A Bibliography of Australian Football

Roy Hay has generously given us his permission to publish the bibliography from his and Bill Murray's A history of football in Australia: A game of two halves published by Hardie Grant, 2014. ISBN: 9781742707648  

Feel free to let us know if any important works are missing.

Books

Adair, Daryl & Wray Vamplew, Sport in Australian History, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1997.

Alagich, Colin, 100 Years of the World Game in Port Adelaide, Port Adelaide Lion Soccer Club, Adelaide, 2007.

Alagich, Richard, Soccer: Winning through Technique and Tactics, McGraw-Hill, Sydney, 1995.

Behrendt, Sarah, History of the Socceroos, Penguin Australia, Camberwell, Victoria, 2011.

Blainey, Geoff, A Game of our Own: The Origins of Australian Football, Information Australia, Melbourne, 1990, new edition, Black, Melbourne, 2003.

Booth, Douglas & Colin Tatz, One-Eyed: A View of Australian Sport, Allen and Unwin, St Leonards, NSW, 2000.

Cashman, Richard, Paradise of Sport: The Rise of Organised Sport in Australia, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, 1995.

Cockerill, Mike, Soccer’s Long Road to the Top, Lothian, Port Melbourne, 1998.

Cordner, John, The World of Football: A history of Football’s Various Codes from their Origins to Today, Self-published, Killara, NSW, 2002

Crowe, Rory, 100 Years of Queensland Soccer, Queensland Soccer Federation, Sportslead, Brisbane, 1984.

Desira, Peter with Richard Curmi, Green Gully Soccer Club: 50 Years, SESA, Teesdale, 2006.

Dettre, Andrew, Silver Jubilee of St. George-Budapest 1957-1982, The Club, Sydney 1982.

Economou, Nick, That other game: association football, politics and society, Sir Robert Menzies Centre, University of London, London, 1996.

Ray Erskine, A History of Ipswich Soccer, Coalstars Soccer Club, Ipswich, April 1980. Copy in John Oxley Library, Brisbane.

Fairs, Sid, ed., Corrimal Rangers: Soccer Centenary 1891–1991, The Club, Wollongong, 1991.

Fink, Jesse, 15 Days in June: How Australia became a Football Nation, Hardie Grant, Melbourne, 2007.

Foster, Craig, Fozz on Football, Hardie Grant, Melbourne, 2011.

Georgakis, Steve, Sport and the Australian Greek, Standard Publishing, Rozelle, NSW, 2000.

Georgakis, Steve, The Greek-Australian Sport Hall of Fame, Halkeas Press, Sydney, 2000.

Goldblatt, David, The Ball Is Round: A Global History of Football, Penguin, London, 2007.

Gough, Tom, Introduction to Australian Soccer, New Horizon, Bognor Regis, 1983.

Grant, Sidney James, The History of Coalfields Soccer, The Author, Sydney, 1978.

Grant, Sidney James, Jack Pollard's Soccer Records, Jack Pollard, Sydney, n.d. [1974].

Green, Geoffrey, The History of the Football Association, 1863-1953, Naldrett Press, London, n.d. [1953].

Greenwood, Barrie, Soccer: West Australia 1960 to 2000, Perth Advertising Services, Perth, 2000.

Hall, Matthew, The Away Game, Harper Sports, Sydney, 2000.

Hall, Matthew, The Away Game: the Secret Lives of Australia's Soccer Superstars, Hardie Grant, Melbourne, 2006.

Harlow, Denis, History of Soccer in South Australia, 1902–2002, South Australian Soccer Federation, Adelaide, 2003.

Harlow, Denis, Cumberland United Soccer and Social Club: 50 Years 1943–1993, Cumberland United, Adelaide, 1993.

Harper, Andy, The Socceroos: Voodoo to Destiny, Limelight, Sydney, 2006.

Fisher, Rosalind & Peter Morrison, Hakoah Club Sydney 1938-1994, Hakoah Club, Bondi Junction, Sydney, 1994.

Hay, Roy & Bill Murray, A History of Football in Australia: A Game of Two Halves, Hardie Grant, Melbourne, 2014.

Hay, Roy & Ian Syson, The Story of Football in Victoria, Football Federation Victoria, Melbourne, 2009.

Hay, Roy, Geelong Advertiser Cup, 1981-2005: Souvenir Record, Printstar, Geelong, 2005.

Howell, Reet & Maxwell L. Howell, The Genesis of Sport in Queensland : From the Dreamtime to Federation, University of Queensland Press, St Lucia, Qld, 1992.

Hudson, Chris, A Century of Soccer, 1898–1998: A Tasmanian History, Peacock Publishers, Hobart, 1998.

Kallinikios, John, Soccer Boom: The Transformation of Victorian Soccer Culture 1945-1963, Walla Walla, Sydney, 2007.

Kreider, Richard, A Soccer Century: A chronicle of Western Australian Soccer from 1896 to 1996, Sports West Media, Perth, WA, 1996.

Kreider, Richard, Paddocks to Pitches: The Definitive History of Western Australian Football, SportWest Media, Perth, 2012.

Lanfranchi, Pierre & Matthew Taylor, Moving with the Ball: The Migration of Professional Footballers, Berg, Oxford, 2001.

Lawrence, Geoffrey & David Rowe (eds), Power play: essays in the sociology of Australian sport, Hale & Iremonger, Sydney, c1986.

Lustica, Bernard, From Hope to Glory: 40 Years of Croatia Deakin Soccer Club, Croatia Deakin, Canberra, 1999.

Martin, Egilberto, Juve! Juve! Elabor Helena Nominees, Brooklyn, Victoria, 1990.

Mason, Nicholas, Football! The Story of All the World’s Football Games, Temple Smith, London, 1974.

Maynard, John, The Aboriginal Soccer Tribe: A History of Aboriginal Involvement with the World Game, Magabala Books, Broome, Western Australia, 2011.

McKay, Jim, No pain, no gain?: Sport and Australian Culture, Prentice Hall, Sydney, 1991.

Micallef, Philip, The World Cup Story: An Australian View, Philip Micallef, Carringbah NSW, 1994.

Mosely, Philip A., Ethnic Involvement in Australian Soccer: A History, 1950–1990, National Sports Research Centre, Australian Sports Commission, Canberra, 1995.

Mosely, Philip A., et al, Sporting Immigrants, Walla Walla, Sydney, 1997.

Murray, Bill, Football. A history of the world game, Scolar Press, Aldershot, 1994.

Murray, Bill, The World’s Game: A history of soccer, University of Illinois Press, Champaign, 1996.

Murray, Bill & Roy Hay, The World Game Downunder, ASSH Studies no. 19, Australian Society for Sports History, Melbourne, 2006.

Murray, Les, World Youth Championship Greats, AGPS, Canberra, 1993.

Murray, Les, By the Balls: Memoir of a Football Tragic, Random House, Sydney, 2006.

Nikolich, Peter, Beograd: White City Woodville 1949-1999, Beograd, Adelaide, 1999.

Nimac, Ivan, et al, More than the Game: 50 Years of Sydney United, Sydney United Football Club, Sydney, 2008.

