The story of Melbourne Hungaria (not very SM Hellas related)

So I went to Melbourne Museum yesterday to check out Melbourne SC: The First Twenty Five Years, the cover of which you can see on the right. Why the interest in Hungaria and what's the relevance to South? I'll get to the latter toward the end of the entry. But as to the former question, since finding about this now extinct club a few years ago, I've been intrigued. They are seldom ever spoken about by the reminiscing Victorian soccer fan. They don't have the same historical/cultural resonance in Victorian and Australian soccer as do their Sydney counterparts St George Budapest, nor did they match St George's success. And yet in their short existence - the club went out of business at the end of 1987, just five years after this booklet was published - they did make an impact on the local scene.

Hungaria's most notable playing product was Attila Abonyi, the Socceroo striker who was at one time the national team's all time leading scorer. While the club had one Victorian State League second place finish (1970), and three third place finishes (1960, 1966, 1972), undoubtedly the club's most successful year was 1967. They not only won the league title that season, but went on to win the Australia Cup as well, beating APIA Leichhardt 4-3 in the final.

Possibly a photo of a young Ernie Tapai playing
for a Victorian state youth team.

Unfortunately, the bulk of the booklet's text is in Hungarian, with only advertisements (almost all small businesses, or pro forma congratulatory pieces from supporters) and a small portion at the end in English. There are many photos, but apart from player names (often surnames only) there are usually no other identifying details. The format is largely a year by year almanac style account, with an interesting deviation in the middle dedicated to junior players and even a women's team of some sort, before returning to the yearly summaries.

Despite a strong early 1970s period, the club had only a small community to draw upon. After being relegated from the state league in 1975, the club bounced between the Victorian second and third divisions for the next decade. and it appears that the lack of a permanent home ground didn't help matters. 

In the late 1950s, they played out of Elwood Reserve/Elwood Park in Elwood, before spending time at Port Melbourne's JL Murphy Reserve, Olympic Park, McDonald Reserve in Gardiner, Elsternwick Park, and even the St Kilda Cricket Ground (aka the Junction Oval, which was also used by Juventus; that venue was rejected as a possible home ground by South in the late 1970s/early 1980s, but that's another story)

The stability issue is perhaps undermined a little by the fact that Hungaria spent the entire period of 1969-80 at Middle Park Stadium, making them the third longest tenant behind Hellas and Hakoah in the ground's post-enclosure era. From 1981 until their final move to Williamstown, they played on one of the adjacent fields to Middle Park, Oval No.7. The last 12 pages of the book, in English, focus mostly on the future that the club's board had in mind.

The board, perhaps surprisingly considering the trends that were already in evidence among ethnic clubs at the time, had some seriously lofty aims. The main find for me is that the club managed to apparently secure some land in Williamstown (near the Rifle Range), and had plans to build both a new ground with a small grandstand (seating 300), as well as a social club. The intention was to supplement their soccer income in order to make a tilt at getting into the national league. Sound familiar?

Neither Melbourne Hungaria's plans for a boutique suburban ground, nor their aim of reaching the National Soccer League came to pass. As usual, apologies for the poor quality of my photos.

The grandstand and social club never got built, as a visit to JT Gray Reserve in Williamstown can attest to. The amenities in the shadow of the oil refinery are limited to the portables that used to be at Paisley Park. Why Hungaria's plans never happened I'm not sure, though we can take an easy guess. Diminishing crowds, diminishing interest, diminishing money. After having made it back to the state league in 1986, they got relegated immediately. In 1987, they got relegated again, and that was that. See the link Mark Boric has provided (in the comments) to a 1985 feature article on the club -

Is there a warning there for us? Without getting too melodramatic I think there is. I think we have some advantages in comparison - a good junior wing, stable enough existence at a home ground, enough corporate and pleb support to keep us going nicely for the time being. But Hungaria's plans and subsequent demise demonstrate the absolute necessity of getting this lease deal done. Not for the sake of some possible attempt at a national league return, or even for the money, but for the sake of the club itself. Here's hoping the movers and shakers are getting closer to finalising the deal.

Update
In the 1952 VASFA handbook (which you can download from here, courtesy of Mark Boric), there is a Hungaria listed as due to play in the fourth division. Unlike its successor team, which played for most of its existence in a completely white strip, except for a one red and one green horizontal stripe, the 1952 Hungaria kit is as listed as being a red shirt, white shorts, green socks.

Unlike other clubs however, there is no home ground listed - the only reference I can find to their existence in The Argus on Trove is in the round 1 results for 1952. Their match against the RAAF side is listed as not having been played, with no reason being given, unlike in other games where ground (for example) is listed as the reason for no game being played.

