If it's good enough for Real Madrid, surely it's good enough for Tasmania

Last night, I watched a replay of Real Madrid's La Liga game against Eibar, which was played on Sunday.

The game was not played at Real Madrid’s home, the Santiago Bernabeu stadium in Madrid, which has a capacity of 81,044.

It was built in 1947.

Real Madrid have used the shutdown of the league to begin renovations at the Bernabeu.

With no spectators allowed anyway, they were not going to lose money by not playing at the Bernabeu.  There is a lot of dirt and debris on the pitch at present so the playing surface would not be suitable for play.

The club used the Estadio Alfredo di Stefano  for the game against Eibar and they will play all their home games there until the end of the current season.

It is where their youth team, Castilla, usually plays.

It's a beautiful ground with a pitch the same size as that at the Bernabeu and a capacity of just 6,000.

Such a stadium would be the ideal set-up for Tasmanian football.

If we had such a stadium it would end all the arguments about us not having a suitable venue for, say, the A-League, or for a Tasmanian team in the A-League.

The location would obviously cause arguments.  Should it be in Hobart or Launceston?  Perhaps Campbell Town would be the idea central location?

The location is important as factors such as facilities and accessibility need to be considered.

But, the really important factor, I think, is ground capacity because the debate has often involved grounds that would potentially hold 10,000 or even 20,000 spectators.

We don’t need a stadium of that size for football in Tasmania.  Past experience of competitive A-League games in Tasmania, as well as A-League friendlies and games involving visiting teams, clearly show that.

It’s always been a struggle to get 6,000.

Forget about capacities of 10,000 or 20,000, therefore, and try and fill a 6,000-capacity stadium.

Counter intuitively, if spectators were turned away because capacity had already been reached, that might be good.

People may end up buying tickets early for the next game lest they miss out.

Surely it would be better to have a full house in a 6,000-cpacity ground than, say, 5,000 spectators in a 10,000- or 20,000-seater stadium.

The cost of building such a stadium would surely be considerably less than the cost of building one that holds double or triple that number.

Anyway, this is an idea that I feel needs consideration and perhaps government and sponsors may be more amenable to the idea.

If you want to know more, read the following article from the Evening Standard in the UK:

https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/realmadrid/real-madrid-playing-stadium-santiago-bernabeu-estadio-alfredo-di-stefano-a4468231.html

Vale John Wilson Kirkpatrick (7-6-1940 - 11-6-2020)

Photo:  John Kirkpatrick with his 1971 Rothmans Gold Medal, valued at $800.

One of Tasmania’s best-ever footballers, John Kirkpatrick, has passed away in Hobart after a long illness aged 80.

John was from Dumfries in Scotland and came to Tasmania with his wife Elizabeth and children Billy and Shirley in the 1960s.

He played with Scottish First Division club Queen of the South, a club nicknamed The Doonhamers.

He was player-coach and captain of South Hobart from 1969 until 1971.

In his first season at South Hobart, he was named as radio station 7HO’s player-of-the-year.

Photo:  The inaugural Rothmans Gold Medal won by John Kirkpatrick in 1971. [Courtesy of Billy Kirkpatrick]

John won the inaugural Rothmans Gold Medal as Tasmania’s best-and-fairest footballer in 1971.

He won with 26 votes, two more than runner-up Joe Hanna of Juventus.  The other vote-getters were Harry Robinson (White Eagles) and Brian McKay (Olympia) 19 votes, Paul Jones (Caledonians) 18 votes, Jack Dilba (Rapid) 17 points, George Sarfalvy (Croatia Glenorchy) and Robin Mills (Metro) 15 votes. 

The previous season, he was named as one of the top 10 footballers in Tasmania.

Photo:  John Kirkpatrick (second from right) at the 1983 presentation at which Liam Monagle (third from right) won the Rothmans Gold Medal.  Some previous winners are also in the photo (L-R):  Danny Spendiff (1977), Brian Davidson (1979 and 1980), Larry Nunn (1978) and, far right, Brian McKay (1973). [PlessPix]

John left South Hobart at the end of the 1971 season after he and South Hobart could not agree terms and he joined Croatia Glenorchy as their player coach.

The transfer was a cause of controversy as he was a paid coach for South Hobart but an amateur player and he wanted the same arrangement at Croatia.

South Hobart wanted a transfer fee as they claimed he was a professional player.

Kirkpatrick denied this and a subsequent investigation by the Tasmanian Soccer Association found in his favour.  Upon examination of relevant documents, it was found that the term ‘professional’ had been inserted in the South Hobart paperwork without his knowledge.  The word ‘amateur’ had been changed to ‘professional on a relevant document but the handwriting could not be traced to any individual.

Photo:  John Kirkpatrick at KGV Park [Courtesy of Billy Kirkpatrick]

John was player-coach and captain of Croatia Glenorchy in 1972 and 1973 and the club won the Lloyd Triestino Cup in 1972 after beating Caledonians 6-3 in the final.

He demanded discipline and commitment from his players and did not hesitate to drop even big-name players if he felt the player was not giving it his all.

John was an excellent player and read the game to perfection from the heart of the defence.

In both 1971 and 1972, charity matches were played in Hobart between a Great Britain selection and a Rest of the World XI.  John was selected for the Great Britain team in 1972 which lost 2-1 to the Rest of the World side.

He was hard as nails and was often seen as the ‘enforcer’ of the teams he played for.  He told me he would get very annoyed if opponents ‘butchered’ any of his team-mates.  He would have a word with them and warn them not to do it again or retribution would ensue.  If it happened again, John would ensure that the perpetrator would get his comeuppance, all within the laws of the game, of course.

I shall miss chatting to John at Northgate and at the former Pane Cucina café in North Hobart.

We would talk about the Tasmanian game in the past and also discuss the merits of the modern game and he always called a spade a spade.

John also played for Taroona St Mirren and was on the committee of the PO Saints club.

His son, Billy, was a star of Caledonians and Croatia Glenorchy in the 1980s.

John is survived by his wife, Elizabeth, son Billy and daughter Shirley, and grandchildren Jyden, Shae, Benn, Hamish, Brodie and Sophie.

Photo:  John with his wife Elizabeth [Courtesy of Billy Kirkpatrick]

Socceroos beat Tasmania 2-0 at KGV Park in 1984 but almost lose a player

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 35^th 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.