O’Hara, John, (ed.), Ethnicity and Soccer in Australia, ASSH Studies in Sports History Number 10, Australian Society for Sports History, Campelltown, 1994.

Olivier-Scerri, G E, Encyclopaedia of Australian Soccer 1922-88, Showcase Publications, St Leonards, NSW, 1988.

Pospisil, Marijan, Croatia Sydney S.F.C. 1958-1988, The Club, Sydney, 1988.

Punshon, John, Australia 1922-1998, Soccer: The International Line-ups and Statistics Series, Soccer Books Ltd, Cleethorpes, 1999.

Schwab, Laurie, The Socceroos and their Opponents, Newspress, Melbourne, 1979.

Simmons, Ted, FFA Hall of Fame 2007, FFA, Sydney, 2007.

Smith, Tony, Soccer Lesson: The South Australian State Soccer Team and its Opponents 1923–1977, Peacock Publishers, Adelaide, 2013.

Soccer: Aussie Sports Coaching Program, ACHPER, Parkside, South Australia, c1987.

Solly, Ross, Shoot Out: The Passion and Politics of Soccer’s Fight for Survival in Australia, John Wiley & Sons, Milton, Qld, 2004.

Stell, Marion K, Half the Race: A History of Australian Women in Sport, Collins/Angus & Robertson, North Ryde, NSW, 1991.

Sutalo, Ilija, Croatians in Australia: Pioneers, Settlers and their Descendants, Wakefield Press, Kent Town, South Australia, 2004.

The Hamlyn international book of soccer, contributors Michael Archer [et al.], Hamlyn, London, 1977.

Tkalcevic, Mato, Croats in Australia: An Information and Resource Guide, Victoria College Press, Burwood, Victoria, 1988.

Thompson, Trevor, One Fantastic Goal: A Complete History of Football in Australia, ABC Books, Sydney, 2006.

Unikoski, Rachel, Communal Endeavours: Migrant Organisations in Melbourne, Australian National University Press, Canberra, 1978.

Ward, Tony, Sport in Australian National Identity: Kicking Goals, Routledge, London, 2010.

Warren, Ian, Football Crowds and Cultures: Comparing English and Australian Law Enforcement Trends, ASSH, Melbourne, 2003.

Warren, John, Know the Game: Australian Football, Kingfisher Books, Cheltenham Vic, 1984.

Warren, Johnny & Andre Dettre, Soccer: The Australian Way, Summit, Sydney, 1979.

Warren, Johnny & Andrew Dettre, Soccer in Australia, Hamlyn, Sydney, 1974.

Watson, Elaine, Australian Women’s Soccer: The First Twenty Years, Australian Women’s Soccer Association, Canberra, 1994.

West Woden Juventus SC, West Woden Juventus: 25 years of Soccer, The Club, Manuka, ACT, 1979.

Williams, Jean, A Beautiful Game: International Perspectives on Women's Football, Berg, Oxford, 2007.

Williams, Paul, with Kevin Christopher, The Un-official Beginners Guide to the History of the Australian National Soccer League, Studs Up, Bentleigh, 1999.

Williamson, John, Soccer Anzacs: The Story of Caledonian Soccer Club, John Williamson, Applecross, Western Australia, 1998.

Wilson, Tony, Australia United: Adventures at the 2006 World Cup, Germany, GSPBooks, Melbourne, 2006.

Biographies and Autobiographies

Allen, Peter, Reg Date: The Don Bradman of Football, Allen Media Services, Mosman, NSW, 2011.

Baumgartner, Leo, The Little Professor of Soccer, Marketing Productions, Bondi Junction, 1968.

Briscoe, Gordon, Racial Folly: A Twentieth Century Aboriginal Family, ANU press, Canberra, 2010.

Campbell, Donald, The Campbell Files: Everything You Won’t Find in the Stewart Report, Margaret Bowden, Marion, South Australia, 1995.

Farina, Frank with Bonita Mersiades, My World is Round: A Personal Playing History, Vox Peritus, Milton, Queensland, 1998.

Harper, Andy, Mr and Mrs Soccer, Random House, Sydney, 2004.

Johnston, Craig, Walk Alone, Collins Australia, Sydney, 1989.

Lusetich, Robert, My Beloved Socceroos: The Frank Arok Story, ABC Books, Sydney, 1992.

Mallett, Ashley, John Kosmina, Hutcheson Australia, Melbourne, 1983.

Margo, Jill, Frank Lowy: Pushing the Limits, Harper Collins, Sydney, 2001.

Moriarty, John, Saltwater Fella: An Inspiring True Story of Success against all Odds, Penguin, Melbourne, 2000.

O’Neill, John, It’s Only a Game: A Life in Sport, Random House, Sydney, 2007.

Perkins, Charles, A Bastard Like Me, Ure Smith, Sydney, 1975.

Rasic, Rale with Ray Gatt, The Rale Rasic Story, New Holland, Sydney, 2006.

Read, Peter, Charles Perkins: A Biography, Penguin, Ringwood, Victoria, 1990 and 2001.

Schwarzer, Mark, World Cup Destiny: From Sydney to Stuttgart, ABC Books, Sydney, 2006.

Shorrock, Les, My Charmed Life, privately published, no date.

Slater, Robbie, with Matthew Hall, The Hard Way, Harper Sports, Sydney, 1999.

Wade, Paul with Kyle Patterson, Captain Socceroo: The Paul Wade story, Harper Sports, Sydney, 1995.

Warren, Johnny with Andy Harper & Josh Whittington, Sheilas, Wogs and Poofters: An Incomplete Biography of Johnny Warren and Soccer in Australia, Random House, Sydney, 2002.

Chapters

Booth, Ross. ‘The A-League: A New League for Australia. From Old Soccer to New Football’, in Peter Burke and June Senyard, eds, Behind the Play: Football in Australia, Melbourne, Maribyrnong Press, 2008, 221–238.

Dabscheck, Braham. ‘Moving Beyond Ethnicity: Soccer’s Evolutionary Progress’, in Bon Stewart, ed., The Games Are Not the Same: The Political Economy of Football in Australia, Melbourne, Melbourne University Press, 2007, 198–235.

Hay, Roy, ‘Soccer and social control in Scotland, 1873-1973,’ in Richard Cashman and Michael McKernan (eds) Sport: Money, Morality and the Media, Kensington, New South Wales University Press, 1981, pp. 223-247.

Hay, Roy, ‘A new look at soccer violence’, in Denis Hemphill, ed., All part of the game: Violence and Australian sport, Sydney, Walla Walla Press, 1998, 41–62.

Hay, Roy, ‘British Football, Wogball or the World Game?  Towards a social history of Victorian Soccer’, in John O’Hara, ed., Ethnicity and Soccer in Australia, ASSH Studies in Sports History Number 10, Australian Society for Sports History, Campelltown, 1994, 44–79.

Hay, Roy, ‘Oral history, migration and soccer in Australia, 1880-2000,’ in A James Hammerton  and Eric Richards , eds, Speaking to Immigrants: Oral Testimony and the History of Australian Migration, Visible Immigrants 6, History Program and Centre for Immigration and Multicultural Studies, Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University, Canberra, 2002, 39-61.

