If you have any interest in the World Game in Australia then Roy Hay & Bill Murray, A History of Football in Australia: A Game of Two Halves, Hardie Grant, Melbourne, 2014 is the best buy. With 310 pages and illustrations on virtually every one it is the most comprehensive and interesting history of the game. It will be the ideal Christmas or birthday present for anyone who has an interest in football or has been involved in the game. The story begins deep in the 19th century and comes through to the present day. There is a chapter on the women’s game in this country, the first time this story has been told.

(Click and double click on the images in the text to enlarge them)

Roy Hay

Football fandom, like sporting performance in general, involves a delicate balance. When you are coaching youngsters to play the game, you want them bursting out of their skins to achieve the highest level of performance on the field, but yet you expect them not only to obey the laws of the game but also to recognise and respect its spirit as well. So, too, with fans. Without them there is no atmosphere. Australian football is privileged and lucky to have thousands of youngsters who are prepared to sing, chant, shout and jump about for ninety minutes at games around the country. This has not come about by accident and while the football authorities deserve much of credit for the changes they have made in the organisation of the game, most of it belongs to the fans themselves. All the evidence suggests that they were desperate to have teams that they could support whose ideology was inclusive and whose locus was ‘a geographical expression’ in Australia,not something that could be portrayed as foreign. Hence they poured out in numbers to support Melbourne Victory, Adelaide United, Perth Glory, Sydney FC and now Western Sydney Wanderers and to give the A-League something which its predecessor struggled to obtain—a dynamic demographic based on the domestic population, not just the most recent cohort of immigrants.

There is no chance that this new style of fandom will be satisfied with the sedentary enjoyment of the qualities of the game by the majority of those who are drawn to A-League games today. Without their ‘active support’, Australian games would be like those of some teams in the English Premier League, characterised as ‘Highbury the library’ or the ‘Prawn sandwiches brigade’ at Old Trafford as castigated by Roy Keane. But these fans are very demanding. They expect high levels of equally committed performance by those who wear the colours of the teams they support. They are protective of each other in face of critical attacks in the media. They are noisy, boisterous and as offensive as sledging cricketers or the Barmy Army or, for that matter, Australian Rules barrackers. Many of them also attend footy matches regularly.

The Melbourne Victory supporters consist of a number of distinct groupings. The largest by far was the Blue and White Brigade which was there when the club began in 2005, even before the league season kicked off. Unlike many of the fan organisations at other A-League clubs, the BWB and other supporter groups are not part of the Victory club but want to influence its policies. They do not accept formal responsibility for policing their peers, though they try hard to influence behaviour and collective support. Victory has been at loggerheads with another group of its active supporters, the Northern Terrace Collective. A loose amalgam of different sections, this element of the attendance professes to want to fill their end of the ground with active supporters. The club however wants to cordon off and control entry to the active support area at roughly its current size so that space is reserved for the accommodation and protection of other, less vocal and active fans.

Critical response by Victory fans to what they saw as media manipulation

The activities of the active supporter groups also provide cover for more nefarious behaviour by others whom both the fan groups and the football authorities would like to do without. So Football Federation Australia also has to be careful. Its proposed penalty of a suspended three points deduction from Victory or Wanderers offers a free kick to anyone or any group that wishes to foment an incident at a game or in the lead up to or aftermath of one. This is not beyond belief. Examples have occurred in the past where people associated with one club provoked incidents at the home ground of another resulting in penalties for that organisation. Moreover, it is not clear what the clubs could have done to prevent the incident in Bourke Street that preceded and may have been the catalyst for the events at AAMI Park last Saturday night when Melbourne Victory met Western Sydney Wanderers. As has happened in England, turning the stadia into controlled zones does not eliminate incidents but tends to displace them elsewhere.

Victory fans assert bragging rights

Melbourne Heart fans claim their place in the sun

In the stand at AAMI Park the other night when the firecrackers went off there was a brief moment when you wondered whether this was something much more serious. The thought of a terrorist attack briefly crossed my mind before it became clear that there was a flare and firecracker episode. That was worrying enough, having been in the press-box at a Victorian Premier League grand final when a projectile flew past the open window at eye level travelling from one end of the stadium to nearly the other and striking a young girl at the conclusion of its trajectory. So the notion of stamping out flares and firecrackers and anti-social behaviour at A-League games is laudable and to be supported, but it needs to be associated with measures to encourage the self-expression of the active fans without whom the football experience would be much poorer. Right to the end of the comprehensive defeat by Brisbane Roar this Saturday night, the active fans of Melbourne Victory kept up their vocal support as others left the ground.

Australia’s membership of FIFA

Roy Hay

Australia is a full member of the governing body of world football, the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), to give the title in French so that the acronym corresponds to the initial letters of the words. The first proposal that Australia join FIFA was put forward at the second annual conference of the Commonwealth Football Association in Brisbane in April 1914, but independent membership was not gained until fifty years later.

The world body was set up in 1904 in Paris, at the initiative of a Dutch administrator, Carl Hirschman, and a French journalist, Robert Guérin. The Football Association (FA) in England had been invited to join, indeed to take the leadership, but the four home countries, England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales dithered and the Europeans decided to press ahead. International matches had already been played and in May 1904 France, Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland, plus the Madrid Football Club (There was no national Spanish body at this time) set up the new organisation. A telegram from Germany announced that it would also join. The FA stood out till 1905 but then came in, giving the new body greater credibility, though the attitude of the home countries remained ambivalent. Scotland, Wales and Ireland were admitted to FIFA in 1910, though this was at variance with FIFA’s statutes, which only allowed for one organisation to represent a national entity.[i] England provided the second president of FIFA, Daniel Woolfall, and that helped as he led the move to have uniform laws for the game wherever it was played.

At this time Australia had no national body overseeing the game and the state associations of Western Australia, New South Wales (and New Zealand) became affiliated to FIFA through the Football Association in England. The Commonwealth Football Association (CFA) was set up in December 1911, but the news must not have filtered through to FIFA where the German Association pointed out that Australia was now a separate country and should have its own direct membership of FIFA. The German motion encouraged the Australians to set up their own organisation. The German intervention needs to be seen in the context of the strategic and political rivalry between Germany and Britain in the lead-up to the First World War. South Africa joined FIFA in 1909-10 and Argentina, which had also been affiliated through the FA became an independent member in 1912. Queensland became a member of the FA in 1912. Tasmania was also a member.

