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...
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 It may turn out to be a storm in a teacup but the proposed and then rescinded banning of Eureka flags at football matches involving Melbourne Victory was an own goal for the code.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...
Century 21 Cup 2008
Results and fixtures Day Date Time Home Team Goals Away Team Goals Grp 50 Fri 8-Feb-08 6.00 North Geelong 1 Geelong Regional Football Assn 0 A (Grgo Saric) Fri 8-Feb-08 7.20 Corio 3 Surfcoast 0 B (Dragi Sobevski,...
Easy Victory keeps slender finals hopes alive
Geelong Advertiser, Saturday, 12 January 2008, p. 95. Melbourne Victory defeated Wellington Phoenix by three goals to nil in its last game at Telstra Dome for this A-League season, watched by 25,498 fans. Victory had to win and hope that Newcastle Jets fails to get a...
Shaking up the universities
Published as 'New lessons', Geelong Advertiser, Monday 22 December 2008, p. 19. The Bradley Report into Australia’s higher education handed down this week is a weighty document at 304 pages and with 46 separate recommendations, so it is not to be taken lightly or...
Happy and upwardly mobile
Geelong Advertiser, Monday 15 December 2008, p. 17. My wife is profoundly deaf and even with two hearing aids finds oral communication, particularly in areas where there is high ambient noise, very difficult. So when she takes part in quiz games, she can’t hear the...
Competitive education: Is that what we want?
Published as 'Lifting the bar', Geelong Advertiser, Monday 1 December 2008, p. 17. Isn’t it fascinating when you have Rupert Murdoch and Julia Gillard singing from the same song sheet? Rupert Murdoch’s fourth Boyer Lecture was aimed directly at ‘our public education...
Human capital and technology
Published as 'Battle of carrot versus stick', Geelong Advertiser, Thursday 13 November 2008, p. 23. Rupert Murdoch’s second Boyer Lecture on the ABC ‘Who’s afraid of new technology?’ was a challenging call to Australians to embrace the opportunities of the new rather...
New ways in history
Published as 'Balancing act', Geelong Advertiser, Monday 20 October 2008, p. 15. By Roy Hay While most attention has focused on the provision of computers to students in our schools as the key element of the proposed education revolution, perhaps a more significant...