After checking with fellow Victorian soccer historian John Punshon, it appears that they pulled out early on, and teams due to play them got a bye. This was noted in the 'Secretary's Notes' section of the April 26 1952 edition of Soccer News.

Let The Navel Gazing Begin - South Melbourne 1 Green Gully 3

You miss a week and end up missing so much. It's not just missing the actual game – being in a situation where I had limited forum and Facebook contact for a week does something to you. Being away in Canberra for a week - my first interstate trip since 1999 that had nothing to do with South -  was both alienating and refreshing.

For a bit of background, I check this site's stats every day, in part to see how recent articles are doing, and in part to see if some old article gets unusual attention. I visit the various forums I'm on several times a day, to laugh, to learn, to be horrified and occasionally contribute my limited wisdom.

So even though I don't spend much more than one day a fortnight at Lakeside, I've become obsessed with what people say and think about South, from inside and outside the club; positive and negative; those who are obscenely ignorant and those who are perhaps too informed about any given situation, and who use that knowledge to lord it over everyone else.

So I rocked up to Lakeside with a sense of dread competing with a sense of low expectations. Some sort of talk had reached me that persons on the committee were unhappy with the fact that the timeline comment had appeared on this site. Somehow I managed to avoid any confrontation with committee persons on that matter (unusually perhaps by sitting in the same spot I usually do; or maybe the displeasure rumour was overstated), but it is a fact that the committee weren't the only people who were unhappy with that post seeing the light of day. Considering the forum response to that comment, several people seemed to have received much the same information.

Then again, there was talk that people were displeased that in his match report from last week, Gains mentioned that Tsolakis was unshaven, when it was completely obvious to everyone. Go figure.

I'll return to abstract navel gazing in a moment, because we did actually play a match yesterday, and it would be remiss not to mention it at least in passing. I didn't have any major expectations. Rightly or wrongly, a pall has been cast over season 2013. Still, in the first half we gave it a good shake. We went behind due to some poor marking, but at least went into the halftime break level, and perhaps even playing the better football. Vlahos' goal from a free kick was sensational, but it was also atypical. We had four or so one on one chances, but did nothing with them.

The second half wasn't as crash hot. Our defending was pretty dire - all three goals stemmed from some sort of poor marking - but people having a go at Peter Gavalas are probably guilty of erecting a strawman to take down. Indeed Gavalas had what I thought was an excellent game. The atmosphere at the ground became deflated at 3-1, and never picked up. Injuries to Gasparis and Tsiaras didn't help matters either.

We're back to that sense of familiar mid-season gloom of our VPL years. No amount of money, coaching changes or transfers has been able to change that trajectory, though just for the sake of it I'm going to maintain a candle of hope that something may happen this season. Otherwise, we should focus on blooding a few younger players, re-building some dressing room camaraderie and try to make the most of our cup run.

On the plus side, this collapse in form and morale has allowed us to participate once more in one of our favourite bloodletting games. Players that were quick are now too slight. Those that bullied the midfield now have no skill. Veterans are no longer experienced, but just plain old. Youngsters no longer full of promise. Inconsistency and upheaval and even the TV show blamed for our decline, when Green Gully has sacked coaches and had TV shows and still won championships. Games that we were perhaps unlucky in are now being pored over for signs of the decay setting in before most of us - including myself, though obviously not those with friends in high places - were surprised by the apparently sudden departures.

Leonard Nimoy: A solar eclipse: the cosmic ballet goes on.

Man sitting next to Nimoy: Does anybody want to switch seats?

Steve from Broady's Under 21 Report
South Melbourne's under 21s started the second half of the season with a home match against Green Gully at Lakeside Stadium. South's squad was depleted with five players going up to the seniors and a few players out injured, forcing South to promote a fair few under 18 players. South with another new face in goals kicked off. South dominated the first 20 minutes could not get any of their shots to count, blasting most of them wide.

In the 23rd minute Green Gully had a free kick on the edge of the area - the Gully captain stepped up and fired the ball low across the area with the ball finding its way past everyone's feet and into the back of the net, South giving another soft goal away and making a habit of going behind early this season.

As the first half went on South continued to dominate but could not get anything on the scoreboard. The teams went into the sheds at half time with the score 1-0 to Gully. South dominated the whole second half and still could not score. 1-0 it finished to Gully. South's 21s are having a poor season to date and in my opinion you rate the coach on two things in youth football. Firstly results, and secondly player development. And unfortunately South's under 21s coach has failed in both areas. Results are shit and players are getting worse each week. I have talked to reserve players and they have confirmed what I have thought for weeks that the expensive Brazilian coach is teaching them nothing.

