1974 saw 100 games postponed and needing to be played

Photo:  Devonport, who won the Combined North and North-West League and contested the 1974 State Final against Croatia Glenorchy.

Croatia Glenorchy, coached by Tony Skaro, won the Cambridge League (Southern Tasmanian) title in 1974 and went on to win the State title by defeating Devonport home and away.

Croatia downed Devonport 3-0 at South Hobart in the first leg and 2-1 away in Devonport to win 5-1 on aggregate.

At the national level, The Socceroos first qualified for the World Cup Finals in 1974 under coach Rale Rasic.

Australia didn’t win a game in their group, losing to West Germany, the ultimate World Cup winners, and East Germany, but drawing 0-0 with Chile in the remaining group game.

Attacking midfielder Ray Bartz did not accompany the Socceroos to West Germany as he almost died after suffering a karate chop to the throat in a pre-tournament ‘friendly’ against Uruguay in Sydney on 27 April 1974.

He survived after hospital treatment, but the injury ended his career.

Australia won 2-0, but the referee almost abandoned the game because of the violence perpetrated by the Uruguayans in a disgraceful display which saw the South Americans reduced to 10 players after the assault on Baartz.

There was trouble in Tasmanian football, too.  Police had to escort referee Barry Powell from the field at South Hobart after Rapid had beaten Olympia 5-2.  Ken Baker was the Rapid coach at the time, having been appointed coach after playing for Dnipro in 1973.

A spectator kicked Powell in the stomach and police had to force their way through the large crowd to arrest the offender and take him from the ground.

It’s interesting to look at the prize money on offer at the time.  Juventus had won the 1973 title and were awarded the princely sum of $170.  Second-placed Croatia Glenorchy won $120 and third-placed Olympia $110.

Photo:  The 1974 Rosebery team.  Back Row (L-R):  Wilf Whittaker, Warwick Davis, Bob Farrow, Bill Michtits, Robert Hetherington, Jerry Perkins, Ken Wright, Sotero Perez.  Front Row (L-R):  Alan McLoughlin, Alan Gibson, Tommy Docherty, Stephen Wright, Danny Thurocza.  

Rosebery, a team from the West Coast mining town, had a team in the Combined Soccer League in the north of Tasmania for the second consecutive year.

In 1973, Rosebery had travelled a total of 9,600km for their league matches and it was the same in 1974.  On one weekend, they had a round trip of 465km when they played Launceston United in Launceston.

Former Socceroo Mike Denton was playing for Burnie Spartans in 1974 and he was as deadly as ever when it came to scoring goals.  Jim Witheford, the soccer writer for The Examiner, described Denton’s opening goal in the 2-2 draw with Launceston Croatia in this way:  “Denton turned on a one-cent piece to drive home a beauty”.

The yellow and red cards for cautions and dismissals, respectively, were introduced to Tasmanian football in 1974.

In relation to referees, 82-year-old Norm Evans was made a Life Member of the Australian Soccer Referees’ Association.  Evans had played for South Hobart in the club’s inaugural season in 1910.

Several youngsters were starting to make their mark in football.  Bill Kirkpatrick was a star of Metro at just 15 years of age in a 2-2 draw with University in an Ampol Cup match, while Dominic Fraraccio and Brayden Carter were selected to train with the Australian Schoolboys squad in preparation for the game against the touring England Schoolboys.

Fraraccio made the side and played for the last 25 minutes in the 2-0 loss to England at the Sydney Sports Ground on 11 August 1974.

Jim Mackinnon, who later became a major benefactor of the game, made his mark by scoring twice for Caledonians in a 3-2 win over White Eagles in 1974.

Kim Barker, who eventually became Tasmania’s top referee for nine years in a row, was just 11 years-old in 1974 and he made the Guinness Book of World Records when he scored 21 goals in an Under-12 game for South Hobart, who beat Hutchins 25-0.

John Genovesi, a young star for Juventus in 1974, was selected for Australia’s Under-23s to tour Indonesia.  Genovesi played in a practice match in Sydney but he was injured in the team’s first training session in Indonesia and didn’t play on the three-match tour.

Don Farmery arrived in Hobart to play for Rapid in 1974.  He had been playing for SC Chelsea in Sydney and went on to star for Rapid in succeeding seasons.

Taroona Ajax signed a player from Holland to join some of their Dutch players.  It was not surprising given their name at the time!

Photo:  The Combined North and North-West representative team that travelled to Melbourne in 1974 to play Victoria.  Back Row (L-R):  P Calcraft (coach), S McCormack (Launceston United), P Shegog and M Bellchambers (Ulverstone), J Hodge (Olympic), R Wesson (Juventus), M Perkins (Rosebery), A Gray (manager).  Front Row (l-R):  R Knight (Croatia), W Eastley (Burnie Rovers), L Hodge (Olympic), T Strickland (George Town), P Rosevear (Matric), D Mallett (St Leonard's). [Absent:  M Newall (Burnie Spartans), C Baird (Devonport), C Gambles (Launceston United). 

