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

Melbourne Heart could not give skipper Harry Kewell a winning end to his career after going down by three goals to two to Western Sydney Wanderers at AAMI Park before a noisy crowd of 10,003.

The retiring star brought his family on through a guard of honour, but that was as far as the pleasantries went, with Nikolai Topor-Stanley crashing into his back a minute after the Wanderers central defender scored the opening goal with a header from a precise Shinji Ono free kick. Heart conceded that goal in the 28^th minute, but fought back to equalise then go ahead with only 18 minutes left to play, only to be overcome by two late strikes as the defensive failings which have plagued Heart all year resurfaced.

Both sides started very cagily after Mark Bridge became the first of ten players booked by referee Jarred Gillett. But gradually the match settled with both teams prepared to attack. Heart had given a start to young Steven Mauk and he was prominent in the first half with a couple of shots, one of which led to a series of corner kicks and another where he just dragged his effort past the left hand post. Heart equalised in the 35^th minute, when Kewell found Orlando Engelaar about thirty metres from goal in heavy traffic. But as he has done before this season the big Dutchman hit a brilliant grounder across Ante Covic and in off the far post. A great goal, thanks in part to Kewell’s assistance. Kewell had a shot which had to be deflected for a corner kick, then Matthew Spiranovic had to head the ball over his own crossbar from virtually underneath it as Heart went for another goal just before half-time.

David Williams was withdrawn at the interval, being replaced by Aziz Behich, and a string of bookings broke up the flow of the game in the early part of the second half. The visitors should have gone ahead again when the referee found a penalty kick in a challenge in the Heart area. Shinji Ono, who can normally be relied on to take advantage of dead ball situations, put this one over the bar. So Heart was still in the game and took the lead in 72 minutes. Jason Hoffmann came down the right as he had been doing throughout the game but this time trusted himself to shoot. The ball took a slight deflection but it was enough to wrong foot Covic and dropped over him into the net. Thoughts of a home win to end the season flourished only briefly as the Wanderers were determined to get second spot on the ladder.

The referee had a big impact on the result allowing substitute Brendan Santalab to bowl over Robbie Wielaert before scoring Wanderers equaliser in the 81^st minute. That kind of incident had been regularly pulled up earlier in the game but in the last phase several were allowed, perhaps because another booking would have meant expulsion for the offender and consequent missing of the first match of the finals.

Heart could not withstand the red and black tide and Jusuf Hersi sprinted through a tiring defence to grab the winner with only four minutes of normal time left. Kewell walked a lap of honour to mark the end of his stellar career but his team finished at the bottom of the ladder showing that the new regime will have to make big improvements next season if Heart are to challenge for the finals.

Roy Hay

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

New South Wales Under-15s, national champions in 1994

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

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

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

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

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

Harry Kewell at Melbourne Victory

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

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

Bookends of two careers. Harry Kewell of Victory and Brett Emerton of Sydney FC

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

(This article was published on the Goal Weekly website on 1 January 2013. http://www.goalweekly.com.au/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=6715:australia-missed-chance-to-be-world-champion&Itemid=126 )

Amidst the euphoria of qualification for the East Asia Football Federation tournament late last year, most people seem to have been unaware that Australia missed the chance to be the Unofficial World Champion (UFWC) in football. In the qualifying tournament in Hong Kong, Australia led DPR Korea by a goal to nil scored by Archie Thompson. Had they held on to win, instead of conceding an equaliser to An Yong-Hak, Australia would have been on top of the World once again. The last and only time it reached this eminence was in June 1992 in South America when the Socceroos beat the United States by a goal to nil, scored by Warren Spink in the 85^th minute, to claim the title. That only lasted one game as Australia was knocked off its perch by Argentina. Australia’s only UFWC holders were: Robert Zabica, Milan Blagojevic, Mehmet Durakovic, Ned Zelic, Alex Tobin, Paul Wade, Tony Vidmar, Ernie Tapai, Vlado Bozinoski, Mike Petersen, Warren Spink, Aurelio Vidmar and Jason van Blerk. Eddie Thomson, a Scot, was the coach.

