Roy Hay

Norm Hobson was one of Australia’s best goalkeepers in the 1950s and 1960s. He arrived from England where he had played with Leeds United in 1955 and joined Moreland, quickly becoming the first choice keeper. He helped the club win the Dockerty Cup in 1957, playing alongside Ted Smith, Frankie Loughran and Don Hodgson. In 1960 he moved to George Cross where he was the keeper when the club won the Australia Cup in 1964, beating APIA in the final. George Cross was runner-up in the league in four seasons while he was in goal for the club. He had spells with Wilhelmina and Croatia and time in Sydney with APIA while he was working in New South Wales.

Nigel Shepherd behind the post, Norm Hobson and Ricardo da Silva (9) of Roma and Vic Janczyk, right, Victoria v AS Roma at Olympic Park on 29 May 1966. Photo: Uwe Kuessner. Source: Laurie Schwab collection, Deakin University Library.

He played eleven games for Victoria including starring performances against Everton in 1964 and Chelsea in 1965. His performance against Chelsea won him selection for the Australian squad, but John Roberts was preferred to him in the two matches in Sydney and Melbourne. In 1966 he played in front of a crowd of over 35,000 at Olympic Park (and many more perched on vantage points outside the ground) against AS Roma from Italy.

He had offers to return to England to play but preferred to continue in Australia, where he found a home and a great reception at every club with which he played. Of his time at George Cross he said, ‘I look forward to my future with George Cross and I have never been happier, I would also like to say that the people at the club, whether they be Maltese, English, Scottish, or whatever, are the greatest bunch of fellows I could possibly ever wish to be associated with. I am happy to wear the goalkeeper’s jersey for as long as the club thinks I am good enough’.

Norm Hobson diving to save for George Cross against Slavia Port Melbourne at SS Anderson Reserve or Murphy Reserve as it was known in the 1960s. This information from Victor Brincat. Source: Laurie Schwab collection, Deakin University Library.

My thanks to Ted Smith, John Punshon and Victor Brincat for their assistance.

By Roy Hay

(Note: Interim revised version. A conference paper based on this article was given to the conference of the International Society for the History of Physical Education and Sport at the University of Stirling in Scotland on 17 July 2009 and an earlier, shorter version appeared as Roy Hay, ‘The real costs of sport,’ Dissent, 28, Summer 2008/2009, December 2008, pp. 58-60. I am now in the process of updating it to take account of developments in the last few years.)

‘I think the State Government has got a responsibility to treat all sports fairly and equally.’[1]

‘The astonishing truth is that ministers are more scared of upsetting the IOC than the IMF. When politics loses touch with reason, it runs for comfort to those who peddle glory.’[2]

Have you ever wondered how much our national and international obsession with sport costs us? As a died-in-the-wool sports nut, I sometimes wonder myself. There are issues which worry me and among the most important is the extent of existing public subsidies to sporting bodies and the lack of transparency in their provision. Then there are subsidiary questions about the distribution of funds among sports, about which there are massive public misconceptions, and the failure to meet head-on the claims by the sporting bodies that their contribution to the national economy and the health and well-being of society justifies the funding or subsidies or tax breaks they receive. Most of the examples in the following paper are drawn from Australian experience, but they can be replicated in many countries around the world.

It is time for a little bit of clear thinking and research on all these topics. Interestingly, the Federal Minister for Sport, Kate Ellis, announced a review of funding for Australian sporting organisations by the new board of the Australian Sports Commission in 2008.[3] David Crawford, a director of BHP and chairman of Fosters, who is credited with two major reports, which helped transform Australian Rules and football (soccer) into the corporate sports they are today, led the inquiry. It recommended much more public funding for grass roots sport and a cut back on the proportion that went to elite, especially Olympic sports. Before the report was even published John Coates led a high-profile counter-attack which quite spooked the Labor party and resulted in the report being overturned.

Elite athletes or community sport?

The pinnacle of Olympic sport. Brazil lines up for the Olympic Games football final against Mexico in London in 2012. One young athlete in a wheelchair forms part of their accompanying group.

Since Malcolm Fraser committed funding for the Australian Institute of Sport and for the promotion of elite sport, in part to improve the disastrous medal tally at the Montreal Olympics, the public contribution has grown significantly. It is an interesting back-of-the-envelope calculation to work out how much each medal won in Sydney or Athens cost the nation. Were the Beijing ones more or less expensive?[4] James Connor of the Australian Defence Force Academy reckons that the most often cited calculations, which are based on the Federal support for the Australian Sports Commission, are a serious underestimate. When funding by state governments and sporting infrastructure costs are taken into account, the figure could exceed $100 million per gold medal.[5]

Peter Bartels, Chair of the Australian Sports Commission, noted that the ASC received $219.9 million from the Australian Government or 0.075 per cent of total government expenditure. Of that amount, $141.5 million is allocated to the ASC’s high performance sports outcome, about half of which goes to sports on the summer Olympics and Paralympics programs and their athletes.[6] Before the Games were over John Coates, the Australian chef de mission, was ramping up the campaign for increased funding for elite athletes, citing the fact that the UK had gone from a nation of also-rans to beating Australia in the medal tally this time. He played on fears that it could be much worse in London in 2012 to try to extract even more revenue from the government in these straitened economic times. The result is the Australian Olympic Committee and Paralympic Committee High Performance Plan (HPP) which calls for an urgent increase in funding for Australia’s Olympic and Paralympic athletes.[7] The bid is for $237.1 million in calendar year 2010, which involves an increase in federal funding on the 2009–10 estimates of $108.8 million.[8] There is no time to wait for the Crawford report, the funding must be available from 1 July 2009, according to John Coates and his Paralympic counterpart Greg Hartung.

The aims of the Federal Government’s document Australian Sport: Emerging Challenges, New Directions published in 2008 are laudable. ‘The ASC will develop and implement targeted initiatives in partnership with national sporting organisations, national sporting organisations for people with a disability and other key stakeholders to increase the involvement in sports by all Australians. A particular focus in 2008–09 will be on Indigenous people, women, youth and people with disabilities, and to improve the capability and sustainability of grassroots clubs and associations.’[9]

The total resourcing for the ASC in the 2008–09 Budget rose to $264.475 million. Of that approximately $84 million went to the development of a national sporting system underpinning the ‘Australian Government’s commitment to foster, support and encourage sport development from grassroots community sport through to high performance sport’ and $157 million to Elite Athlete Development—twice as much for the stars as for community sport and participation. [10]

There is a common belief that the existence of high performing role models has an effect on grass roots participation in sport. Yet as recently as 2003 an Australian Sports Commission report found that success in elite sports often had little impact on general participation in sport in Australia. In international research across 37 countries no relationship was found between children’s fitness and Olympic performance.[11] In his forthcoming book on Sports and National Identity, Tony Ward points out that the overall Australian participation rate in organised sport at 31 per cent in 2002 was very similar to that of the United States at 30 per cent, and behind New Zealand at 36 per cent.[12]

At least the funding of the ASC is accessible and reasonably transparent, but it would be a mistake to think that its support is an accurate measure of the public contribution to the finance of Australian sport.[13]

Meanwhile in Britain they are having second thoughts about the 2012 Olympic commitment and scaling back some of the infrastructure and other plans for the games. Even so the Olympic Games will swallow up the entire yield of the new 50 per cent tax rate between now and 2012.[14] In South Africa the distributional consequences of the hosting of the FIFA World Cup in 2010 are being closely scrutinised.[15]

The launch of a plan for a football pitch for the first junior soccer team in Bannockburn, Victoria, brings out the politicians for a photo opportunity.