The time has come to call for the coach's head. Anyone could have got the ressies 1-0 losses to Gully and Port; why do we need some overpaid Brazilian coach to do so?
Steve from Broady has spoken! SACK THE OVER PAID BRAZILIAN COACH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Steve from Broady out for another week.

Steve from Broady's Canteen Review
South Melbourne's food van was in the spotlight this week trying to improve on their sub par effort from last week. And they did marginally better with a nice solid souv, nice pita that was not hard as a rock this week, lots of meat gets them a 5.5 souths food van going with the "just tap it in approach" will they eventually get a 10, only the food gods know, until next week get around it.

1. Pascoe Vale 10/10

   

   The club was quick to hand out updated membership cards yesterday.

2. Hume City 8/10
3. Bentleigh Greens 7/10
4. Northcote City 3.5/10
5. Southern Stars 2/10
6. Green Gully 1/10
7. Dandenong DQ 

South food truck

• Week 1, 4.5/10
• Week 2, 7/10
• Week 3, 8.5/10
• Week 4, 5/10
• Week 5. 5.5/10

South's NPLV Statement
Last week, amid the continuing fallout from the various sackings (sack the board, sack the fans, sack the bloggers, yada, yada, yada), the club released this statement on our NPLV discussions. To be honest, it's not a seismic shift in attitude, even if some Melbourne Knights fans got their collective holier than thou rocks off upon reading it. It certainly doesn't say that we've pulled out of the NPLV process.

The real shock here is, which no one in their rush to react in whatever pro or anti board stance that they had sitting in the cupboard noticed, is that this press release conforms exactly to what South's committee had said they would do:

• That they would work with the FFV.
• That they would try and make a workable and viable competition.
• That they would try and win concessions for our club.
• That they would not compromise the club's integrity (snigger) if we didn't get those concessions.

Θα χαλάσει ο καιρός and all that.

3XY Last Night
Apparently there was some more action on that front last night. Didn't listen to it. What happened?

Anonymous
Yesterday a concerned reader asked me who the commenter listed as 'anonymous' was – with particular reference to some of the posts seen in the recent players gone post. I told him what I tell you now – if and when people use non-Google accounts to post comments, then even if they use a handle of their choice, they are still more or less entirely anonymous, without any way of me finding out their identity.

It's sometimes difficult to balance out the concerns of newsworthiness, posterity and the public record against issues of taste and opinion, among other issues, but I hope that I stay on the right side of the line as much as possible. There are very few comments that I have ever blocked, though at one time I did allow comments only from registered users. That was because things were getting particularly nasty, and I really should have cracked down on that issue a lot faster.

Still, as much as I'm responsible for giving final approval to all comments published on this blog, some of the responsibility for that content does fall upon you, the reader who decides to contribute. There are people who use this site to put forward opinions on behalf of one agenda or another, and that's fine, even if I wish people were more open about their identities.

Thus far into the blog's history, comment section discussions, where they have existed, have been for the most part civil, even when they've been passionately disagreeing with alternative positions. I'd like to see that civility maintained and where possible, for commentators to add in some sort of marker, not perhaps to identify yourself outright, and but to at least create some sort of persona so that we can trace a continuity throughout the blog's lifespan.

The Scoreboard
Just for a moment there was video on there, of the game itself being played. That's an interesting development.

Next Week
Southern Stars at home. This could be fun.

Final Thought
People are still asking me what the state of our A-League ambitions is. Either hope springs eternal at Lakeside, or we're tiring of waiting for deliverance from this separation from God among the other ethnic heathens.

Humourous take on South Melbourne Coast Mariners

Not sure of this image's origin, but full marks to whoever came up with this.

The time has come...

...for South Melbourne Heart!

Now this is a Facebook page that could surely do with a bit more publicity.

Previously, we here at South of the Border have covered the 'South should merge/takeover with Heart' phenomenon only sparingly, and with the utmost reluctance. Most notably, there was the moment of comic relief at the end of the 2012 AGM blog entry, from January 2013. More substantially, there was this article from December last year.

Still, most of the talk on this issue is refers to possible takeover plans rather than a merger, so it's nice to see someone put up the merger point of view, if only for a bit of variety. On their page they've put up videos from both teams, tried to come up with a home strip - the Paraguay national team style thing on the right hand side, with hooped socks no less - and one person, I assume the page's creator, tried to post a comment on the official South Facebook page in order to advocate for this idea. Sadly, it appears that comment was taken down by one of the humourless drones who monitor that page.