Hay, Roy, ‘Croatia: Community, conflict and culture: the role of soccer clubs in migrant identity’, in Michael Cronin and David Mayall, eds, Sporting nationalisms: Identity, ethnicity and assimilation, London, Frank Cass, 1998, 49–66.

Hay, Roy & Marnie Haig-Muir, ‘“Huntin, Shootin and Fishin” and the Rest: Sports in Geelong in the Mid-nineteenth Century and Afterwards’, in Tom Spurling & Geoff Peel, eds, The View from Station Peak: Writings on Geelong: History and Literature, n.p., Geelong, 2007, 85–99.

Hay, Roy, ‘Croatia: Community, conflict and culture: the role of soccer clubs in migrant identity’, in Michael Cronin and David Mayall, eds, Sporting nationalisms: Identity, ethnicity and assimilation, London, Frank Cass, 1998, pp. 49-66.

Hay, Roy, ‘The last night of the Poms: Australia as a post-colonial sporting society,’ in John Bale and Mike Cronin, eds, Sport and post-colonialism, Berg, Oxford, 2003, pp. 15-28.

Hay, Roy, ‘Fan culture in Australian football (soccer): From ethnic to mainstream?’ in Matthew Nicholson, Bob Stewart and Rob Hess, eds, Football Fever: Moving the Goalposts, Maribyrnong Press, Melbourne, 2006, 91–105.

Hay, Roy, ‘Violence by Players’, in Wray Vamplew et al. (eds) Oxford Companion to Australian Sport, Oxford University Press, Melbourne, Second Edition 1994, originally published, 1992, pp. 443-446.

Hay, Roy & Ian Warren, ‘Who supports Melbourne Victory? A preliminary inquiry into crowd make-up and dynamics in the new A-League,’ in Peter Burke and June Senyard, eds, Behind the Play: Football in Australia , Maribyrnong Press, Melbourne, 2008, 239–260.

Hughson, John, ‘The Bad Blue Boys and “the magical recovery” of John Clarke’, in Gary Armstrong and Richard Giulianotti, eds, Entering the Field: Studies in World Football, Oxford, Berg, 1997, pp. 239-259.

Jones, Roy & Philip Moore, ‘He only has eyes for Poms’, in John O’Hara, ed., Ethnicity and Soccer in Australia, ASSH Studies in Sports History, Number 10, Australian Society for Sports History, Campbelltown, NSW, 1994, 16–32.

Miller, Toby, ‘The Unmarking of Soccer: Making a Brand New Subject’, in T. Bennett et al, eds, Celebrating The Nation: A Critical Study of Australia's Bicentenary, Allen & Unwin, St Leonards, 1992.

Moon, Paul & Peter Burns, The Asia-Oceania Soccer Handbook, The Authors, Oamaru, New Zealand, 1985.

Mosely, Philip, ‘Balkan Politics in Australian Soccer’, in John O’Hara, ed., Ethnicity and Soccer in Australia, ASSH Studies in Sports History, Number 10, Australian Society for Sports History, Campbelltown, NSW, 1994, 33–43.

Mosely, Philip, ‘Soccer’, in Philip A. Mosely, Richard Cashman, John O’Hara & Hilary Weatherburn, eds, Sporting Immigrants, Walla Walla Press, Crows Nest, NSW, 1997, 00–00.

Murray, Bill, ‘The workers sports movement in France’, in Arnd Krueger and Jim Riordan, eds, The story of Workers Sport, Human Kinetics, Champaign, 1996, 00–00.

Murray, Bill with Philip Mosely, ‘Soccer, in Wray Vamplew and Brian Stoddart, eds, Sport in Australia. A Social History, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1994, pp. 213–230.

Murray, Bill, ‘Asia and the Pacific’, in Stephen Wagg, ed., Giving the game away. Football, politics and culture in five continents, Leicester University Press, Leicester, 1995, pp. 138-162.

Procter, Nicholas and Lynch, Rob 1995, ‘The uses of soccer by Serbian Australians in the expression of cultural identity’, in Clare Simpson and Bob Gidlow, eds, Proceedings of ANZALS Conference 1995, ANZALS, Lincoln University, Canterbury, New Zealand, 182–188.

Vamplew, Wray, ‘Violence in Australian Soccer: The Ethnic contribution’, in John O’Hara, ed., Ethnicity and Soccer in Australia, ASSH Studies in Sports History, Number 10, Australian Society for Sports History, Campbelltown, NSW, 1994, 1–15.

Vamplew, Wray, ‘Sports crowd disorder: An Australian survey’, in John O’Hara, ed., Crowd violence at Australian sport, ASSH Studies in Sports History, No. 7, Australian Society for Sports History, Campbelltown, 1992, 79–111.

Warren, Ian, ‘Soccer subcultures in Australia’, in Carmel Guerra and Rob White, Ethnic minority youth in Australia: Challenges and myths, National Clearinghouse for Youth Studies, Hobart, 1995, 121-131.

Warren, Ian & Roy Hay, ‘Order and disorder at sporting venues’, Denis Hemphill, ed., All part of the game: Violence and Australian sport, Sydney, Walla Walla Press, 1998, pp. 63-86.

Westerbeek, Hans & Aaron Smith, ‘Australian Amateur Soccer and Ethnicity: Cross-cultural Marketing Challenges’, in Rob Hess, Matthew Nicholson, and Bob Stewart, eds, Football Fever: Crossing Boundaries, Melbourne, Maribyrnong Press, 2005, 73–88.

Articles

Adair, Daryl, and Vamplew, Wray, ‘Not So Far From the Madding Crowd: Spectator Violence in Britain and Australia. A Review Article’, Sporting Traditions, 7(1), November 1990, 95–103.

Adair, Daryl, ‘Australian Sport History: From the Founding Years to Today’, Sport in History, 29(3), 2009, 405–436.

Brabazon, Tara, ‘What’s the Story Morning Glory? Perth Glory and the Imagining of Englishness’, Sporting Traditions, May 1998, No. 2, pp. 53–66.

Brawley, Sean, ‘Second rate Java Jaunters: soccer football, the imaginary grandstand, cultural diplomacy and Australia's Asian context’, Sport in Society, 15(4), 2012, 504–528

Carniel, Jennifer, ‘Sheilas, Wogs and Metrosexuals: Masculinity, Ethnicity and Australian Soccer’, Soccer & Society, 10(1), 2009, 73-83

Dabscheck, Braham, ‘Assaults on Soccer’s Compensation System: Europe and Australia Compared’, (Review Article) Sporting Traditions, November 1996, No. 1, pp. 81-107.

Dabscheck, Braham, ‘Australian Soccer’s Freedom of Association Dispute’, Sporting Traditions, November 2000, No. 1, pp. 57-75

Dabscheck, Braham, ‘Early Attempts at Forming Soccer Player Unions in Australia’, Sporting Traditions, May 1994, No. 2, pp. 25-40.

