[quote=50cent]Copied and pasted from the Guardian. A long but bloody brilliant read. [b]The forgotten story of ... Advance Australia Fair and the Socceroos[/b] Australias football team worked with Gough Whitlam in the campaign to recognise the countrys national anthem On the fringe of the Western Sydney Parklands, about an hour’s drive south-west of FFA Headquarters, is a private museum dedicated to Australian football. The setting is appropriate. In the 15 square kilometre stretch that separates Cabramatta from Cecil Park and Bonnyrigg from Bossley Park is Sydney’s forgotten ‘soccer-belt’ – home to Sydney United, Bonnyrigg White Eagles and Marconi. From this cradle sprang Christian Vieri, Mark Bosnich, Harry Kewell, Tony Popovic and Mile Jedinak, to name just a few. On the edge of it all, on the road to the Blue Mountains, is Rale Rasic’s personal collection of memorabilia spanning nearly half a century of involvement in Australian football. “The FFA should have it,” says Rasic, but they aren’t interested. Rašić estimates there are tens of thousands of photographs and newspaper articles, which are crammed into hundreds of scrapbooks. Club pennants – from Morwell Falcons to Olympiakos to the New York Cosmos – dangle from the roof, while Socceroos jerseys butt-up against flags and framed photos on the walls. A photograph of Bob Marley in an Adelaide City Juventus shirt overlooks the entrance. Kostya Tszyu wears a Marconi jersey in another. There is barely an inch of space to be found. Even the coasters scattered on the handsome wooden desk are football-themed. I place my glass on a brilliant blue example from Mexico 1970. Behind each artefact and piece of memorabilia is a story. As the coach of the first Socceroos side to qualify for a World Cup in 1974, Rasic is proud and protective of the game’s history. In the far corner of his museum is a bottle-green homemade tracksuit worn by Jim Scane, the Socceroos mascot for the 1974 World Cup. Printed in gold on the front are the names of all the players, on the back are the names of Australia’s opponents. The collar is stitched with the Australian flag, the sleeves crowded with patches from Australian state federations and clubs. The most striking feature of the jacket, however, is the gold kangaroo on the back, just below the words “Advance Australia Fair”, which arch over the shoulder blades. This kitschy, historic jacket tells a story forgotten not just by football fans, but also by historians and the wider community. The historiography of Advance Australia Fair can be tricky to navigate. “Of all the public controversies that typified the transition from an imperial to a national civic culture,” wrote historian James Curran, “none reached the heights of absurdity of the search for a national anthem.” Hijacked by politics, the debate over Australia’s national anthem, which began in the lead-up to the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, reached its apogee in the mid-1970s. Gough Whitlams new Labor government favoured Advance Australia Fair, while the conservatives and monarchists in the Liberal party wanted to retain God Save the Queen. Whitlam, in typical fashion, pressed ahead anyway. Whitlams advocacy for Advance Australia Fair was part of a wider progressive political program. Under the electoral slogan “Its Time”, the Labor Party feverishly pushed for both practical and symbolic reform. Money was invested in Australian artistic and cultural endeavour. Gone was the British awards system, replaced with the Order of Australia, while the royal title was changed to Queen of Australia. For the first time, the federal government engaged with the Indigenous land rights movement and the women’s movement. Multiculturalism was articulated as a break from assimilation and the White Australia Policy. A more independent foreign policy was pursued. Sport became “a legitimate focus of public policy” under Frank Stewart, Whitlam’s minister for tourism and recreation, who commissioned a group – which included Rasic and football journalist Andrew Dettre – to complete a feasibility study for what later became the Australian Institute of Sport in 1981. “Gough promoted the place of Australia in the world so gracefully”, says Rasic. “People became dreamers. Not convicts, dreamers.” According to historian Stuart Macintyre, Whitlam “cultivated a nationalism that allowed for internationalism”. ** For all the controversy that surrounded the national anthem in the 1970s, Advance Australia Fair was hardly a new song. Unofficially it had been