The fledgling Australian national body hoped to achieve two international objectives. The first was to attract a tour by a team from the United Kingdom or to send an Australian representative team on a tour of the home countries.[ii] The second was to take part in the soccer tournament at the Olympic games planned for Berlin in 1916.[iii] At the Stockholm Congress of FIFA on 30 June and 1 July 1912, FIFA made two decisions which had implications for Australia. The first was that affiliation to FIFA was required to take part in the Olympic Games, but the second was that separate affiliation to FIFA was not required for the colonies of mother countries. This inconsistency was to remain untested as far as Australia was concerned. When Tasmania proposed direct affiliation with FIFA at the second CFA conference in Brisbane in April 1914, the motion was defeated and it was reported that ‘Tasmania wished an affiliation made to the FIFA, but it was unanimously decided to affiliate to the FA only, as the Stockholm Congress of the FIFA declared that affiliations from colonies of mother countries were unnecessary.’[iv] As it happened the outbreak of the First World War meant that the Berlin Olympic games did not take place.

When the Commonwealth Football Association was reconstituted and activated in 1921, Australia remained a member of the FA in London thanks to Arthur Gibbs who paid the membership fee out of his own pocket.  Gibbs was the representative of Australia and New Zealand from 1910 to 1928. L H Pike was Australia’s representative from 1937. The four British associations withdrew from FIFA in April 1920 as they did not want to play official matches against their former enemies in the First World War and that decision also affected Australia. When the home associations returned in 1924, Australia was also included. In 1928 the home associations withdrew again this time over the definition of amateurism and payment for ‘broken time’. The CFA did not accept professionalism in soccer in Australia but it did not ban competition with professionals (otherwise the England tour of 1925 could not have taken place) or playing professionals from other sports. It was not till 1946 that the home unions rejoined FIFA once again.

In 1949 (?) Melbourne was selected as the host city for the Olympic games in 1956 and once again this was to be a catalyst for the reconsideration of Australia’s relationship with FIFA. By now it was firmly established that affiliation to FIFA was required for participation in the Olympic football tournament and FIFA had effectively taken over the football at the games. It took the Australian national body, now the Australian Soccer Football Association Ltd (ASFA) some time to get its planning for the tournament under way.[v] In 1954 ASFA applied for separate membership but was probably too late to have that considered at FIFA’s 29^th Congress in Berne in June. Four national associations were admitted to membership—Cambodia, Hong Kong, Malaya (later part of Malaysia) and Taiwan, the last over the vehement objection of the delegate from the Peoples Republic of China.[vi] The four Asian associations were voted for separately and there is no mention in the article cited or the FIFA minutes of any other associations being admitted at this meeting.[vii]

In November 1954 the Executive Committee of FIFA met in Stockholm to consider inter alia the preparations for the Olympic games in Melbourne.

The President stated that the difficulties to participate in the Football Tournament were greater than for the 1952 Helsinki Games. He said that not more than 16 teams would be admitted. Should more than 16 teams enter for the tournament, qualifying matches would have to be played outside of Australia . This question as well as that of the general organisation and that of refereeing would have to be studied.[viii]

The final paragraph of this minute recorded: ‘The Executive Committee provisionally admitted the Australian Soccer Football Association. This decision will have to be ratified by the 1956 Congress.’ According to FIFA Statutes Congress is the body which grants membership, though the Executive Committee has the power to grant provisional membership pending approval by Congress. This decision was significant for Australia since it now gave ASFA the formal authority to carry out preparations for hosting the Olympic football tournament.[ix]

FIFA’s 30^th Congress met in Lisbon on 9-10 June 1956 and under the heading ‘Definite admission of the following National Associations.’ On the recommendation of the Executive Committtee, 1. Australian Soccer Football Association, Wallsend. 2. Jordan Sport Federation, Amman. 3 Sports and Scouting Administration of Saoudi-Arabia, Mecca were unanimously admitted to membership. South Africa’s application to reactivate its membership was postponed until 1958 and another attempt by China to exclude Taiwan was rejected.[x] Australia was now a full member of FIFA in its own right.[xi]

Some confusion has arisen because of a report in Soccer News which read as follows:

FIFA Membership Approved: Olympic Requirement met

Provisional admission to membership in the International Federation of Football Associations (FIA) for the Australian Soccer Football Association was confirmed at the recent Congress of the Federation in Lisbon, Portugal. Actual membership rather than affiliation was a prerequisite to participation in the Soccer Tournament of the Olympic Games.[xii]

This can be read as indicating that provisional approval was granted at this meeting, but in fact it shows that provisional membership, granted prior to the meeting, was now confirmed as full membership. The reference to affiliation was to the previous situation in which Australia was affiliated to FIFA through its membership of the Football Association in England.

Australia did manage to host the Olympic Games football tournament successfully, though with a few problems and the home team bowed out in the second game, losing to India after overcoming Japan in the opener. However within two years it became involved in an episode which led to the suspension of the recently obtained FIFA membership.

In the late 1950s at a time of high inward migration, football participation and attendances were growing rapidly. Club teams from Europe and the United Kingdom arrived on tours during the northern hemisphere close season and played against district, state and national selections before crowds of up to 30–40,000 in Melbourne and Sydney. In 1957 it was the turn of Ferencvaros from Hungary and FK Austria from Vienna to come down under.

FK Austria brought several international players and the squad was a very powerful one. It included Julius Ondriecska, Oscar Fischer, Franz Swoboda, Walter Tamandl, Karl Kowanz, Hans Loser, Imre Mathesz, Alfred Malik, Horst Nemec, Leo Baumgartner, Rudolf Sabetzer, Karl Jaros and Tibor Szalay. FK Austria played 11 games losing two. One was to Australia in Wallsend and the other to Ferencvaros. It was reported at the time that the club had lost £5,000 on the tour. In the next two years several of Austria’s best players including Leo Baumgartner, ‘the little professor of soccer’, Karl Jaros, Walter Tamandl, Andreas Saghi (originally from Hungary) and Eric Schwarz emigrated to Australia without clearances and no transfer fees paid to their European clubs, so insult was added to injury. Three of the first to arrive Johann Neuhold, Baumgartner and Jaros were actually suspended as individuals while they were still en route to Australia.[xiii]

In Sydney, Prague and Hakoah signed up these migrants, while in Victoria, Wilhelmina, later Ringwood Wilhelmina and then Ringwood United, attracted a number of top class Dutch players including Sjel (Mike) de Bruyckere. Prague won the NSW State League in 1961 and 1963. Wilhelmina came out on top in Victoria in 1959. Baumgartner became the superstar of his day, leading Prague for a couple of seasons and representing Australia against Everton in 1964. He went on to play for APIA and Hakoah (Sydney) and later coached Yugal to a New South Wales state title in 1970.[xiv]

The arrival of these migrant players followed a major split in the organisation of the game in Australia, precipitated by the refusal of the New South Wales Soccer Football Association to promote the Sydney club, Hakoah to the first division after it had clearly won the second in 1956.[xv] A broad range of clubs and groups within the game supported the breakaway by the New South Wales Federation of Soccer Clubs, several of whose members were signing these migrant players. At that time the breakaway movement of the New South Wales Federation of Soccer Clubs was at loggerheads with the New South Wales Soccer Football Association and consequently with the Australian Soccer Football Association which held the membership of FIFA. In 1958, the NSW Soccer Football Association was the recognized body affiliated to the national ASFA, not the NSW Federation. However, in March 1959, that changed.[xvi] If, as happened, the NSW Federation allowed the players to play for Prague and the ASFA was unable to prevent this breach of FIFA Rules then Australia’s membership of the world body was jeopardised from that point.

