Photo: My 'doctored' match report in "Soccer Action" of 17 October 1984.
The first time the Socceroos played in Tasmania
was on Wednesday, 10 October 1984.
Australia beat Tasmania 2-0 at KGV Park on a cold,
wet and very windy evening before a crowd of 1,500.
Conceding just one goal in each half against
the full Australian national team was a very good performance by the
Tasmanians.
I won’t forget that game for several reasons, apart from the fact it was the first time the senior Australian national team had played in Tasmania.
I was new in the job of soccer writer for The
Mercury, and I was also writing for “Soccer Action”, a Fairfax publication and
part of the stable of The Age.
The main reason I will never forget that game
was because Australia’s midfielder, Alan Davidson, almost died in the 60th minute when he swallowed his
tongue after heading a long ball punted upfield by Tasmania’s goalkeeper, Steve
Craven.
As Davidson lay on the pitch and play went
on, Graham Arnold, the present-day coach of the Socceroos, who had come on as a
substitute at half-time, sensed something was wrong and raced over to Davidson,
who lay unconscious on the ground.
It was Arnold who managed to release Davidson’s
tongue and save his life.
Davidson spent the night in the Royal Hobart
Hospital and was released the next day.
Davidson had suffered a similar incident in a
league match a few months earlier.
He was on the verge of being signed by
English club Nottingham Forest.
After the game, Australia’s coach, Frank
Arok, implored me not to highlight the incident as he felt it would jeopardize
Davidson’s chances of being signed by Forest.
I filed my report for “Soccer Action” later
that evening and got a severe dressing down from the editor, the late Laurie
Schwab, for tucking the Davidson incident deep down in the story.
Being inexperienced as a reporter, I had
acceded to Arok’s request and, to help out Davidson, I had ignored the
newsworthy nature of the incident.
Schwab rewrote my match report and headlined
the incident and led off with it in the opening paragraph.
As it turned out, Davidson did join
Nottingham Forest, who had won the European Cup twice, in 1978-79 and 1979-80.
He played a mere five games for Forest, however,
in the 1984-85 season.
I had learned my lesson, and that was to
watch events dispassionately and to always write what I saw, without fear or favour.
The teams were:
Australia:
Laumets - Gomez (Belic 48), J O’Shea, Cannell -
Savor, Senkalski, Wade, Crino, A Davidson (Watson 60) -
Farina, Egan (Arnold 46).
Tasmania:
Craven - Driessen, Monagle, Di Martino, Hey (Sherman
80) -
B Davidson, Charlton, S Kannegiesser, Nunn -
Parker, Sawdon (Pace78).
The referee was Jack Johnston, Tasmania’s
FIFA-accredited referee.
Tasmania were somewhat in awe of their
opponents in the first half but trailed only by the single goal at the
break. That was scored in the 35th
minute by Gomez, following a corner.
Steve Craven was brilliant in goal for
Tasmania and made several outstanding saves.
Australia’s second goal came late in the
match through Joe Senkalski, who was unmarked at the far post and had all the
time in the world to control a right-wing cross before netting.
Australia’s coach, Frank Arok, said the
Socceroos had been surprised by how good Tasmania were and had not expected
such a tough game.