Dabscheck, Braham, ‘Sporting Labour Markets and the Courts’, Sporting Traditions, November 1985, No. 1, pp. 2-24.

Danforth, Loring M, ‘Is the world game an ethnic game or an Aussie game? Narrating the nation in Australian soccer’, American Ethnologist, 28 (2), 2001, pp. 363-87.

Guoth, Nick, ‘A new China: using Sport to Expose a Multi-class Race through the 1923 Chinese Soccer Tour of Australia’, Sport in Society, 15(4), 2012, 462–478.

Hallinan, Christopher J., John E, Hughson & Michael Burke, ‘Supporting the World Game in Australia: A Case Study of Fandom at National and Club Level’, Soccer & Society 8(2–3), April–July 2007, 283–97.

Hallinan, Chris & John Hughson, ‘The beautiful game in Howard’s “Brutopia”: Football, Ethnicity and Citizenship in Australia’, Soccer & Society, 10(1), 2009, 1–8.

Hallinan, Christopher J. & March L. Krotee, ‘Conceptions of Nationalism & Citizenship Among Non-Anglo Celtic Soccer Clubs in an Australian City’, Journal of Sport & Social Issues, 17(2), Aug 1993, 125–133.

Hallinan, Christopher & Tom Heenan, ‘Australia, Asia and the New Football Opportunity’, Soccer and Society, 14(5), 2013, 751–767.

Harrison, Graham, ‘What’s in an Ethnic Name?: Soccer Clubs in Australia’, Canberra Anthropology, 2(2), Oct 1979, 23–35

Hay, Roy, ‘Ethnicity, Structure and Globalisation: An Argument about Association Football in Australia, 1958–2010,’ Sport in Society, 14(6), August 2011, 833–850.

Hay, Roy, ‘A Tale of Two Footballs: The origins of Association Football and Australian Rules Revisited,’ Sport in Society, 13(6), August 2010, 952–969.

Hay, Roy, ‘Another abortive soccer players union’, ASSH Bulletin, 24, June 1996, 11–14.

Hay, Roy, ‘Australian soccer clubs for sale’, Sports Factor, ABC Radio National, with Amanda Smith, Melbourne, 19 May 2000. Transcript available at http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/8.30/sportsf/stories/s68958.htm

Hay, Roy, ‘Black (Yellow or Green) Bastards: Soccer Refereeing in Australia: A much maligned profession’, Sporting Traditions, 15(2), May 1999, 19–36.

Hay, Roy, ‘Croatia: Community, conflict and culture: the role of soccer clubs in migrant identity’, Journal of Immigrants and Minorities, 17(1), March 1998, 49–66.

Hay, Roy, ‘Marmaras’s oyster or Seamonds’ baby?  The formation of the Victorian Soccer Federation, 1956-1964’, Sporting Traditions, 10, No 2, 1994, pp. 3-24.

Hay, Roy, ‘“Our wicked foreign game”: Why has Association Football (soccer) not become the main code of football in Australia?’ Soccer and Society, 7, no. 2–3, April-July 2006, 165–186.

Hay, Roy, ‘Sidelight on bodyline,’ Baggy Green: Journal of Australian Cricket, Volume 4 No 1, 2001, pp. 19-21. Contains material on a soccer match between the English cricket tourists of 1932-33 and Hakoah Melbourne just prior to departure.

Hay, Roy, ‘Soccer in Geelong between the Wars’, Investigator, No. 115, vol 29,  No. 2, June 1994, pp. 47-60 and ‘Soccer in Geelong since the War’, Investigator, No. 116, Vol. 29, No. 3, August 1994, pp. 87-108.

Hay, Roy, ‘Sports Mad Nations: Some research already done,’ Australian Society for Sports History Bulletin, 33, February 2001, pp. 18-24.

Hay, Roy, review of Matthew Hall, The Away Game, Sydney, Harper Sports, 2000; Geelong Advertiser, 7 October 2000, p. 45.

Hay, Roy & Nick Guoth, ‘No single pattern: Australian Migrant Minorities and the Round Ball Code in Victoria,’ Soccer and Society, 10(6), November 2009, 825–844.

Hay, Roy & Heath McDonald, ‘A Victory for the fans? Melbourne’s new football club in historical perspective,’ Soccer and Society, 8(2/3), April/June 2007, 297–314.

Hay, Roy & Tony Joel, ‘Football’s World Cup and its Fans—Reflections on National Styles: A Photo Essay on Germany 2006,’ Soccer and Society, 8(1), January 2007, 1–32.

Hughes, Antony, Review of Rosalind Fisher & Peter Morrison, Hakoah Club Sydney 1938-1994, Hakoah Club, Bondi Junction, Sydney, 1994, Sporting Traditions, 1995, Vol. 11, ( 2), pp. 128-30.

Hughson, John 1999, ‘A tale of two tribes: Expressive fandom in Australian soccer’s A-League’, Culture, Sport and Society, 2, Number 3, Autumn 1999, pp. 10-30.

Hughson, John, ‘Australian soccer: “Ethnic or Aussie” – The search for image’, Current Affairs Bulletin, 10, March 1992, pp. 12-16.

Hughson, John, ‘Football, folk dancing and fascism: diversity and difference in multicultural Australia, Australia and New Zealand Journal of Sociology, 33, 1997, pp. 167-186.

Hughson, John, Soccer Support and Social Identity: Finding the ‘thirdspace’. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 33(4), 1998, 403–409.

Hughson, John, ‘The Boys are Back in Town: Soccer Support and the Social Reproduction of Masculinity’, Journal of Sport & Social Issues, 24(1), 2000, 8–23.

Hughson, John, ‘The Wogs are at it again’: The Media Reportage of Australian Soccer ‘Riots’, Football Studies, 4(1), 2001, 40–55.

James, Keiran, Chris Tolliday & Rex Walsh, ‘Where to now, Melbourne Croatia? Football Federation Australia’s use of Accounting Numbers to Institute Exclusion upon Ethnic Clubs’, Asian Review of Accounting, 19(2), 2011, 112–124.

Lawrence, G. A. (Geoffrey A.), Thugs, hooligans and animals: Australian media analysis of the Brussels football riot, Australian Studies Centre, Institute of Commonwealth Studies, University of London, London, 1986.

Lock, Daniel. ‘Fan Perspectives of Change in the A-League’, Soccer & Society, 10(1), 2009, 109–23.

Lock, Daniel, S. Darcy & T. Taylor, ‘Starting with a clean slate: An analysis of member identification with a new sports team’, Sport Management Review, 12(1), 2009, 15–25.

Lynch, Rob, ‘Disorder on the sidelines of Australian Sport", Sporting Traditions, 8 (1) 1991, pp. 50-75.

Moore, Phillip. ‘Soccer in the West: The World Game in Australia’s Western Periphery’, Soccer & Society, 10(1), 2009, 84–95.

Mosely, Philip, ‘European immigrants and soccer violence in New South Wales, 1949-1959’, Journal of Australian Studies, No. 40, March 1994, pp. 14-26.

