missed an opportunity to reach a semi- final that would have given our game a big lift. There was no recriminations, just disappointment.

Bobby has always supported the advancements of Football in Australia and in particular the great years when South Coast under Jim Kelly were so successful, and he was hopeful that there are some signs that in the next few years that ‘The Illawarra” would again be part of the Football hierarchy.

The 1956 team met again at the draw for the 2000 Olympic Football tournament and we saw Bobby with his Twinkling eyes and laughter coming to the fore when interviewed by Jane Holmes, and it was difficult to be sure who was interviewing who !

Our next contact was when Bobby was invited to attend a Socceroo match in Melbourne and gave me a call so we could catch up! He came in casual clothes and as He was invited to the inner sanctum so I arranged to lend him something more formal. He was unperturbed.

Bobby came again in 2006 to Melbourne for the 50 year reunion and at the Melbourne Town Hall reception and later formal Dinner next day, he worked the room and had all in the palm of his hand.

We later caught up at various Socceroo Club functions and it was always cheerful even when he wasn’t 100% following his Accident, and it was pleasing that He showed great improvement Health wise in later years.

He in later years continued to care for His wife who was unwell for a long period of time and we are thankful when His time came, at 91 he was ready to go.

I am pleased to share the have many great memories of Bobby who as a mentor when I was starting out helped me, and He also did for many others.

The example is of throwing a pebble in a pool – the rings keep going out, and out, continuously as those he helped – helped others, to appreciate the values and to take part in the strengthening of our Game.

He never queried the evolution of Football in Australia, or the benefits now available to our Players, but was comfortable with His Role as one of the later pioneers of our game and pleased to see the improved standard of play and support.

I honor his contribution and thankful that he continued to be a fantastic mate who was always the same each time you caught up, and leaves us all with a smile and memories of those twinkling eyes.

So my thoughts are with His extended Family, and all the friends who are here to acknowledge his contributions and Friendship and am sorry that I can’t be here today to join you all, but will be in spirit.

SBS Tribute to the 1956 Australian Olympic Soccer Team

 

Top 10 Australian Football History Moments

Top 10 Australian Football History Moments (below) was originally published on 442's on-line version. It came about after its author, Kathy Stone contacted me for a list of my top 10 moments. She gave me a broad brief and so I thought I'd select things that were significant but not so-well-known. I could have said: Aloisi's penalty; Timmay; Iran; formation of NSL; formation of A League; even YNWA a few weeks ago. But I was interested in conveying a deeper and more hidden history of significant moments and facts.

I appreciate that many will find gaps in the list and Roy Hay has contacted me to offer his own version. I would welcome any comments and lists to be published in the comments section below. If you can be bothered writing your own article I will be happy to publish it here.

________________________________________

Top 10 Australian Football History Moments

Record school participation numbers, investment and crowd attendances – but how much do we really know about our growing game? Whether you’ve followed football for years or jumped on board during the hysteria surrounding the recent Man U and Liverpool visits here’s a quick fix for sounding like a long-time know-it-all. au.fourfourtwo.com asked football historian Ian Syson to roll back the years and give us his Top 10 facts every Aussie should know about the game they love. Yes, he wanted to include another 700 but you have to start somewhere…

1. Where it began

The first recorded game in Australia was not the Wanderers versus Kings School in 1880, although that was the beginning of regular competition. A year earlier games were played by the Cricketers FC in Hobart. Four years before that, in 1875, the Woogaroo Asylum, near Ipswich in Queensland, played association football against Brisbane FC. Of course if you’re keen to ignite an all-in history war between the codes just slip “Harrow football” into the conversation – what looks very like proto-soccer was played in Adelaide in 1854.

2. Mining for talent

In 1888, arguably the best team in Australia was neither NSW nor Victoria who played in regular competition. Instead, it was a bunch of shale miners from the tiny NSW town of Joadja who had the disconcerting habit of thumping all-comers. As it turned out, the Scottish workers brought to the southern highlands to mine shale oil for kerosene proved none-to-shabby with a football. The Joadja Creek Southern Cross Football Club showed their class with a 5-2 demolition of Victoria who in turn downed NSW a few days later.

3. Stumping the Poms

For many Ashes tours during the first part of the 20th Century, the coda was a game of association football against a Western Australian selection, which the English cricketers tended to win. Sadly the tradition died out between the wars but could it be revived with some insistent prodding? Certainly it may be our only consolation if Perth Glory can give the likes of Broad, Swann and co a shellacking after the Poms thump us in the summer.