Australia was not the only country that defied FIFA in the 1950 and 1960s. Colombia was suspended from membership from 1950 to 1956 after the formation of a breakaway league led by the Bogota club Millonarios, with the great Alfredo di Stefano as its star player. Several players were attracted from Argentina and the United Kingdom, including the England and Stoke City centre-half Neil Franklin. Another split in Colombia in 1965 led to FIFA becoming directly involved and it took over direct administration of the game in that country. It was not until 1971 that a new domestic governing body was established in that country and membership of FIFA was regularised.

The Hungarian revolution and its subsequent suppression by the Soviet Union resulted in another outflow of players to other countries and questions of compensation to clubs and associations for their ‘transfer’. The players of the Honved club even organised a tournament in South America both as a fund-raiser and to express their opposition to the new regime in Hungary. Several leading players, including Ferenc Puskas, Sandor Kocsis and Zoltan Czibor, were recruited by Real Madrid and Barcelona in Spain. FIFA imposed a two-year ban on the Honved stars, but others from the top leagues were ruled out for only one year for failing to provide transfer certificates. Players from the lower leagues were exempted. FIFA was highly involved in questions of control of the game and not disposed to allow breaches of its rules.

So FIFA was determined to enforce its control of the world game and though the president, Sir Stanley Rous, was very keen to ensure that all countries stayed within their orbit, when the Australian authorities refused to abide by the rules and pay the transfer fees even he was forced to agree to the suspension of ASFA’s membership on 5 April 1960.

On 4–5^th April 1960 the Executive Committee of FIFA met in Zurich and addressed the issue of the ‘Transfer to Australian clubs of Austrian players not being in possession of the Transfer Certificate,’ and considered the Report and Propositions of the Players’ Status Committee. In the light of failure to by the Australian Soccer Football Association Ltd to apply article 12 of the FIFA regulations the Executive Committee decided unanimously to suspend the ASFA’s membership.[xvii] The suspension of Australia’s membership continued until mid-1963.

Incidentally the Asian Football Confederation was founded on 5 May 1954.[xviii] Apparently in 1960 the Asian Soccer Association (sic) was going to consider an application by ASFA to join the Asian Cup competition and that Lee Wai Tong of Hong Kong was expected to recommend acceptance.[xix]

Meanwhile, Australia was drawn to play against Indonesia in the qualifying matches for the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome. Syd Storey, president of the ASFA, said Australia would not try to enter the Olympic Games in 1960 because it would cost nearly £20 000 to send a team to Rome and it would have to qualify by beating Indonesia home and away. This was an early indicator of the financial demands that taking part in international competition would place on Australian soccer. The tyranny of distance and the associated costs would not be easily overcome. FIFA’s suspension of Australia’s membership would probably have prevented it taking part in any case.[xx] That would also have stymied an Australian attempt to join the Asian Cup competition as a qualifying route to the World Cup in Chile in 1962.[xxi]

On 7 May 1963 the Emergency Committee of FIFA met in London and considered Australian membership as item 9. The Committee were provided with reports of a recent visit by Michael Weinstein on behalf of the Australian Federation but since nothing had been provided in writing of the required conditional changes or the statutes of the newly formed Federation, it was decided to appoint a small sub-committee under the president, Sir Stanley Rous to examine the documents, if available, at the IOC meetings in Lausanne in June and take appropriate action. If the debts were liquidated then the steps to get an Australian association back in membership with FIFA were approved.[xxii]

On 12 June 1963, Dr Helmut Käser, General Secretary of FIFA issued a press statement indicating, ‘The suspension imposed on the Australian Soccer Football Association in 1958 (sic) will be lifted as from July 1^st, 1963.’[xxiii]

FIFA regards July 1963 as the official affiliation date of the Australian governing body to the organisation.[xxiv] It also says the Australian body was founded in 1961. So in a curious way, FIFA has written the previous membership of ASFA from 1954 out of its consciousness and treated the membership of the Australian Soccer Federation Ltd from 1963 as a new beginning. This is not how the history of the relationship unfolded.

References

[ii] The dream of a tour to the UK or a visit from an FA team goes back to the 1880s and was reiterated by F W Barlow of the New South Wales Soccer Football Association on a visit to the FA. Minutes of the International Selection Committee, 1 September 1913, Football Association, London, 1913. See also Bill Murray & Roy Hay, Australia, Greece and Olympic Soccer, in Bill Murray & Roy Hay (eds), The World Game Downunder, ASSH Studies in Sports History, no. 19, Australian Society for Sports History, Melbourne, 2006, pp. 113–151.

[iii] It wasn’t actually a clarion call by the CFA, which was dependent on the support of the state bodies. ‘Regarding the Olympic Games at Berlin in 1916, the congress strongly recommended each State to co-operate with the various local Olympic Committees, with a view to representation at Berlin. The hon. secretary (Mr. S. Lynch) was directed to forward fraternal greetings to the Australian Olympic Committee, and to assure it of the hearty co-operation of the Commonwealth Football Association, also stating that the association desired that the necessary steps should be taken for the representation of soccer football at Berlin.’ Brisbane Courier, Thursday 16 April 1914, p. 3

[iv] Sydney Morning Herald, 22 April 1914, p. 4.

[v] It was not only ASFA which was dilatory. There were even threats to take the games away from Australia if it did not accelerate its preparation of venues and general organisation.

[vi] Heidrun Homberg, ‘FIFA and the “Chinese Question”, 1954–1980: an exercise of Statutes,’ Historical Social Research, vol. 31, no. 1, 2006, p. 75.

[vii] Minutes of the 29th Congress of FIFA, Berne, 21 June 1954, pp. 11–12. We are indebted to Dominik Petermann of FIFA for copies of the minutes of this and other congresses and committee meetings.

[viii] Minutes of the Meeting of the Executive Committee of the FIFA held at the KAK, Stockholm on 18th November, 1954, p. 7.