Hidden costs

It is more than a decade since Kerrie J Levy in Legal Issues for Non-profit Associations asked whether the privileged tax status of the Australian Football League should be reconsidered.[16] At that time, and as far as is known to this day, the AFL has an exemption from income tax on its ‘profits’ at a time when it has been transformed into a non-profit-making sporting body into a massive corporate enterprise. The public subsidy in the form of tax foregone is not widely known and, while it can be justified, there has been relatively little debate on the subject.

In the community more generally there are signs of an emerging concern about the distribution of public monies to sports. In Scotland some sports receive more than 50 per cent of their turnover from public funds, while others, receive less than 20 per cent. ‘Sportscotland’s funding of rugby is more than twice that of cricket in cash terms, and a third greater in percentage terms. Scottish cricket receives nothing from the England and Wales Cricket Board’.[17] In Australia there are similar disparities. In Ballarat the substantial share of resources going to male football and cricket clubs has been called in question. In Geelong, state and local authorities have contributed very significantly to the development of Skilled Stadium, citing the contribution to the local economy that is said to flow from the playing of nine AFL matches there each year. On the Gold Coast, the refurbishment of the Carrara stadium for a new Australian Rules club seems to have attracted $60 million from the Queensland government, $20 million from the local council and $36 million of federal funding.[18] The AFL is said to be contributing only $10 million.[19] The Victorian Minister for Sport, James Merlino said recently, ‘No code gets better support in either the grassroots or the elite from the Government than AFL football.’ He claims his government has ploughed $176 million into the game.[20]

Sporting bodies often obtain significant rate relief from their local authorities. From April 2004 registered community amateur sports clubs can receive 80% mandatory rate relief from business rates in Wolverhampton.[21] It is less easy to justify rate relief for large commercial undertakings whose business just happens to be running a sporting competition and its venues.[22] At the local level the AFL was surprised in 2004 to get a land tax demand from the Victorian government after it ceased to use Waverley Park as a football ground and converted the majority of the site into a potential income earning asset which was later sold to a private developer.[23] Up to that point the AFL also had a huge rate concession from its local authority. The same is true of the Geelong Football Club whose rate payment on Kardinia Park falls well short of the amount that would be charged for a non-sporting body occupying such a prime site in the heart of the city.

The staging of the Australian Formula One Grand Prix illustrates the difficulty in establishing the extent of public support, for as soon as you try to obtain relevant data you run into the blank wall of ‘commercial in confidence’ claims by the sporting body, Melbourne Major Events and the State authorities.[24] One suspects that the Grand Prix organisation, like the generals in the First World War, keeps three sets of statistics, one to fool the public, one to fool the politicians and one to fool themselves. In 2009 in the midst of economic recession and following massive bushfires in Victoria which claimed 173 lives, the Age said the Victorian taxpayer would be contributing a fee of $47 million for the privilege of holding the Grand Prix.[25]

The scale and extent of public sponsorship of sport through Quit, the Transport Accident Commission, Vic Health and similar government sponsored bodies has not been thoroughly measured, nor has the effectiveness of these programs been compared with other more direct measures to achieve socially beneficial outcomes. Australian Football League clubs in Victoria have been using revenue from poker machine clubs for football-related purposes, but claiming that as a community benefit with an associated tax offset.[26] Frank Lowy, Australia’s richest person and the president of the Football Federation of Australia obtained around $15 million from the Federal Government, basically without strings, in order to pay off the debts incurred by the Australian Soccer Federation and its immediate successors, and the FFA has now gained Federal support of $45.6 million for a bid to host the FIFA World Cup in Australia in 2018 or 2022. In support the FFA cite an independent report from PriceWaterhouseCoopers which estimates the economic impact of Australia hosting the 2018 FIFA World Cup and the 2017 FIFA Confederations Cup is a $5.3 billion increase in GDP and a cumulative employment effect of 74,000 jobs. [27] But it is not just an economic benefit which is claimed. The other gains are proposed to include: ‘adding to Australia’s international prestige and reputation; the capacity to promote Australia’s regions and cities; the potential to motivate children to participate in sport leading to long term improved health outcomes; promoting a healthy lifestyle; providing an impetus for initiating improved environmental practices, and; providing an impetus for the creation of cultural and social events.’ Australians like to gamble and gamble on sports, but this exercise is a national gamble on a mammoth scale.

The sports bodies tell you they are only fighting their corner and that they are contributing to the health of the nation, setting an example, and doing good work in the community and that they generally deserve more and more largesse. The costs of sports injuries and long term health problems are not always included in balance sheets of the contribution of sports.[28] Research by the Australian Football League Players Association shows that one-third of past players have conditions requiring attention and 18 per cent have been referred to psychologists.[29] The trick for sports organisations is to get public assistance by stealth (tax relief) or for some ‘worthy national object’, like bidding to host the World Cup or ‘community benefit’. I have no great objections to them getting public support, but it should be transparent and measured against other real needs in our society, and they should be accountable for it. And the sports bodies should never be allowed to shelter behind ‘commercial in confidence’ in respect of public money.

Accountability is one thing Prime Minister Rudd seems keen to achieve for his own ministers, so why not do the same for sport, and each year we could have a chance to question its stewardship of the grants, subsidies, sponsorship and tax forgone. It might make the sporting bodies a little more appreciative of the contribution that we, the public, already make. And it would waken the rest of us up to the sheer scale of public subventions, which would also be no bad thing.

Where did it all begin?

According to German sports historian Arnd Krüger, the inspiration for the Australian Institute of Sport model goes back to the British preparation for the summer Olympic Games of 1916, which never took place, thanks to the First World War. That was probably the genesis of modern public support for athletic performance despite the deeply held cult of the amateur and the belief that sport and politics should not mix. The host city for 1916 was to be Berlin. ‘Germany had taken part in each Olympics since 1896, and when Berlin was awarded the 1916 games, the national government undertook not only the financial guarantees to underwrite the cost of the event, as was done in other countries, but went even further and paid for the selection and preparation of the athletes, a path the United States would not take until 1978.’ [30]

The notion of state support for sport for propaganda purposes was picked up by Mussolini, particularly with the Italian football team at the World Cup in 1934, and then by Goebbels and Hitler for the games which were held in Berlin in 1936. Later it was further developed by the Soviet Union and by eastern European countries under Soviet hegemony during the Cold War. Dennis Frost, an American sports historian, noted that Japan did the same thing in 1964, introducing ‘loads of policies aimed at “athlete strengthening”, and all kinds of new sports science [brought in] to train athletes more efficiently. Korea focused its elite sports program explicitly on the Olympics [in Seoul in 1988]’.[31] Australian sport took some though not all of these ideas over for the Australian Institute of Sport and the Australian Sports Commission even planned to appoint an East German coach who had been associated with the use of performance-enhancing substances until a public outcry prevented that happening. Now the Australian model and Australian coaches and sports scientists are exported to Europe and these personnel are involved with publicly and privately funded sports institutes and centres of excellence across the continent.

