(An abbreviated version of this story appeared as ‘Butler ready to serve’, in the Geelong Advertiser, Friday 1 May 2015, p. 58.)

Roy Hay

The fairy story of English football this season has been the transformation of AFC Bournemouth from a team in danger of being relegated from senior football and going out of existence to the latest entrant to the English Premier League. That story is underpinned by the contribution of Geelong’s Russell Butler, long time referee and supporter of all things good in football. Russell is the sponsor of AFC Bournemouth’s Under 10s, helping make sure that this ascent is not going to be followed by an equally rapid descent as has happened to many clubs in the past.

He wakened up on Monday morning in England with a very sore head after a night of celebration at Dean Court after Bournemouth all but confirmed their promotion to the EPL with a three-nil win over Bolton Wanderers in the Championship, the second tier in England. It will take a nineteen-goal turnaround in the final games next weekend to prevent Bournemouth’s automatic promotion. Even then they could still qualify via the play-offs.

Russell was born in Bearcroft, a suburb of Bournemouth in 1947 and came to Australia as a four-year-old. His family brought him here, because his mother’s sister would not travel without her! ‘Women!’ he says. The families settled in Tasmania and Russell took up football (soccer) with the Police Boys Club and later went on to play for Burnie Celtic and Hobart Rangers, which sounds as if he were a member of Glasgow’s ‘Old Firm’. When he came to Geelong, it was the dark blues of Hamlyn Rangers, now Geelong Rangers, where he played. In 1974 he took up refereeing and since that day his height and his throaty voice, the result of blow he received while playing, have made him the whispering giant of the game in Geelong. He became a Grade One referee in 1988 and had officiated in well over a thousand games before he hung up his whistle in 1994. He did Premier League games, a Victorian League Cup final and Asian-Pacific Deaf competition at Olympic Park.

In the background, but close to the action, Russell Butler observes Joe Markovac of North Geelong and Sam McNeilage of Bell Park in the Geelong Advertiser Cup. Photo: Geelong Advertiser.

He has been secretary of clubs and leagues, has worked tirelessly both in Geelong and Melbourne to raise the standard of refereeing, and has been a strong advocate of a single team to represent the area at the highest level. He was the Geelong Soccer Personality of 1996, sponsored by the Geelong Advertiser. But he has never lost his attachment to AFC Bournemouth, a club that has spent most of its 125 years in the lower divisions, never rising above the second tier. Now it is on the verge of entry to the most watched league on the planet.

When Russell gets back home next month he will be finding some way to assist one of the local clubs or leagues or their officials or referees to improve their performance and their chances of success. He does not seek reward for his efforts but he has ‘the good of the game’ imprinted in his DNA.

Russell Butler (left) with Nick Monteleone, former President of Football Federation Victoria at the opening of Moreshead Park in Ballarat. Photo: Roy Hay.

He is a member of Melbourne Victory, has helped Ballarat Red Devils in their ascent to the Victorian Premier League, presides over a group of refereeing colleagues who form a wine-appreciation society and makes this soccer-tragic feel at times that he is a dilettante by comparison. So that is why he has put his hard earned money, much of it earned as a porter at Geelong hospitals, into the Under-10s in far away Bournemouth. What an example of selfless dedication to sport and society.

Roy Hay

Geelong’s Diversity Cup, the local pre-season tournament is in full swing at Hume Reserve, Thompson Road, North Geelong on Friday and Sunday evenings. This weekend North Geelong Youth beat Geelong Rangers by three goals to two in an entertaining and see-sawing match on Friday. There was a huge contrast of styles as the North youngsters played a close-passing build up from the back, while Rangers had a much more direct approach. It was the dark blues who took the lead from a long ball out of defence which cut through the centre of the North backline. Monga Bertin sprinted away reaching the loose ball just before North keeper Hamish Flavell to open the scoring in the 28th minute. Five minutes later Alessandro Stefano equalised with a lob over Rangers’ keeper Lyndon Malesic at the end of a multi-pass movement down the left. Two minutes more and North was ahead after a series of shots were blocked by Rangers defenders and James Hidic pounced on the last of these.

Action from North Geelong Youth versus Geelong Rangers (click on photos to enlarge)

Rangers hit back seven minutes after the break Matthew Long crossed from the right and Daniel Siketa finished off from close range. North scored what proved to be the winner on the hour mark. Stefano set up Matt Humphries for a neat finish. It is an excellent move by North Geelong to field its next generation of youth players in the tournament while the seniors are engaged elsewhere. The idea of the Geelong Advertiser Cup when it was started was that it would be a development competition and give coaches a chance to see the emerging talent at the clubs ahead of the league season.