Mosely, Philip, ‘Factory Football: Paternalism and Profits’, Sporting Traditions, November 1985, No. 1, pp. 25-36.

Mosely, Philip, ‘The Game: Early Soccer Scenery in New South Wales’ Sporting Traditions, May 1992, No. 2, pp. 135-151.

Mosely, Philip, Ethnic Involvement in Australian Soccer: A History 1950-1990, (Book Review) by Lyle Allen, Sporting Traditions, May 1995, No. 2, pp. 145-150.

Murray, Bill, and Hay, Roy, ‘Australia and Olympic soccer’, The Cauldron, a special issue of Yorker, Melbourne Cricket Club Current Awareness Bulletin, 27, Spring 2000, 2–6.

Murray, Bill, in Jason di Rosso’s radio programme on ‘The Beautiful Game’ Radio 4EB Brisbane six part radio series on ‘Messages from the past, Voices to the future’.

Musch, Jochen, (University of Bonn) and Hay, Roy, ‘The relative age effect in soccer: cross-cultural evidence for a systematic discrimination against children born late in the competition year’, Sociology of Sport Journal, 16, 1999, 54–64.

Nielsen, Eric, ‘”Indian hockey [and football] tricks”: race, magic, wonder and empire in Australian–Indian sporting relations, 1926–1938’, Sport in Society, 15(4), 2012, 551-564

Pajic, Zoran, ‘”A” is for Australia: New Football’s Billionaires, consumers and the “Asian Century”. How the A-League defines the new Australia’, Soccer and Society, 14(5), 2013, 734–750.

Rowe, David & Gilmour, C., ‘Getting a ticket to the world party: televising soccer in Australia’, Soccer & Society, 10(1), 2009, 9–26

James Skinner, Dwight Zakus & Allan Edwards, ‘Coming in from the margins: ethnicity, community support and the rebranding of Australian soccer’, Soccer & Society, 9(3), 2008, 394–404.

Taylor, Tracy, Lock, Daniel & Darcy, Simon, ‘The Janus face of diversity in Australian Sport’, Sport in Society, 12(7), 2009, 861–875.

Warren, Ian & Roy Hay, ‘“Fencing them in”: The A-League, Policing and the Dilemma of Public Order,’ Soccer and Society, 10(1), January 2009, 124–141.

Weinberg, Ben, ‘“The Future is Asia”? The Role of the Asian Football Confederation in the Governance and Development of Football in Asia,’ The International Journal of the History of Sport, 29(4), March 2012, 535–552.

Newspapers and Magazines

Australian FourFourTwo, 2005–continuing

Goal Weekly, 2005–continuing

King Soccer (South Australia), 1960s.

Soccer Action, 1976–1987.

Soccer Mirror

Soccer News, (Victoria) 1924-

Soccer News, (Victorian Amateur Soccer Football Association), 1948–1972.

Soccer News (Metropolitan Soccer Football Association, New South Wales) 1922–1927.

Soccer News (Australian Soccer Football Association) 1953.

Soccer News (South Australia) 1956–60.

Soccer Star, 1988-1990.

Soccer Week, 1974-1976.

Soccer Weekly News (NSW Soccer FA Ltd) 1947–1950, 1952–1958.

Soccer Weekly, 1962.

Soccer Week, 1975.

Soccer Voice, 1985, 1986.

Inside Soccer, 1999.

Australian Soccer Weekly, 1980, continued as Australian and British Soccer Weekly 1991, and Australian and International Football Weekly 200x-2011 or 2012

Soccer International,

Soccer World, (NSW State Soccer League) 21 August 1931

Soccer World (NSW Federation of Soccer Clubs) 1959

Soccer World, Vol. 1, no. 1 (July 12, 1958)-v. 25, no. 9 (Oct. 1982)

Australian Soccer, 1989-1991

Western Australia Soccer Mail (Western Australia Soccer FA) 1951–1952 and beyond?

World Soccer, 1960–continuing

Sporting Globe, 1922–1972.

Studs Up,

League News, Official Weekly Newsletter of the Amateur Soccer Federation of Victoria, 199??-

Football Annual (‘Sunday Chronicle’) 1948–49 season.

Howe, Andrew, National Soccer League, Official Season Guide 2003–04. Soccer Australia, Homebush, Sydney, 2003.

Theses

Dew, Stephanie, Ethnic Involvement in Sport in Geelong, 1945-1990, M A Thesis, Deakin University, 1992.

Georgakis, Steve, Greek sporting traditions in Australia: An historical study of ethnicity, gender and youth, PhD Thesis, University of Sydney, 1999.

Hughson, John E, A feel for the game: An ethnographic study of soccer support and identity, PhD thesis, University of New South Wales, Sydney, 1996.

John Kallinikios, Sporting Realities and Social Meanings: The Transformation and Representation of Soccer in Victoria, 1945-1963, University of Melbourne, PhD thesis, 2004.

Lobley, J Murray, ‘Coal, steel and leather’: The history of soccer in Gippsland, M A thesis, Victoria University of Technology, 2001.

Lock, Daniel, New Team Identification: Sydney FC, A Case Study, Ph.D. thesis, University of Technology, Sydney, 2009.

McNeice, Kian, Soccer-Related Soccer Violence: Towards a Theoretical Framework for the Australian Setting, BA (Hons) thesis, Australian National University, 1991.

Mosely, Philip A, A Social History of Soccer in New South Wales, 1880–1957, PhD thesis, University of Sydney, 1987.

Pocklington, Michael, Ethnicity of Football in Australia, Master of Business (Sports Management), Deakin University, 2006.

Spurling, Anna, Hooligans or Fans? Violence and culture in Association Football since the Second World War, BA Honours Thesis, Deakin University, 1999.

Warren, Ian, Cultures of control: Law, Enforcement and public order at sporting events: A comparative approach, MA thesis, University of Melbourne, 1996.

Reports

Bubalo, Antony, Football Diplomacy, Lowy Institute, Sydney, November 2005.

Constantine, John, Holmes, Ian, ASF Submission responding to the Stewart Report, Commonwealth of Australia, Canberra, 1995.

Coulter, John, Soccer: Senate First Report June 1995, Commonwealth of Australia, Canberra, 1995.

Coulter, John, Soccer: Senate Second Report November 1995, Commonwealth of Australia, Canberra, 1995.

Australian sport, a profile, Department of Sport, Recreation and Tourism [and] Australian Sports Commission, Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra, 1985.

Australian sport index. National Sport Information Centre, Belconnen, ACT, [1988].

Australian sports directory, Department of Home Affairs, Australian Govt. Pub. Service, Canberra, 1979- From 1979/80 to 1981/82, each issue covers July 1-June 30.

Australian Bureau of Statistics, ‘Participation in Sport and Physical Activities’, Year Book Australia, 1998 (ABS Catalogue No. 1301.0) for an electronic version, see http://www.abs.gov.au/websitedbs/D3110124.NSF/14e59eeb4d4c9c94ca25670400073e4f

NSL Task Force. Report of the NSL Task Force into the Structure of a New National Soccer League Competition (Kemeny Report). Sydney: Australian Soccer Association, 2003

Soccer, Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia, Senate Environment, Recreation, Communications and the Arts Reference Committee, First Report, Canberra, June 1995; Second Report, November 1995.

