Will 2019 be Zebras' year, as was 1969?

 Photo:  Rothmans State Manager John O'Brien (right) presents cheques to Olympia captain Dick Girling (left), Croatia-Glenorchy Captain Joe Fiamengo (second from left) and Juventus skipper Joe Hanna (second from right).  Olympia received $101 for finishing second, Croatia-Glenorchy $90 for third place, and Juventus $109 for first place.

This 2019 season will be the 50^th anniversary of Hobart Juventus winning their first league title.

In 1969, under coach Karl Schwesinger and captained by the late Joe Hanna, Juventus won the Southern Tasmanian title, as well as the State Championship with a 6-5 aggregate win over two legs against their sister club, Launceston Juventus.

Launceston Juventus won the first leg 4-2 at White City in Launceston, while Hobart Juventus won the second leg 4-1 at South Hobart, thus claiming the Captain W. Cottrell-Dormer Cup, which was the trophy awarded to the State champions.

Hobart Juventus scored twice in the last three minutes to clinch the State title.

Johnny Genovesi headed home Australian youth international Phil Owen’s cross to make the aggregate score level, while the unfortunate Peter Mies turned a Remo Carnevale cross into his own net to give the Southerners the State title.

Joe Hanna played an inspirational captain’s game despite a fractured wrist [take note, Tom Rogic], holding the defence together and feeding his forwards with brilliant passes.

It was the 13^th year of Hobart Juventus’s existence and the Southern title was clinched on the 13^th day of September with a 3-0 win over South Hobart, coached by John Kirkpatrick, at Grove Road, the goals coming from Remo Carnevale, Joe Scaramuzza and Domenic Rizzolo.

Two years later, Kirkpatrick would become the inaugural winner of the Rothmans Gold Medal for the best-and-fairest player in Tasmania.

It was Joe Hanna’s first premiership and Karl Schwesinger’s first year as Juventus coach.

The regular Hobart Juventus squad in 1969 was:  Jaegar, Howarth, Watson, Tria, Scaramuzza, Schwesinger, Hanna, Phil Owen, Genovesi, Rizzolo, Carnevale, Wood, Giusti, Richardson, Palermo, Cengia.

The Northern Juventus squad was:  Lockett, Wilson, Baird, de Paoli, Brown, Mies, Strickland, Schraeder, Whinnett, Visentin, Morosini, Streit, Van der Pols, Cook.

The Captain W. Cottrell-Dormer Cup was put on display later that week at Hobart’s Fitzgerald’s store because there was so much public interest in the State Final.

Also on display at Fitzgerald’s was the Grimwood Perpetual Trophy, awarded to the Southern champions, Juventus, and the John Clemente Top Goal-Scorer’s Cup, won by Juventus’s centre-forward, Domenic Rizzolo.

Dr Clemente, by the way, was the president of Hobart Juventus and was in his first year in office.

Action photos from games throughout the season were also part of the display at the Hobart department store.

It was the first season that Croatia played under their new name, Croatia-Glenorchy.  Rudi Hancl was their president and Frank Hesman their secretary.  Both gentlemen are still about.

Alex Sarfalvy, the doyen of local coaches, was in charge of Croatia-Glenorchy, while the renowned Peter Cagialis coached Olympia.

Croatia-Glenorchy won the State-wide Ampol Cup that year with 4-0 win against Hobart Juventus.

There was crowd trouble at South Hobart that season during the Olympia versus Northern Suburbs Caledonians game, and police reinforcements had to be called.

Referee Rodger Marlor claimed he has been kicked, struck and spat upon by spectators in a wild melee.

Things are so quiet these days and it takes the tame antics of such wannabe coaches as Gabriel Markaj to spark up some interest amongst the general populace.

Referees were paid $6 a game in the top-tier Cambridge League in the South, with linesmen earning $3 a game.  In the lower leagues, referees earned the princely sum of $4 a game.

1969 was also the year that the North (6 teams) and North-West (4 teams) got together and formed the inaugural Combined League.

Sixteen young members of the Ulverstone club, only three of whom were actually players, also embarked on a tour of Holland and the UK.

The Ulverstone club had strong links with Holland, of course, and many Dutch migrants played for the club.

I recall many years later watching the televised Olympic qualifier between Australia and the Netherlands in Holland  -  yes, the game in which Ned Zelic scored that incredible goal from an impossible angle to give Australia victory and qualification and which kick-started his career  -  and the cameras suddenly zoomed in to a section of the crowd and people were holding up a huge banner which read:  “Hello Ulverstone.”

So, there’s the challenge for you, David Smith and Nick Di Giovanni.

Can Hobart Zebras (what an underwhelming name compared to Juventus) celebrate a league title on the 50^th anniversary of the club’s first such success?