Economic benefits and costs

Sports marketers claim economic and commercial benefits from public and private funding of sports events. But the evidence on this is often weak or critically dependent on some heroic assumptions. Euro ‘96 has been claimed to be the most successful European football championship ever staged. Travel and tourist expenditure added 0.1% to UK GDP in the second quarter of 1996, about a quarter of UK total growth in that period. But some sectors of the economy went backwards and the impact on total UK consumer expenditure was modest.[32] In 1998 France experienced a decline in overall tourism during the FIFA World Cup as ‘normal’ visitors stayed away during the tournament, fearing the disruption caused by the football and the possibility of football-related hooliganism and violence. Stefan Bielmeier in The Globalist concluded that the 1998 World Cup produced a net drag on French tourist revenues which normally make up about 7 per cent of GDP.[33]

Though international visitors to Australia rose by 7 per cent in the year of the 2000 Olympics, this was below the rate of growth of 1993 to 1996, and in the following three years inward tourism fell.[34] The evidence on private gains is also problematical. Stadium Australia Trust lost more than $60 million before it was bought by its largest creditor, the ANZ bank which was owed $130 million. ‘Despite the success of the Sydney Olympics, the stadium failed to attract enough attendance to help pay down its mountain of debt.’[35] Adidas stated that its sponsorship of the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany was its most successful ever after chalking up record football sales on the back of its association with the tournament. But a Standard and Poor’s survey of share price movements queried the value of previous World Cup sponsorships.

According to the NSW Treasurer, Michael Egan, the total cost of staging the Sydney Olympic Games was $6.5 billion. The Federal Government contributed $194 million and the private sector $1.3 billion, while the NSW State Government put in $2.3 billion.[36] Prior to the games there were many projections of the economic benefits, including increased tourism, that would flow. The NSW Treasury pre-games study concluded, ‘The Olympics is expected to cause some modest increases in investment, in particular in the pre-Games period. The increase in exports is expected to be significant in the Games year’. The economic effects of the Sydney Olympics were limited to New South Wales and virtually non-existent for the rest of the country. In a post-games assessment John Madden of the University of Tasmania concluded, ‘The effects of the Olympic Games over the 12-year period examined is quite small. The overall estimated impact on Australian GDP is that it will be 0.12% higher over the 12 years from 1994/95 than if Sydney had not staged the Games. For NSW, the Games are estimated to increase GSP by around a quarter of a per cent compared to what otherwise would have been the case.’ He went on to argue that it is important that over-optimistic projections of the effects of mega events, such as the Olympics, are not made and that many other factors influenced the ultimate outcome for NSW and Australian economic variables.[37]

If even a mega-event like the Olympics has very modest economic effects are we wise to continue to pour resources into sport for its economic benefits? I wonder how far Ken Livingston’s five legacy benefits of hosting the 2012 games In London will be fulfilled?[38]

Other costs: Is it worth it?

The economic costs of sport are not, of course, the only ones. Sport is often associated with violence among players and spectators. Its role in character formation has often been praised but modern male sport has been at the centre of numerous instances of sexual assault, raising questions about the kind of masculinity it has drawn on and fostered.

In sports clubs pushing the boundaries of the rules and playing out of your skin are attributes which are encouraged in young active males. Selfless behaviour on behalf of the club is demanded, not just expected. If team bonding and going in for your mates are key virtues and serious alcohol sessions are indulged in after matches it is not surprising that young men are likely to engage in conduct in groups which they might not consider when they are alone and sober. If willing females congregate around celebrity footballers, also under the influence of drink or substances, the chances of a moral breakdown occurring are substantially increased. Also the likelihood of circumstances changing during the course of an occasion are high and people can find that defence mechanisms and prudence are not enough to prevent escalation occurring. In such circumstances it requires a strong will to back out as an individual and even stronger one to intervene and demand that unacceptable behaviour be terminated by your mates. That is a huge test of leadership and it is not perhaps surprising that it is sometimes failed.

A hungry media knowing that scandal sells and a corporate world which demands that brands be protected by higher standards than those acceptable to the general community or those observed by members of their own organisations are ready to pounce on events in high profile sports. Respect for females and gender equity are key virtues which need to be reinforced and sports clubs are waking up to this, though strong resistance remains.[39]

Barriers to indigenous participation remain high with racism still occurring in sporting contexts.[40] Homophobia abounds despite recent education campaigns by clubs and associations.

The cost of security at sporting events is now very significant. In South Africa and Brazil the costs of securing the World Cup football tournaments in 2010 and 2014 were enormous. Sporting events have always been at risk from political groups with the Munich Olympics in 1972 and the tour by Sri Lankan cricketers to Pakistan in 2009 two notorious examples.

Sport has been associated with and sponsored by commercial companies dealing in alcohol, tobacco smoking and gambling. The costs of advertising these products is high and sports have been a means of achieving greater brand and industry awareness. Their effects on national health and well-being remain almost certainly negative.

Let me end where I began. I am not arguing that sport should have no public and private funding, but rather that we should have a clearer and more coherent debate, based on full knowledge of the costs and claimed and realised benefits about our current financing of sport in comparison with other areas of expenditure. That debate might make the sports bodies a little more appreciative of the contribution which we, the public, already make. And it would waken the rest of us up to the sheer scale of public subventions, which would also be no bad thing. And the sports bodies should never be allowed to shelter behind ‘commercial in confidence’ in respect of public money.

Mexico lines up before the Olympic Games football final in London in 2012. Mexico scored in the first minute and beat Brazil 2-1.

Author details

Roy Hay is a partner in Sports and Editorial Services Australia and an Honorary Fellow of Deakin University where he taught for 25 years. He is the co-editor with Bill Murray of The World Game Downunder and has just published A History of Football in Australia: A Game of Two Halves, Hardie Grant, Melbourne, 2014 with him. A conference paper based on this article was given to the conference of the International Society for the History of Physical Education and Sport at the University of Stirling in Scotland on 17 July 2009 and an earlier, shorter version appeared as Roy Hay, ‘The real costs of sport,’ Dissent, 28, Summer 2008/2009, December 2008, pp. 58-60.

References

[2] Simon Jenkins, ‘Britain’s Olympic Obsession,’ Guardian Weekly, 1 May 2009, p. 21.

[3] Glenda Korporaal, ‘Reviews herald a funding win for sport,’ The Australian, 6 September 2008; ‘Expert Independent Sport Panel Appointed,’ http://www.health.gov.au/internet/ministers/publishing.nsf/Content/mr-yr08-ke-ke045.htm, accessed 18 December 2008.

[4] ‘Gold medals cost taxpayers $17m each’, The Australian, August 24, 2008.

[5] James Connor, ‘Who wins when we spend so much on so few?’, Sunday Age, 24 August 2008, p. 19.

[6] Peter Bartels, ‘Review our sports system,’ Geelong Advertiser, 26 August 2008, p. 11.