For those who are bemused by all this, the story of the Unofficial World Championship began in 1967 when Scotland beat England at Wembley in the Home International Series by three goals to two. Since England had won the FIFA World Cup the previous year, and hence were official World champion, many Scots, like me, claimed that since we had knocked off the reigning champion we should now be regarded as their legitimate successor. The idea has a long historical pedigree in football, as the FA Cup in its very early days in the 1870s was played on a similar challenge system. The Cup holder sat out the qualifying matches and the team which won the knock-out games would then challenge the holder in a one-off match for the Cup. FIFA, a bunch of spoilsports, did not accept this idea should still hold so the Unofficial World Championship remains unofficial. A country only retains its title until it loses its next match and then the accolade passes to the victor. The current holder is and remains DPR Korea.

The keepers of the flame have recalculated the UFWC back to the very dawn of the game in the mid-nineteenth century and you will not be surprised to know that Scotland remains the country to have held the UFWC most often. Scotland has been champion 86 times and England only 73, followed by Argentina on 51 and Holland on 49. Mighty Brazil languishes in sixth place on 29. Spain the current official World and European champion can only manage eleventh on 17.

You can follow up the work of the dedicated calculators of the UFWC on their website at http://www.ufwc.co.uk/rankings/

Roy Hay

Scotland took on Australia in a pre-world cup qualifier friendly match at Edinburgh’s Easter Road last night. It was a pouring wet night even before the match started and it rained incessantly throughout.

Both sides were below full strength though the Socceroos were very close to the line-up for the next series of matches against Jordan, Oman and Iraq. Scotland had young Jordan Rhodes of Huddersfield leading the attack after a stellar season in the championship in which he had knocked in 40 goals in all competitions. Gary Caldwell, formerly with Celtic and now at Wigan, captained the team and Charlie Adam of Liverpool pulled the strings in midfield.

Alex Brosque, Daniel Fox, Luke Wilkshire and Charlie Adam in action in the Scotland v Australia match at Easter Road.

Scotland started brightly enough and James Morrison’s shot was deflected for a corner, then Alan Hutton set up Andy Webster, but the Hearts man headed wide. Gradually the Socceroos settled and Robbie Kruse got to the bye line and cut the ball back as it was running out of play. Brett Holman’s shot seemed to be blocked by a Scottish hand on the goal line, but no penalty was given and the ball was finally put behind for a corner kick. The corner kick was only cleared as far as Marco Bresciano who struck the sweetest of volleys into the bottom right corner of the goal. It was a goal which required great technique and coolness and came in the 19^th minute.

Scotland keeper Alan McGregor was injured in this passage of play and replaced soon after by Matt Gilks. Another Scottish change saw Shaun Maloney take over from James Morrison. The latter move lifted the Scots and full back Daniel Fox got away down the left and his well-struck cross was headed home by Jordan Rhodes on his full international debut.

As expected the second half saw a spate of changes to both teams and with Mitch Langerak replacing Schwarzer and Scott McDonald coming on for Brett Holman who was injured just before half-time. Jason Davidson took David Carney’s place in defence but the youngster was caught facing his own goal when Daniel Fox put over another excellent cross and Davidson’s attempt to clear flew past his own keeper to put Scotland ahead in the 63 minute. The goal came after a spell of Scottish pressure and the result was deserved even if the manner was cruel. Another Scottish substitute, Leeds United striker Ross McCormack, then twisted past Neill and Ognenovski before firing wide of Langerak for Scotland’s third goal. That came after 74 minutes. Ryan McGowan of Hearts came on to replace Ognenovski but the local Hibs support gave him a rough reception, as they did for Ian Black of Rangers who replaced Scotland skipper Gary Caldwell.