And even though we disagree with this idea on principle, we'll be keeping an eye on seeing how much support - legitimate or otherwise - this campaign is able to muster up.

PS.
And then, just as I hit submit and schedule this article for a later date, someone comes up with this. Good grief. How long until this nonsense ends?

PPS.
And then the Facebook page's creator puts up a thread on the Heart forum, which quickly gets locked. Need him to post a comment here, lol.

Whatever You Do, Don't Panic!

Remember this crap? Well, because Melbourne Heart got another crappy crowd, we're once more at the stage where two things are happening. First, the usual South suspects have come out to dance on the Heart's impending grave, without noting the inherent ironies of doing so, while on the other side of the equation, Heart's supporters are by and large looking either to blame everyone and everything bar the model their club is based on, or attempting to come up with ever more ludicrous solutions to their plight.

I won't bore you with the full range of those ideas (examples include moving the team to Geelong, buying a Greek marquee player, getting a 10k capacity boutique soccer stadium built at Glenferrie Oval), but one idea that comes up from both sides of this issue is a merger/amalgamation/takeover scenario with our very own South Melbourne Hellas.

The South supporters who are keen on this train of thought put forward the idea that our club should wait until Heart is just about dead (or not, in some variations), and then buy a stake in that franchise and change it South Melbourne by stealth. Never mind that like any half astute Australian sporting body, the FFA controls the licensing and naming arrangements. Never mind entering a competition with high overheads and almost no one making a profit. Never mind that our main goal should be to try and get what we're doing now right, because there are a lot of people who would love it to fail.

The Heart fans' idea tends to run a different way - that they should play out of the cheaper and smaller Lakeside Stadium in order to tap into the supposed latent A-League support buried within the South Melbourne community. Never mind that:

• Our actual active support, like every other state league club, is poor.
• Most of those people who could become enchanted with the A-League are already there.
• If you want to find big numbers of Greeks at sporting events in Melbourne, you're more likely to find them at a Collingwood or Richmond AFL match.
• And what's the obsession some Heart fans have with attracting Greek-Australian fans anyway? Aren't they meant to be a 'mainstream' operation?

The best parts of this situation (which seems to come up at least once every season) are the ever more ludicrous lengths people will go to back up their particular point of view. The person who created the two logos included in this entry deserves a prize for creativity, and for highlighting the difficulty in establishing whether anyone on either side of this issue is being genuine in this debate. That they are the views of a small minority of internet warriors is not much consolation.

Comprehensive sports coverage

Kiss of Death, Special Edition - The Kliment Taseski Fiasco

How could I not come out of my shell for this one.

The FFV are slowly becoming the game's worst enemy. They wrote the rules, but fail to interpret them as written. How the hell do they expect clubs and their 'associates' to understand them?

I am talking about the FFV's brainy idea to deduct Oceania Club of the Century South Melbourne three points for allegedly fielding an 'ineligible' player in Kliment Taseski, who is on loan from A-League club Melbourne Heart. It seems that within 48 hours of making the moronic statement below in a smartarse kind of way on Facebook, they have decided that they made an 'error' in regards to the rules and have reversed the minus three points deduction, as of 4:43pm today (Friday).

Let this be a lesson to the FFV.
a) Do not use a social media tool to make smartarse comments.
b) Read the rulebook that YOU wrote and understand it.
c) Do not deduct points on a whim, as this happens nowhere else in the world of football.
d) Scrap the whole points deduction 'scheme' and let clubs play the game on the park and not off it.

Finally, I believe Oceania Club of the Century South Melbourne FC, deserve both a written on paper, and a written on Facebook apology. Its fans and other footballing fans alike deserve better from the Federation that is administering football in this state.

This has made my day

Wistful longing for a little bloke who could play a bit

By Hera, we've lost the plot. Struggling to beat sides above us when they aren't playing like total bollocks. It makes you romanticise the glory days... like last year, when we at were able to scrape into the finals. One of the downhill skiing legends of that not-very-formidable-but-still-likely-higher-achieving-than-this-current-mob side was Goran Zoric. Which leads to the question, whatever did happen to Goran? Is he still OK? This photo/desktop/forum signature montage was made in April, or maybe even before that - I stole it off a Thai football forum, but the google translator only created gibberish. Police United are still hovering just outside the relegation zone, in part due to a recent surprise win over top of the table Muangthong United. But what of little Goran's part in all that? I just don't know.