[7] ‘AOC and APC urge Government to act quickly on funding,’ Australian Olympic and Paralympic Committees, Press Release, 13 March 2009, http://corporate.olympics.com.au/news.cfm?ArticleID=10034. The full High Performance Plan is available as a PDF from this website, accessed 15 March 2009.

[8] AOC/APC High Performance Plan, Sydney, March 2009, p. 5.

[9] ASC Agency Budget Statements, pp. 326 and 334. http://www.ausport.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/170567/ASC.pdf, accessed 22 September 2008, p. 329.

[10] ASC Agency Budget Statements, pp. 326 and 334. http://www.ausport.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/170567/ASC.pdf, accessed 22 September 2008.

[11] T.S Olds, et al. Children and Sport. Report for the Australian Sports Commission, University of South Australia, September, 2004, pp. 109–110.

[12] Tony Ward, Aussie. Aussie. Aussie! Sports and National Identity, Taylor and Francis, 2009, citing Australian Bureau of Statistics Participation in Sport and Physical Activities (4177.0) in 1996-97 and 2002, Sport and Recreation New Zealand SPARC Facts ’97-’01, (drawn from surveys conducted in 1997, 1998 and 2000) and Statistical Abstract of the United States 2006, 791, available from www.census.gov. All surveys asked respondents if they “took part in at least one organised sporting activity in the last year”.

[13] Roy Hay, ‘Untold story of sports rorts,’ Geelong Advertiser, 14 May 2008, p. 23.

[14] Jenkins, ‘Britain’s Olympic Obsession,’ p. 21.

[15] Alex Duval Smith, ‘Shadows over the party: South Africa’s poor find little to cheer in $1.2bn World Cup preparations,’ Guardian Weekly, 13 February 2009, p. 40; ‘Sleaze and anger as South Africa heads for first World Cup,’ Observer, 1 February 2009..

[16] Kerrie J Levy, ‘The Australian Football League: Is it time for the siren to blow?’, in Legal Issues for Non-profit Associations, eds Myles MacGregor Lowndes, Keith Fletcher, A S Silvers (Sydney: LBC Information Services, 1996): 95–120.

[17] Mike Stanger and Doug Gillon, ‘Financial support for sport is short on consistency,’ The Herald, Glasgow, 9 May 2008, http://www.theherald.co.uk/sport/headlines/display.var.2258424.0.Financial_support_for_sport_is_short_on_consistency.php, accessed 10 May 2008.

[18] Scott Spits, ‘AFL wants state’s help,’ Age, Sport, 9 May 2009, p. 3.

[19] Richard Hinds, ‘ Upbeat Demetriou would inspire more confidence if his team could get footy’s mind-bending rules right,’ Age, Sport, 16 March 2009, pp. 6–7.

[20] Jake Niall and Caroline Wilson, ‘AFL, clubs consider moving games in arena battle,’ Age, Sport, 24 March 2009, p. 2; see also Roy Hay, ‘AFL pays price’, Age, Insight, 21 March 2009, p. 6.

[21] Rate Relief for Community Amateur Sports Clubs (CASCs), Wolverhampton City Council, www.wolverhampton.gov.uk/business/finance/rates/sports_clubs, accessed 7 March 2009.

[22] For discussion of rating issues for sports stadia see www.voa.gov.uk/instructions/chapters/rating_manual/vol5sect970/frame

[23] Jake Niall, ‘AFL’s $1.67 m Waverley boost,’ Age Sport, 28 February 2006, p. 3. AFL won a court case to recover the money paid.

[24] Geraldine Mitchell, ‘Australian GP deal for Melbourne cost $250m,’ www.news.com.au/heraldsun, 2 October 2008, http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,24434207-2862,00.html; ‘Vic govt dismisses claim over Grand Prix cost,’ ABC News, 2 October 2008, http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/10/02/2379868.htm.

[25] Ben Doherty, ‘$47 m fee a formula for easy profits,’ Age, 14 March 2009, p. 1.

[26] Melissa Fyfe, ‘Hawks claim $2m pokies revenue as community benefit’, Sunday Age, 5 October 2008, pp. 1 & 4.

[27] Football Federation Australia, media release, Sydney, 10 December 2008.

[28] Lorna Edwards, ‘Sport injury crisis “is being ignored”’, Age, 23 September 2008, p. 3.

[29] Greg Baum, ‘Pies’ greats serenade good old Collingwood,’ Age, Sport, 6 June 2009, p. 10. See also Martin Flanagan, ‘It’s best to stay grounded, even in footy,’ quoting Michael Mitchell, a star of Aboriginal heritage and now program manager for the West Australian indigenous mental health unit, on the “void” when he finished playing. “You go from having 90,000 people at the MCG shouting every time you do something good to hearing nothing. You’re not a footballer any more but you are not part of the community same as you were before.”

[30] Arnd Krüger, ‘Germany: The Propaganda machine,’ in Arnd Krüger and Bill Murray, eds, The Nazi Olympics: Sport, Politics and Appeasement in the 1930s, University of Illinois Press, Urbana, Illinois, 2003, p. 17.

[31] Dennis Frost, Assistant Professor of History, Xavier University, ‘Some thoughts on the Beijing Olympics,’ SPORTHIST@listserv.manchester.ac.uk, 27 August 2008.

[32] Mick Finn, ‘From Sport to Spectacle: the Emergence of Football as a Destination Attribute or Look What They’ve Done to Our Game: the McDonaldization of Football’, in Richard N Voase, Tourism in Western Europe : A Collection of Case Histories, CAB International, Wallingford, Oxon, UK, c2002, p. 173, citing N. Dobson et al, ‘Football Comes Home,’ Leisure Management, May 1977, pp. 16–19 and J Loynes, ‘Euro ’96: an extra kick for the economy,’ Greenwell Gilt Weekly, September 1996, pp. 2–3.

[33] Stefan Bielmeier, ‘Kicking off economic growth,’ The Globalist, 5 April 2006, Boston Globe website, http://www.theglobalist.com/StoryId.aspx?StoryId=5232, accessed 9 August 2006.

[34] Richard Cashman, The Bitter-Sweet Awakening: the Legacy of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, Walla Walla Press, Sydney, 2006.

[35] Danny John and Scott Rochfort, ‘Fitzpatrick’s grab lands Olympic venue,’ Age Business, 24 June 2009, p. 1,

[36] Jill Haynes, Socio-economic impact of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, National Sport Information Centre Australia, [online article]. Barcelona: Centre d’Estudis Olímpics UAB. [Consulted: dd/mm/yy] <http://olympicstudies.uab.es/pdf/wp094_eng.pdf> [Date of publication: 2001].

[37] John R. Madden, The Economic Consequences of the Sydney Olympics: The CREA/Arthur Andersen Study, http://www.commerce.otago.ac.nz/tourism/current-issues/homepage.htm, accessed 21 September 2008.

[38] Increasing opportunities for Londoners to become involved in sport; Ensuring Londoners benefit from new jobs, business and volunteering opportunities; Transforming the heart of East London; Delivering a sustainable Games and developing sustainable communities; Showcasing London as a diverse, creative and welcoming city. Ken Livingston, Mayor of London, Five Legacy Commitments, January 2008, http://www.london.gov.uk/mayor/olympics/docs/5-legacy-commitments.pdf.

