Social Club Artefact Wednesday - Scandinavian Junior Cup 1966

A trophy of unknown provenance: the 1966 Scandinavian Junior Cup, probably won
by South Melbourne Hellas. Behind it, a Victorian Womens Soccer Association
award, and a Club World Championship licence plate. Photo: Paul Mavroudis.

Can someone, anyone, tell us about the provenance of this trophy? I mean, yes we can ascertain that it says 'Scandinavian Junior Cup', and yes we can see that there's a year on it, that being 1966, and yes we can see that our name is on there. Is it safe to assume that we won? From the limited asking around that I've been able to do - and unfortunately, most of the people I've asked from that era have no idea about this trophy - it was not an overseas junket (how cool would that have been?), but rather some sort of local tournament, probably organised by a local club. But to what does the 'Scandinavian' part of the trophy actually refer to? At the present time, there are no answers, but if anyone has information, we'd love to hear it. it does make me think though, that when we eventually get around to building the new museum area for the social club, the least we could is to give some of these old trophies a good polish, because a few of them looked a little bit worse for wear at the time of packing them away.

The Australia Day Cup - South Melbourne vs Perth Glory, 2004

It's been almost completely forgotten these days, but today marks the 10 year anniversary of what was the inaugural - and sadly also the last - Australia Day Cup match, as staged between South Melbourne and Perth Glory.

South and the Glory had built up a decent rivalry since the Glory's entry into the NSL, as South tended to do with all leading teams of a given era. Unlike the Glory's rivalry with the Melbourne Knights however, it didn't have the spitefulness to it, for lack of a better word.

Indeed it was built on the back of some great games (the midweek game from 1999 at Lakeside is perhaps the pinnacle for South fans), Con Boutsianis' defection/ouster to the Glory after that incident, and the fact that for whatever reason, South had an appalling record in Perth.

It was a terrific game, with a bumper crowd, which somehow finished 0-0; South therefore retained the trophy. The trophy was kept in one of the glass cabinets in our social club, until we had to put everything into storage. The photo of the trophy comes from that packing away period, when I was also taking photos of some of the items.

There were a whole bunch of festivities planned for the day, as well as a lot of effort put in, which you can read about in this preview from the South official site from back in the day. The trophy was even sponsored by SEN 1116. After the difficult years during the 1990s, with the club torn between trying to transition towards a more mainstream identity, while appeasing the conservative elements of the club, my feeling was that days like this were proof that we were gradually making the transition to something that could be the best of both worlds.

It's a pity that we're no longer in the position to continue this fixture, let alone the rivalry. Nor, as one friend noted, were we able to develop the then nascent rivalry with Adelaide United, which also pulled in some great crowds. Another case of what might have been.