known as a national song for years, played in theatres and on ABC radio broadcasts. However, it was sport that acted as a catalyst for the official change from the imperial God Save the Queen. Football historian Trevor Thompson notes that in 1923 the Australian team stood to attention for Advance Australia Fair in a match against a Chinese XI in Sydney. Not knowing what to play for the Chinese, the band then played For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow. When Marjorie Jackson won gold at the Helsinki Olympics in 1952, the Finnish hosts played the official anthem, God Save The Queen and Advance Australia Fair. When Shirley Strickland won gold the next day, both anthems were played again. The confusion was indicative of Australia’s national question and continued loyalty to what Whitlam’s attorney general, Lionel Murphy, would later call “the relics of colonialism”. At the Melbourne Olympics in 1956, God Save the Queen was played as the anthem, while Waltzing Matilda was the song of the Games. “The national anthem of this country is God Save the Queen”, Sir Robert Menzies told those who wanted Advance Australia Fair to be played for medal winners. “I should resist to the utmost any suggestion that we should abandon it.” Indeed Advance Australia Fair was always associated with Labor, from Jack Lang, who once criticised a group in Lidcombe for not standing while it was played in 1933, to Arthur Calwell, who insisted on it being played in cinemas to build morale during World War Two. In The Unknown Nation: Australia After Empire, James Curran and Stuart Ward note that the national anthem was one of several symbols to change as Australian became increasingly independent from Britain. “It was becoming inevitable”, recalled Whitlam in his book Abiding Interests, “that Australia and New Zealand would have to follow Canada in developing their own honours systems, anthems and flags.” On Australia Day, 1973, Gough Whitlam announced that a new national anthem would be decided by the Australian public. “It has been one of the central ambitions of my administration to promote a fresh and distinctive reputation for Australia overseas”, he said. “My government does not believe that the current national anthem is adequate for these purposes.” Among the judges to decide upon the new anthem were Indigenous activist and poet Oodgeroo Noonuccal, playwright David Williamson and historian Manning Clark. The competition descended into high farce as thousands of anthems were submitted, none of which were particularly impressive. In fact, an editorial in the Australian suggested that “we might as well go back to God Save the Queen”. Momentum was stalled by mediocrity, but three well-known songs stood out – Waltzing Matilda, Song of Australia and Advance Australia Fair. ** In March 1973, just weeks after Whitlam had announced that his government would push for a new national anthem, the Socceroos began a long and arduous World Cup qualification campaign. The Socceroos were placed in a group with New Zealand, Iraq and Indonesia, playing all three teams home and away, with the top two to play off against the top two from the other group. A 1-1 draw in the first game against New Zealand was disappointing and defeat against Iraq would have just about killed their chances of winning the series. The Socceroos were the underdogs against Iraq. As the second game of a double header at the old Sydney Cricket Ground, Gough Whitlam and Frank Stewart were present to open the series.“Soccer is one of the dividends of the migrants we have welcomed to Australia over the years”, Whitlam told a rapturous crowd. “This tournament should really help to put soccer on the map in this country.” Perhaps stirred by the presence of the prime minister, the Socceroos played one of their best ever matches on home soil, winning 3-1. Ray Richards, the man whom Pele still raves about, scored one and Andre ‘Noddy’ Alston two. The press gallery were unanimous in naming Richards as man of the match, with the Sydney Morning Herald calling him “a bustling, scheming bundle of tactical mischief” and Soccer World reporting that he “stood out above the others”. Arriving in Australia from England as a teenager, Richards moved to Sydney United (then South Sydney Croatia) in 1969 before joining Marconi. For years he owned a sports store in Wetherill Park, just over the other side of the Western Sydney Parklands from Rasic’s museum. He has since written poems about the team, odes to “a band of brothers” and “the legend of the