BOOK
REVIEW: The Death & Life of Australian Soccer (Joe Gorman), by Kieran
James, 23 August 2018.
According to the book’s front cover,
Tracey Holmes says that this is a “remarkable book”. For me, I would not call
it “remarkable” but I would call it interesting, important, colourful,
detailed, thoughtful, and complete. It basically traces the history of
Australian soccer from the post-war migrant boom through the National Soccer
League (NSL) (1977-2004) era and on to the A-League and FFA Cup; as well as
various matches involving the Socceroos at various stages in their history. It
looks at soccer through the dual lens of economics and ethnicity, refusing to
bow down to the dominant ideology promulgated around 2003-2005 that ethnic
clubs and the NSL were uniformly and unambiguously terrible and that all soccer
history before the A-League should be removed from consciousness. This ideology can be termed “ground zero” or
“scorched earth” ideology and the term “ethnic cleansing” has even been used by
various people at various times to describe the fact that the A-League refused
to accept traditional ethnic soccer clubs (Melbourne Croatia, South Melbourne
Hellas, et al.).
A strength of the book
is its almost dialectical (to describe the philosophical way of argumentation
aimed at by Karl Marx, V. I. Lenin, and other communists over the years)
writing style where two facts or aspects or perspectives of a situation, which
appear to be almost or even completely contradictory, are presented side by
side; and often there is no attempt made to harmonize or integrate the
opposites which leads to an unresolved but informative tension. For example,
the formation of the A-League and the fate of the ethnic clubs is told from
different perspectives side by side, one pro-the A-League or seemingly so, and then the
next bemoaning the destruction of the ethnic clubs’ cultures (e.g. pages 273-274,
338-339, 353-354). (The dialectical style is also used effectively in the Iron
Maiden songs “22 Acacia Avenue” and “Run to the Hills” where, respectively, the
perspective of a prostitute’s mentor / parent and client (first song) and
Native Americans and White settlers (second song) are presented back to back.)
Usually this writing
style is effectively used but there are times in the book when the
contradictions become almost too much to bear and the reader cries out for at
least an insertion of opinion from the author. Although the writing is
colourful and descriptions detailed (of people and events), we get very few
actual real personal opinions offered by the author. Is he on the “side” of the
ethnic clubs? Or is he “against” the ethnic clubs? Is he “pro” the ethnic clubs
as long as they play in the state leagues only? Is he “pro” the ethnic clubs
but only if they can pay their own way? Is he “pro” the ethnic clubs but
against ethnic names? Narrowing it down to key events, Gorman discusses
Collingwood Warriors and Carlton Blues but we don’t get his heartfelt opinion
on either these two interesting ventures. All we get are histories and
descriptions which could have come from earlier books on Australian soccer or
even from Wikipedia. What does he think of Lowy pulling Sydney City Slickers
(Hakoah) out of the NSL after one round (page 140)? What does he think of St
George Budapest’s axing from the NSL (pages 169-170)? He may feel he was too
young to have experienced these events first-hand and so does not want to
comment; but I would have loved to have heard his opinions. To me, Lowy was
totally unethical as the basic ethical rule of even junior football is that
your team must complete the season. Why not withdraw before the season began?
His decision showed zero regard for the other clubs, players, and supporters,
and angered even some Hakoah people. Yet this was the person who people were
begging to take over management of the game again around 2003.
Another reviewer sees
Kimon Taliadoros as one of the themes holding the book together in the sense
that he started his playing career with a semi-professional ethnic club, South
Melbourne Hellas, but was involved in the efforts of the players’ association
to gain improved wages at national-league level; he annoyed many administrators
of the game and his career ended without fanfare. He failed to share in the
benefits he later obtained for others through his efforts, making him an almost
priest-like figure in Gorman’s book which is strangely appropriate given the
Greek Orthodox Church heritage and background of most people associated with
South Melbourne and other Greek clubs. I respect this view of Taliadoros but I
choose to read Gorman’s book through another lens. To me, Taliadoros is not as interesting
as some other characters in the book; in most industries it is commonplace for
union organisers, shop stewards, and workers to strive for improved wages and
better working conditions; it is not interesting or different in and of itself;
rugby-league and Aussie Rules also moved from semi-professionalism to full
professionalism over the same period as soccer (just without the ethnic club
factor and the NSL / A-League distinction).