4. War recruits

Contrary to popular belief, football was particularly strong in rural Australia and, prior to World War I, spread like wildfire on the back of substantial immigration. Vibrant competitions emerged in places like Mildura, Geraldton, Wonthaggi, Goulburn, Warwick and others only to be nipped in the bud by the Great War. Football contributed to the ANZAC war effort as players enlisted in their droves, helping to explain the game’s development lag during this period. A football match played at Gallipoli between allied troops was cheered on by a crowd of hundreds.

5. Women make their mark

When the FA refused to allow professional clubs in England to host women’s games the prohibition spread quickly.  But our girls proved resilient and matches continued in Australia from the late 1800s and throughout the 1900s. The Advertiser of Adelaide reported in September 1921: “More than 10,000 persons witnessed the first ladies’ football match in Brisbane, played on the cricket ground yesterday under the Soccer code. Ladies representing respectively North and South Brisbane were given a flattering reception as they tripped onto the field… and although hard falls were experienced at times, the services of an ambulance lady, who sat on the touchline, were not required.”

6. ‘Soccer’ at Lang Park

Rugby league-types like to think of this as their spiritual home but football actually has a longer association with the ground. While league was getting down and dirty at the Gabba, football in the 1920s and 1930s was played at Lang Park (now Suncorp) which originally formed part of the North Brisbane burial grounds. The Queensland Soccer Council and Latrobe Soccer Club were among the early sub-tenants. It wasn’t until 1957 that the precinct became the headquarters for Queensland Rugby League. These days of course it’s also home to A-league club, Brisbane Roar.

7. Captain Blood, sweat and tears

When Aussie Rules legend Jack “Captain Blood” Dyer skited he could train a bunch of VFL players to wipe the floor with the 1964 Dockerty Cup winners, Slavia Port Melbourne, he got more than he bargained for. Dyer inflamed passions by describing football as a game for “big girls” which raised plenty of questions about the virility of his own men when they were duly spanked 8-0. Ron Barassi, one of the most vociferous critics of football, was carried off with an injury that was to end his VFL career.

8. Behind enemy lines

Never ones to shirk a major confrontation, the Socceroos found themselves in the middle of a raging warzone in 1967. The euphemistically named ''Friendly Nations Tournament'' pitted the Aussies against South Vietnam, New Zealand and South Korea where the on-field action was accompanied by the distant sounds of artillery fire. As The Guardian’s Richard Cooke describes: “The birthplace of the Socceroos’ success wasn't Sydney, it was Saigon, where the team won their first international tournament under flare-lit skies rumbling with helicopters with the Vietnam War in full flow.”

9. That other moment

Yes, there was another moment to match the John Aloisi penalty which fired Australia to the World Cup after an agonising 32-year wait. Scottish-born midfielder James “Jimmy” Mackay scored a 30-yard belter to break the deadlock against South Korea and send us to the game’s showpiece event for the first time in 1974. Former Socceroo Doug Utjesenovic described the freakish moment: “There was a free kick, the ball was knocked back and he ran onto the ball. It was a real thunderbolt."

10. Indigenous stars

Jade North, David Williams and Kyah Simon are household names these days but the list of talented Indigenous football players is much longer than often imagined. At one point in the 1950s more Indigenous players were playing first grade football in Adelaide than Aussie Rules in Melbourne. We’ve now reached the point where selection of an all-time Indigenous team would require some controversial omissions. The proud story begins with goalkeeper Bondi Neal who played between 1903 and 1912 on the NSW south coast and Hunter Valley and includes the celebrated Harry Williams who represented Australia 17 times, including during the 1974 World Cup.

How a Postal Strike prevented Niall Quinn from Playing AFL

We all have our sporting highs. This is one of mine Who else but the big man? 

And this is perhaps the greatest supporter song ever composed (albeit by Man City fans):

Niall Quinn's disco pants are the best, 
they go up from his arse to his chest, 
they're better than Adam and the Ants,
Niall Quinn's disco pants!

For a lot of contemporary Sunderland supporters Niall Quinn is an icon. Scored goals against the barcodes. Led the team out of championship misery. Scored goals against the dirty mags. Played in the most dominant Sunderland team for 50 years. In retirement, as chairman, led the club out of one of its frequent troughs. Did I mention that he scored goals against the horse punchers?

Yet it is little known that he might have been lost to English and Irish football if not for the interference of a postal strike.

What follows is a nice piece by Daniel Garb from the Footy Record this year about Niall Quinn's connection with Australian Rules. It is astounding just how many codes of football Quinn seemed to be good at. He also played in an All-Irleand Hurling final according to Garb.