[ix] ‘Australia, which has previously had affiliation only with the F.A. of England, is now a fully affiliated member with the Federation de Internationale Associations (sic), the organisation which controls the soccer universe. Without this affiliation, Australia could not have controlled the soccer section of the games, but now, of course, that is all in order, and the Australian Soccer F.A., in conjunction with all States, is already hard at work to ensure success of its portion of the Olympiad.’ Bill Orr, ‘International Soccer Galore,’ NSWSFA Ltd, Soccer Year Book 1955, p. 69.

[x] Minutes of the 30th Congress of FIFA, Lisbon, 9 &10 June 1956, p. 5.

[xi] FIFA, Official Bulletin, no. 15, Zurich, September, 1956, p. 3. We are indebted to David Hearder for a copy of the relevant pages of this Bulletin, and the documents cited in several of the following references. Sydney Morning Herald, Monday 11 June 1956, p. 9.

[xii] Soccer News, 14 July 1956, p. 5.

[xiii] ‘FIFA suspends three,’ Sun-Herald, 2 February 1958, p. 38.

[xiv] In 2012 he was still coaching football. Roy Hay, ‘The Little Professor of Soccer,’ Goal Weekly, 2 May 2011, p. 9; and his autobiography. Leo Baumgartner, The Little Professor of Soccer, Marketing Productions Ltd, Sydney, 1968. Leo Baumgartner died in December 2013.

[xv] For an excellent, detailed account of the split, see Philip Mosely, Ethnic Involvement in Australian Soccer: A History 1950–1990, Australian Sports Commission, Canberra, ACT, 1995, especially pp. 25–44.

[xvi] ‘Soccer ban on five Prague stars’, Sydney Morning Herald 11 May 1959 p.18; Trevor Thompson, One Fantastic goal – a complete history of football in Australia, ABC Books, Sydney, 2006, p.79; ‘World ban guilt’, Soccer World 16 April 1960 p. 2.

[xvii] FIFA Executive Committee Minutes, Meeting of 4–5 April 1960, Zurich, pp. 3–4.

[xviii] Homberg, ‘FIFA’, p.76.

[xix] ‘If Australia joins Asia FA, (if FIFA ban is lifted) it will compete to play against Yugoslavia and Poland for the honour of going to Chile in 1962’, Soccer News, 25 June 1960, p. 4.

[xx] The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation (RSSSF) website notes that Australia withdrew but does not give the reason.

[xxi] Soccer News, 27 August 1960, pp. 5 & 11.

[xxii] FIFA Emergency Committee Minutes, Meeting of 7 May 1963, London, p. 3.

[xxiii] FIFA, Press statement, Zurich, 12 June 1963. In 1958 it was the players who were suspended, the suspension of the ASFA did not occur until 1960. The effect was similar.

[xxiv] Christiane Eisenberg et al., 100 Years of Football, pp. 93–94, FIFA website, http://www.fifa.com/aboutfifa/organisation/associations.html, accessed 9 April 2012, email by Dominik Petermann to Roy Hay, 3 April 2012 and Minutes of the 33^rd Congress of FIFA, Santiago, 26 May 1962, p. 5 & 34^th Congress of FIFA, Tokyo, 8 October 1964, p. 3.

Coming full circle: Betting scandals then and now

Roy Hay

Betting scandals and corruption in sport are not new, nor are links between sport and organised crime. The scale and impact have increased and the widespread links between betting on sporting outcomes now promoted assiduously by sporting organisations and abetted by governments and the media must be held partly to blame for the current episode affecting Australian soccer. International security expert Chris Eaton may say that Australia, the United Kingdom and the United States are the benchmarks for good governance of gambling but it is the insidious growth of a gambling culture in these countries, as elsewhere, which is at the root of the problems. It is easy and hypocritical to blame other countries for laxity in matching organised crime with an organised response. Soft targets abound in Australia as elsewhere and as long as there is a buck to be made by rigging a betting game, whether it is two up or World Cup football, fixing will go on. This time round we may see some exemplary punishments of low-level participants, but an end to match fixing in sport is not in sight.

In my own family, the story begins in late 1925 when our local club, then managed by my grandfather, was in danger of relegation from the top division of the Scottish Football League. My grandfather had been the captain of Glasgow Celtic, Newcastle United and Scotland before the First World War and he asserted that a director of the club had attempted to bribe a referee to secure a favourable result in a match against Third Lanark. When the issue became public and went before the Council of the Scottish Football Association my grandfather was told he had no evidence to support his allegation and that he should apologise. When he refused to do so he was suspended sine die (effectively a life time ban) from the game that had been his life to that point.

The man he had accused had been the Treasurer of the Scottish Football Association for 20 years and the SFA were not prepared to have him cross-examined about the issue. The next year he was voted off the SFA executive, the first time an incumbent had lost an election in more than two decades. My grandfather’s suspension was lifted a short time later. But he refused to have anything to do with the game thereafter, apart from acting as a scout for new players for Newcastle United. The impact of his suspension continued in the family for my father won a Scottish Schoolboys Cup medal in 1926 but never pursued a football career. Two lives had been changed irrevocably. Much later, in 1954, the future head of the Scottish Legal System, Donald (later Lord) Cameron told a Glasgow Rangers player Willie Woodburn that his sine die suspension was illegal, it being beyond the powers of a private body to suspend a member indefinitely, where it was depriving him of his livelihood. If that was the case then, it would have been so in 1926.

Talent skipped my generation, but I often used to reflect that when my son played for local clubs in the Third Division of the Victorian league, the matches would appear on the British football pools. So the fate of millions of devotees of the soccer pools run by the likes of Littlewoods and Vernons could rest on results in games in which my son took part.

There were several more high profile match fixing scandals in British football over the years and last month a leading Rangers player was suspended for betting on football matches, including, it is alleged, some games in which he played and bet against his own team. The manager director of Accrington Stanley has admitted on his own website that he made over 200 bets on his own side, including 37 when he had backed them to lose. Remember Dennis Lillee and Rod Marsh when playing for cricket for Australia against England in 1981 or Shane Warne and Mark Waugh and ‘John the bookmaker’ or Hanse Cronje in South Africa. Some of these may be regarded as small beer compared with the millions wagered in betting coups in Asia, where the sums generated allow for the suborning of players all round the world, particularly in lower leagues. But the principles involved are exactly the same.

Roy Hay

(A shorter version was originally published in Australian Soccer Weekly, c. 1 July 1993. The article also draws on a column on the English tour of 1951 in Goal Weekly, on 18 July 2011.)

Who was the first Australian to play soccer for England? The answer to this trivia question might stump most Australian soccer followers. I suspect the majority might go for Tony Dorigo of Leeds United who in 1993 was holding down the left back spot in the absence through injury of Stuart Pearce. Some might raise the name of Craig Johnston, who played twice for the England Under-21 team, though he did not receive a full international cap. One possible answer is Frank Mitchell.