Hay, Roy, and Michael Pocklington, with Ian Warren. First Report on a Public Order Strategy for the City of Melbourne, unpublished research report to the City of Melbourne, July 2007.

Smith, Winston, Building Australia’s football community: A Review into the Sustainability of Football, Commonwealth of Australia, Canberra, 2011.

Coaching manuals

Alagich, Richard, Soccer: Winning through Technique and Tactics, McGraw- Hill, Sydney, 1995

Fronting Up: Australian Soccer and the First World War

This is a link to my recent 9000-word article on soccer and World War One, 'Fronting Up: Australian Soccer and the First World War'. It's a culmination of a lot of the work I've done previously. Feel free to download from this link http://www.tandfonline.com/eprint/wcYIZvDiDcIkPEMNxrFJ/full

Please note that there are limited free copies available so only download if you are keen to read and/or share.

Summer Soccer: Tell 'im e's dreamin'

And then there's this, by Ian Warden from the Canberra Times, 20 July 1987. It's interesting because it shows how a number of aspects of the game and attitudes around it have changed. Interesting also that that some entrenched attitudes remain.

Notably this is written just before the game moved to summer. "It'll never work" or words to that effect claims Warren. Maybe it didn't.

AMONG THE MANY enormous problems faced by Australian soccer in its (probably hopeless) struggle for increased and enduring popularity is that the spectacle of the game itself does little to recruit participants and fans. The televising of Australian soccer probably does the game more harm than good while the televising of, say, basketball or of rugby league is a form of living advertising for the game.

Every Sunday the brave SBS-28 network broadcasts a whole match from Australia's West End Soccer League, boasting in its publicity material that this broadcast offers "the creme of local soccer". Bravely, I sat down to watch a match (4.30pm, July 12) between Sydney Olympic and SouthMelbourne.

Soccer referees have busy aftenoons these days and this was a busy afternoon for a referee rejoicing in thename of Bill Monteverde. Mr Monteverde's whistle regularly pierced the aternoon air like the insistent mating call of some monosyllabic bird of preyas infringement followed infringeent. Once in a while a little soccer interrupted the flow of fouling.

I was at a State Bank soccer league match a few Sundays ago in which one hyperactive defender was always urging his team mates to "Bite him!Bite him!" whenever an opponent advanced goalwards with the ball. This was, I fancy, an instruction to tackle the player rather than hang back and wait for him to actually do something with the ball in his possession.

There was a great deal of "biting" in the match offered by SBS. After a short spasm of actual soccer someone wouldbe writhing on the ground like a postman chewed by a bull terrier, clutching the ankles and femurs "bitten" in the tackle. Trainers were always on the field, administering the equivalent oftetanus injections to their fallen warriors.

"He's been in the wars," the panel ofcommentators (which included Johny Warren, Les Murray and an Englishperson doing an imitation of the commentators on BBC and ITV soccer programs) commented as someone who had been repeatedly "bitten" bit the turf again. Mr Monteverde, like most modern referees so used to and hardened by the spitefulness of the modern game that it would have taken an on-field murder to get him to send anyone off, showed five biters the yelow card, a trifling punishment fortheir crime of making the game unwatchably dreary.

During half-time the articulate LesMurray interviewed two soccer administrators on the subject of playing soccer fixtures in summer and in the evenings. One of them thought that this would be a great idea since it would allow "families" to come to the match after a day at the beach.

It is typical of Australian soccer administrators, blinded by their love of the game, that they would even dreamthat Australian soccer is a family entertainment. They were speaking after 45 minutes of tripping, kicking, writhing, hard lying to the referee, shirt pulling and swearing. I have no special gifts as a lip-reader but even I was able to decipher some of the terrible things Sydney Olympic manager Eddie "chop him down" Thomson was shouting at the long suffering Monteverde.

'I wouldn't like to see that'

The brief rise and inevitable fall of the Bulldogs

John Weldon wrote this piece for the Age in 1998. It's from a different time and speaks to a sentiment that's missing across all of our top-line professional sports today. And poor deluded John thought his Bulldogs were on the verge of a great era. Oh well.

I’ve been a Bulldogs fan since the late seventies. I watched them from the terraces at the Western Oval through various combinations of wind, hail and rain, and never once were they in any danger of tasting real success. Sure there was the odd finals campaign, but nothing which promised a future. That is until the appointment of Terry Wallace as coach, two seasons ago. He has brought levels of skill, endeavour and self-belief to the club the likes of which I have never seen before. He has the Doggies looking like winners, and I’m not sure if I like that.

I can’t truly enjoy the current run of success because I’m not used to it, and I don’t trust it. It’s hard to shake off that old feeling that it’s never too late to lose, (see last year’s preliminary final as proof of this). To make it that far last season and to fail so miserably was heart breaking, and as each victory takes the team closer to September glory I become more and more apprehensive. I worry about them like a parent whose child is ambitious and over-reaching, and like a parent I will feel their pain more deeply than they do, if they fail.

At times like this I wonder why I chose, as a boy, to follow such a troubled team. When I took an interest in football in my early teens, as a recent pommy migrant, teams such as Carlton, Hawthorn and Essendon were playing magnificent, awe inspiring football.

My first match was a Hawthorn vs. Footscray game at the Western oval in 1979. The dogs were hammered, but somehow they wormed their way into my soul. Even attendance at that years grand final, a stirring stoush between Carlton and Collingwood, couldn’t sway my heart, it was already beating red white and blue. Even before I understood what the game was about I understood what the Bulldogs were about. The crowd was full of pommies, wogs, paddies and others like me; I felt at home.

A fellow fan once said to me, “You don’t choose to barrack for Footscray, you’re geographically marooned out there. You have no choice.” This seems to be true, as all my friends from the St. Albans days, who barracked for the flashy teams of the eighties, have drifted back to the Bulldogs as they’ve grown older. Maybe it’s the fact that the other teams always hated coming over to our side of town. Somehow neither our ground nor our team were good enough in their eyes. As you become older you become more aware of that stigma, and you make a choice either to retreat from it or to wear it with pride every weekend at the game.

This most unfashionable of clubs now has over 20,000 members and is therefore guaranteed to survive, and I love that, but I resent the Johnny-come-lately’s in their brand new jumpers who stand in front of me in the outer. It’s not that I am afraid of change, I’m petrified of it. I find myself on the wrong side of thirty, wondering if the Bulldogs I supported will disappear forever. Will the newly won young fans of today turn out to be the self-satisfied Carltonesque fans of tomorrow? What will they know of standing on the sodden terraces at the Geelong Rd. end watching Brereton, Plugger and others carve up the hapless Bulldog defences of yesteryear?