Socceroo.” His voice trembles slightly as he reads me the forthright, upstanding verses. “I get a bit emotional about it,” he laughs, “but that’s what it all means to me. The foundation to that squad started in ‘67 with Uncle Joe Vlasits when we went to Vietnam at the height of the war. Our bonding was done on the bloody battlefields of Vietnam!” Buoyed by their win against Iraq, the Socceroos would go on to beat Indonesia twice and draw with both Iraq and New Zealand in the return legs, finishing on top of their group. Before the matches against Iraq and South Korea, Whitlam’s minister for immigration, Al Grassby, released a paper titled A Multicultural Society for the Future for a symposium called Strategy 2000: Australia for Tomorrow. “There is an encouraging measure of unity among our diverse population,” wrote Grassby. “Our bid for inclusion among the final contenders for the World Cup soccer championship has set tingling a nerve of patriotism that has run right through our ethnic communities.” Football, for so long considered wogball, was now being used to articulate the Whitlam government’s new nationalism. Jimmy Mackay’s goal against South Korea in Hong Kong in November which put the Socceroos into the World Cup for the first time has become stuff of legend. “We basically stopped a nation” recalls Richards. The next day, Frank Stewart paid tribute to the Socceroos in federal parliament. He thanked members of the opposition Billy Snedden and Tony Street. “I realise that they are both Australian Rules supporters”, said Stewart. “I desire to offer congratulations to our Australian soccer team. “I am sure Australia is proud of this splendid team which so clearly emphasised the multi-national character of our country. Not all the players were born in Australia but all of them played their hearts but for their country in exactly the same way. This was yet another victory for the integrating power of our land.” “I watched the match last night, responded Snedden. I had red eyes sitting up watching it, as I am sure many honourable members did. I had not realised how excited you could be about a soccer match. I have never felt the slightest sense of excitement about a soccer match before.” The composition of the national team was reflective of the spirit of the times. With the Whitlam government ushering in a new, inclusive policy of multiculturalism, the Socceroos were appropriate ambassadors for the cause. “Migrants are largely responsible for the great progress that has been made in the most international of team sports”, Whitlam told an audience at the APIA Italian club in Leichhardt in March 1974. “When the Australian team goes to Germany soon, it will be fitting that the names of migrants will be as renowned as the names of our best rugby league and Australian rules players.” Rasic’s squad had men born in six different countries: Yugoslavia, England, Germany, Hungary, Scotland and Australia. Left-back Harry Williams was the first Indigenous Australian to represent the Socceroos at a soccer World Cup. Never before had a national sporting team held such diversity, and predictably, the team had to go on the charm offensive to convince the public that they were ‘Aussies’. “Australia’s World Cup players may come from many nations”, Rasic told Sportsworld, “but when we are together we are all Australians.” ** The Socceroos mascot jacket from the 1974 World Cup. Photograph: Courtesy of Rale Rasic The budding relationship between Whitlam and the football community had its roots in his friendship with Rasic. “He took an interest in us” remembers Rasic. “Malcolm Fraser didn’t give two stuffs about it, because it was Gough’s baby.” The Whitlam government, through their budget for sport, matched messages of goodwill with financial support, funding an Under-23 Socceroos team to visit Indonesia on a friendship trip and supporting an Australian junior championship in 1973. “Soccer in particular received more attention from the Whitlam government than it did from their predecessors in 72 years”, reported Soccer World in 1974. “In 1969 the then [Liberal] prime minister, John Gorton, declared himself unavailable to attend our vital World Cup elimination match against Israel.” The era of neglect for football might have been over, however behind the scenes relationships were strained between Australian Soccer Federation president Sir Arthur George and Rasic over Whitlam’s involvement. Sir Arthur always maintained he would work with governments of all persuasions. Rasic remembers otherwise. Rasic had