Paul McGlounan sets up for a shot for Corio against Bell Park keeper Angelo di Mauro

In the second game, Corio proved too strong for a plucky Bell Park team winning by three goals to one. The first half was goal-less as the all whites defended stoutly and tried to hit on the break on several occasions. Eight minutes of the second half had passed when Corio made the breakthrough. Paul McGlounan found himself in the clear directly in front of goal to score the opener. Two minutes later Steve Luczo doubled Corio’s advantage after a scramble in the goalmouth. In the 55th minute Bell Park got a goal back after some excellent pressure by Matthew Demo and Matthew Elson who had just come on as a substitute put the ball past Daniel Ellul. Angelo di Mauro in the Bell Park goal had an excellent game, saving several net-bound efforts including two in the 62nd minute. But even his heroics were not enough as Jayden Kinces put the third effort into the net.

Tonight (Sunday) Geelong Rangers backs up against the unbeaten Lara at 6 pm, followed by tournament favourite Geelong against Corio in what should be one of the matches of this year’s event at 7.20 pm.

Roy Hay

Melbourne Victory and Muangthong United from Thailand cleared the decks for their battle in the Asian Champions League qualifier in Geelong on Saturday night.

Both coaches, Kevin Muscat for Victory and Phom Chomchearn for Muangthong, batted aside the pre-match controversies to express their confidence that their teams were up for the match and determined to proceed to the group stage of the competition. Assistant coach, Phom Chomchearn, took over the response for the visitor in the absence of Scott Cooper, who reportedly accused the Australian club of trying to destabilise the opposition.

Muscat said he expected both teams to be trying their utmost to win and that Muangthong had dangerous individuals and he did not expect the off-field issues to upset the visitors. ‘Both teams will be trying their utmost to win.’ He said he was happy the game was being played in Geelong. ‘Thousands of our fans travel up the road to support us and we are returning the favour’.

Muangthong United Assistant Coach Phom Chomchearn (left) and captain Datsakorn Thonglao also appear composed as they face questions at the press conference.

Phom Chomchearn was very calm and confident arguing that his team had played against tough teams in Europe and Asia and would not be intimidated by a physical approach by Melbourne Victory. Both teams were under pressure to qualify and he hinted that the game plan would be to avoid conceding a goal and hitting on fast breaks. He was convinced that the club’s experience in the Asian Champions League would help and what had happened off the pitch ‘definitely does not hurt us’. The proof will be in the encounter tomorrow night which kicks off at 7.45 pm at Kardinia Park. The pitch is in excellent condition and a good crowd is expected.

Kardinia Park being prepared for the Asian Champions League qualifier.

Captions for featured pic

Mark Milligan and Kevin Muscat in relaxed mood before the press conference in Geelong.

Roy Hay

Published in the Geelong Advertiser, 20 October 2011, p. 40.

The campaign for the recognition of Tom Wills by a memorial or statue in Geelong seems to be gathering pace following Greg de Moore’s urging at a recent talk on Wills. I have no objections to the man being recognised by some piece of public art or sculpture, but I am afraid that some of the claims made for his contribution to the early game of football are very shaky. It would be an enormous pity if the legend rather than the history appeared on any monument.

There is no doubt that Tom Wills’ on-field contributions to both cricket and football were extraordinary. In those roles he seemed to combine the qualities of a David Hookes and Gary Ablett, senior, two equally mercurial figures who lit up their sports in their respective eras. So if we can celebrate that I would have no qualms. But it is the claims for his off-field influence which are less convincing.

Certainly he wrote that celebrated letter to Bell’s Life in Victoria in 1858 advocating the setting up of a football club to keep the cricketers fit during the winter, which many regard as the birth certificate of Australian Rules. But he left it almost entirely to others to do the work and though he was present when a group of people wrote down a set of rules for the Melbourne club, his advocacy of the rules of Rugby school in England did not meet with understanding or acceptance by his colleagues.

