Footy History Symposium

[Raw Toast]

Thought that a fair few of posters here might be interested in attending a one-day symposium I'm co-organising on 150 Years of Australian Football.

I've attached the flyer - basically we've got a bunch of footy historians giving talks on various aspects of the history of footy including the origins of Australian football, the passions of fans, footy in Darwin, women's footy, and how to preserve, record and present the histories of local footy clubs.

The day is free and fully catered for, but you need to register to attend via our website: http://www.historical-studies.unimelb.edu.au/events/australianfootball.html

Cheers,

Matthew

PS How do I make the flyer (a pdf file) so that it comes up as part of this post?

[Twodogs]

Thamks for letting us know Matt. I've just registered-it sounds like my kind of day.


Anyone who is interested in football history should have a day out.

[Pembleton]

I've registered too.

Thanks for that Matthew.

[westdog54]

Registering now, sounds like an interesting day.

Twodogs, I'll be in touch so that we can meet up on the day.

[LostDoggy]

Just looked and it states 9:00am on the PDF. I have registered and hope to meet some of you guys there.

[westdog54]

Very interesting day. A big thumbs up to Raw Toast and his team, they put together a wonderful day.

Associate Professor Bob Stewart gave a great Keynote address, discussing the history and growth of the game through its birth, some of the significant National carnivals (in particular the 1908 carnival, in which a NZ team participated, and won a couple of games), the 1933 carnival in Sydney, the 1950 carnival in Brisbane (considered one of the most successful ever), South Melbourne's relocation, and the rebranding to the AFL.

One of the interesting discussions he raised was the debate over the origin of the rules, and he suggested that some of the rules may have originated in Sheffield Football Club rules from 1858, and the link to Marngrook.

He suggested 3 reasons why the AFL is so successful:


The AFL is a Monopoly/Cartel (he managed to throw in a Visy/Amcor cheapshot in, which raised a laugh), in that it is Football's central body, controlling the labour market, prices, rules, venues etc.
The tribal identity involved with some clubs.
Most importantly IMO, the aesthetics of the game. Its a beautiful game, and doesn't have as many untidy stoppages as other similar games.


Attention then turned to the range of papers that were presented across 3 sessions. The ones that stood out for me were Raw Toast's paper, entitled: "Each time I'm reminded of it, I feel as though I need therapy": Fans' responses to tragic defeats. Not surprisingly, the paper has a big focus on our 1997 loss to Adelaide, and borrows quotes from BF/WOOF elites such as Pembleton, TCD, always right, bulldogrob, Jean Claude van Deferens et al.

The other was the only real 'non-academic' paper we heard for the day, a paper by Dr Tony Birch entitled "There is a heaven- and they called it Fitzroy". He recounts his experiences of the his early years following Fitzroy, of going to preseason training full of hope for the next year, of the waning confidence in the later years, on the emptiness after the last game and his thoughts on how it panned out, and how he now deals with not having his club. He also recounted how he had something of a soft spot for Footscray, which lead me to ask the question of whether he would have supported the Fitzroy Bulldogs if the proposed merger had gone ahead. His reply was interesting, he said that he would have been "ashamed" to have taken such a massive chunk of our history and identity, he would have felt dirty about it, and essentially suggested he felt better not having a club than supporting one that had so taken another club's identity. It was unfortunate he had another commitment, because I would have loved to have picked his brain over lunch, he seemed as though he had so much more to tell, time simply didn't permit.

The Day finished with a discussion panel Moderated by Gerard Whately, featuring David Parkin, Steve Alessio, Economics professor Lionel Frost and Historian June Senyard. They discussion was titled "The Game's not the Same".

What stood out for me was David Parkin's thoughts on the state of the game. I'm paraphrasing here, but he suggested that the game has become somewhat predictable, we basically know what's going to happen in most games (this was debated somewhat). Having said that he also suggested he enjoyed the game more than the rugby codes, which are very stop/start, and American Football, which he thought was a "Pretty Stupid Game", because it had offensive teams, defensive teams, special teams, where essentially the team that gets the ball back comes off the field so that the team that lost in the first place takes over again. Was quite funny to listen to how he saw it.

Gerard Whately's thoughts on the West Sydney team were also interesting. He summed it up quite well by saying "If we're a sport, we'll go to Tasmania. If we're a business, we'll go to West Sydney". He also believes the belief that the two million people in West Sydney who don't already follow the AFL will now start following it simply because they have a local team is foolery.

Pembleton may have further recollections to share, but all in all, a very interesting day. I feel sorry for Twodogs, who was unable to make it. He would've had a ball.

[Pembleton]

It was a really enjoyable day, with a number of interesting papers presented.

Thank you to Raw Toast for his work organising the day. and for letting us know about it on WOOF. Also, thank you for presenting an insightful and enjoyable paper.

[Raw Toast]

Was great to see westdog54 and Pembleton there, thanks for coming along. I was sorry to not meet you there jaxson42, and a pity that Twodogs couldn't get along, I'll let you know when the book from the conference is published (hopefully sometime next year) - I thought I'd be too stressed to enjoy the day, but had a grand time which is hopefully a good sign.

wd54 has given a good report of the day, and there's an other nice account up on the AFL's 150 website: http://www.150years.com.au/Home/Article/tabid/11376/Default.aspx?newsId=63503

For me the stand-out presentation was Tony Birch's - hopefully it will be published very soon, and I'll try and get a copy up on WOOF, because it makes the point very strongly that there's something much worse than following a battling club, and that's not having a club to follow at all.

My paper and another thing I've written will hopefully be coming out in journals later this year, and I'll see if I can get those up on WOOF as well.

[LostDoggy]

My apologies gents. didn't realise I'd double booked for the day.

[westdog54]

Was great to see westdog54 and Pembleton there, thanks for coming along. I was sorry to not meet you there jaxson42, and a pity that Twodogs couldn't get along, I'll let you know when the book from the conference is published (hopefully sometime next year) - I thought I'd be too stressed to enjoy the day, but had a grand time which is hopefully a good sign.

wd54 has given a good report of the day, and there's an other nice account up on the AFL's 150 website: http://www.150years.com.au/Home/Article/tabid/11376/Default.aspx?newsId=63503

For me the stand-out presentation was Tony Birch's - hopefully it will be published very soon, and I'll try and get a copy up on WOOF, because it makes the point very strongly that there's something much worse than following a battling club, and that's not having a club to follow at all.

My paper and another thing I've written will hopefully be coming out in journals later this year, and I'll see if I can get those up on WOOF as well.

Both would be much appreciated RT. Tony's paper had me glued from start to finish. The passion in his voice was unmistakable.