I recently decided to have a look
at club names in Tasmanian football and seek out some of the unusual ones.
I am indebted to Keith Roberts,
whose 2018 booklet entitled “Tasmanian Soccer:
Winners and Losers”, was compiled from Keith’s records and his extensive
research of Tasmania’s three major newspapers.
Once upon a time, large industrial
firms often had teams. Hence, we had ANM
(Australian Newsprint Mills), a southern-based team that played as New Norfolk
from 1948-50 and 1959-60.
And then there was the North-West
Coast side, APPM, which I assume represented the Burnie paper manufacturer,
Australian Pulp and Paper Mills. They were
in existence from 1950-53 and 1957-58
before becoming Burnie Rovers in 1961.
Some readers may remember the Titan
ground in Moonah. It was the home of the
Titan club, which became Moonah in 1952.
Titan was an English tool manufacturing company with a plant at Moonah
and the ground was beside the factory. I
can recall coaching a Claremont school team in a cup final at that ground back
in the 1980s. Our opponents were a
Dominic College team coached by former Rapid and State goalkeeper, Phil
Kannegiesser.
Zinc Works was a club in southern
Tasmania in 1953. Papermakers played in
the North-West from 1955-63, while Patons & Baldwins were active in the
north in 1925-31, 1936-67. They held the
State title in 1926 and 1930.
There were some very interesting club
names in Tasmanian football last century, including Berea, a minor southern
team in 1947. Berea is a city in
northern Greece and I wonder if Greek immigrants were involved in this club that
survived just one season.
Black Bears is a fascinating
name. They were a minor league side in northern
Tasmania in 1952 and I think their players were often German immigrants working
on the Hydro power scheme.
Bohemians was another interesting
club name for a southern Tasmanian team.
Bohemia was a European region that now forms the western part of the
Czech Republic, so it would be interesting to know if the club was funded by
Bohemian immigrants. ‘Bohemian’ also
elates to an unconventional lifestyle, so it could have been a club formed by
Tasmanian hippies! It only lasted for
one season (1954) so perhaps all the players moved to San Francisco and were
the founders of the Hippie movement there a decade or so later. I am, of course, speaking tongue-in-cheek
here, so don’t get too excited.
Brighton Olympians played in the
minor southern competition in 1950.
Perhaps there was a Greek connection there?
The Central North-East of Tasmania
had the Break O’Day league in the early 1930s and Cornwall was one of the teams. I wonder if it was founded by Cornwall miners
who had moved there from England and worked tin mines?
The two teams that really fascinate
me from that region are Rossarden and Story’s Creek. They apparently played in the northern league
based in Launceston.
Rossarden existed from 1959 until
1961, when a thriving mining community existed there. Story’s Creek, a little way up the road from
Rossarden, lasted just the one season (1960).
I’d like to think there was a fiercely contested local derby played
there, but my research has unearthed nothing of the sort.
I have been to both towns and
recently directed a couple of mates that way, but none of us has ever found the
remnants of a football pitch. Story’s
Creek is now a ghost town and my friends found what may have once been a small
oval with a crumbling cricket pitch in the middle.
I did manage to contact a former player
of Rossarden, Michael Kvarantan, who played for Croatia in Hobart in about 1960
before heading north to work at Poatina.
He told me he played for Rossarden but had never actually been
there. He said the team played its games
in Launceston and the players would gather in Launceston for the games.
Michael scored the only goal of his
career playing for Rossarden. He said it
was meant to be a cross, but the ball swung in under the crossbar and was
described by The Examiner reporter as a magnificent goal. Michael didn’t set the record straight!
Michael has no recollection of any
derby between Rossarden and Story’s Creek and Rossarden, in fact, became
Launceston Croatia in 1962. He returned
to Hobart that season and resumed his career with Croatia.
Excelsior played a few games in the
minor southern leagues in 1935. That’s a
Dutch name, but I doubt there would have been many Dutch immigrants in Tasmania
at that time.
There were also teams called
Glenorchy (1959-60) and Goodwood (1959-60).
I think some of their players joined South Hobart after they were
disbanded.
Mt Nelson had a team from 1949-53,
while the Hydro town of Wayatinah, where my grandfather Balthazar Pless worked
for a time, played in the southern Tasmanian competition from 1961 to 1963.
Fern Tree also had a team in 1975
and they became the Salvation Army team that played under the name
Salvoes. Reg Tolputt was one of the
founders of Salvoes. He was manager of the
Tasmanian side in the 1970s and was devoted to football. He, David Martin (Caledonians) and I had a
radio show about football on 7HT on Saturday mornings in the early 1980s.
There was also a West Coast League
at one time and Gormanston played Queenstown in 1923, for example. The mining town Savage River had a team from
1982-83.
Juliana was a team from northern
Tasmania in 1957 which may have had Dutch connections. Queen Juliana reigned in the Netherlands from
1948 until 1980.
Lovett was a club in the Huon
Valley in 1914 with British connections.
In the early 1900s, teams from the
ships Zeelandia and Paloona competed in Tasmania. The Zeelandia team played social matches when
in port in Hobart, while the team from Paloona played social games and were sometimes
included in the southern league.
Malaysian Tigers and their reserves
called Harimau played in southern Tasmania leagues in the 60s and 70s. They were mostly comprised of Malaysian
students at the University of Tasmania.
The Peninsula Pirates were a team
in the minor southern leagues from 2010-14.
I’d love to know more about the
Weisa Bulldogs, who played only social games in the north in 1951, and the team
called Tabernacle, which played in the minor northern leagues from 1927-31.
And then there was Cricketers, who
started the ball rolling at New Town in 1879 with the first-ever Tasmanian football
game.
If you’re interested in Tasmanian
club names, why not contact Keith Roberts, who probably has more copies of his
publication available at a reasonable price.
I purchased a couple of copies and sent one to a mate in the Northern
Territory, who is involved in indigenous football there. He is one of the two
people I referred to earlier in this article and whom I directed to Rossarden
and Story’s Creek recently. I’m waiting for
the photos they took of Rossarden and Story’s Creek and these may just include
the dilapidated oval and cricket pitch (football pitch?) at the latter ghost
town.