Geelong Advertiser, Wednesday 19 November 2008, p. 47. It is 50 years since Sir Alex Ferguson pulled on his boots as a 16-year-old and made his debut for Queen’s Park in the Scottish Second Division against Stranraer at Stair Park, known locally as the Clayhole. The...
Football 2008
Flagging the fans offside
Geelong Advertiser, 29 October 2008, p. 17. It may turn out to be a storm in a teacup but the proposed and then rescinded banning of Eureka flags at football matches involving Melbourne Victory was an own goal for the code. As the fans themselves point out, the Eureka...
Blast from the past: Aussie fans at the World Cup ’06 Fussball und Frankfurters
Goal Weekly, Monday 22 September 2008, p. 21. It is only two years ago since Australia played in the World Cup in Germany in 2006, but already it seems like a significant part of our past. While the performances of the Socceroos were inspiring, the fans did their bit...
Blast from the past: Clubs that are no longer with us, No. 3: Hakoah
Goal Weekly, Monday 28 July 2008, p. 11. Hakoah, one of two clubs which represented the Jewish community in Melbourne, was founded just after the First World War in 1924. It joined the Victorian Amateur British Football Association in 1926. In the following decade it...
FFA wakes up to its history
Goal Weekly, Monday 30 June 2008, p. 11. At last there are signs that the Football Federation of Australia is beginning to recognise that the game in this country has a history, and that the custodian of the sport in 2008 has a duty to understand and appreciate that...
Teams no longer with us. Footscray JUST
Goal Weekly, Monday, 2 June 2008 JUST, the Jugoslav United Soccer Team, was founded in Melbourne in March 1950 by Ivan Kuketz, a local hotelier and vice-president of the Brighton club where a number of recently-arrived Yugoslav players were playing. Kuketz had come to...
The first World Cup attempt in 1965
Goal Weekly, Monday 12 May 2008, p. 11 Next month Australia will continue its attempt to reach the World Cup finals in South Africa with a series of qualifying matches against Iraq, China and Qatar. If it succeeds it will then go on to a second stage which will...
Italian teams in Australia
Published as 'The Italian Jobs', Goal Weekly, Monday 5 May 2008, p. 11. The mighty Juventus will play Melbourne Victory on 30 May bringing back memories of previous matches against Italian clubs on tour to Australia. AS Roma was the first to arrive after the Second...
Soccer’s Legal Guru
Geelong Advertiser, Thursday 17 April 2008, p. 39. Geelong lawyer and soccer writer John Didulica has just won a key post as Legal Counsel for the Football Federation of Australia. In that role he will have an influence on the way the game develops and is administered...
Geelong and Newcastle: A study in soccer contrasts
Published as 'Geelong must follow Jets into A-League', Geelong Advertiser, Tuesday 26 February 2008, p. 35 On Sunday the Newcastle Jets won the third A-League Grand Final at the same time as Geelong’s leading football (soccer) clubs were wrestling for a spot in the...
Long road to glory begins
Geelong Advertiser, Thursday, 7 February 2008, p. 46. They say the longest journey begins with a single step, and last night at a packed Telstra Dome the Socceroos took the first step on the long road to the World Cup in South Africa in 2010. A three-nil win over...