[39] Catharine Lumby, ‘Why group sex is not the main issue here,’ Age, 12 March 2004. http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/03/11/1078594493551.html

[40] Paul Oliver, What’s the Score? A survey of cultural diversity and racism in Australian sport, Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, Sydney, 2006.

Roy Hay

(This article appeared as a Blast from the Past in Goal Weekly, 7 December 2012, p. 19.)

Box Hill is one of Victoria’s oldest clubs. Or is it? The origins of many clubs are quite obscure and there is reason to doubt a number of the generally accepted notions about Box Hill. Until I started researching for this column I accepted the Victorian Soccer Federation’s statement that Box Hill was founded in 1922, but I can find no sign of it in the newspapers of that year. The one copy of Soccer News for 1924 in the State Library has no mention of Box Hill. It is possible that friendly and scratch games were being played in 1922 to 1924. Today’s Box Hill United’s website says the club began in 1925 and won Division Four of the Victorian league that year. (Incidentally the Brighton club website also claims that it won Division Four in 1925.) In fact there were two clubs in Box Hill in 1925, Box Hill and Box Hill United. It was the former which won the league and was promoted to Division Three, while United remained in Division Four in 1926. Both teams took part in the Dockerty Cup. So we can safely say that there was league and cup football being played in Box Hill by two teams in 1925, but that is about all.

In June 1926 there was a nasty accident when the players of Werribee Soccer Football Club were on their way to meet Box Hill. The truck in which they were travelling was struck by a car at the junction of Flinders and Queen Street and overturned and the players were thrown into the road. We know about this because the truck’s owner sought £40 from the driver of the car for the damage done to his truck and won the court case in September. There is no mention of any recompense for the players! Box Hill went on to win Division Three.

The following year there was a split in the organisation of the game in both Victoria and New South Wales. Box Hill joined the Metropolitan Districts, while Box Hill United was part of Section A of the Melbourne and District group. In 1928 Box Hill United became Camberwell City, leaving the Box Hill club as the sole representative of the area. It was as confusing to people at the time as it is to understand today. The split had no sooner been provisionally mended when the Great Depression struck Australia and the game received a serious set-back.

When things began to improve slightly in 1931 Box Hill won Division Two of the Victorian League and promotion to the top division, which was not automatic in those days. But this proved a step too far and in 1932 the club finished last in an eight-team league. Box Hill was not relegated however and came sixth in a ten-team league in 1933. The club rose to fourth the next year, but was back in last place in 1935. This time it was relegated. John Punshon has been unable to find a final table for Division Two in 1936 but with four games left Box Hill was safely in mid table. Nobels was the runaway Division Two champion in 1937 and Box Hill led the chasing group, while in 1938 it had dropped back to mid-league mediocrity.

The outbreak of war in 1939 may well have had an impact on the Box Hill club which did not win a game in Division Two finishing last. Nineteen-forty was little better with one win, and that was a walk-over, in an incomplete season. There was little continuity among the names on the team sheets that year. Eleven starters and four reserves were named for the away game at South Yarra in July, but the result was nine-nil against. There were only six teams in Division Two in 1941 and Box Hill was in the middle. The club probably gave up trying to compete in the attenuated competition for the rest of the war years, but in 1945 it appeared again in in a league of 13 teams which played each other once, then split into two groups of six who played each other once more.

From this rather ordinary performance, Box Hill was about to embark on one of its most successful periods, winning the Division One title for the first and only time in 1948. Led by Don Hutchinson the club won ten out of fourteen games and banged in 45 goals. Hutchinson got 17 of them including three hat-tricks. The Box Hill line-up in 1948 included Vic Warry, Brown, Jack Holborn, Bill Tester, Don Hutchinson, Keith Gravell, Lester Hutchinson, F Mountford, Davis, Bayley, W Chappell, Brown and A McKellar.

Until the influx of migrants from Europe the clubs which drew on British and Australian players held sway and Box Hill was in the top five positions in each season until 1952. Thereafter the competition became fiercer and the Hillmen would probably have been relegated in 1958, if the Victorian Amateur Soccer Football Association had not instituted a State League with twelve clubs that year. It only staved off the execution until 1961 when Box Hill dropped into Division One North where it remained until winning what was then Metropolitan Division One in 1968. The reserves won the Armstrong cup in 1960, 1963, 1984 and 1989.

For the next few years Box Hill yo-yoed between the State League and the First Division. It was too good for the lower division and not good enough to stay in the top tier. The later part of the 1970s saw Box Hill in Metropolitan Division One until 1982 when it climbed back into the State League before successive relegations saw it drop to State League Two at the end of 1991, when the Victorian Premier League began. That shock led to the club amalgamating with Clayton as Box Hill Inter and a rise to the VPL for the 1995 season. Two years later there was another amalgamation this time involving Bulleen Lions and Brunswick United Juventus, which resulted in two VPL championships in 1998 and 2004 after the combined side finished third in the home and away matches. However, Box Hill gradually disengaged itself from the merger becoming effectively a junior club with Richard Mensink and John Kennedy at the helm in 1999. The demerger was expensive but eventually finalised in 2007.

Meanwhile Box Hill fielded a women’s team which took the Victorian Women’s Premier League by storm winning the title six times by 2010. Back to back titles against Heidleberg United in 2009 and 2010 were highlights.

Box Hill women’s team in 2010 before the final against Heidelberg United. Photo: Roy Hay.

Many top class players have been involved with Box Hill over the years, as juniors coming through or as senior players and mentors. They include Scott Patterson (and his brother Kyle, who is now head of media at Football Federation Australia), Micky Valentine, Damian Mori, Peter Bedford and Curtis Good.

Micky Vaelntine playing for Heidelberg.

In 2011 Box Hill was involved in yet another merger, this time with Southern Suburbs. The new entity is known as Box Hill United with the nickname Pythagoras reflecting the Greek influence of what used to be Oakleigh Suburbs in the 1990s.

Box Hill 1985

Robert Harrison, Dave Brooks, Zdravko Basic, Andy McMillan, Alan Roodhouse, Darren White, David Azzopardi, Chris Taylor, Andy Hughes, Pedro Ramos, Peter Verechia, Andy Humble. Coach: Keith Webster.

Box Hill 1989

John McKinlay, Tom McMorrow, John Dimitrelos, Greg McLeod, Paddy Cooper, Tom Kennedy, A Ham, Mike Hanley, Gary Egan, Stuart McArthur, Gerry McAleer, Alex Christie, Julian Thomas. Coach: John Brown.

(This article appeared in Goal Weekly, Friday 23 March 2012, p. 19 and is reproduced here with the permission of the editor Costa Koutropoulos, who played in the Armstrong Cup for Caulfield City. click and double click on the page below to enlarge it.)

Harry Armstrong and his Cup

Roy Hay

Australia overcame a spirited Saudi Arabia by four goals to two in the final game of the first qualifying group for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

The Socceroos had to come from behind to win the game in a purple patch in the second half during which they scored three times in three minutes.

The Saudis needed to win to be sure of qualifying and they took the game to Australia in the opening period. Moves were sharp and decisive, though Australia actually had the ball in the net after 4 minutes. Harry Kewell touched a header by Alex Brosque over the line from very close range but was offside when he did so.