When it comes to his role in the Geelong club there is next to no contemporary evidence of his role. Everything seems to come from much later through people like George Glencross Smith and Henry Colden Antill Harrison and Wills himself. The advertisement for the formation of the Geelong club in 1859 appears over the name of A M Mason, who captained the club in several later matches, not Wills. Indeed Wills does not appear in any of the team lists for 1859, 1860 or 1861 and the one appearance of the Wills name in 1862 is of one of his brothers, since Tom was in Queensland that year.

Greg de Moore mentions the possibility of a game in Geelong before that recorded in 1859 but the only evidence of a game of football that year in Geelong was a proposal by William Stitt Jenkins, a teetotaller, who tried to set up a Saturday afternoon football club in Geelong in April 1859 in an attempt to curb the influence of alcohol on the young men of the town, and to ‘provide bracing exercise … [for] persons cramped during the week by desk or counter service’. On the other hand, there are several examples of football matches being played in Geelong as early as 1850. Those games had no input from Tom Wills.

The other piece of the legend these days is the notion that Wills was the conduit through which Aboriginal influence was brought into the early game. Despite the best efforts of Jim Poulter, Martin Flanagan, Barry Judd and a number of other researchers there is no convincing link between the games which Aborigines played and the emergence of a unique code of football among the colonists. That corresponds with what happened in most cases in connection with modern sports. Ancient cultural practices did not, on the whole, translate into sports as we know them. Again that does not mean that we should give up the search for links between Aboriginal and modern games, just that there is no convincing evidence as yet and none of Wills’ involvement.

Geoffrey Blainey insisted that football in Australia was not the work of one man and that the game changed significantly in its early years. Until we have a collective biography of that founding generation, many of whom were very significant sporting figures, like George Reynolds Rippon, another multi-sports personality, we will not be able to evaluate Wills’ contribution adequately. So I think what we write on that monument, if it is ever erected, must be carefully researched so that future generations will understand what Wills really did for the game. To me that will not diminish Tom Wills in any way, but claiming more for him than he actually contributed does not do him or history any service.

Surf Coast stuns Corio in local derby

By Roy Hay

In a classic game of two halves, Surf Coast came back from a two-nil deficit to beat league leader Corio by three goals to two.

Corio came into this game six points clear at the top of the Provisional League Division One ladder and Surf Coast languished in second last place, but you would not have known it by the end of their match at Quay Reserve on Saturday.

Corio dominated the opening half after surviving an overhead bicycle kick at goal by Adrian Begg, who must have watched Wayne Rooney’s Manchester United example several times.

Begg’s effort just cleared the bar and from then on Corio got its passing game going and took the lead after 12 minutes.

Elton Savice, Steven Luczo and Vedran Stojanovic were involved in the build up and Andrew Palmieri supplied the finish.

In the 25^th minute Palmieri found himself clear of the defence, and when there was no offside flag he planted the ball past Sam Versace.

From then till the interval Corio dominated the midfield and should have increased its lead on several occasions, but the closest they came was a delightful Grgo Saric free kick which curled over the wall but dropped just over the bar.

Surfcoast coach Lyndsay Falzon applied the hair-dryer at half-time and brought on Adrian Bond for Begg, but the coach’s main appeal was to his players’ pride.

What a transformation as Surfcoast grabbed a lifeline in 63 minutes!

Hector Nunez of Surfcoast on the ball with referee Mal Bosnjak in close formation.

The livewire Jack Taylor found himself unattended and directed a free header past Alec Kitanovski.

There were only eleven minutes left when Ben le Cornu’s corner kick reached Ry Herman about 20 metres from goal on an angle, but his delicate lob dropped just inside the far post to equalise for Surf Coast.

Now the momentum was with the home side and when a cross from the right evaded several defenders and attackers, Taylor pounced once again for the winner.

Referee Mal Bosnjak sent off Rhys Manning and Surfcoast assistant coach Jason Pickles for alleged ‘violence of the tongue’, and dished out a string of bookings, but it was typical derby stuff rather than malicious play which was involved.

Overall it was great entertainment for the crowd, and Surfcoast can set its season going if it remembers how it won this game.

At the end, Corio coach Kit Greechan agreed that this had been a case of suicide rather than being murdered by the opposition.

Altona Magic 1 North Geelong 2

Two former Premier League clubs clashed at Paisley Reserve in Division One of the State League and North Geelong beat Altona Magic by two goals to one.

It was one-all at the interval and Michael Anderson scored the winner for the Warriors on the hour mark with a great shot from outside the box.

Mijo Trupkovic’s free kick rebounded from the wall and Anderson blasted it back in.

