TONY GOODMAN CAPTAIN OF THE 1958 - 1959 PREMIER LEAGUE TEAM

Interview by Julius Ross

 Interviewed by Julius Ross, February 2010. Transcribed and edited by John Ross.

Julius: When did you first become acquainted with South Hobart?

Tony: 1958 

J: How long did you play for the club?

2 years

T: What was the club like socially?

J: I arrived fresh from Melbourne where I played for Mooreland where we won the Deputy Cup and were also runners-up in the Championship, and I had played for Victoria. My father was already living here and had met people at South Hobart -George Cracknell was one of them - and when I arrived, they asked to play with and to coach them, and I accepted. When Caledonians and Rangers knew that I was here, they were constantly bombarding me, saying “Look, you don’t have to play for them, it’s the worst and biggest mistake you’ve ever made, because they’re a bunch of thugs who kick legs and never win anything”, but my Dad was on the committee of South Hobart, and I made the best of it, you know. I did what I could to get them somewhere.

J: What age were you then?

J: I was 28. I came over and said I was 23, but I was 28! The Association believed that I was much younger (than I was).

J: What was it like to captain the side to victory in the league in 1959?

T: Well, knowing what I knew and being confronted with this bunch of people – 2 or 3 of them had only played Australian rules – no, I’m exaggerating, but it appeared that way on the field, but anyway, I did what could, and we finally arrived at the end of the first season (1958), I think it was in fourth place, and from there on the final four system got us in the final, and we played Caledonians in the final. Caledonians hadn’t lost, as far as I know, for two years, but we got them in the final, and we drew with them in the final, nil-nil, but, we then replayed the final, and we lost it 5 or 6 –nil, which was reasonable, because Caledonians were far better than any other side in the competition. So that was my first year.

J: So, at the end of your second year, the team actually did win, is that correct?

T: Yes, at the end of the first year there were the makings of a side – maybe I could fine-tune it for the next year, but unfortunately, probably five of the six best players resigned, without any notice – any warning at all. They were all good players, and apart from Jimmy Donovan, I was left with nothing.

J: So, what happened in that year, then?

T: Well, in the 5 or 6 weeks before the season began, and the reason they left was because of me, I’m quite certain, because I was the only change in anything that happened at South Hobart – I was the only thing that was different, my training methods, my coaching, my knowledge of the game was vastly superior to anything they had struck in Hobart….

J: Maybe they wanted to play socially whereas you put a professional spin on the club – is that correct?

T: That would be correct; my way would be to say that I don’t like losing. I would do everything in my power to win. They certainly didn’t see it that way.  So I raced around trying to find players that could fill the gaps and do better, and I succeeded, obviously, and I went up to Adrian Harmsen and I spent an evening trying to convince him to play, and he said “No way would I play for a team like that” and Adrian Harmsen being Adrian Harmsen, I think he was at Uni at the time – a brilliant man – it took me about 3 hours to convince him it wouldn’t be like that this time. I spent maybe a month putting together players who weren’t there the previous year – I think we ended up with maybe 4 players from the first year, when we managed to get to the top but didn’t win it.  

J: OK, so you coached the club both of those seasons, and played?

T: Oh yes, I had said I would never coach because I never had any respect for coaches, bar one – apart from him, I’ve always felt that I knew more than anyone else, and maybe that wasn’t true, but when people are playing, they think “this f***wit doesn’t understand” so I would only ever player-coach, so yes, I was player coach those two years.

J: What has been your most memorable moment with the club?

T: The most memorable moment at the club was succeeding in beating (Caledonians). Quite honestly, I suppose, you could dig back through some of the press cuttings at the time, and you’ll see that they were saying that I carried them (South Hobart), but I didn’t feel that I was much better than any of the other players, but I did know I did understand the game better than the other players, and I was able to convince them that they could win, if they just did as they were told, and to the last man, that’s exactly what happened, they did as they were told, and history was sown, but I think a bookie would have given about 20 to 1 against us.

J: So, could you run me through that game?

T: The game itself – I can quote someone – George Arnott – so well-known at the time, and playing for Caledonians, I think he was their captain, and we met on the field when the ball went out of play, and he said (two thirds of the way through): “We won’t win this f***ing game as long as our arses point to the ground”; in other words, he virtually said, we were all over them. I knew every strength and weakness of their team and I knew that on the day, with the team we ended up with, not the previous year’s team - I could not have done it with them - was, in my opinion, a very good team by the time we reached the end of the season. Many of them were limited, but they played to their capacity and they did the job that I knew they could do, and for me, I came out thinking, I’ve put a lot of effort into this, and now I’m so very, very pleased. 

J :Who is your most memorable player and why?

J: Look, I suppose because I’d put so much work into getting Adrian Harmsen to come out of retirement and play for us, possibly Adrian would be, because of his reluctance to join a club that didn’t play good football, and because he was old – he was older than me, and by that stage I was 28/29, so yes, Adrian. I can’t remember who scored the goals now – I know he scored 1; he may have scored 2, and I think we won the game 2 – 1.

