When World War II brought Australian football to a near standstill

As contemporary Australian fans wait patiently for football to return safe and sound from the ravages of COVID-19, they might spare a thought for their forebears who saw football being virtually frozen out by World War II.

The program of a tour match in May 1941 Source: Supplied

Football has been off limits since Brisbane Roar beat Newcastle Jets 1-0 on March 20 and nobody really knows when it would be safe enough to come back.

But for many fans of yesteryear the gap between Britain's declaration of war on Germany in September 1939 and the end of hostilities in August 1945 must have felt like an eternity.

Several organised club competitions outside the main population centres came to a standstill, some players had to trade football fields for killing fields after being called up for national service and the 'Australian' team played only one series in six years.

The only state leagues that endured the war years were those of NSW, Victoria and South Australia, that carried on but with heavily truncated competitions.

Several friendly matches were played in these states between local selections and British navy and army teams.

The national team was in action only once, when it met a Chinese selection in a five-match series.

The matches were played in Melbourne, Sydney (twice), Newcastle and Brisbane.

Goalkeeper Ron Lord, who is now 90, was only 11 when the Australian mainland became a realistic target after Japan joined hostilities in December 1940.

"I started playing football for the Western Suburbs juniors team when I was 10 or 11," Lord says.

"I do not recall much of those early days but I do remember hearing about Japan's air attack on Darwin in February 1942.

"I also remember very well the sirens and the search lights piercing the night sky from our home at Drummoyne during the Japanese submarine attacks on Sydney harbour in May 1942.

"When the war ended in 1945 I started playing for Drummoyne as a fullback."  

Lord, who would later become a top goalkeeper and play for Australia at the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne, was lucky to be too young to be conscripted. Other players were not so fortunate.

The Lidcombe Methodists club, who took part in the Protestant Churches competition, had 16 of their players go to war over the years but three of them never came back, according to Ian Syson's history blog Neos Osmos.

The survivors, many of whom were childhood friends, vowed on their return home to reform the club that would become known as Auburn Districts.

Historian Peter Kunz explains the ramifications of the war on the game in Australia.

"In general, fit young men joined the armed forces or were engaged in essential services, which meant that their club soccer careers withered on the vine," says Kunz, the author of Chronicles of Soccer in Australia.

"When the war ended many were too old to continue playing at the top level. Young players were often required to 'play up' in senior teams, where many would struggle. At the same time junior competitions were starved of older players.

"In NSW the dominant tussle between the factory clubs of Goodyear and Metters ended in 1940 when Goodyear suffered a dramatic slump in tyre sales due to wartime restrictions and cut costs by withdrawing their teams from competition.

"Many top grade teams played charity matches for the Comforts Fund, which was designed to send supplies to soldiers abroad.

"Clubs suffered from a shortage of shirts and shorts. Many colours were unavailable."

Australian football would not be Australian football without a political stoush - even in wartime.

"A dispute over the playing of matches on Easter Saturday 1943 led to a split between the major Sydney clubs. A NSW State League was organised in competition with the NSW Soccer Football Association but by 1944 both leagues had joined forces again," Kunz says.

If there was a positive to emerge from World War II it was that the days of Anglo-Australians dominating our game were numbered.

The influx of displaced persons and migrants from 1947 onwards would lead to the new Australians dominating and driving the game in Australia.

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