Australia looked increasingly ragged as the game wore on. Scott McDonald went for glory when he had support inside. Archie Thompson got a few minutes at the end and won a free kick after he outstripped the defence. He also latched on to loose ball in the area and forced it past the keeper, but there was no one to finish the move. But it was a rare flourish in a second half dominated by the home team which deserved its victory.

Roy Hay

(This article was publsihed on the Goal Weekly website at www.goalweklly.com.au on Thursday 26 April 2012. The photograph of Hakan Anaz appears by courtesy of Anita Milas, FFV photographer of the year and winner of the Les Shorrock award in 2010 and 2011).

Australia will be represented at the Olympic Games football tournament even though neither the men’s or women’s teams has qualified.

Hakan Anaz from Melbourne along with Ben Williams and Matthew Cream will officiate in the United Kingdom when games are played all over the country in July and early August.

It is another highlight in the career of one of our best and most enthusiastic referees whose parents came from Turkey in 1968.

Hakan was born in 1969 and played the game from an early age.

When he got into his early twenties he decided he was not going to make it as top-class player, but was very keen to continue to be involved in football.

He was dissuaded from coaching by a friend who said you will finish up being a bus driver, so chose to try refereeing and found he enjoyed it.

He graduated through the lower divisions to the National Youth League, where I first encountered him, and the Victorian Premier League.

It was obvious he had the talent for refereeing.

He is firm and decisive in his decision-making, is sensitive to the flow of a game and is able to relate to players and what they are experiencing.

He benefited from the decision of the Australian Referees’ Association to fast-track talented young officials and joined the A-League panel when the competition started.

His primary role there is as Assistant Referee, formerly linesman, where his judgment is continually tested by critical decisions on offside and whether a ball has crossed the goal-line.

He received his FIFA badge and has refereed 18 international matches and 20 games in the Asian Champions League, which he describes as the highlight of his career so far.

As part of that elite panel he has just returned from Myanmar (Burma) where he was struck by the friendliness of the people he met despite the widespread poverty in the country.

“It certainly puts things in perspective,” he said, and “You realise how very lucky you are that your parents made the decision to come to Australia and allow you to have these opportunities.”

Married with two children, he appreciates how they have supported him as he has pursued his refereeing career.

His employer is also supportive allowing him the flexibility to continue his other profession, though this means using his long service leave this year to appear at the Olympic Games.

You get the sense that this is not a sacrifice on Hakan’s part!

He and his colleagues have one great advantage going into this tournament.

Since the Australian teams are not taking part they will be judged solely on performance and will not be ruled out of the final stages simply because their country is taking part.

In 1994 I watched Eugene Brazzale and Gordon Dunster take charge of the opening game in the World Cup in the United States and they got several more games on the basis of their performance.

It would be wonderful if Hakan and his colleagues could emulate their predecessors or even go all the way to the final at Wembley Stadium in London on 11 August.

Roy Hay

It was an excellent idea of SBS and the Johnny Warren Foundation to reopen the debate about the best players, coaches and teams to play the game in Australia over the years.  But you might have thought that they would have consulted the wide range of people who have a serious knowledge of the long history of football in Australia to assist in their deliberations. Their selection panel consists of significant contributors to the game and they are all informed, dispassionate and thoughtful judges. The problem is that none of them have any depth of knowledge about the game outside their own lifespans which cover only a tiny part of the history of the game. So claims that they can produce a list of the greatest exponents from which selection must be made is inevitably flawed.

Given that people were playing a game like football in Australia in the 1850s, the first continuous associations were set up in the 1880s, the first international matches were played in the 1920s and Australia was playing international matches against some of the best teams in the world from the 1940s, it makes little sense to make the claim that the list proposed has any real validity. If it had been presented as ‘some of the best exponents since the 1950s’, it would not have resonated so loudly, but it would have been much more defensible.

There is an overwhelming bias towards New South Wales and Victoria in the selection and the women’s list in particular is seriously flawed. Now it is true if you are going to have a public poll on the issue you are likely to expect that only people who are well known today are going to poll well, that is unless the devotees of one or other candidate decide to vote early and vote often. When they tried a poll to determine the most famous Scotsman for example, Sean Connery came first, Billy Connolly second and Mel Gibson third! His only connection with Scotland was playing William Wallace in Braveheart.