In the first period the home team went ahead after a bit of miscommunication in the North defence and a back header which fell kindly to the opposition.

Anderson then set up Raj Kurul for the equaliser right on the stroke of half-time.

Coach Ante Skoko was pleased that his experienced players are now providing the stability and guidance to what is otherwise a very young side.

Geelong 2 Williamstown 0

In the battle in the lower reaches of Division Two on Friday night, Geelong accounted for Williamstown by two goals to nil with one in each half.

Michael Nikolovski got the first and Jasko Ikanovic the second.

Matias Gorisito was sent off for a bad challenge in his first match back from suspension.

There were some positive signs for Geelong in the performance of the skilful Chileans, the Castro brothers, Ricardo and Yanko who were recruited from Altona City.

The win took Geelong six points clear of Williamstown and ten ahead of the bottom two clubs, though they all had games in hand.

Keilor Park 4 Geelong Rangers 2

Geelong Rangers had a tough assignment away to league leader Keilor Park in Division Three and went down by four goals to two.

Grant Mussel and Lorenzo Carbone with a double put the leaders three-nil up at the break, but Rangers hit back in the second half.

Grant scored another for Keilor and the Rangers goals came from an own goal and  a twenty-metre screamer from Daniel Psmaris.

Coach Dale Harris said Rangers really gifted the goals to Keilor in the first half, though Carbone at 18-years-old gave the Rangers’ defence headaches throughout.

Rangers best in the fightback were Jason Leroux and David Ellis.

Bell Park 1 Epping City 3

Bell Park has had a roller coaster season and is struggling to break clear from the drop zone in Division Two of the Provisional League.

Its cause was not helped by a three-one loss at home to Epping City.

Ifeanyi Ihanacho, known to the locals as Gift, scored for Park in the first half but Epping went to the break with a two-one advantage.

The visitors added the third as Park chased an equaliser.

Action from the Geelong Rangers versus Bell Park match in the CoGG Cup

By Roy Hay

In the round robin matches in the 2011 City of Greater Geelong Cup on Wednesday night at Stead Park, Geelong Rangers beat Bell Park by one-nil and North Geelong overcame Geelong by two-one with both winners coming late in the respective games.

Bell Park had the better of the early exchanges in the first game and almost grabbed the lead on the stroke of half-time when Mark Gstalter hit the post when clean through.

Rangers had the ball in the net in 54 minutes but it was chalked off for a previous infringement.

But the Dark Blues kept plugging away and had several openings before Gareth Demink took advantage of a loose ball bobbling around the area and hooked it home in the last minute.

Rangers just about deserved the win for their efforts near the end, though these were often frustrated by a tendency of their players to bunch up in one area of the field.

The crowd had built up to one of the biggest in recent years despite the limited publicity for the tournament before North Geelong and Geelong kicked-off.

Both teams had a number of their younger players in the starting line-up or on the bench and the game was played at a high tempo throughout, with many wild tackles and collisions.

Jasmin Ikanovic had two shots on goal for Geelong, the first of which was only denied by a brilliant save from North keeper Daniel Zilic.

But when the striker got clear in the 19^th minute, he outstripped the defence and put Geelong ahead.

Bojan Blagojevic hit the post as Geelong kept pounding the North defence and Vince Ierardo was only denied by another good stop by Zilic.

North looked a different team in the second half and it took a goal-line clearance by Geelong’s Daniel Ho to prevent Mathew Demon brining North level.

The equaliser came in the 54^th minute when winger Robbie Zadworny scored with a sweet volley after some excellent lead up work.

There were less than five minutes left to play when North won a series of corner-kicks and from the last of these big defender Andrew McLean rose to head the ball sharply downwards and it bounced up and over the Geelong keeper, Joe Agius, who could not scramble back in time to prevent it dropping over the line.

Mijo Trupkovic, North’s senior player on the night, has not had much sleep recently following the birth of his daughter, but he saw out the night at the fulcrum of most of North’s attacks.

‘I haven’t done much training this week, but I got through in one piece and the young lads stood up and did well,’ he said.

Current home of the Geelong Chamber of Commerce, Victorian Business Centre, Moorabool Street, Geelong. Photo: Roy Hay.

Bust of Queen Victoria. The only surviving remnant of the original Geelong Chamber of Commerce building of 1859, which was sold in 1875 and became the Geelong Free Library. It was demolished in 1955. Picture by permission of Richard Annois. Photo: Roy Hay.

