A look back at suburban footy in black and white.
If you blinked you may have missed it, but this month marked a pivotal moment in the evolution of football in Melbourne.
1. Beer necessities
IF YOU blinked you may have missed it, but
this month marked a pivotal moment in the evolution of football in
Melbourne. That's right, it's been 28 years since May 4, 1982 - the day
they banned the esky. As our picture at Victoria Park shows, the bloke
in the spiffingly hip Cold Chisel T-shirt is showing the friendly
police officer that he has no beer or other alcoholic beverages brought
from home. It was such a change from what had gone before that even the
TV stations were on hand to see how this new era was to be enforced.
Once inside the ground, the hard-rocking football supporter was
confronted with a new reality - two small opened cans only could be
bought per person at the bar. Needless to say, this captive market led
inexorably to the overpriced warm dregs that are now served in plastic
cups, or the $8 stubbie if you happen to stumble across one of those
''upmarket'' areas of the arena. Still, there's no denying that for a
while, the no-esky rule cleaned things up on the terraces. No longer
were youngsters and women assailed by the sight of yobbos relieving
themselves in circular sprinkler mode on the mountain of cans at the
bottom of the outer terraces. At least the plastic cup and improved
toilet facilities ensures this kind of football supporter keeps things
to himself these days. Things may be more sterile and we may be getting
ripped off at the till, but there really is less aggro and casual
violence - well, if you ignore the knife fights on the train. Now if
only we could stop an ageing Jimmy Barnes from murdering his great old
songs.
2. Locked, loaded
WHILE
the two-can limit was initially met with outrage - only to be replaced
by more pressing concerns given reserved seats and dodgy ticket booking
fees - we do forget the hassles that faced spectators heading to the
suburban grounds. This image from Essendon's Windy Hill in June 1982
highlights several of these problems. Sure, they have a cash gate and
it may cost just $4.50 to get in, with the kids a mere 60 cents, but
check the sign to the right of the blue coat. That's right, ''ground
full''. Unless you got to some suburban grounds soon after 11am, you
were not getting in at all. And check out the sign immediately above
that missive that deals with the issue of ''snowing'' or, to the
uninitiated, throwing cut paper in the air. In those days, it was
almost impossible to find a phone book within a 10-kilometre radius of
an VFL venue because the visiting cheer squads had stolen them to be
used for this environmentally dubious activity performed after every
goal. With the White Pages now online and the cheer squads now
all but barcoded for marketing purposes, the only waste of paper
members see now is the direct marketing flyers from club sponsors that
flow endlessly through the letterbox.
3. Winning Tigers
BELIEVE
it or not, there was a time when Richmond won a lot of games and - the
horror - even premierships. Not only that, before Mick Malthouse rained
on everyone else's parade as coach of Collingwood, the Winston
Churchill wannabe used to be rained on himself - in this case
celebrating an eight-goal win over Essendon in 1982. Yes, those were
the days when night football at VFL Park meant there was every chance
you'd get as wet as the players, which is why it's a good thing we now
have state-of-the-art grandstands to ensure warmth and comfort for the
fans at least. Sure, it's not as romantic as huddling under a sheet of
plastic in the outer but, then again, who'd be keen on that while
having to watch Malthouse crack a smile, or the Tigers, Carlton and
Collingwood fight it out for flags. Too right, all that stuff is best
left in the early 1980s.
4. Mudstaches
YOU
may miss the mudheap that was the Lakeside Oval, you may even miss the
comical sight of the umpires searching for the centre square, but
surely no one will mourn the demise of the 1970s and '80s porno
moustache as worn in this photo by Fitzroy's David McMahon. And while
the dodgy moustache has been replaced by the even more repellent sight
of full-sleeve tattoos of dubious artistic merit, this column believes
there's something to be said for the move towards the modern shaved
look that many of our most talented, attractive and intelligent
footballers wear these days.
5. No free kicks
WITHOUT
doubt, there's one thing left behind at the suburban grounds - the
casual racism that many footballers faced throughout their careers.
Players such as Phil and Jim Krakouer (pictured after sliding into the
fence at the old Arden Street ground) have said they were regularly
subjected to racial abuse in their playing days, and that it was
particularly threatening in an era in which crowds were allowed to run
on to the ground after games. And while it's hard to silence entirely
the voices of ignorance in the crowd, there's plenty of evidence to
suggest that spectators will now stand up against racial abuse hurled
from the terraces.