Frank who, you may ask? I came across Frank Mitchell for the first time when a colleague at Deakin University brought back from the United Kingdom a copy of the Daily Worker Football Annual for 1948-49. This handbook, produced by the newspaper of the Communist Party of Great Britain has an exclusive feature article by Leslie Compton of Arsenal, brother of the more famous Denis, who was also an Arsenal player as well as an England cricketer. It also has many pages of football pools information and advertisements for everything from Mars bars to trusses. Among the five players of the year selected by A A Thomas are Stan Mortensen of Blackpool and England, George Young of Rangers and Scotland, John Rowley, centre forward for Manchester United, Harry Johnston, captain of Blackpool and Frank Mitchell of Birmingham City and England. Well, nearly!

I quote from the appreciation of Mitchell. “tall, golden-haired wing half-back of Birmingham City, must have wondered last season what he had done to offend the selectors. Certainly his consistent displays with the Division Two champions could not have irked them, and though his qualifications for England are somewhat slimmer than most from the point of view of birthplace, neither fact seems adequate reason for his constant omission from the England team. He is an Australian, born in Sydney, New South Wales, 25 years ago, and, naturally, is a cricketer good enough to be a Warwickshire professional. An all-rounder, he bowls a good medium-paced ball, and might develop rapidly if soccer were not his first love. He has once appeared in England’s white shirt—against Scotland in the unofficial Bolton Disaster international two seasons ago, in a game featured by the inability of either side to do itself justice. If he continues this season as he did last, there can surely be no further reason for refusing him a cap. Strong in the tackle, and a neat, quick distributor who puts a great deal of thought into his work, he is a player for everyone who likes to see football played in the classic manner”.

So he did play for England albeit in an unofficial game in aid of the victims of the tragedy at Burnden Park, Bolton on 9 March 1946 when 33 people died in a crush during a game against Stoke City, for whom Stanley Matthews played on that ill-fated day. This was before Joe Marston went to Preston North End in 1950. Mitchell played 93 games with Birmingham City, 75 for Chelsea and 193 for Watford before ending his career in 1956. He never did get that full cap in an official game. As a cricketer he played 17 first class matches for Warwickshire between 1946 and 1948.

In 1951 England sent a professional football team to Australia on tour. Mitchell was one of the poster boys for the pre-tour publicity. The English squad was not the strongest professional side which could have been sent, and the five test matches are only counted as B internationals in the records of the Football Association. There were some high quality players in the party from goalkeeper Sam Bartram of Charlton Athletic, Reg Flewin of Portsmouth who captained the side and Syd Owen of Luton in defence and Jackie Sewell, then at Sheffield Wednesday, and Jimmy Hagan of Sheffield United in attack. Frank Mitchell, then playing at Birmingham City, was selected to make the tour and his picture appeared in the publicity photograph which accompanied the team, but for some reason he did not travel. Mitchell played cricket for Cornwall in the Minor Counties in the northern summer of 1951 and may have thought it was more lucrative to do so.

England pre-tour publicity in 1951

In all the English football tourists played 21 games and scored 157 goals and conceded only 14. Sewell was top scorer with 35, Hagan had 28 and Ike Clarke of Portsmouth got 23. In all over 190,000 fans watched the games, with the largest single attendance being the 46,014 who crowded into the Sydney Cricket Ground for the first test. The game against Victoria drew 29,652 to the MCG, while that against an Australian eleven two days later attracted 25,041 at Punt Road Oval. Steve Czauderna of Polonia, the Victorian keeper, may have conceded seven goals to the Englishmen, but he saved so many more that his team-mates insisted his photograph should appear on the cover of the next issue of Soccer News. All the goals in that game were scored by Jackie Sewell. Alex Barr, who could be highly critical of the local game, said the Czauderna’s performance ‘put him in international class (UK standard)’.

In July three more test matches were played in Brisbane, Sydney and Newcastle and Australia made much more of a game of it in each case. Though England won all three the results were closer, 1-4, 1-6 and 0-5. Ron Lord was in goals in all three games and Bob Lawrie from Ipswich captained the side and kept it together. Lawrie was another who had a spell in England with Portsmouth. Harry Robertson and Eric Hulme with a penalty scored the Australian goals in these matches. Lord went on to alternate with Bill Henderson in goals for Australia through much of the 1950s.

Meanwhile Mitchell continued to play cricket with Cornwall and subsequently he opened the batting and bowled for Warwickshire seconds until at least 1963. He played club cricket with Knowle and Dorridge, where he became groundsman and club secretary and stood as umpire in their match with Old Edwardians in 1980.

Mitchell was born on 3rd June 1922 in Goulburn in New South Wales and died at Lapworth in Warwickshire in 1984. I have no record of any appearances in Australia before or after his time in England and would appreciate any other information on this unknown Australian star.

Roy Hay

Three years in the making the first visit by Liverpool to Australia was launched at a ceremony at the MCG yesterday. As part of its immediate pre-season tour of Asia it is possible that Brendan Rogers will bring his promised strongest team to Melbourne to take on Victory on 24 July, though the status of Luis Suarez remains in doubt after his attempt to eat a chunk of Branislav Ivanovic. The Australian media was very coy about asking questions about that incident and its consequences, following a polite request by Liverpool.

Victorian Premier Denis Napthine was ecstatic about the prospect of a sell-out crowd at the MCG following the purchase of more than 50,000 tickets in minutes after the first release. More will go on sale today (Wednesday 24^th) both to the public and to MCC members. The Premier appeared most enthusiastic about football and the Liverpool visit, ending by showing off a Liverpool shirt which he announced he would wear for the first half, then swap to a Victory top. ‘Victory will win 4-3,’ he predicted.

Liverpool were represented by Ian Rush, predatory striker and club record goalscorer who led the line with Kenny Dalglish, and who finished his career with a stint in Australia with Sydney Olympic in 2000. He remembers his time in Australia fondly and thought his successors would appreciate the visit to Melbourne and the MCG, which surprised the Liverpool contingent by its scale and facilities. Liverpool sales director Olly Dale, standing in for MD Ian Ayre who was occupied by the fall-out of the Suarez incident, said that the connection between Liverpool and Victory would not be a one-off though he talked in general terms about what this might mean. With Victory coach Ange Postecoglou a long time Liverpool fan it is possible that there may be value to both clubs in the relationship. When asked whether he would be sitting down with Brendan Rogers, the Victory coach made it clear that he was aware that his visitor would be fully occupied with preparing his own team. However, he would take any chance he could to meet and learn from his opposite number. Postecoglou will also be very busy that week, for he is also coach of the FFA’s All-Star team which takes on Manchester United in Sydney just days before the Liverpool match.