The Saudis moved the ball around quickly and were very aggressive in attack, something which surprised coach Holger Osiek and his players.

In the 19^th minute, Saleem Mohammed Aldawsari skipped along the edge of the defensive area with the Australians standing off until he fired the ball into the corner.

Australia did engineer some good breaks but for the most part they were trying to curb the Saudi’s attacks.

Alex Brosque closes down the Saudi skipper

Two minutes before the scheduled end of the first half, Marco Bresciano fed Alex Brosque and the striker got away from the defence beating Osama Abdulzrag Hawsawi and then the keeper with his shot.

That lead only lasted till the last minute of time added on as Hassan Muath Fallatah came down the right and crossed for Nassir Ali Shamrani to beat Schwarzer for a second time. Again defenders stood off and paid the penalty.

Osiek and his opposite number Frank Rijkaard made no personnel changes at half-time but the Australians lifted their momentum and began to get a little more accuracy into their work.

Archie Thompson came off the bench for James Troisi in the 63rd minute and soon began posing problems for the Saudi backline.

They had looked very comfortable against two attackers, but three meant that gaps began to appear.

The Socceroos took full advantage and turned the match round with three goals in three minutes.

In the 73^rd minute, Thompson put Alex Brosque away down the left and he cut the ball back to Harry Kewell who finished cleanly.

The Victory striker had come close on two or three occasions but this goal capped off one of his best games for Australia and of this season.

The crowd had hardly resumed their seats when Matthew Spiranovic sent a long ball from the back to release Brett Emerton who chipped the ball into the path of Brosque who buried his second goal.

Green and Gold Army

A minute later, man of the match, Marco Bresciano fed Thompson then took the return and slid it through the defence where Emerton just held off Almousa, whose attempt to clear only glanced off the sliding Socceroo and finished in the net.

The Saudis were deflated by the sudden transformation of the game and though they fought it out to the end, it was a comfortable win in the end for Australia.

Frank Rijkaard said his team had kept possession and played well in difficult conditions (it rained throughout the match) and could with a little luck have gone to three-one up which would have changed the character of the game.

He was happy with the players’ effort but said  that defeats and draws earlier in the campaign had prevented his team from qualifying.

Holger Osiek said his team was playing in a new formation with some players out of position so it took time for them to come to terms with that.

In the second half however ‘We got our stuff together, played through the channels with imagination, mobility and pace.’

He said the Saudis had great quality, but Australia had played as he wanted them to do in the second half.

Saudi corner

There was a good crowd of 24,214 to make plenty of noise at AAMI Park.

It was a supreme pity that Frank Lowy decided to sack Gold Coast United on the afternoon of the match between the Socceroos and Saudi Arabia.

What was a dead rubber to the public became a sideshow to a stoush between the FFA and one of its club owners.

Match details

Wednesday 29 February 2012

Australia 4 (Alex Brosque 43’, 75’, Harry Kewell 73’, Brett Emerton 76’) Saudi Arabia 2 (Salem Mohammed Aldawsari 19’, Nassir Ali Al Shamrani 45 + 2’)

Venue: AAMI Park

Local kick-off: 8:30pm

Referee: KIM Dong Jin

Assistant referees: JEONG Hae Sang and Jang Jun Mo

Fourth official: KIM Jong Hyeok

Attendance: 24,214

Australia:

1 Mark Schwarzer, 2 Lucas Neill, 4 Matthew Spiranovic, (3 David Carney 82’), 5 Jade North, 6 Sasha Ognenovski, 7 Brett Emerton, 8 Mark Milligan, 10 Harry Kewell, 11 James Troisi (9 Archie Thompson 63’), 20 Alex Brosque (16 Nick Carle 87’), 23 Marco Bresciano.

Unused substitutes: 12 Eric Paartalu, 13 Adam Sarota, 14 Michael Marrone, 15 Michael Thwaite, 18 Matt Ryan.

Yellow cards: Nil

Red cards: Nil

Saudi Arabia:

1 Waleed Abdullah Ali, 3 Osama Abdulrzag Hawsawi, 4 Abdulla Mohammed Aldossary, 7 Kamil Saddiq Almousa, 10 Mohammed Bandar Al Shalhoub (9 Naif Ahmed Hazazi 79’), 11 Nassir Ali Al Shamrani (Yasser Saeed Al Qahtani 72’), 12 Hassan Muath Fallatah, 14 Saud Ali Khariri, 15 Ahmed Mohammed Alfraidi (6 Ahmed Inrahin Ateef 66’), 17 Taiseer Jabir Al Jassam, 19 Salem Mohammed Aldawsari.

Unused substitutes: 2 Yasir Gharsan Al Shahrani, 5 Mohammed Eid Albishi, 8 Yahia Sulaiman Al Shehri, 13 Ibrahim Jahshan, 16 Yousef Mansour Al Salem, 18 Hamad Al Hamad, 21 Yasser Abdullah Al Mosailem, 22 Ahmed Ali al Kassar, 23 Kamil Omar Fallata

Yellow cards: 14 Saud Ali Khariri 62’, 11 Nassir Ali Al Shamrani 64’

Red cards: Nil

Roy Hay

(This aritcle appeared on the SBS website, The World Game on 22 February 2012 and in Goal Weekly on 24 February 2012.)

The eruption of the ebullient Clive Palmer, multi-millionaire natural resources baron and owner of Gold Coast United, as self-appointed spokesman for the owners of the A-League clubs has Football Federation Australia (FFA) on the back foot. He wants more say for the owners who are bankrolling the league, though their total contribution is probably less than that contributed by the public, through their purchase of tickets, merchandise, sponsors’ products and above all, tax concessions and direct subsidies by Federal, State and local governments.

It must gall the owners that one of Australia’s richest men, Frank Lowy, presides over the FFA and the A-League but is apparently unwilling to dip into his own pocket to support the league. But if Lowy did so the media would be jumping on his back straight away, as they did at the start of the league, with cries of ‘conflict of interest’. He and his family helped a number of clubs financially to meet the stringent financial conditions for entry laid down. Subsequently they assisted the ownership transitions which occurred in others. Most of this was done by stealth to avoid a public outcry. In doing so Lowy was repeating something he had once done as the leader of the Hakoah club in the ‘bad old days’ of the Australian Soccer Federation (ASF). He put his house up as a guarantee for the funding of the club, and then realised the idiocy of that approach. From then on he was determined that football must run as a business and be self-sustaining, not dependent on one-off donations by benefactors.

The dilemma remains, what is the best strategy for the A-League to become a self-sustaining entity? Several people, including David Crawford, the Professional Footballers Association, Wilson Smith and some of the current owners have argued for the A-League to become a separate entity from the FFA, or at the very least for the owners to have a greater influence over its operation. These are arguable cases, but the historical record and the example of other sporting operations in Australia are not favourable.

The Victorian Football League used to be run by its clubs, until Sir Kenneth Luke built Waverley Park to break their control and that of the ground managers who administered the venues at which the game was played. Eventually the AFL, as it became, set up a commission to run the game and over time this took the kind of control it now has today under Andrew Demetriou and his board. And they have done reasonably well, thank you, despite recent complaints about losses and Demetriou’s remuneration. There are major differences, of course. The AFL does not have to run an expensive international game in senior, junior, male and female competitions as FFA has to do. The success of the Socceroos sometimes cross-subsidises the domestic league.