If I can just pick out the things that were said about South Hobart, at that time, I can remember now, in the paper they said that it was amazing that when the Caledonian players came into the ground to get changed, as they walked past the stand, they were roundly booed by everybody – that was weird, before a game started, but they were hated because they were good. I didn’t hate them but you mentioned about good players - they had most of the good players. They had some lovely players – Harris was probably the best player I’ve seen playing here; after a year with Caledonians, he disappeared and played for NSW. But on our team, I really wouldn’t like to pick anyone out, apart from Adrian, because of his background, but the rest of them, every single person had a job to do, and every single player played, in my opinion, to the absolute maximum of their ability; and I would hate to single anyone out, and newspapers might have singled me out but I would not do that. I wouldn’t suggest that I was any better than anyone in the team; I would say there were 11 players on the field and all of them had to play to their maximum to beat a side that on paper was so much better than us.

J: OK, I understand.  What were notable things that happened at the club?

T: Well, I suppose two things would be obviously winning something that was virtually impossible, but the other thing was, the frightening thing was, when all the players disappeared, and left me. Ray McGuiness: as a player he was great, I loved him – he was centre forward of the reserve team at South Hobart, and I recognised that I could do something with him in the first team, and I hope that he still remembers that I did that, because he played extremely well – one of our towers of strength at the back – and the other chap that I’ve got (in mind), Keith Donovan, was probably the best, if not close to the best, centre half in the league, until he left us, and I managed to get Paul de Shipper (spelling), and he was again, a great player. And so, I’d have to say, the two things that stood out in my memory was the fact that these 5 players could just leave the club without any warning, without any explanation, except that they didn’t like -  I introduced a thing called circuit training,  which I was doing in the Victorian squad before I arrived – if it was good enough for the English FA coach, to be taking circuit training, rather than trudging around the perimeter of the bloody ground for the first half an hour – if it was good enough for them and good enough for me, it was certainly good enough for South Hobart. I guess that was one of the things they thought: no, we don’t do it that way, but anyway as it turned out it was a lovely feeling to win the premiership and where they went, Metro, came nowhere, and I think I did ask (at the time), had South Hobart won the premiership before? I think they had in their history, but it certainly wasn’t in that era. And the thing that stood out in my mind anyway was, and I THINK I’m right in saying, because a lot of people have confirmed this, that at that very same time that South Hobart won the league, the standard of football/soccer in southern Tasmania was at its very, very best. It’s never been as good since and it was never as good before, because not only did all these excellent players arrive to join Caledonians and Rangers, some lovely players came into Rapid. Hence the reason that after 2 years at South Hobart, I needed to move to Rapid, because they did play just the best football, and the coach begged me (to move)– I played tennis with him on Sundays.

J: You were a sought-after signature, I guess?

T: Yes, I guess I was, and while I was playing for them (Rapid) and we won the State League while I was playing for them, and then I went across to Rangers, and with Rangers we won the State League as well. So my career then, just before, well, I was getting towards the end of my career then- I was in my late thirties, Juventus came to me. After the first game of the season, which they lost 8-0, they sacked their coach, and they approached me and said, would you come and play and coach? Which I did, and we reached the final there as well, but we didn’t win the final.   

J: So, going back to South, you mentioned those players leaving, were there any other great disappointments?

J: Ah, not really. Look, a lovely group of people – Jimmy Meaghan and George Cracknell were in my mind standouts as two real gentlemen, and anyone who could have them in their club - they were lucky. They were just lovely people and no, I have no beefs, no disappointments. Maybe I was a little bit selfish leaving them after two years, but at least I didn’t go to Caledonians, who were still the strongest team, I did at least go to the team that played the best football, and for all my time of playing football in Tasmania, I enjoyed my football the most when I went to Rapid – but you don’t want any of that!

J: I might have to cut that out!

T: At least I wasn’t in charge when the Rapid coach invited me over – he was a brilliant coach and we got on fine. South Hobart – no I can’t think of anything else that stood out. We would go up to South Launceston and play the Cracknell shield, or they would come down to Hobart.

J: Do you still remain a follower of the club?

T: No, I’ve had no contact at all. The only thing I’ve kept vaguely in touch with is Jimmy Donovan, over the years, and still do, and Joe Rider, but no, not really.

Here Jules fills Tony in on 2008/2009 successes under Ken Morton, and then asks: As a former player what does 2010 mean to you, with respect to the possibility of a treble?

T: That would be absolutely wonderful. I can’t imagine anything better. That would be great; well, I mean, it’s almost impossible to believe that the kind of people, not being paid - back in those days nobody was receiving any money of course, and they (South Hobart) just had this dreadful reputation of being untalented, I suppose, and to come from that to reach that (the present) level…….

J: Yes, but the level of soccer now might not be as good

T: Yes, it’s sad to say. I watch some soccer, I was in Queensland watching a few games, particularly top sides, and I think, thank God I’m not playing today, because I probably wouldn’t get a kick, so I am realistic – hard for me to judge. But in Tasmania, I’ve seen a couple of games down here in the last couple of years, perhaps 3 games, and my grandson plays in the First Division in Launceston, and seeing the First Division in Launceston – it was absolutely pathetic – I know we were much better; I’m not in any doubt whatsoever. But it was artificial back then, I have to say, it was artificial because this great flood of good intelligent players all hit [referring to the influx of talented immigrants into the state], and it didn’t do much for the bottom teams, but for the top 4 or 5 teams it did.

J; Is there anything else you’d like to add Tony?

T: I was just grateful to fall on my feet in Tasmanian soccer, with nice people, and we ended up after the second year [with South] with a respectable football team, and at least people didn’t just only fear them for getting their legs broken, and at times we could out-play them, and without question, we did out-play them that one time – Caledonians, and that chap who wrote in the newspaper- I think he got some sort of shock.