To me, the most interesting
figure in the book is Andrew Howe (pages 164ff.); and he is the answer to the
principle dilemma of Australian soccer which Gorman grapples with: even when
the ethnic clubs tried to become more “mainstream”, Anglo supporters still
would not support them (e.g. pages 103, 165, 198). Because of this, the
A-League had to be formed (although other solutions were possible, e.g. an
A-League of eight plastic franchises plus the biggest four ethnic clubs). Howe
was the exception: a 19-year-old Anglo-Australian from the Sutherland Shire who
supported Cronulla Sharks in the National Rugby League (NRL). One day, he and
his mates (for reasons that seem to be lost in the mists of time) decided to go
to Italian club APIA Leichardt to watch a game of ethnic soccer in the NSL. He
was completely hooked as I was in 1990 when (aged 22) I started watching Perth
Italia games at Dorrien Gardens. Here was something unique and, in some ways,
totally foreign but, in other ways, tied up forever with the immigrant
experience and hence completely Australian. Rugby-league and Aussie Rules could
not replicate such atmospheres. There were few Anglos like Howe unfortunately
(exactly how many is unclear). If there had been thousands of Howe-type
figures, the NSL would not have had to die. I know Melbourne Knights still has
non-Croatian supporters. Vice-President, Pave Jusup, told me in 2011 of the
Melbourne Croatia Fans (MCF) group member who stood, in his West Ham United
shirt, for two years on the terraces at Knights’ Stadium before people found
out that he was not ethnically Croatian!
Howe is hilarious and
took the ethnic soccer aspect to extremes not even imagined by the ethnic
people themselves: one wonders if a Steel Panther-type irony was intended or
whether Howe was in fact just “taking the mickey”; his total passion for ethnic
soccer makes the latter possibility seem unlikely. The book tells of Howe starting
a Croatian soccer club in the Southern Sydney Churches competition (page 166),
wearing red, white, and blue, despite the fact that there were no ethnic Croatians
involved (apparently). He informally renamed the clubs in his competition to
take on ethnic names (“St Philips was ‘Filipino’[;] St Giles became ‘Macedonian’”
etc. (page 166)). Although this is all hilarious, one serious question remains:
Why did Australia have so few Andrew Howe-types back in the NSL era? I used to
love entering the world of ethnic soccer for an afternoon back in the
early-1990s. Three memorable matches were: Perth Italia versus North Perth
Croatia at Perry Lakes around 1991 (great atmosphere); a thrilling 0-0 draw
between Perth Italia and Sorrento Gulls at Dorrien Gardens around 1990; and a
3-3 cliff-hanger between Italia and Croatia (then called Western Knights) in
2003 or 2004 also at Dorrien Gardens. I knew that I could retreat to Aussie
Rules if I wanted an Anglo-atmosphere. I could come and go as I chose. Ethnic
clubs were no threat to me, I revelled in them. I broke one “rule” of ethnic
soccer which I could as an Anglo-Australian: my teams were Perth Italia and
Melbourne Croatia. I recall watching the Melbourne Croatia team of 1990 on SBS
on a Sunday evening, when Francis Awaritefe was up front and Alan Davidson was
marshalling the mid-field.
There are certain other
weaknesses of the book. The author expresses the modern left-wing views about
the European colonization of Australia as being an “invasion” and the White
Australia Policy being disgraceful. However, he fails to condemn (although here
and there he does despair at the narrow-mindedness of Anglos who run a mile
from any club perceived as ethnic) the banning of ethnic clubs from the A-League
when this can be viewed as similar in spirit to the White Australia Policy. It
banned clubs purely because of the ethnic origins of the clubs’ founders and it
is very hard to see how this constitutes anything other than racism or
discrimination. All are welcome as
individuals, Gorman points out, but you can’t bring your clubs with you
into the closely policed world of Modern Football.