While it is clear that this is very much a marketing and brand-awareness exercise there is no doubt that the huge latent support for Liverpool around the country has already ensured that the game will be great experience for those involved. For my part I will be going not so much to see the current stars as to look out for the next generation of talent coming through the Liverpool system. In recent years it has been even harder for local youngsters to break into the first team but I am sure there are new Michael Owens, Robbie Fowlers and Steve McManamans to be found on Merseyside today.

Roy Hay

After being on the back-foot for much of the ninety minutes, Melbourne Victory got a last gasp penalty kick to equalise an early Perth Glory goal, then completed the come-back with an Archie Thompson goal in extra-time to set up a semi-final with Central Coast Mariners. Coach Ange Postecoglou bristled at the suggestion that his team had got out of jail with the manner of the win, and pointed out that football was always throwing up events like those of the concluding minutes of this encounter. His opposite number Alastair Edwards hid his disappointment behind his praise for the performance of his players in the eight games since he took over. His pride in their efforts was palpable and he did not try to disguise the fact that the players themselves were very angry at the loss of a match they could and should have won.

After some early sparring in which victory found it hard to keep possession and the visitors looked very comfortable, Perth took the lead with an odd sort of goal. In the 15th minute Jacob Burns fed Scott Jamieson wide on the left. The cross was not really testing but keeper Nathan Coe started to come for it, then stopped and Ryo Nagai chested the ball into the space he had left and over the line. It was a most sloppy goal from a Victory perspective.

Victory might have replied quickly when Perth gave the ball away at the back but Leigh Broxham’s curling effort flew well wide.

Victory’s transition was woefully slow in the first half and there was little for the fans to get enthused about apart from one excellent run by Marco Rojas which set up up Broxham again in the 35 minute, only for the midfielder’s shot to be deflected past the post. Victory fans were non-plussed when no corner was given.

Perth were very well organised at the back but in truth Victory lacked invention and tried to pass their way through without disrupting the composure of Steve Pantelidis, Michael Thwaite and company. At this point, I thought Victory had regressed since mid-season when they seemed to have adopted a high-speed passing game as coached by Ange Postecoglou.

Jason Geria takes on Liam Miller and Ryo Nagai

In the second half Victory began to come more into the game, though they found it very hard to keep consistent pressure on the Glory by giving the ball away. Jason Geria was booked aftr only three minutes and was quickly replaced by Marcos Flores, which certainly sparked a more fluid attacking game from Victory. Perth might have had a second goal when Shane Smeltz got clear and Coe once again came off this line and then stopped. It looked like the keeper would concede again, but he managed to deflect Smeltz’s shot then safely caught the ensuing corner.

The match turned on two critical refereeing decisions which referee Jarred Gillett got right, even if some of his other interventions were more dubious. The first was a penalty to the Glory after Scott Jamieson was brought down in the box by Mark Milligan. That was in the 88^th minute and should have sealed the game for Glory, but Shane Smeltz hit the bar with his penalty kick and Victory lived on.

A minute later substitute Andrew Nabbout was manhandled in the Perth area by Steve Pantelidis, who had earlier been booked for an assault on Archie Thompson in midfield. The former Victory defender was cautioned again and sent off while the penalty fell to Mark Milligan. He showed how it should be done with a shot into the corner giving Danny Vukovic no chance.

Victory flags before the start of the game

So the game went into extra time. Four minutes into the added time Flores sent Marco Rojas away down the right. The speedy Kiwi outstripped the Perth defence and sent over a cross which Archie Thompson met with a downward header which bounced up and past Vukovic. Victory tried to take the steam out of the ten men by passing the ball around at the back but they were nearly punished when Jamieson again came charging into the penalty area, but this time the referee saw nothing wrong with the challenge on him by a couple of defenders. Players were now going down with injuries or exhaustion but Victory had two late breaks which should have resulted in goals, though tiredness helps explain why they did not.

Match details

Friday, 5 April 2013

First Elimination Final

Melbourne Victory 2 (Mark Milligan 90’, Archie Thompson 95’) Perth Glory 1 (Ryo Nagai 15’)

Venue: Etihad Stadium, Melbourne

Kick-off: 7:30pm AEDT

Referee: Jarred Gillett

Assistant Referees: Nathan MacDonald and Ashley Beecham

Fourth Official: Peter Green

Attendance: 22,902

Melbourne Victory:

39. Nathan Coe, 5. Mark Milligan, 6. Leigh Broxham (21. Spase Dilevski 109’), 10. Archie Thompson, 11. Marco Rojas, 14. Billy Celeski 23. Adrian Leijer, 30. Jason Geria (Marcos Flores 48’), 31. Scott Galloway (26. Andrew Nabbout 84’), 32. Connor Pain 33. Daniel Mullen.

Unused substitutes: 1. Tando Velaphi. 8. Jonathan Bru.

Yellow cards: Marco Rojas 45’, Jason Geria 48’, Leigh Broxham 54’, Billy Celeski 71’, Adrian Leijer 75’

Red cards: Nil

Perth Glory:

1. Danny Vukovic, 5 Steve Pantelidis, 7. Jacob Burns, 9 . Shane Smeltz, 10. Liam Miller, 11. Adrian Zahra (8. Dean Heffernan 63’), 12. Ryo Nagai, 18. Matias Cordoba (14. Steve McGarry 96’), 19 Josh Risdon (28. Daniel de Silva 105’), 21. Scott Jamieson, 23. Michael Thwaite.

Unused substitutes: 30. Lewis Italiano, 2. Jack Clisby.

Yellow cards: Scott Jamieson 26’, Steve Pantelidis 68’, 90’.

Red cards: Steve Pantelidis 90’.

Roy Hay

Australia squeaked out of its home game against Oman with a two-all draw after going behind in the sixth minute and further behind as a result of an own goal four minutes into the second half. The fight back began quickly with a powerful header by Tim Cahill and late in the game Brett Holman fired in a grounder to equalise but despite a number of corners and more headers by Cahill the game ended all square, leaving Australia precariously placed in its World Cup bid.

Line ups before the game

It was not an impressive performance by Australia though it had far more possession, and it had more difficulty in finding its targets in the front third than the visitors in their infrequent breaks.