Trooping out to the game week after week only to see your team destroyed, or almost make it, or nearly get it right, teaches a youth how to lose with grace. A win was a bonus. We were satisfied if we saw one great baulk from Douggie, a thumping tackle from Libba or a speccy from Chris. We were happy simply to be able to watch our team play. Perhaps winning is still too new a feeling. It’s hard for old timers like me to come to terms with

Strangely we revelled in the hellish conditions. The colder it got, the harder it rained and the more purplish and numb our extremities became the more we enjoyed ourselves. Success and the possibility of a premiership cannot replace that camaraderie.

The joy of the terraces at that glorious final-game-ever at the Whitten oval against West Coast, when the sky seemed to boil directly above the ground and bitter winds drove inch after inch of freezing rain into our faces. We collectively booed the poor fools who tried to raise umbrellas as we watched our boys play as true Scraggers, possibly for the last time, grinding the greatest of all Johnny-come-lately’s into the mud of Whitten Oval.

Now we face Adelaide, once again, in the preliminary final. If we can o’erleap them and go on to win the flag, it will surely spell the end of old Footscray and will truly herald the era of the Western Bulldogs. The move to Docklands will cement that and will end forever the days of standing on the terraces in the rain. We will sit undercover and in comfort and we will watch a winning team. I’m not sure I’d like to see that.

NPL Round 2 Results

NPL

ROUND 2: 

Oakleigh Cannons FC 2 (D. Bosnjak 2) Heidelberg United SC 1 (K. Sheppard 1)(HT: 0-1)
Pascoe Vale SC 0 Melbourne Knights FC 2 (J. Colosimo 2)(HT: 0-0)
Port Melbourne Sharks SC 2 (K. Braniff 1, K. Ibrahim 1) South Melbourne FC 3 (L. Minopoulos 2)(HT: 1-1)
Goulburn Valley Suns FC 2 (C. Carley 1, K. Sarkies 1) Ballarat Red Devils SC 3 (D. Swinton 2, M. Trigger 1)(HT: 1-1)
Dandenong Thunder SC 1 (M. Millar 1) Green Gully SC 0(HT: 0-0)
Northcote City FC 2 (J. Munoz 1, W. Dekker 1) Bentleigh Greens SC 3 (L. Jeggo 1, A. Proia 1, J. De Abreu 1)(HT: 1-2)
Werribee City FC 2 (J. Groenewald 1, S. Cudrig 1) Hume City FC 1(HT: 1-1) 
ROUND 1:
Bentleigh Greens SC  Ballarat Red Devils SC (HT: 0-0) (Washed Out)

NPL1

ROUND 2: 

Richmond SC 1 (J. Stefanou 1) Springvale White Eagles FC 0(HT: 0-0)  ,
Sunshine George Cross SC 1 (B. Lojanica 1) Avondale Heights SC 0(HT: 1-0)  ,
Brunswick City SC 3 (D. Vithoulkas 1, D. Sadik 1, N. Terezakis 1) Dandenong City SC 4 (K. Ziada 1, D. Matkovic 1, G. Jozeljic 1, D. Miskulin 1)(HT: 2-1)  ,
North Geelong Warriors FC 0 Box Hill United SC 1 (R. Muriqi 1)(HT: 0-0)  ,
Whittlesea Ranges FC 2 FC Bendigo 1(HT: 1-0)  , Moreland Zebras FC 4 (J. Nikolic 1, J. Turner 1, A. Centofanti 1, E. Batsis 1) Kingston City FC 0(HT: 2-0)  ,
St Albans Saints SC 1 (B. Devlin 1) FC Bulleen Lions 2 (M. Dimech 1, T. Nishimoto 1)(HT: 0-1) 

NPL 20s

ROUND 2: 

Dandenong Thunder SC 0 Green Gully SC 3(HT: 0-0)  ,
Northcote City FC 0 Bentleigh Greens SC 0(HT: 0-0)  ,
Werribee City FC 1 Hume City FC 2(HT: 0-0) 
ROUND 1:
Bentleigh Greens SC  Ballarat Red Devils SC (HT: 0-0) (Washed Out)

NPL1 20s

ROUND 2: 

Brunswick City SC 2 (J. Papargiris 1, T. Idris 1) Dandenong City SC 1(HT: 1-1) 
North Geelong Warriors FC 1 Box Hill United SC 2(HT: 0-0) 
Whittlesea Ranges FC 2 FC Bendigo 5(HT: 0-0) 
Moreland Zebras FC 5 Kingston City FC 1(HT: 0-0)
St Albans Saints SC 2 FC Bulleen Lions 0(HT: 0-0) 

NPL TABLES

Pos Team                                    P       W       L       D       F       A       GD      PTS    

1   South Melbourne FC                  2       2       0       0       6       2       4       6      

2   Melbourne Knights FC               2       2       0       0       5       2       3       6      

3   Oakleigh Cannons FC                2       2       0       0       3       1       2       6      

4   Dandenong Thunder SC             2       1       0       1       3       2       1       4      

5   Green Gully SC                          2       1       1       0       4       1       3       3      

6   Hume City FC                            2       1       1       0       4       2       2       3      

7   Bentleigh Greens SC                   1       1       0       0       3       2       1       3      

8   Ballarat Red Devils SC               1       1       0       0       3       2       1       3      

9   Werribee City FC                       2       1       1       0       2       5       -3      3      

10  Port Melbourne Sharks SC        2       0       1       1       4       5       -1      1      

11  Northcote City FC                     2       0       2       0       4       6       -2      0      

12  Goulburn Valley Suns FC           2       0       2       0       2       4       -2      0      

13  Heidelberg United SC                2       0       2       0       1       5       -4      0      

14  Pascoe Vale SC                         2       0       2       0       0       5       -5      0      

NPL1

Pos Team                                    P       W       L       D       F       A       GD      PTS    

1   Box Hill United SC                      2       2       0       0       5       1       4       6      

2   FC Bulleen Lions                        2       2       0       0       4       1       3       6      

3   Sunshine George Cross SC           2       2       0       0       3       0       3       6      

4   Moreland Zebras FC                      2       1       1       0       4       2       2       3      

5   St Albans Saints SC                     2       1       1       0       6       5       1       3      

6   Avondale Heights SC                     2       1       1       0       3       3       0       3      

7   Dandenong City SC                       2       1       1       0       5       5       0       3      

8   North Geelong Warriors FC               2       1       1       0       2       2       0       3      

9   Whittlesea Ranges FC                    2       1       1       0       4       4       0       3      

10  Richmond SC                             2       1       1       0       2       4       -2      3      

11  Kingston City FC                        2       1       1       0       3       6       -3      3      

12  FC Bendigo                              2       0       2       0       3       5       -2      0      

13  Brunswick City SC                       2       0       2       0       3       6       -3      0      

14  Springvale White Eagles FC              2       0       2       0       3       6       -3      0      

NPL 20s

Pos Team                                    P       W       L       D       F       A       GD      PTS    