Andre Kruger, that German follower of Peter Wilson and the Socceroos conducted such a poll many years ago and it was interesting that Frank Loughran came second to Johnny Warren for one of the midfield positions by less than 0.1 per cent of the votes cast. Yet Loughran who represented Australia at the Olympic Games in 1956 and was invited to return to England by Stanley Matthews in 1958, who said he would walk into the Blackpool team, does not appear on the list.

Frankie Loughran and Stanley Matthews

Only Reg Date and Joe Marston represents that generation and I have no qualms at all about the latter’s nomination or his appearance on the 60 cent stamp. Marston was not the first post-war Australian player to make a name for himself in England. Frank Mitchell played for Chelsea and cricket for Warwickshire, was awarded a B cap by England and played in the match to raise funds for those affected by the Burnden Park tragedy and was selected to tour Australia with the England squad in 1951. He appeared on the pre-tour publicity, and I suspect the only reason he did not come was that he could make more money by playing cricket in England in summer, in the days of the fixed maximum wage for footballers. Ken Grieves, a contemporary and friend of Marston, made a fine career in England at football and cricket.

Rating the players from the early 20^th century onwards is extraordinarily difficult of course. James Jackson was born in the UK but grew up in Australia, then returned to play with Woolwich Arsenal and Glasgow Rangers. That was in the days when Scotland and England did dominate the world game.

James Jackson

From the interwar period you have stars like Judy Masters, Jack Evans, Alf Quill, keepers including George Cartwright and Jimmy McNabb. The early postwar years saw Gordon Nunn, Tom Jack, Bob Lawrie and Cliff Sander perform at the highest Australian level at the time. Now it is true that by world standards Australia was not highly rated but some of these players could have held their own and did so.

Among the women, Theresa Deas (née Jones), Jane Oakley, Anissa Tann (if you can ignore the end of her career), Pat O’Connor and Sue Monteath merit inclusion. There are several others for whom a strong case can be made too.

Theresa (Jones) Deas flies through the air. Photo: Stuart Penberthy.

Comparing eras and players is probably impossible in any case. Especially for the early days when match descriptions and the performance of players were intermittent and there were fewer games on which sustained ability could be judged. Unlike the United Kingdom, Australia did not support a flourishing football press and treatment in the main newspapers was variable. Asking those who have little grasp of history to make decisions on players from these times is superficially democratic but really very unreliable. Even for much more recent times the results are likely to have little validity. I was asked the other day about Pele and Messi, though others would have added Maradona. As a conversation starter in a game of opinion that is fine. But if we really seek to find the best it is necessary to delve a little more into the history of the game than has been done in the present exercise.

Socceroos in Germany in 1974

Roy Hay

(This story appeared as a Blast from the Past column in Goal Weekly on 2 March 2012, p. 19. Click on the photographs below to enlarge them. The headline picture is of Jim Fraser (left) and Lou Kastner, two superb keepers.  It is by Roy Hay, the next two in the column are from the Laurie Schwab collection at Deakin University Library).

Australia has had some wonderful goalkeepers over the years from George Cartwright and Jimmy McNabb who began the tradition in the 1920s and 1930s to Mark Schwarzer who holds the Socceroo position today. It is arguable that over his long career that Jim Fraser has had as much influence on the game as any of them. He helped Australia qualify for the World Cup for the first time in 1974, played at the top level for Budapest St George in its glory days in the 1970s and in recent years has coached many of the top keepers in the land at his International Goalkeepers’ Academy in Sydney. He has also been the specialist goalkeeping coach at Sydney FC in the A-League. His enthusiasm and professionalism have communicated themselves to a legion of young and not so young keepers including Clint Bolton at Melbourne Heart and Liam Reddy at Sydney FC.