Australia had the ball on a string for the first five minutes without threatening, then Oman made its first foray forward and Abdul Aziz (Mubarak) left Michael Thwaite in his wake and nutmegged Mark Schwarzer to silence the expectant crowd. From then until the interval, Oman was content to leave five men at the back and let Australia play in midfield. Michael thwaites came up for a corner but headed wide and when Cahill was fouled, Luke Wilkshire free kick found Mile Jedinak, but the defensive midfielder headed well over. Ali Al Habsi, the Wigan Athletic goalkeeper came flying out to punch the ball clear before dealing with two Australian headers in more orthodox fashion. As the Socceroos tried to get back into the game Matt McKay’s free kick, resulted in a Brett Holman header on the second ball which once again tested the keeper.

The second half began with another disaster for Australia as Raed Salah (Ibrahim got clear on the right in the 49^th minute and cut the ball across goal. Mile Jedinak was caught facing his own goal and his attempt to prevent the ball going past him only resulted in his wrong footing Schwarzer as he knocked it into the net. The Omani fans in good numbers down that corner of the field were ecstatic as their team celebrated with them.

Australia however hit back almost instantly as Robbie Kruse won a corner and Luke Wilkshire delivered the perfect cross for a trademark header by Cahill. The tiring James Holland was removed with Marko Bresciano coming on, and immediately Australia looked more composed in the centre and Alex Brosque got in at the back post only to have his shot blocked. Then Wilkshire hit the bar and the post with a lofted shot which beat Al Habsi but would not cross the line. In the 72^nd minute Bresciano was injured in the act of shooting and was replaced four minutes later by Tommy Oar. Cahill had another header which bounced over the bar, again with the keeper stranded. But despite four minutes of notified extra time and a little bit more the Socceroos had to settle for a point.

Paul le Guen was understandably pleased with the result and his players. ‘We expected to do well and but sometimes you dream of more. I am proud of these players and hope they will be recognised,’ he said. ‘We played quite well, and we are improving stage by stage. Compare this team with the one which played 18 months ago, it is a different group of players and we are closer to the top teams than we were before.’

Holger Osiek was highly animated on the touch line, showing his displeasure at the first half performance, which he made clear to the players and to the press corps at the end of the game. ‘The spirit was back in the second half,’ he said. ‘The passing needs to be more direct and we need a better performance over 90 minutes not just a half.’ He was concerned about Mark Bresciano’s injury with a stud in his foot which meant he had to be replaced only a few minutes after coming on. This disrupted the team and the strategy in the second half, though Tommy Oar did some good things in his short appearance. Archie Thompson replaced Robbie Kruse but could not conjure up a goal, though he did put in some excellent runs and a couple of crosses, where his speed down the flanks got him ahead not only of the defence but his fellow attackers as well. Tim Cahill was clearly the man of the match for his goal, his series of fierce headers when he seemed to win every corner kick in the air and his leadership as he tried to persuade the Uzbek referee to clamp down on Omani time-wasting.

Roy Hay

Western Sydney Wanderers are within touching distance of the A-League title after a three-one away win over Melbourne Heart at a wet AAMI Park on Saturday night. Though the home team put up a spirited fight in the latter part of the first half, and the first period of the second, in the end the result reflected the gulf in class between the sides. The Wanderers were first to the ball and always had options for their passes, while Heart matched them for a while but gave the ball away in critical situations and did not always man up when that happened. Thus two of the three goals came about when it seemed that Heart might be breaking clear of its own defensive area, but the turnovers proved fatal.

Melbourne Heart coach John Aloisi wielded the axe after last week’s dismal performance against Adelaide United. Paying the price were David Williams, Eli Babalj, Nick Kalmar and Marcel Meeuwis. In came Patrick Gerhardt, Fred, Jonathan Germano and young Sam Mitchinson. Western Sydney Wanderers lost Shinji Ono to a hamstring strain, with Aaron Mooy stepping in, but otherwise was on normal lines chasing its tenth win in a row.

The Wanderers went ahead in 29 minutes after Heart gave the ball away on the right and Mark Bridge ran to the byeline unchallenged before cutting the ball back to Aaron Mooy in the centre of the penalty area. The blond midfielder fed Labinot Haliti whose precise shot took the inside of the post on the way into the net.

Heart got a scintillating equaliser when skipper Fred released Golgol Mebrahtu. He took one touch to line things up then blasted the ball inside Ante Covic’s right hand post. That was in the 39^th minute. That stunning goal lifted the Heart and just before the break it seemed they had taken the lead only for the ‘goal’ to be disallowed. Mebrathu’s free kick was headed goalwards by Richard Garcia and Josip Tadic took a swing at the ball as it went past him. It is doubtful whether he actually got a touch and he did not seem to be impeding any of the Wanderers especially keeper Covic. From side on it was clear that three Heart players were momentarily in an offside position, so the assistant referee’s flag was understandable. However, the incident divided opinion among referees, inspectors and media commentators alike, and it did mean that Heart’s fightback was stalled. Patrick Gerhardt was booked for his protest at the decision.

Heart started the second half well, but the wind was taken out of them when Haliti scored his second goal on the hour. Mark Bridge was involved again and he squared the ball to Iacopo La Rocca who measured a pass to Haliti for a clear opening which he did not waste by lifting the ball over the keeper.

Simon Colosimo was booked for a challenge on Wanderers’ substitute Dino Kresinger in 75 minutes, but five minutes later he went straight through the same player from behind. He left the referee Ben Williams with no option but to send him off.

Following his departure any chance of Heart saving the game disappeared and with a couple of minutes left La Rocca expertly controlled a spiralling high ball before cutting across the penalty area and curling the ball round Redmayne for the Wanderer’s third goal.

John Aloisi said afterwards, ‘We can’t give up. It is not in my nature to give up. We have had a great home record until the last two defeats, why not win two in a row away to end the season?’ I love his glass half-full approach to any adversity and he was right to point to a much better performance than in the loss to Adelaide.

Wanderers' coach Tony Popovic

Tony Popovic is not a man who gets ahead of himself and was not about to claim the title or look forward to the finals series. ‘We will focus on next week. We have a big derby coming up (against Sydney on 23 March). We will control what we can and look at finals if and when we get there.’ His players have done him proud this year already.

Soweto Gospel Choir sang before the game

Match details

Saturday, 16 March 2013

Melbourne Heart FC 1 (Golgol Mabrathu 39’) Western Sydney Wanderers 3 (Labinot Haliti 29’, 60’, Iacopo La Rocca 88’)

Venue: AAMI Park

Kick off: 5.30 PM

Referee: Ben Williams

Assistant referees: Hakan Anaz and Matthew Cream

Fourth official: Shaun Evans

Attendance: 6,101

Melbourne Heart:

20. Andrew Redmayne, 4. Simon Colosimo, 5. Fred (22. Nick Kalmar 75’), 6. Patrick Gerhardt, 8. Matt Thompson, 10. Josip Tadic, 11. Richard Garcia, 13. Jonatan Germano, 14. Golgol Mebrathu, 25. Jeremy Walker (15. David Williams 67’).