Most people have blamed ethnic politics for the problems of soccer under the old ASF, but in fact the main factor was the governing structure set up at the foundation of that body in 1961. As a paper at the time said, it was government of the clubs, by the clubs, for the clubs. That might have been fine had the game continued in the same way as it had done since the 1880s, but within a decade the game had gone national and international, with the ultimately successful attempt to qualify for the World Cup in 1974. The success could not be repeated and the key reason was that the clubs through the state federations controlled the ASF, the tail was wagging the dog.

Given the current requirements of the game as a whole, returning to club control for the A-League would be a recipe for disaster. The current structure is not perfect, but changes should be very carefully thought through and above all the FFA must not pander to those critics in the media who cannot distinguish between income and wealth, or who want to treat these fundamental issues about the health of the game as items for public amusement by pillorying the current members of the FFA executive.

Roy Hay is a member of the History Panel of the FFA and is working on a history of the game in Australia with Bill Murray. These are his personal views.

Roy Hay

Friendly tour matches, even with a sponsor’s trophy, are always more about entertaining occasional fans than satisfying the true believers and so it was when the Los Angeles Galaxy came to town on Tuesday night.

After 90 mins, Galaxy had pegged back Melbourne Victory’s two-nil lead thanks to two of the softest penalties, both converted by Irish star Robbie Keane.

So they had a penalty shoot-out at the end, and again Victory gained and then lost a two-goal lead, eventually going down by four goals to three.

In the early stages of the first half Galaxy players were feeling the effects of two games in humid conditions in Indonesis and the Phillipines.

Both had been won by six goals to one and in the second match every starting player was replaced within the 90 minutes but both coach Bruce Arena and superstar David Beckham said the players were feeling tired.

David Beckham about to release a pass watched by Carlos Hernandez

So Victory had the better of the first phase of the game with Grant Brebner, a former colleague of Beckham at Manchester United, pulling the strings in midfield and Isaka Cernak relishing the lack of severe physical pressure to play his best game in Victory colours.

In the 14^th minute, Beckham found himself in the clear just inside his own half and tried to chip Ante Covic with a replica of the goal he scored for Manchester United against Neil Sullivan in the Wimbledon goal in 1996.

This time the shot just drifted wide at the last minute with the keeper caught well off his line.

Victory went ahead in 16 minutes when Carlos Hernandez latched on the rebound from a blocked shot by Cernak. The Costa Rican’s own effort was also stopped but he put the loose ball away at the second attempt.

Adam Cristman had a chance to equalize from a trademark Beckham cross but directed his header wide of the post.

In 37 minutes Grant Brebner found Hernandez in space and he slotted the ball between two defenders for Cernak to squeeze it through the legs of Galaxy keeper Josh Saunders.

Three minutes later Galaxy got the first of two penalty kicks Chris Birchall’s shot hit the arm of Victory defender Matthew Foschini.

Robbie Keane stopped in his run up and should have been made to retake his successful penalty kick.

Archie Thompson released Danny Allsopp just on the stroke of half-time, but the striker put the ball over the bar.

Both teams made a swag of changes at half-time and continued to replace players through the second period, so the match lost focus and Galaxy had much more of the play.

Five minutes after the break Petar Franjic was adjudged to have brought down Beckham, but the initial contact seemed to be slight and outside the penalty area.

Nevertheless a spot kick it was and Keane repeated his success with the first, and in the same fashion.

Both sides had chances in the later part of the game, but eventually the crowd got tired of the lack of action and the continual change of personnel and indulged themselves with a series of Mexican waves which continued until Beckham limped off after tweaking the hamstring which he injured in the final Galaxy match which gave them the Major League title.

Beckham got the deserved ovation when he left the field.

In the penalty shoot out, Rodrigo Vargas, Jimmy Jeggo and Tom Ponderljak scored for Victory, but Paolo Retre and Marko Rojas missed.

Landon Donovan missed the first for Galaxy but Hector Jiminez, Gregg Berhalter, Michael Stephens and Paolo Cardozo all scored.

The lower level seats were brought forward at Etihad and the crowd of 34,608 was very reasonable given the ticket prices for the match.

Match details (unofficial)

Melbourne Victory 2 (16 Carlos Hernandez 16, 19 Isaka Cernak 37’) Los Angeles Galaxy 2 (Robbie Keane 40’, 50’)

Date: 6 December 2011

Venue: Etihad Stadium

Referee: Strebre Delovski

Assistant referees: Shaun Evans and George Lackrinidis

Fourth official: Lucien Lvaerdure.

Attendance: 34,608.

Melbourne Victory:

21 Ante Covic (Lawrence Thomas 46’), 2 Matthew Foschini (27 Paulo Retre 69’), 8 Grant Brebner (17 James Jeggo 58’), 10 Archie Thompson (9 Jean Carlos Solorzano 46’),  12 Rodrigo Vargas, 13 Diogo Ferreira, 15 Tom Pondeljak, 16 Carlos Hernandez (11 Marcelo Rojas 46’), 18 Daniel Allsopp, 19 Isaka Cernak (25 Luke O’Dea 76’), 23 Adrian Leijer (4 Petar Franjic 46’).

Yellow cards: Petar Franjic 59’.

Los Angeles Galaxy:

12 Josh Saunders, 2 Todd Dunivant (15 Dan Keat 83’), 5 Sean Franklin (7 Jovan Kirovski 65’), 8 Chris Birchall (26 Michael Stephens 46’), 10 Landon Donovan, 14 Robbie Keane (32 Jack McBean 85’), 17 Adam Cristman, 18 Mike Magee (29 Dasan Robinson 46’), 20 A J Dela Garza, 23 David Beckham (3 Gregg Berhalter 89’), 27 Bryan Jordan (30 Paolo Cardozo 46’).

Sjel (Mike) de Bruyckere (1928–2011)

Roy Hay

Sjel de Bruyckere was born in Kaatsheuvel in Holland on 6 February 1928. He played football for his local club as a junior but in 1950 was chosen by Willem II in Tilburg, where he helped the club to win two of the three First Division titles achieved since its foundation. He played 167 games for the club and scored 80 goals.

Willem II players and officials celebrate the league championship in Holland in 1955. Courtesy De Bruyckere family.

He was selected for Dutch national team and was a regular from 1952 to 1955, representing his country seven times in all. He played his first international for Holland against Belgium, scoring on debut and assisting the Dutch to a 4–3 victory.  He was the most capped player in Willem II’s history at the time, and that is still true today. A grandstand at the club was named after him recently and his picture appears as the centerpiece in the Fan Shop more than fifty years after he left Holland.

Meanwhile in Melbourne, the Wilhelmina club was the flag-bearer of Dutch involvement in football under the dynamic leadership of John van Hoboken. Thanks largely to van Hoboken’s efforts the club attracted a number of high-quality Dutch players, including international Sjel de Bruyckere, who went on to captain and coach Victoria and play for Australia, and Dick van Alphen from Ajax, who played for Victoria and in ten games for Australia. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the Dutch players, along with some Maltese and Austrians, were claimed to be migrants who just happened to want to play football by their Australian clubs. The clubs with which they had played in Europe were not fooled and demanded compensation fees. This episode led to the suspension of Australia’s membership of FIFA from 1958 to 1963.