Born in 1948 in Sydney, his dad was an ice hockey goaltender, but young Jim made his game football. He started at Polonia and his talent was recognised early as he was selected as a member of the Australian World Cup squad for the qualifiers in 1969, behind the incumbent Ron Corry. Fraser went to St George in 1970 where he broke his wrist in 1971 and spent some time at Canterbury on loan after he recovered. St George tried a couple of other keepers but when Jack Reilly decided to return to Melbourne, Jimmy Fraser regained his spot at St George. When World Cup qualification got under way in 1973, Ron Corry was still the number one keeper with Reilly pressing him close. Jim Fraser’s performances for St George could not be ignored and he got his first full cap at Olympic Park in Melbourne against Bulgaria on 18 February 1973. Though the Socceroos lost two-nil against what was their World Cup team, Fraser showed that he could handle the job.

Jim Fraser makes a finger-tip save against Iraq in 1973.

After Australia was held to a surprise three-all draw by New Zealand, Fraser was given the number one spot against Iraq on 18 March. He kept a clean sheet as the Socceroos held out Iraq in scoreless draw. A six-nil thrashing of Indonesia saw Australian through the first stage, a point and goal difference ahead of Iraq. The next opponent was Iran and Fraser once again denied the opposition as Australia ran away with a three-nil win. The second leg in Tehran was a different story as Iran scored twice through Parviz Ghelichkhani in just over half an hour. It was backs to the wall from then on, with Fraser putting up the shutters once again.

Jim Fraser and another flying save against Iran in 1973.

Then came home and away matches against South Korea. Both were drawn, the first scoreless, the second a fightback from a two-nil deficit. While Branko Buljevic and Ray Baartz got the credit for the goals, Fraser’s patience, skill and positioning ensured no further goals against and so the final place at the World cup had to be decided by a third match in Hong Kong. Everyone knows about Jimmy Mackay’s 70^th minute thunderbolt, but fewer appreciate the unflappable keeper’s performance. Les Murray thought it was the best goalkeeping performance he had ever seen. So Australia was all set for the trip of a lifetime to West Germany.

Unfortunately Jimmy Fraser found he could not abandon his security dog business and had to pull out of the squad, handing his place back to Jack Reilly. Virtually all of the Australians were part-timers in 1974 and Manfred Schaefer who ran a milk delivery service had missed one tour and threatened to leave another after his financial arrangements were not honoured by the Australian Soccer Federation.

Not the tallest of keepers, Jimmy Fraser punches clear in a match in Sydney. Source: Sid Grant, Jack Pollard’s Soccer Records, p. 268.

Jimmy Fraser amassed 10 caps for Australia, and represented New South Wales against several visiting teams and in interstate matches. When he hung up his boots in 1978 he began a long-running coaching career at a host of clubs and with the national and state teams and eventually set up the International Goalkeepers’ Academy in 2000 with the aid of a number of investors and supporters including that well known soccer nut, would-be keeper and film superstar Anthony La Paglia. Pierre Littbarski who coached Sydney FC to the A-League premiership in 2006 is a great fan. The last words on Jimmy Fraser should rest with him.

‘The work you did with the goalkeepers was outstanding. Clint Bolton became a real consistent player and real personality. With your help he developed his physical skills a lot, but more important for me was, that he went from a “one man show” to a real leader. This was especially in the final series a big factor and gave us the championship, because Clint Bolton played very good.

Our second keeper Justin Pasfield improved his basic skills a lot in one season. Also your work with the young keepers, who joined us regularly in our sessions with Sydney FC, was very effective. That proves, that you can coach players of all ages.

The most impressive point for me was, that you were capable to do some coaching beside your goalkeeper training. The daily training, especially with the defenders (passing, heading, kicking, throw in, tactical training for the 4-back line, etc.) was fantastic. The players loved it and for me it was a big help. Goalkeeper coaches should not focus only on the keepers.’

Says it all, really.