Geelong Chamber of Commerce building of 1859 with some of its tenants and others on the steps. Photo: Copyright Geelong Heritage Centre. This picture may not be downloaded or used without the written permission of the GHC.

Geelong Heritage Centre

Roy Hay and G A McLean, Business and Industry, Geelong: A History of the Geelong Chamber of Commerce, 1853-2005.

Image by courtesy of the City of Greater Geelong. The book was published in May 2006 by Sports and Editorial Services Australia in association with the Geelong Chamber of Commerce. Copies are available from the Geelong Chamber of Commerce, Victorian Business Centre, 69 Moorabool Street, Geelong, 3220.

Geelong Chamber of Commerce

]]> http://www.sesasport.com/?feed=rss2&p=578 0 http://www.sesasport.com/?p=507 http://www.sesasport.com/?p=507#comments Mon, 20 Sep 2010 03:17:51 +0000 Roy Hay http://www.sesasport.com/?p=507 Geelong has five senior clubs, North Geelong, Geelong, Corio, Geelong Rangers and Bell Park. Each grew out of a particular migrant community, Croatian, Macedonian, Hungarian, Scottish and Italian, though all have tried to varying degrees to attract members from outside that founding group. They all can trace their origins to the post-war migrant boom and no further. Rangers like to point to the Caledonian Shield in their clubrooms which dates from the 1920s but there is no connection between the clubs which played then and the modern one.

For the last two decades the clubs have marked time and managed to survive. In a way that is impressive in itself, since several other teams have disappeared since the war while others are the product of amalgamations and take-overs. This is true of both Corio and Geelong for example. Corio was successively British, German and Italian before the Hungarians from Northern Suburbs took over, while Geelong was British, Italian and Anglo-Irish prior to the Macedonians of East Geelong arriving.

Only one Geelong team, North Geelong, has reached the Victorian Premier League, which it did in 1992, winning the Premiership under coach Branko Culina in its first season in the top division. Since then North has slipped back to Division Two of the State League until this year, when it will return to Division One. Bell Park which challenged North for local bragging rights is now in Division Three of the Provisional League while Corio will play in Division Three of the State League and Geelong Rangers has just been promoted to Division Three where it will join Geelong which was relegated last year. (All subject to changes if there are amalgamations or clubs drop out of leagues).

None of these clubs can survive on their membership fees and gate money. Attendances are often below 100 apart from the Geelong Advertiser Cup pre-season tournament which gets numbers up into the low hundreds. Clubs attract small amounts of local sponsorship and advertising, sell alcohol in their club bars and run interminable fund raisers which often cost almost as much as they bring in. Players in FFV competitions below the level of Division One of the State League are required to be amateurs, which means they can legally get a small payment towards expenses, though some receive brown envelopes in addition from a variety of sources.

North Geelong’s success last season was critically dependent on the attraction of an excellent coach, Robbie Krajacic, a top player with Bulleen, and the return of key members of the 1992 Premiership team and other players who had played in the National Soccer League for the Melbourne Knights or Sydney United, the Cervinski brothers, Mijo Trupkovic and Grgo Saric. This was an expensive process and it will become more so if North seeks to return to the Premier League in future.

So the clubs have a past, but have they a future? The following are some of the arguments as to why they do not.

1 Demographic changes, the end of European migration, means no replenishment of traditional support.

2 The integration of generations of migrants into Australia so that they do not need their soccer clubs as a bridge into the host society.

3 Geographical dispersion. The potential fans of these northern suburbs clubs now live in Lara or Torquay rather than Bell Park and Corio.

4 The example of Melbourne Victory. Showed you can attract fans to a genuinely non-ethnically identified and but locally focussed club.

5 None of the clubs have adequate resources or organisation to appeal to significant sponsors and can offer sponsors very little by way of brand promotion.

6 The existence of the present clubs probably prevents the emergence of a genuine wide-appeal Geelong club, so not only are the clubs condemning themselves to a permanent struggle for survival, they are holding back the development of the game in Geelong at a time when it should be capitalising on the success of the Socceroos in World Cup qualification.

(This piece was broadcast on Geelong’s community radio station 94.7 The Pulse on the Soccer Show with Tonci Prusac on Saturday, 3 December 2005 at 1-2 pm. It also appeared in the Geelong Advertiser on Wedneesday, 7 December 2005, p. 53.)