De Bruyckere’s last game before coming to Australia was an international watched by 65 000 spectators. His first game in Australia was in Geelong before 50 spectators and assorted cows that were shooed from the paddock before kick-off. The story goes that he was full of admiration when he saw the many thousands of people headed along the Princes Highway to Geelong not realising they were actually going to Kardinia Park to watch the Geelong VFL game and not the soccer.

Nineteen-fifty-four was Wilhelmina’s first full season in Division Four of the Victorian League and it made an immediate impact, winning 16 games out of 18, finishing first and being promoted to Division Three. In 1955 the club went through the season winning every game and scoring 114 goals and conceding only ten. To get to the top league, however, better players were required and van Hoboken attracted de Bruyckere to act as player-coach to the team.

In 1956 Wilhelmina won 16 games and drew two, resulting in the third successive promotion, this time to Division One. So in three seasons the club had played 54 league games for one loss. De Bruyckere was selected for Victoria against Queensland in 1957 and went on to represent the state against Ferencvaros, FK Austria, Heart of Midlothian and other touring teams. He also coached the state side through into the 1960s.

As a professional De Bruyckere was not eligible to represent Australia at the Olympic Games in Melbourne in 1956, along with many of the best players in the country, including Joe Marston. He did receive a cap for his new country at a time when Australia played very few international games and many of these were against club teams. De Bruyckere played for Australia against the Eastern Athletic club from Hong Kong on 10 August 1957 at Olympic Park and scored the winning goal in a 2–1 victory.

In the next two seasons de Bruyckere helped Wilhelmina to establish itself at the top level, running Juventus close in the first year of the State League in 1958 and winning the Dockerty Cup. In the final it took a replay before Wilhelmina could claim the trophy by three goals to nil over Juventus including a critical goal by De Bruyckere. Bill Westerveld was awarded the Argus Medal. Van Hoboken and Fred Hutchinson, the secretary of Wilhelmina and formerly a Grade One referee, both thought that De Bruyckere was ‘the best overseas player ever brought to Australia’.

Wilhelmina’s Dockerty Cup winning team in 1958. Ad Sloethark, Sjel de Bruyckere, Hans Peterson, Tjibbe Keuken, Rein Yntema, Arie Luyten, Tony Noy, Dre Remmers, Bill Westerveld, Cor Morks, Cor Matthyssen. Source: Ringwood City website, with permission.

In 1959 Wilhelmina won the State League with a team which included Cor Delgeorge, Tjibbe Keuken, Bill Westerveld, Joe van der Unden, Arie Luyten, Tony Noy, Ad Sloethark, Cor Morks, Pret Brouwer, Dre Remmers, Rein Yntema, and Sjel de Bruyckere. Unfortunately both Yntema and de Bruyckere (in the Dockerty Cup) suffered broken legs in that campaign and Westerveld was badly injured in a car crash, losing an arm.

De Bruyckere had a strong sense of his value to his club and state and this often brought him into conflict with the clubs he played for or coached and the football authorities. In June 1964 while De Bruyckere was player-coach at Melbourne Hungaria, he formed one of the early football players’ associations, a predecessor of the current Professional Footballers Australia. De Bruyckere was secretary and a driving force behind the association pointing out that ‘each club has its own committee and they can do what they like to you. They can put you in the seconds or reserves, and you can’t do anything about it. Where can you go with your problems?’ The major goal of the Victorian Soccer Players’ Association was the abolition of the retain-and-transfer system which tied players to clubs even after their contract was completed, something which was only completely achieved by the Bosman judgment in Europe in 1995.

Lou Stafrace and Sjel de Bruyckere when he coached Green Gully in 1976. Photo: Green Gully Soccer Club.

De Bruyckere coached a number of clubs including Wilhelmina (later called Ringwood City), Ringwood United, Lions, Polonia and George Cross and when he was at Green Gully in the first half of 1976 Preston Makedonia tempted him with a large increase in salary and he switched clubs. In later life he coached children at various levels imparting his skills and the love of the game. The current best & fairest award at Ringwood City is named in honour of Sjel (Mike) de Bruyckere. He was a member of Football Federation Australia’s Hall of Fame.

Outside football de Bruyckere had always been a physical education teacher and he continued in that role long after he hung up his boots, primarily at Box Hill and Mitcham Technical schools.

In the last few years parts of rural Victoria have had to cope with drought, bush fires and floods, sometimes in quick succession. Daylesford has escaped the worst of these natural phenomena. Over our thirty years in Australia we have travelled many of the back roads and byways of the state of Victoria, but this is one of the places we have only passed through occasionally. We have stopped for a quick cup of coffee and on one occasion we walked down to the lake with our children when they were young, but this last week was the first time we had really got to know the spa town. And what an engaging and surprising place it is!

Finding somewhere to stay these internet days is a cinch. Daylesford must be a model for any small urban centre in rural Victoria with its well-organised tourist industry including accommodation finders with a string of properties at all prices, complete with full descriptions, prices and pictures. We ended up in a miner’s cottage, thoroughly and tastefully refurbished with the addition of all the technology you could wish for to make life comfortable. Within walking distance of the centre of town and the lake, yet hidden away as if deep in the bush, it was an idyllic base for exploring Daylesford.

There is a walking track around the lake and that’s where we had the first surprise coming across a seat with a plaque in memory of my former colleague and friend Laurie Schwab, the soccer writer and editor of Soccer Action. Daylesford was his favourite place in Australia. One reason I have no doubt was the quality of the cuisine. Daylesford has a myriad of restaurants and hotels with some first class food.

Another surprise was the Convent Gallery, redeveloped brilliantly by Tina Banitska from the home of the Presentation Sisters into a series of galleries, a museum of the convent and a stunning garden. Built on the slope of Wombat Hill the gardens benefit from a slow seepage of water from a spring near the top. The Convent is billed as ‘A temple for the arts’ in its publicity and that is true, but it was a bit over the top to claim that the gardens are ‘equal to those of Versailles in France’. Why do people feel the need for that kind of exaggeration? I was not carried away by most of the paintings, sculptures and artefacts though there were one or two excellent pieces, including some glass vases and a few items of furniture. There is a function centre and the restored chapel must be superb venue for weddings.

Then we travelled further up Wombat Hill to the Botanic Gardens, climbed the lookout tower which gave a view over the valley to Mount Franklin, looked at the greenhouse containing a rich variety of Begonias and walked around the avenues of elms, supplemented by sequoias, spruce, Norfolk pines and monkey puzzles. Next we set off north through Hepburn Springs to Lavandula an Italianate lavender and fruit farm, where we had lunch of bread and olives and then walked around the orchard and gardens. Things are very dry, the dam is empty and they are dependent on bore water. Many of the plants were stressed.

We returned ‘touristed out’ but marvelling at the resilience of the locals in face of adversity and impressed by the various ways in which they have responded to the challenges faced by small urban centres in rural Victoria today.