Steal this avatar

Someone on The World Game Forum - the best damn football forum in the world, if you're not too fussed about racial slurs, ridiculous and plentiful in jokes and a lack of football talk - wanted to know where I got my kickarse avatar from, and if I could make a Sydney Croatia one for him. And I'm telling everyone what I told him. It's just a generic animated gif I found on the interwebs, and which I got my youngest brother to add 'SMFC' to. He dabbles in animation, video game making and such and such. He still hates it, but I love it.

It's blue!

There was an article in the Herald Sun today about the pending redevelopment. Nothing new really, except what was once a traditionally coloured running track - as presented in the initial plans released by the relevant government departments - is now being presented in an unmistakeably blue hue. Really, when it comes down to it, it's not the most important part of the project - but it appears that the gentle nagging via board, via in person at information meetings, and via web, has been sorta heard.

Some useful kinda concrete info on the new Lakeside

Thanks to the diggers/informants out there who found this stuff, great work. This link has a whole bunch of preliminary/standard info on the work going ahead. But here it is below, with a picture, to save you the time/bandwidth. But first, a picture.




State Sports Facilities project
Purpose

The State Government has committed over $50 million to the State Sports Facilities project which will deliver new and improved facilities at Lakeside Oval and Albert Park for sporting clubs and the wider community. Lakeside Oval will provide a new home for athletics in Victoria with the development of facilities for training and competition at all levels, as well as administration facilities for Athletics Victoria.

The 1926 heritage grandstand will be restored under this project and become the new home of the Victorian Institute of Sport. This project will also support the current tenants of Lakeside Oval, the South Melbourne Football Club through improvements to soccer competition and administration facilities.

The project will:
redevelop Lakeside Oval to provide an international standard athletics track, improved facilities for South Melbourne Football Club and new administration spaces for athletics and the Victorian Institute of Sport
improve training and competition fields for touch football, soccer and other users in Albert Park
Public display and feedback

The State Sports Facilities project’s draft design will be on public display from Monday 17 August until Monday 7 September 2009 at the Parks Victoria office in Albert Park and the South Melbourne Town Hall.

There will also be two public information sessions to be held at the Parks Victoria office in Albert Park on Wednesday 26 August (6 to 8pm) and Saturday 29 August 2009 (2 to 4pm).

The public displays will be open at the following locations:
South Melbourne Town Hall
208-220 Bank Street
South Melbourne
Melways: 2K F2
Open: 8.30am to 5pm

Parks Victoria Office
By appointment on 03 9695 9000
31/35 Albert Road Drive, Albert Park
Melways: 2K E6
Open: 9am to 3.30pm
Enquiries

Email: Major Projects Victoria at info@mpv.vic.gov.au
Tel: (03) 9655 8622

Feedback can be lodged at the above locations or via our online form.

As per Bells request

Bells wanted to see this pic, and that's why it's going up. Classic stuff, enjoy. As with all picture placed on here, you can click on them to go to a full size version.

Not bad for a first try

It's structurally unbalanced and uses the sigma in the wrong places, possibly deliberately (it should be where the 's' is, not the 'e' in my honest opinion), but credit where it's due, this is pretty good considering it's come from a Victory fan, in my books not usually noted for their stunning use of humo(u)r.

For those wondering when I will start declaring my position on the whole Sexy FC bandwagon, the answer is, soon enough.

End of Shoot! Magazine

Admittedly I was never a huge magazine buyer of any type, and haven't given a stuff about the EPL for a while, but this piece on Bolosepako on the demise of the once great Shoot! Magazine left me feeling a little sad and nostalgic, taking me back to the days where I'd flick through my cousin's stack during the very early 1990s. Oh, and those wondeful cardboard league tables with the tiny club info cards which would slot into the various spots on the table... halcyon days.

South of the Border welcomes Steven A McDonald

So you thought that was Scot MacNicol running out there on Sunday in the no. 6 shirt? Well, you'd be wrong.



FFV, going from strength to strength, with everyone else along for the ride. Thanks to John Punshon for alerting us to this latest piece of creativity by the dreamers of dreams.

South lose 2-0 to Preston. Damn.

Disappointing loss to Preston on the weekend. Tried to erase it from my memory, but the FFV insisted on plastering the headline on the official Foxtel Cup site. Thanks to Cuddles for alerting South of the Border to this



Also, what nice clash strip form Coburg. Needs more red but.

If you were there, you know the score

I'm a member of the Church of Mexico. We worship George Lopez.

South Melbourne, Western Suburbs, in radical ground sharing arrangement

The FFV cops a lot of flak, most of it totally justified. But they also don't get the praise they deserve when they get something right. The drought has affected sporting grounds quite massively across many sports. The FFV's solution is quite a novel one actually, which I cannot do justice by describing with words.



Bravo FFV, and Excelsior!