We might take with a grain of salt the suggestion that Quinn would have preferred to play Australian Rules - given the purpose of the magazine in which the piece is published - if not for the fact that he is quoted as saying "I'd probably have gone" if the deal had arrived in a timely fashion.

It would have been fascinating to see how he might have gone at footy though I am pleased he stayed with soccer and contributed so positively to the fortunes of my club and the game in general.

Click on the images to enlarge them to a readable size.

A-League team for Ipswich?

So someone has raised the prospect of an Ipswich A League team. It's an idea worth some consideration, even if only to dismiss the idea with sound arguments instead of emotive ones. This is a point expressed well by Leave for the Cup in a recent post.

I've seen a number of comments that pooh pooh the idea because Ipswich is a Rugby League stronghold. So it is. And so are Newcastle and Western Sydney but that hasn't stopped a vibrant soccer culture existing within those regions. There's something about the relationship between the two codes that can transcend antagonism and become symbiotic. Sure League and soccer followers can be dismissive of each other's games but they have existed side-by-side in too many places for there to be a fundamental problem between them.

Punters have also wondered about the demographic make-up of Ipswich, the less charitable mentioning the 'bogan' element. Aside from the fact that local knowledge would suggest 'bevan' as the correct epithet, there is no necessary disconnection between beer, flannelette shirts and watching soccer. The negative arguments will have to improve to convince me.

But so will the positive ones. I'd be interested to know whether there is a practical possibility that Ipswich could fill a 15,000 seater. Could they (a la Western Sydney) capitalise on an antagonism between the west and the city? Could they nod towards the substantial history of soccer in the West Moreton region - again much like the Wanderers have done with Western Sydney?

Indeed, soccer has a long history in the Ipswich region, one that goes back to the 1880s (though we might say 1875 if we allow for the Woogaroo game). This means nothing without continuity of course and this is the million dollar question. Nonetheless, this is at least a rich seam to tap. The metaphor is deliberate because a lot of the early Ipswich players were miners from Scotland and elsewhere around Britain. Many of the teams in the early days of Ipswich soccer were founded by coal miners.

The Brisbane Courier reported in May 1886:

The Brisbane exponents of the British Association game of football will no doubt be pleased to hear that a club which will play under the Association rules, has been started at Bundanba. A preliminary meeting was held at that place on Monday evening last when there was a very fair attendance. Mr W. Hastie in the chair. The club was duly formed, and thirteen members were enrolled at the meeting, while it was announced that several good players from Dinmore and Blackstone intend to join. Mr. James Glasgow was appointed as secretary, and it was decided that the club should be known as the Bundanba Rovers. I am informed that the Rovers intend to try conclusions with one of the Brisbane clubs shortly.

 This team was added to the mix that saw a Rangers club already in existence in Bundamba.

Rangers of Bundanba 1895

The Bush Rats were founded in 1890 by a group of miners (hence the nickname). I need to get my head around this because sometimes they are referred to as the Bush Rats, sometimes the Dinmore Bush Rats. The club has the honour of including perhaps the first Aboriginal player in Queensland, Quilp. Quilp was an all-round sportsman and soccer referee!

Original Bushrats 1890. or is it 1893?

Dinmore Bush Rats 1909

Dinmore Bush Rats 1910, note Quilp in the centre of the photograph

And just to remind the sceptics that this was a decent level of competition, the combined Ipswich and West Moreton team beat NSW by 4 goal to 1 in 1914.

Ipswich and West Moreton British Football Association executive and team
that defeated NSW by 4 goals to 1, 1914

One of the early clubs was Blackstone Rovers. It survived well into the twentieth century.

Blackstone Rovers 1915
Back row - J. Halls (Chairman), Geo. Hill, F. Elson, A. Perry, J. Follett. Second row - W. Evans (Selector), W. Halls (Treasurer), C. Davies, W. Jones, Private A. E. Law, Jas. Halls (Selector). Front row - R. H. Lewis (Vice-president), J. Pedley, T. G. Bowen (President), Private W. Paterson (Captain), Geo. Leeks (Selector), G. Evans (Secretary), Jas. Law (Vice-president). In front - Geo. W. Law, A. Halls. (Description supplied with photograph.)

As the game becomes established in the region it takes hold in other workforces. The Queensland Times reported in April 1911 that:

The "soccer" game will be very prominent in Ipswich this season, as I have heard from reliable authority that the North Ipswich railway workshops are putting forward an excellent combination, including quite a number of British Association exponents from the old country.

Ipswich Railway Workshop team 1924

More to come . . .