The Death & Life of Australian Soccer

Not knowing all that much about Australian soccer, I thought I'd have a gander at this book by Australian journalist, Joe Gorman. And it's quite the eye-opener. Gorman delves into the history of soccer in Australia - from the first European ex-pat clubs in the 1930s and 40s to the characters involved in the early days. One name crops up throughout, a guy I'd admittedly never heard of, Andrew Dettre. He arrived in Australia from Hungary (via other parts of Europe) in late 1949 and he started a long career writing about and influencing Australian soccer. Loads of his recommendations were ultimately implemented into the soccer industry, one of them being the advent of summer soccer in the 1989/90 season.

Other interesting names I'd never encountered before include Leopold Baumgartner, an Austrian star who arrived in Sydney in 1958 to play for Prague; Ulysees Kokkinos, one of the first 'pop-star' players, whose career was ended by some unseemly extortion and jail time; and the three trail-blazing Aboriginal players, Charles Perkins, Gordon Briscoe and John Moriarty (I'd heard of Perkins before but had no idea he was such a figure in the history of Aussie soccer).

The main theme that runs through the book is what to do with the ethnic clubs that nurtured and developed the sport in Australia. It's a huge issue and I still don't know quite where I stand, suffice to say that there'd most likely be no Australian soccer as we know it without them.

The most rewarding parts for me were the sections on the Socceroos' attempts to get to recent World Cups and the numerous mentions of Johnny Warren and Les Murray, for me the two legends of the game in Australia. I still get a shiver when I remember me and Paddy bumping into Johnny Warren on a Paris Metro platform in 1998 and helping him find his way to the Stade de France. One of the most inspirational blokes I've ever met and just super friendly to boot. Both him and Les are much missed but well remembered.