The best parts of the
book to me are about ethnicity and the NSL. I loved the season-by-season
history of the NSL which has not been done before with this level of rigour. However,
I feel that the author probably tries to do too much. I think everything about
the Socceroos could have been left out for example. The Socceroos’ campaigns
are not covered as rigorously as the NSL seasons; the 1990 World Cup is
ignored, and Fiji’s shock 1-0 win over Australia in Nadi in 1988 is not
mentioned (nor the 5-1 return game back in Australia). (Fiji is not even in the
book index.) Gorman seems to have subconsciously adopted the current worldview
that only Asia matters and that Oceania’s history (which included Australia)
and its present are to be ignored (for more on Fiji soccer see my blog “Nadi Legends
Club” at http://nadilegendsclub.blogspot.com). It was also not really interesting to me to hear how Ayr United fan Roy Hay
switched from supporting Scotland to supporting Australia in the middle of a
World Cup match. It might be important to Hay but, sociologically, I don’t view
it as being as important as the killing off of the NSL.
I would have also liked
to have read a bit more on Western Sydney Wanderers and the FFA Cup, but we
can’t have it all and space limitations are always an issue. Perth domestic
soccer is also totally ignored when Richard Kreider has written history books
on this topic which could have been consulted (Kreider, 1996, 2012); club
football history post-1945 is not all about Sydney and Melbourne. The Perth Kangaroos’
venture could have had a longer treatment as this interesting and bold venture
was 20 years ahead of its time. (It is a pity that the administrators realized
only too late that it is the Malaysian league that gets the crowds, not the
Singapore league.) Gorman talks about spending time with Melbourne Knights’
Pave Jusup, but that treasure-trove of wisdom and information about his club is
not quoted in the actual book (unlike in my two published articles).
Nowadays, we have
mostly plastic franchises in all national-leagues in all codes and the ethnic
atmosphere of soccer has been destroyed. Yes, we have the same clubs playing at
state-league level in front of a few hundred fans but atmosphere is based on
crowd size and the old Croatia-versus-Hellas-in-front-of-8,000-people type
atmosphere is, sadly, gone forever (unless, as Knights’ president, Ange Cimera,
has said, they decide to stop ethnic cleansing). Perth Glory versus Melbourne
Knights in the A-League? I would like to see that!
On page 143, Gorman
calls Hakoah’s new Sydney City name “utterly meaningless”; in fact, I would
argue that the name is overloaded with unintended meaning; Mr. Lowy himself was
and is the “Sydney City Slicker” personified, surely?
Despite
the criticisms, this is a worthwhile and important book which refuses to ignore
or suppress or repress the ethnic history of Australian soccer. More historical
work should follow, from fan, journalist, and academic perspectives [by Kieran
James, 23 August 2018].
References cited in this review:
Kreider,
R. (1996), A Soccer Century: A Chronicle
of Western Australian Soccer from 1896 to 1996 (Leederville: SportsWest
Media).
Kreider,
R. (2012), Paddock to Pitches: The
Definitive History of Western Australian Football (Leederville: SportsWest
Media).
My published articles on Australian
soccer:
James,
K., Tolliday, C. and Walsh, R. (2011), Where to now, Melbourne Croatia?
Football Federation Australia’s use of accounting numbers to institute
exclusion upon ethnic clubs, Asian Review
of Accounting, Vol. 19, No. 2, pp. 112-124.
James,
K. and Walsh, R. (2018), The expropriation of goodwill and migrant labour in
the transition to Australian football’s A-League, International Journal of Sport Management and Marketing, Vol. 18,
No. 5, pp. 430-452 [to be published soon].
Book review author contact
details:
https://www.facebook.com/kieran.james.94
(Kieran James).
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| Henry Dyer (left) and Lote Delai @ Fiji Football Veterans' Dinner, Nadi, Saturday, 4 October 2014. Henry Dyer was dropped from the Fiji team for the first 1988 game (versus Australia) due to an alleged connection with a motor vehicle which was involved in a robbery in Suva. Lote Delai set up the goal in the first game and scored the only Fiji goal in the second game. |
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| Perth Glory historian Chris Egan and friend Reuben @ Dorrien Gardens, home of Perth Italia Soccer Club. |
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