Roy Hay and David Hearder

(This story first appeared in Goal Weekly, 24 February 2012, pp. 1–3, and we are grateful to Costa Koutropoulos for giving it his support and exposure. It also appears on the Goal Weekly <

http://www.goalweekly.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=2780:from-emus-to-socceroos-the-real-origins-of-national-team’s-name-at-last&Itemid=126>

and FFA websites <

http://www.footballaustralia.com.au/news-display/origins-of-the-socceroos/45734>

.)

On Wednesday the Socceroos take on Saudi Arabia in the final group match of the first Asian round of qualification for the FIFA World Cup in Brazil in 2014. Where did the name Socceroos come from and when? Two simple questions, you might think, but if you Google the term you will get umpteen versions of the same story, nearly all of which go back to Michael Cockerill’s Australian Soccer’s Long Road to the Top, published in 1998. ‘It was Sydney journalist Tony Horsted (sic) who coined the term “Socceroos” for the national team thirty years before. In 1967 the team, under coach Joe Vlasits, took the nickname away with it on a tour to Vietnam—a tour arranged at the height of the Vietnam war.’ [1]

There are three other published claims about the origins that sometimes crop up in discussion. In his autobiography Sheilas, Wogs and Poofters Johnny Warren says it was in 1971 prior to another tour to Vietnam in 1972 that Tony Horstead first used the term.[2] Sid Grant, whose collection of information was published in 1974, says the word was adopted in 1972–73: ‘The name and accompanying badge were the work of a leading Sydney sporting journalist and his colleague, a news photographer.’[3] Laurie Schwab asserts that the national team was dubbed the Socceroos during the successful 1973–74 World Cup mission.[4] By 1974 the word Socceroos is being used without explanation in Australian Women’s Weekly, so it was obviously in common usage by then.[5]

Tony Horstead did not accompany the team to Vietnam in November 1967. He wrote a soccer column in the Sydney Daily Mirror, under the byline of ‘Hotspur’. After the team came home on 1 December he asked his readers to send in suggestions for a name for the national team and offered a prize of a free pass to all matches the following season. A week later he reported that ‘Emus’ was the overwhelming favourite by almost four to one, next came Wattles, then Jackaroos, Wombats, Bandicoots, Boomerangs, Birubieds, Baddawalers, Walleroos, Merinos, Koalas, Woomeras, Sharks, but no Socceroos.[6]

In April 1970 the Australian team went back to Vietnam and played two matches and later in the year the Australian Soccer Federation (ASF) sent Rale Rasic and his team on a world tour with the long-term goal being qualification for the World Cup in West Germany in 1974. Hotspur’s columns just refer to the Australian soccer team or the national team and there is no mention of Socceroos or Emus.

Two years later the ASF launched its formal World Cup qualification bid on 3 May 1972. Backed by $100,000 in sponsorship from Pepsi Cola (Australia), Travelodge Australia, Philips Industries and News Limited, Sir Arthur George, President of the ASF, unveiled the Australian national team icon for the campaign.[7] The logo consisted of a kangaroo wearing football boots surrounded by the legend ‘World Cup 1974 Socceroo’.

Tony Horstead had probably never forgotten his attempt to get a punchy nickname for the national team and the next morning he had turned the logo into that name. A key sentence in his column reads: ‘The Socceroos will be the best prepared sporting team ever to represent Australia in a major event’.[8] The logo got its next public outing when Dundee from Scotland played an Australia XI in Adelaide on 17 May 1972. Matches against club sides were not regarded as full internationals and Horstead was keen to tie the name of the Socceroos to the national team. So later that year, when Australia returned to Vietnam in October 1972, he could focus on that connection.