become close to Whitlam during the 1972 elections. “What impressed me about him was not politics, but the intellect of the man” says Rasic. “That involvement with Gough [eventually] cost me my job, because [Sir] Arthur George was an absolute brutal Liberal.” As Rasic tells it, Sir Arthur George once introduced him to New South Wales Liberal premier Sir Robert Askin as “the greatest coach and the biggest son of a port”. Rasic says he shook Sir Robert’s hand and replied “pleasure to meet another son of a port”. Indeed, Rasic is not one to be told what to do or who to associate with. His time with the Socceroos was characterised by strict discipline. Perhaps it was the lessons learned from his days spent in an orphanage in Yugoslavia, after he lost his parents in World War Two. “In orphanage house you had to make your bed like a box of matches”, says Rasic. If there was a right way, it was Rale’s way. “I respected Joe Vlasits,” says Rasic of the Socceroos previous coach. “I came to Yugal as a guest player for six weeks, and Joe was the coach. He wasn’t old, but he was elderly to them. They called him ‘Uncle’. I didn’t want anybody to be called ‘Uncle’. I do business, I’m in charge, I must have some title. I studied Joe at the national team, and said that can’t happen under me.” “I had a lot of time for Uncle Joe” remembers Richards. “Both Uncle Joe and Rale were gentlemen, but Uncle Joe had a lot more feeling for the player as an individual. Rale for me was the be all and end all. The players would have run through walls for him.” At 38, Rasic was very young to be in charge of a national team. One of his first acts as coach was to take complete control over selection. “Each state in Australia had a selector. I told [Sir Arthur] to eliminate them. There were many many things that I changed.” The team “had very much become the domain of the new coach Rale Rasic”, commented Johnny Warren in his biography, “He had become the team’s new figurehead.” From introducing sports psychology to the playing group to helping players find clubs in Sydney so they could be close to him, to telling chefs how to cook team meals, Rasic revolutionised the culture of the Socceroos camp. Much like Whitlam, Rasic’s approach to leadership was “crash through or crash”. ** In April 1974, an Australian Bureau of Statistics poll showed that Advance Australia Fair was the most popular anthem, and the government announced that it would replace God Save the Queen. The situation, however, was far from resolved. On Anzac Day, Victorian State RSL President Sir William Hall disobeyed orders from the federal government and refused to play Advance Australia Fair. “I did it deliberately”, said Hall. “I believe the Australian people haven’t yet given the federal government the authority to change our national anthem. It’s a fraud.” Amidst the national comedy, the Socceroos would become the first Australian sporting team to truly adopt Advance Australia Fair. “The national anthem divided so much opinion” remembers Rasic. “But Gough was so powerful. That national anthem became bible.” The Socceroos were beginning the first of several friendly matches before the World Cup in June. Uruguay, who had also qualified, played two matches in Sydney and Melbourne. On 25 April, a day before the Anzac Day debacle, Australia had surprised their opponents in Melbourne, holding the visitors to a 0-0 draw that was marred by niggly fouls. “I’m a coach that doesn’t recognise friendly matches”, says Rasic. “Even at training you can’t be friendly, you have to do business. That’s the first time in my life as a footballer or manager, that I feared. If they hit us by six, how do you return your confidence?” The second leg was set for the Sydney Sports Ground, the last game on home soil, and Whitlam, Frank Stewart, deputy leader of the opposition Phil Lynch and NSW premier Robert Askin were all present. Before the match, the Socceroos lined up to Advance Australia Fair. Whitlam’s presence and opening speech brought the house down. The new national anthem was christened in front of the most multicultural football team in the land. It stands as a delightful irony that the first national team to fully embrace Advance Australia Fair were a bunch of naturalised Poms and assorted immigrants. “He [Whitlam] had a tear in his eye,” remembers Rasic. “I said to him you hear this national anthem sometimes four or five times a day. He said ‘Rale, I feel that, and tears are not embarrassing.’ Ever since, if I had a tear, I never wiped it. The national anthem does definitely create that.” The Socceroos beat Uruguay 2-0 in a bittersweet affair. It was perhaps the biggest win ever for the national team, and a huge boost before the World Cup. However, Ray Baartz was ‘karate chopped’ by one of the Uruguayan players, which nearly left him paralysed and forced him into early retirement. Still, the mood was palpable. “They cheered, they stamped their feet, the kids banged empty soft drink cans against the time worn corrugated iron sheets of the old Paddo stand”, reported Soccer World. “They sang Waltzing Matilda.” “We came of age today” Sir Arthur told the Sydney Morning Herald. ** “The imagined community of millions seems more real as team of 11 people,” Eric Hobsbawm once wrote. Born in the former Yugoslavia, Rasic is an unapologetic Australian nationalist. “Sport was a vehicle” he says, “football for me was vehicle, and my first love is football. “When I came first time it took me three months and I wanted to go back home. I was used to Europe. But when I saw what sport means to Australia, to the Australian public … what football means to ethnics as a way of life, there was no question what I want to be and where I want to be.” Rasic was determined to cultivate a sense of national pride in the team. “I drilled into them the importance of how you look, when the national anthem was on you had to have arms by your side”, says Rasic. “I made clear, if you are not singing, you don’t have to sing, but you stand still. “Johnny Warren was a very nervous person, but I said ‘Johnny, 40 seconds for your country. That’s your country and you should represent it. The national anthem is a bible for all of us Australians, and you must obey that.’ Johnny stood still.” The Socceroos left for the World Cup in Germany in May, with two friendlies against Indonesia and Israel along the way. Days before the squad flew out, Whitlam faced the electorate after months of economic turbulence and Liberal obstructionism. At a huge rally at the Sydney Opera House on 13 May, David Williamson, Manning Clark and Patrick White all gave speeches in support of Whitlam. As one of the distinguished guests, Rasic’s speech praised the government’s enlightened approach to sport. ** Forty years after Advance Australia Fair was adopted by the Socceroos, Rasic doesn’t just want to talk about football. Ask him for details about the 1974 Socceroos and he laments American foreign policy, the current political climate in Australia, the war in Iraq and the secession of Kosovo from Serbia. “I’m not just a football coach” he says. “I don’t always speak about round ball. But I speak through the round ball because the globe is round.” The official history points to the Montreal Olympics in 1976 as a decisive point in the history of the national anthem. The Age backed Waltzing Matilda for Montreal, as did Malcolm Fraser. In the end, no medals were won. On 19 April, 1984 - in time for the Los Angeles Olympics - Bob Hawke officially announced that Advance Australia Fair was the national anthem, and green and gold were the national colours. Forgotten in the politics is the pioneering role of the Socceroos. Both Rasic and Richards are adamant that they were the first national team to truly adopt the anthem, taking it to the biggest sporting event on Earth, the Fifa World Cup. Andre Kruger, perhaps the biggest Socceroos fan since he first saw them play as a boy in Germany in 1974, says Advance Australia Fair was “100%” played at the World Cup. . Jim Scane’s green and gold mascot suit jacket is a physical reminder, but like so much of football’s history, it remains locked away in dark corners. “We were the first national team to play under the new national anthem”, says Richards. “That squad created a lot of firsts.” When the Socceroos sing Advance Australia Fair in Brazil, they should know they are drawing upon 40 years of tradition. They might also remember the sacrifices of the part-time footballers who helped, albeit briefly, to broaden the insular world of Australian sport, the Whitlam government’s forward-thinking approach to the game, and the progressive, independent nationalism of Rasic. “That national anthem is so symbolic on that jacket - Advance Australia Fair,” he says. Asked why Whitlam took such an interest in football, Richards says simply “he was a Cabramatta boy.” Rasic agrees: “Gough never forgot one thing. Gough never forgot Cabramatta. That was a base of Serbs, Greeks and Italians. Gough never forgot the environment that he came from.”[/quote]
Posted on: Thu, 24 Apr 2014 22:36:47 +0000