Croatia, who were to be the 1974 champions, began their campaign with a thrilling 8-5 win over White Eagles, after being 4-3 down at the interval, at South Hobart in April.  Eagles got back to 5-5 before three late goals gave Croatia the win.

Milan Lakoseljac, after whom the present-day Lakoseljac Cup is named, netted four goals for Croatia.  Kevin Leung hit a hat-trick and the remaining goal was an own-goal.

The squads that day were:

Croatia:  Eddie Puclin, Alistair Payne, Dudley Hall, Andy Collins, Frank Letec, Willy Peters, Aldo Prodan, Kevin Leung, Milan Lakoseljac, Tony Skaro (captain/coach), George Sarfalvy, Denis Trueman, Ante Bolonja.

White Eagles:  Walter Bucher, Darby Conlan, Karl Schwesinger (captain), Jakov Plazonic, Peter Thompson, Dave Stoddart Snr, Nick Drascovic, Clive Ormrod, Ian Stewart, Alex Alwan, Greg Joughin (Reserves:  Leaman, Bobby Osuchowski, Bogdan Dora).

Croatia were also involved in a thriller later in the season when they beat Juventus 4-3 through goals by Lakoseljac, Chris Collins, Letec and Leung.  Juventus replied with two goals by Ken Worden and one by Stewart.

The weather badly affected the Tasmanian season in late 1974 and one weekend, for the first time in 20 years, there were 8 top-flight games scheduled to make up for earlier postponements.

By July 1974, there were 100 games postponed in all and administrators were left scratching their heads as they tried to re-schedule fixtures.  Croatia were already champions when they played their final roster match of the season against Dnipro.

Photo:  Tommy Wright (left) and former Olympia team-mate Norm Stanton attend a game at Warrior Park nowadays [PlessPix]

Olympia player Tommy Wright showed he was good in other sports, too.  He won the 1974 heavyweight blue belt State title in Tae Kwon Do.

To round off the season, Dnipro’s Billy Jones won the 1974 Rothmans Gold Medal as the State’s best-and-fairest footballer.

The day Chelsea came to town

Photo:  The souvenir programme for Chelsea's 1965 tour of Australia.

On 26 May 1965, English First Division club Chelsea played Tasmania at North Hobart Oval.

It was a Wednesday afternoon and many people had to get time off work to watch the game.

I was a student at Hobart Matriculation College at the time and we students had to ask permission from our principal to attend the game just over the road from the college.

Chelsea had beaten Victoria 1-0 at Olympic Park in Melbourne before 18,000 spectators on the weekend before the Tasmanian game.  Scottish international Jim McCalliog scored the goal.

Terry Venables had missed that match after being injured in Chelsea’s previous game in Newcastle.

He didn’t play against Tasmania, either.  I remember standing near him at the steps to the main grandstand at North Hobart (adjacent to Argyle Street) and being impressed as he juggled a 20-cent piece with his shiny shoes, flicking it up on to his shoulder and then letting it fall back to his feet and repeating the trick.

Venables was 22 years old and had already played for England.  He would be transferred to Tottenham, Hotspur the following year and eventually also played for Queens Park Rangers and Crystal Palace.

He would go on to manage England.  He also coached Australia in that ill-fated World Cup campaign of 1997.

Goalkeeper Peter Bonetti, who passed away last week aged 78, was not part of the Chelsea squad that came to Tasmania.  He was in the England Under-23 side that was touring Europe at the time.

The Tasmanian side was reinforced by three Victorian players:  Frank Donleavy (Melbourne Juventus), right-back Terry Hartley (Melbourne Juventus) and centre-forward Mike Jurecki (Melbourne Polonia).

The Tasmanian team was:  Mick Roussos (Olympia), T Hartley (Victoria), Hugh Robertson (Olympia), Jim Wallace (Rangers), Egon Mathias (Rapid), Frank Donleavy (Victoria), Walter Worsey (Juventus), Hans Streit (Northern Juventus), Mike Jurecki (Victoria), Peter Wood (White Eagles), Harold Pattison (Devonport).  Reserves:  Karl Jaegar (Rapid), Joe Rader (Rapid), Barry Shacklady (Olympia).

Six of this team had played for Tasmania against New Zealand, in New Zealand, earlier in the year.  Can you imagine a Tasmanian representative team travelling to play New Zealand nowadays?

The Chelsea squad was:  John Dunn (20) (Goalkeeper), Alan Harris (21), Ken Shellito (24), Marvin Hinton 24), John Mortimore (29), Frank Upton (29), Barry Bridges (23), Joe Fascione (19), Peter Houseman (18), Jimmy McCalliog (17), John Boyle (18), Terry Venables (21), Peter Osgood (18) and Billy Sinclair (18).