On 29 September 1972 Horstead casually mentioned that he was accompanying the team as ‘Australia’s Socceroos set forth next Thursday on their Asian tour’.[9] It is clear from the context that this is a term that would already be familiar to his readers. Horstead used the term regularly thereafter.[10] Lou Gautier of Soccer World also accompanied the Australian team and while they were in Vietnam he wrote about the children who crowded around the players as they trained at Cong Hoa: ‘They were rewarded for their interest with Socceroo badges. The kangaroo emblem is a sensation and I think that Australia’s national team has now won its spurs to be known world-wide as the Socceroos, like the “Wallabies” in Rugby Union and the “Kangaroos” in League.’[11]

So in 1972 the Socceroos team name was coined by Horstead who continued to use it in the Daily Mirror and other News Limited papers. The dedicated soccer press began to use the name early in 1973, but it was towards the end of that year before the other metropolitan dailies adopted the usage and not without protest. The Sydney Morning Herald argued on its front page on 15 November 1973:

‘Now that the Australian Soccer team is basking in honour and glory after its World Cup victory over South Korea it can surely do without the name “Socceroos”which is increasingly being applied to it. Of course, the names ‘Wallabies’ and ‘Kangaroos’ have already been taken by national teams of other codes, but if the soccer team is to have a collective nickname what’s wrong with being known as the “Emus”. After all, that strong speedy—although not too bright—bird is so authentically Australian that it has a proud place on the Coat of Arms’.[12]

The mixture of poor humour and condescension was typical of the non-soccer press and in this case the Fairfax paper may have had its nose put out of joint by the Murdoch-owned Mirror. The tide of popular support for the Socceroos on and off the field following successful qualification for the World Cup assured that the name would stick. At the final tournament in West Germany in 1974 the name was ubiquitous.

When Football Federation Australia replaced Soccer Australia in 2005, the new CEO John O’Neill thought that the Socceroos name would disappear in time.[13] That did not happen. In 2012 it is so firmly engrained in people’s consciousness that it is just about the only survivor from old soccer into the brave new world of football under the FFA.

David Hearder has been researching this topic for several years and we are indebted to Louise Moran, who spent several hours ploughing through microfilm and hard copy newspapers on our behalf.

References

[1] Michael Cockerill, Australian Soccer’s Long Road to the Top, Lothian Books, Port Melbourne, 1998, p. 12.

[2] Johnny Warren with Andy Harper and Josh Whittington, Sheilas, Wogs and Poofters: An incomplete biography of Johnny Warren and Soccer in Australia, Random House, Sydney, 2002, p. 133.

[3] Sid Grant, Jack Pollard’s Soccer Records, Jack Pollard, North Sydney, 1974, p. 258.

[4] Laurie Schwab, The Socceroos and their Opponents, Newspress, Melbourne, n.d., [1979] p. 4.

[5] ‘Wonder how the Socceroos would take to girls getting in on their act?’, Australian Women’s Weekly, Wednesday 9 July 1975, p. 40; ‘They even sold the Australian Socceroos’ colors with a kangaroo-style tail sewed on. That one kept the fans on the hop.’ Australian Women’s Weekly, Wednesday 28 August 1974, p. 113.

[6] Tony Horstead, ‘Emus it is—they can run and kick,’ On the ball with Hotspur, Daily Mirror, 8 December 1967, p. 90; see also Tony Horstead, ‘Thanks to Tour Team’, On the ball with Hotspur, Daily Mirror, 1 December 1967, p. 73.

[7] Soccer World, 12 May 1972, p. 7; Daily Telegraph, 4 May 1972, p. 53; Sydney Morning Herald, 4 May 1972, pp. 15 & 16; Sun (Sydney), 4 May 1972, p. 69; Australian, 4 May 1972, p. 24; Daily Mirror, 4 May 1972, p. 65; Australian Soccer Federation, 11^th Annual Report for the period ending 31 August 1972, ASF, 1972, p. 4.

[8] Tony Horstead, ‘We’re after Soccer’s World Cup – Mirror Backing $100,000 Effort’, Daily Mirror, Thursday 4 May 1972, p. 65.

[9] Tony Horstead, ‘Short shrift for slackers on Asian tour’, On the ball with Hotspur, Daily Mirror, 29 September 1972, p. 79.