Unused substitutes: 1. Clint Bolton, 16. Marcel Meeuwis

Yellow cards: Patrick Gerhardt 43’, Simon Colosimo 75’, 80’.

Red cards: Simon Colosimo 80’

Western Sydney Wanderers:

1. Ante Covic, 3. Adam D’Apuzzo, 4. Nikolai Topor-Stanley, 5. Michael Beauchamp, 6. Jerome Polenz (2. Shannon Cole 29’), 7. Labinot Haliti (23. Jason Trifiro 88’), 8. Mateo Poljak, 10. Aaron Mooy (9. Dino Kresinger 71’), 17. Youssouf Hersi, 18. Iacopo La Rocca, 19.Mark Bridge,

Unused substitutes: 20. Jerrad Tyson

Yellow cards: Mateo Poljak 42’, Adam D’Apuzzo 58’, Youssouf Hersi 83’

Red cards: Nil

Roy Hay

Victory fans spell out their views

Melbourne Victory bounced back dramatically from last week’s away loss to the Mariners with a five-nil thumping of an undermanned Newcastle Jets at AAMI Park on Sunday evening. The first half was played in a very subdued atmosphere as the Victory’s ‘active supporters’ mounted a silent and literate protest at what they regarded as media lies and heavy-handed security. After halftime, having made their point, they filled the stadium with the noise and passion for which they have become recognised throughout the football community in Australia and beyond. Victory runs a video before every home game in which Kevin Muscat asserts that the fans are the most important people in the club, but there is obviously still a ‘disconnect’ between what the various parties believe is going on and there needs to be even more discussion and contact between the various stakeholders to preserve Victory’s greatest asset.

Reinforcing the message

Victory had Archie Thompson back in the starting line-up for its critical match with Newcastle Jets, who left out Emil Heskey and. Michael Bridges. It was interesting that both coaches agreed that this was a sensible strategy before the game and both defended the idea afterwards despite the scoreline and the potential the defeat has to undermine the morale of the Jets players. Gary van Egmond pointed to the way Victory bounced back from its heavy defeat, and said ‘We need to borrow their playbook’.

The game was open and end to end from the kick-off but Victory went in front in the 8^th minute. Breaking quickly from defence Archie Thompson sent Marco Rojas clear and though the Kiwi winger appeared to be offside he was allowed to run on a slip the ball under Mark Birighitti. Replays suggested the officials got this one right.

Billy Celeski and Ruben Zadkovic contest a loose ball

Victory got a couple of corner kicks on the right in the 14^th and 15^th minutes and from the second of these Adrian Leijer, Mark Milligan and Daniel Mullen made a collective ‘three man rush’ at the dropping cross from Rojas. Leijer got in the header and powered it past the keeper.

At the next corner two minutes later the three-man rush was in evidence once again and this time Mark Milligan collided with Ruben Zadkovich. He may even have been pushed into the Jets’s skipper but Milligan’s trailing arm hit Zadkovic in the head, just as Daniel Mullen headed what looked like a good goal. After some delay the referee chalked it off and gave the Jets a free kick. This decision may well have been incorrect. So Victory had a more precarious two-nil lead rather than three.

Just before the half-hour Archie Thompson was charging into the penalty area when he was brought down by Taylor Regan. The defender was cautioned and the spot kick awarded. Mark Milligan coolly blasted the ball past Birighitti. So now Victory had its three-goal cushion, but the Jets kept plugging away and Nathan Coe had to make a number of saves including an excellent one from a drive by Andrew Hoole a couple of minutes before the break.

Neither side made any change at half-time and Victory nearly increased its advantage when Thompson’s cross was met by a flying lunge from the irrepressible Leigh ‘Box to Box’ Broxham but the Jets’ keeper was alert and blocked the effort. At the other end Coe had to make a couple of good saves from Newcastle counter-attacks. But it was Victory which made another breakthrough.

In 56 minutes another Rojas set piece saw the three musketeers in action again and this time Taylor Regan manhandled Daniel Mullen. The referee gave him a second yellow card and awarded another penalty. Milligan buried this one efficiently too.

By now it seemed that every Victory attack threatened a goal and in 66 minutes another arrived. Connor Pain found Rojas inside the penalty area and the winger turned the first defender then walked around the keeper before scoring his second goal of the match and his fourteenth for the season. Both coaches made a series of changes to rest key players and Thompson, Celeski andPain made way for Spase Dilevski, Francisco Stella and Andrew Nabbout respectively. The Jets replaced Mitch Cooper, Joshua Brillante and Craig Goodwin with Jacob Pepper, Connor Chapman and Bernardo Ribiero, but none of the changes made any difference to the score.

Ange Postecoglou credited the ‘three-man rush’ to assistant coach Kevin Muscat, who said ‘I only admit it when we are winning’, with a big smile on his face. The Melbourne coach was delighted to get some more game time into his youngsters and to be able to remove Thompson and Celeski well before the end as he builds towards the finals and next season.

Match details

Sunday, 3 March 2013

Melbourne Victory 5 (Marco Rojas 8’, 66’, Mark Milligan 30’, 57’, Adrian Leijer 15’) Newcastle Jets 0

Venue: AAMI Park, Melbourne

Kick-off: 5:00pm AEDT

Referee: Jarred Gillett

Assistant Referees: George Lakrinidis and Jonathan Barbiero

Fourth Official: Lucien Laverdure

Attendance: 17,778

Melbourne Victory:

39. Nathan Coe, 3. Adama Traore, 5. Mark Milligan, 6. Leigh Broxham, 10. Archie Thompson (18. Francisco Stella 58’), 11. Marco Rojas, 14. Billy Celeski (21. Spase Dilevski 58’), 23. Adrian Leijer, 31. Scott Galloway, 32. Connor Pain (26. Andrew Nabbout 78’), 33. Daniel Mullen.

Unused substitutes: 1. Tando Velaphi.

Yellow cards: Nil

Red cards: Nil

Newcastle Jets:

20.Mark Birighitti, 2.Scott Neville, 5.Dominik Ritter, 8.Ruben Zadkovich, 12.Josh Brillante (11.Connor Chapman 76’), 14. Taylor Regan, 15.Craig Goodwin (10.Bernardo Ribeiro 85’), 21. Marco Jesic, 22.Adam Taggart, 25. Mitch Cooper (18.Jacob Pepper 69’), 26. Andrew Hoole.

Unused substitutes: 1.Ben Kennedy,

Yellow cards: Taylor Regan 30’, 56’, Andrew Hoole 55’

Red cards: Taylor Regan 56’