Tasmanian soccer had been rocked five days before the game when three of South Hobart's promising young team were involved in a car accident on the way home from training.  Outstanding left-winger Steve Watson was killed, while Colin West and Ron Manson were seriously injured.

South Hobart captain-coach Jim Scally politely refused offers of loan players to replace the trio that were received from Juventus and Olympia.  Scally selected an all-South Hobart side against Olympia for the coming weekend.

Olympia beat South Hobart 4-2 as it turned out.  A minute's silence was observed before all games that weekend in memory of Watson, one of the up-and-coming stars of Tasmanian football.

A crowd of 4,500 turned up for the mid-week game at North Hobart and Chelsea won 12-0 after leading 4-0 at half-time.

The goals came from Peter Osgood (17, 30, 35, 80, 86), Barry Bridges (46, 56, 64), Jim Smart (81, 84), John Boyle (42) and Tommy Docherty (71 pen).

Tommy Docherty, the Chelsea manager, warmed up at half-time and played for the second half, scoring a penalty.

Shellito, Bridges and Venables were already full internationals.

Peter Houseman, who played left-wing against Tasmania, was to die tragically in a car accident 11 years later while he was a player for Oxford United.  He and his wife and another couple were returning home from a charity function when they collided with a speeding vehicle driving on the incorrect side of the road.  All four were killed instantly.  The driver of the offending vehicle was the 21-year-old son of a member of parliament and was fined 4,000 Pounds and disqualified from driving for 12 years.

Chelsea were quite innovative at the time.  They had numbers on the front of their shorts  (as well as on the back of their shirts) and were the first team to do this.  It certainly made it much easier to identify the players.

Discipline was strict at the club, nicknamed at the time as 'The Pensioners".  The team trained in the afternoons to coincide with the normal Saturday match kick-off times.  Players who were late for training were fined.

All players wore club uniforms at away matches, and all were given one small and one large blue travelling bag  with 'Chelsea FC' inscribed in white on the side.

The curtain-raiser at North Hobart was between a Schools XI and a Tasmanian Under-19 side.

The Schools XI squad was:  D Balding (Hutchins), R Biggar (Hobart Matric), J Johnston (Clarence High), R Zapatocki (Cosgrove High), R Maschiter (Taroona High), E Owen (Captain) (New Town High), P Owen ((Hobart Matric), Fong Mar (Hobart Tech College), O Bachinger (Hobart Matric), K Leung (Elizabeth High), K Laning (Taroona High).  Reserves:  Dolliver (Cosgrove High), D Carson (Claremont High), O Heinrich (Cosgrove High).

Jack Johnston, of course, went on to become Tasmania’s leading referee and the only Tasmanian ever to become a FIFA referee.  He also became the Commissioner of Police.

The Schools XI beat the Under-19s 6-1 after it was 1-1 at the interval.

Kevin Leung scored a hat-trick, with the other goals coming from David Carson, Otmar Bachinger and Erik Owen.  Goodey replied for the Under-19s.

What's happening with the NPL Tasmania imports?

Photo:  South Hobart's American goalkeeper, Chase Webert, has returned to the U.S.A. [PlessPix]

The coronavirus pandemic has caused havoc in the A-League when it comes to imports, with some returning home and others trapped in Australia.

What is the situation in Tasmania’s NPL competition?

Reigning champions Devonport Strikers have three imports in Raphael Reynolds, Wyatt Scott and Orlando Monroy.

Centre-back Raphael Reynolds, a Canadian, is applying for Australian citizenship and is still in Tasmania.

American Wyatt Scott, a winger or striker, has returned to the US.

Orlando Monroy, another American, is still in Tasmania but his future is unclear at this stage.

Photo:  Olympia's American goalkeeper Davis Smith has returned home [PlessPix]

Olympia Warriors duo, defender Kazume Kobayashi and goalkeeper Davis Smith, have returned to Japan and the USA, respectively.

Striker Jack Ryan is still with the club.

“I do not believe there will be a season which will be recognisable as an NPL season,” said Olympia president, George Mamacas.

“When the season was postponed, we sent the two lads home.”

South Hobart had two American imports in goalkeeper Chase Webert and central defender Patrick Kibler.

Webert has returned to the USA but intends to return, while Kibler is still in Tasmania.

Clarence Zebras’ two imports, Frenchman Quentin Parant and Korean Byungtae Ahn remain in Tasmania and are fruit picking.

Riverside Olympic’s Nil Sanz from Spain and Luca Vigilante from Argentina are still with the club.

Kingborough Lions United’s three imports are Americans Tim Baker and Davis Bryan, and Spaniard Javier Verdu Sanchez.

The two Americans are still here, but Sanchez is injured and won’t play if there is a season.  He has been unable to return to Spain.

Glenorchy Knights have no imports.

Launceston City had three English imports.

Louis Anthony has returned home, while Sam Ridgard and Rob Gerrard are still here.