[10] For example, Tony Horstead, ‘Soccer stars face big cut,’ Daily Mirror, 3 October 1972, p. 58; ‘Socceroos eager for bright opener,’ Daily Mirror, 7 October 1972, p. 9. There are many subsequent examples that month.

[11] Lou Gautier, Soccer World, 27 October 1972, p. 3.

[12] Sydney Morning Herald, 15 November 1973, p. 1.

[13] Michael Cockerill, ‘O’Neill wants to lose Roos in the name of progress’, Sydney Morning Herald, Friday 14 January 2005, p. 36.

Unanswered questions

Finding out where the name Socceroos comes from has been an interesting quest for David Hearder over several years. As always in history, puzzles remain and new questions arise. Who was the cameraman who worked with Tony Horstead? Who actually designed the logo for the ASF? Did anyone else use the name in 1972 apart from Horstead and Gautier? Goal Weekly would be delighted to hear from readers and others who can add to or correct the story we have told here.

Sources which are now out of date

History never stands still and our research will not be the last word on the subject. We welcome corrections and additional information. Meantime, the following sources might be updated in the light of our research.

Wikipedia

Origin of “Socceroos”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia_national_association_football_team#Origin_of_.22’Socceroos.22

The team’s nickname was coined by Sydney journalist, Tony Horstead, in 1967 in his coverage of a “goodwill” tour by the national team to South Vietnam.[44]

[44] Michael Cockerill, Australian Soccer’s Long Road to the Top, Lothian Books, Port Melbourne, Victoria, 1998, p. 12. ISBN 978-0850918928.

The Roar

Socceroos

http://www.theroar.com.au/football/socceroos/

The Socceroos’ history stems from the first Australian national football team which was convened in 1922. The nickname ‘Socceroos’ was coined by journalist Tony Horstead in 1967. But it wasn’t until reaching the 1974 World Cup finals that the Socceroos came to prominence. After switching to the Asian Football Confederation in 2005, the Socceroos confirmed their second World Cup finals appearance the same year.

One Fantastic Goal

Australia went on to play and win the Vietnam National Day tournament in Saigon in 1967… It was at that tournament that the nickname ‘Socceroos’ was coined by the News Limited journalist Tony Horstead. Although there was never any official baptism under that name for the national team, the term Socceroos was taken on by players and fans, became a standard piece of media shorthand and was ultimately adopted by the soccer hierarchy.

Trevor Thompson, One Fantastic Goal: A complete history of football in Australia, ABC Books, Sydney, 2006, p. 99.

Our Socceroos

…the next major tour organised by the ASF in 1967 – a trip to Asia during the heat of the Vietnam War. …It was on that tour that a journalist named Tony Hoystead [sic] first referred to the Australian national team as ‘The Socceroos’

[Ray Baartz:] “… (journalist) Tony Hoystead [sic] travelled with the team…It was Tony who coined the name “Socceroo” and began to write his articles referring to us by that name”

Neil Montagnana Wallace, Our Socceroos, Random House Australia, Milsons Point, NSW, 2004, pp. 2 & 56.

History of the Socceroos

Talking of FIFA World Cups, the Socceroos—as Daily Mirror football reporter Tony Horstead had dubbed them back in 1967—made their inaugural appearance at the 1974 FIFA World Cup in Germany.

Sue Behrent, History of the Socceroos, Penguin Books, Camberwell, Victoria, 2011, p. 4. This book uses the name Socceroos for its brief match reports from 1967 onwards.

FFA website

Australia’s campaign for the 1970 World Cup saw the Qantas Socceroos knock out Japan, South Korea and Rhodesia.

Australia in the FIFA World Cup: Official Socceroos History

FFA website, http://www.footballaustralia.com.au/socceroos/history

Accessed 18 February 2012.

This short history does not mention the origins of the name specifically, but it introduces a double anachronism by referring to the 1970 Australian team as Qantas Socceroos. The team did fly with Qantas, however, but naming rights were a thing of the future.