1   Green Gully SC                          2       2       0       0       6       0       6       6      

2   Pascoe Vale SC                          1       1       0       0       3       1       2       3      

3   Oakleigh Cannons FC                     1       1       0       0       3       1       2       3      

4   Port Melbourne Sharks SC                1       1       0       0       4       3       1       3      

5   Melbourne Knights FC                    1       1       0       0       2       1       1       3      

6   Hume City FC                            2       1       1       0       3       4       -1      3       

7   Bentleigh Greens SC                     1       0       0       1       0       0       0       1      

8   Northcote City FC                       2       0       1       1       1       2       -1      1      

9   Ballarat Red Devils SC                  0       0       0       0       0       0       0       0      

10  South Melbourne FC                      0       0       0       0       0       0       0       0      

11  Heidelberg United SC                    0       0       0       0       0       0       0       0      

12  Goulburn Valley Suns FC                 1       0       1       0       1       3       -2      0      

13  Werribee City FC                        2       0       2       0       1       5       -4      0      

14  Dandenong Thunder SC                    2       0       2       0       3       7       -4      0      

NPL1 20s

Pos Team                                    P       W       L       D       F       A       GD      PTS    

1   Richmond SC                             1       1       0       0       4       0       4       3      

2   Moreland Zebras FC                      2       1       1       0       6       3       3       3      

3   North Geelong Warriors FC               2       1       1       0       6       4       2       3      

4   Springvale White Eagles FC              1       1       0       0       3       1       2       3      

5   Sunshine George Cross SC                1       1       0       0       3       1       2       3      

6   FC Bendigo                              2       1       1       0       6       4       2       3      

7   Whittlesea Ranges FC                    2       1       1       0       6       5       1       3      

8   Avondale Heights SC                     1       1       0       0       2       1       1       3      

9   St Albans Saints SC                     2       1       1       0       3       3       0       3      

10  FC Bulleen Lions                        2       1       1       0       2       3       -1      3      

11  Brunswick City SC                       2       1       1       0       3       4       -1      3      

12  Box Hill United SC                      2       1       1       0       2       5       -3      3      

13  Dandenong City SC                       2       0       2       0       3       7       -4      0      

14  Kingston City FC                        2       0       2       0       1       9       -8      0      

Harry Kewell: Star quality

by Roy Hay

Harry Kewell is bringing down the curtain on a stellar career at the end of the current A-League season. It is a pity that he could not make it to what would be his third World Cup in succession, but the body which has inhibited him in the latter stages of his career will not let him deliver the kind of consistent performances demanded by Socceroo coach Ange Postecoglou. Even Melbourne Heart must have been reluctant to offer a new contract, despite the impact he has had on the players around him since he joined the club. So the time is right for one of our all-time greats to step aside.

The NSW U15s in 1994 containing Harry Kewell as well as Brett Emerton, Sebastian Sinozic,
Yane Talcevski, Daniel Ucchino, Michael Cunico, Robert Trajcevski and Adam Brodbeck

He was born in Smithfield in New South Wales of English parents. I first saw him play at Kim Reserve in 1994 with the New South Wales Under-15s who won the national championships beating a very strong Victorian side in the final. The light blues included Brett Emerton, Sebastian Sinozic, Yane Talcevski, Daniel Ucchino, Michael Cunico, Robert Trajcevski and Adam Brodbeck, all of whom went on to have significant careers in the game. Lined up against them were Vince Grella, Danny Allsopp, Simon Colosimo, Rodrigo Vargas, John Maisano, Clayton Bell and Colin Azzopardi. Between them these two talented groups produced most of the Joeys who took part in the Under-17 World Cup in Ghana where Australia pipped Spain on goal difference to qualify from its group behind Nigeria. Brazil proved too good in the quarter-finals and Danny Allsopp was top scorer with 5 goals and Kewell got the other.

Very soon the precocious Kewell was on his way to Leeds United where he began as a wing-back and his powerful engine got him up and down the field following his debut in the first team under Howard Wilkinson. He flourished under George Graham and David O’Leary clocking up over 180 league appearances and scoring 45 goals. On 24 April 1996, Eddie Thomson gave Kewell his first Socceroo cap against Chile in Antofagasta. Eddie was shrewd enough to know that Kewell could have been tempted to play for England so it was vital to ensure that he was aligned with the Green and Gold. Most sources want to claim that as a result he was the youngest player to be capped by Australia, but this is not true. Duncan Cummings was months younger when he made his debut against China in 1975, scoring within minutes of coming on as a substitute. That was the first of Cummings’ two games for Australia, while Kewell was to go on to amass 56 games and score 17 goals.

From Leeds, Kewell transferred to Liverpool where he was to win a series of trophies including the European Champions League in 2005, when injury resulted in his substitution before his team-mates produced a miraculous second half fight-back against AC Milan and won the cup on penalties. He played just under 100 league games for the Reds scoring a dozen goals. In 2008 he moved to Galatasaray in Turkey, captaining the club and performing various feats including a couple of matches at centre-half when injuries to other players occurred.

Meanwhile he took part in Australia’s unsuccessful qualifying campaign for the World Cup in 1997, scoring critical goals away from home and at the MCG against Iran. His heroics were not enough and Australia lost on the away goals rule. It was an equally sad story in 2001 as a home win over Uruguay thanks to a Kevin Muscat penalty was cancelled out by the three-nil loss in Montevideo. Opinions differ as to Kewell’s contribution to the away leg. My feeling was that he left Mark Viduka unsupported in the striking role failing to be close enough to the big man who had three top class defenders marking him for most of the game. In 2005 however Kewell came into his own with an inadvertent shank that set up Marco Bresciano for the goal at home to Uruguay and putting away the first of the successful penalty kicks. Then in Germany in the finals he scored the decisive second goal against Croatia, but then had to miss the Italy game in the round of 16 thanks to what was suggested to be gout at the time.

Harry Kewell has just scored against Croatia at the 2006 World Cup finals.

Kewell backed up again in 2010 in South Africa though he was perhaps harshly sent off for blocking a goal-bound effort against Ghana in the second match and hence badly missed then and in the victory over Serbia. Kewell also contributed in Australia’s Asian Cup campaigns in 2007 and 2011.

He was named as Australia’s greatest ever player in a poll in 2012 which inevitably focused on recent stars. He certainly generated the charisma which attracted people to the game in an age of celebrity. So when he returned to Australia in 2011 and signed with Melbourne Victory on a contract which gave him an element of his income based on the number of extra fans he attracted to the game, there is no doubt that he boosted the profile of the club and the A-League. However by now his body was giving him less chance to demonstrate his talent, though as the first season ran its course his contribution on the field improved significantly. After the season he returned to England and then played briefly with Al-Garafa in Qatar before coming home for what turned out to be his final fling at Melbourne Heart. Again injuries cruelled his season, but he deserves to go out with a flourish in Heart’s final game of the season against Western Sydney Wanderers on 12 April.

Kewell attracted a fair amount of controversy over his long career, partly explicable as a product of the tall poppy syndrome, but some self inflicted or a result of the agents with whom he dealt. Also the injuries he suffered were not appreciated by those furthest from the man himself and his abrasive or dismissive attitude to the media did not always work to enhance his image. Nevertheless, he has been a major contributor to Australia’s recent success, as key member of the ‘golden generation’. In time people will be able to evaluate his career more dispassionately and with greater perspective, but he is certainly one to be considered when listing the players who have lifted the profile of the game in this country.