Why Adrian Alston was a Socceroo trailblazer

Late in the 74/75 season Everton went to Luton and lost, which was a fatal blow to our title hopes that year. Alston played in that game but didn't score. Bob Latchford opened the scoring for Everton, Peter Anderson got two for Luton. Billy Bingham spent a considerable sum but for no reward. Neither did his successor Gordon Lee. Although both came close. We got Bob Latchford and Martin Dobson for fees that would translate to millions in today's money, and both were fantastic servants for the Blues. Then came Duncan McKenzie and Andy King, both of whom were brilliant. Somehow the mediocrity and frustration of Everton in the 70s compared favourably to the 1990-2006 horrors. That Everton couldn't win the title with those players, and that Luton were relegated with some decent players in their side, tells you how good the domestic game really was in those days. Today's Premier League can't compare for the quality and quantity of homegrown talent we saw in those days.

"The Away Game" by Matthew Hall has a full chapter on the career of Alston. He also writes about many other players who were forced to play away for one reason or another. Alston had a pretty good time overseas all in all - especially his adventures in the US.His activities post football reflects great credit on him as a person. "The Away Game" is a great read and should be on every football lover's bookshelf. It would be excellent if it could be updated and re-issued.

Let me reiterate. Adrian Alston is part of Australian football history, he has earned his place in that as part of the first Australian team to qualify for the World Cup. The Socceroos qualified from an Asian region that was not as developed as today, but the vagaries of climate and travel were just as gruelling, yet a team of part-timers like Australia in 1974 and New Zealand in 1982 managed it magnificently. And both teams had the misfortune, if you like, to be drawn against some extremely tough opposition. The fact is, Alston signed for a newly-promoted First Division club AS A (then) CURRENT AUSTRALIAN INTERNATIONAL. He then played at the highest level of club football, in a tough and competitive league, and managed to score goals. He is deserving of recognition at least for that.

I take your point RF, and in the modern era we won't have players such as Alston playing for the Socceroos because we have been able to develop the game at a junior level. It's just that past Socceroos teams have included players who arrived on these shores with a fair football pedigree already in their boots. David Mitchell, Milan Ivanovic, Atti Abonyi and Peter Wilson spring to mind. It would be unfair to regard them as anything less than Australian internationals because we were fortunate enough to have them choose Australia as their home. While Australia might not have been able to claim it developed Alston's talents from a young age, he is one of a select few who have played in the World Cup finals for Australia. It would be interesting to make a list of the outstanding players (home-grown or imported) who were never able to do that.

David V- I suppose Alston's one of those English speaking migrants you so highly value. Not like Branko Buljevic or Attila Abonyi. In your words from John Birmingham's Fairfax blog. "The real problem is that we have too many non-English speakers who do not share the same culture, values and work ethic as the majority of Australians." I suppose players like - Mustafa Amini and Kamal Ibrahim who are currently playing for the national youth team should not even be here, according to you. Sad.

I think perhaps your line in your first post " He was no more Australian in 1974 than Eduardo is Croatian now ' could have been a little more diplomatic(ie it could be misconstrued),but as a English migrant who came here around the same time & age as Adrian Alston I know the angle your coming from. ,For me to be a "Socceroo Trailblazer" as indicated in this article you need to have learnt the game here. Otherwise as in Adrian Alstons case its like " Carrying coals to Newcastle". However looking at it from another perspective Adrian & his 1974 Socceroo teamates(whether learning there football here or as in the majority overseas) were real "Socceroo Trailblazers"in that they paved the way for football to produce the home bred players today, who have made their mark at top overseas clubs & the National team.

He was an English footballer who came to Australia as a fully developed player. In those terms, Alston was not what we would now call an Australian footballer. Is Reinaldo at the Roar an Australian footballer? He has been in Australia for as longer or longer than Alston had been then. Surely, in terms of this post, an "Australian footballer" should be someone who learned the game here ( I wasn't born here either). Alston was an English player who was here for a short time, then returned to England, with Australian nationality. In 1974 he was only an "Australian football" in terms of nomenclature, not in terms of culture or development. I stress I am not intending to be xenophobic. I was a migrant kid myself,

an interesting read and the comments as well, i was born late 70's so do not have a lot of memories of the time, other than cat giving birth and my sister being an ass. Though there are some prominent names i have heard of, so where is he now? what is he doing?

An "Australian footballer" is one who played for Australia.

I think the fact he came back to Australia after he finished in Europe gives him plenty of bonus points and I would definitely consider him Australian now. But he probably wasn't really a trail blazer in that he was an Engishman who had been abroad for a while and then came back. I don't think that would have inspired any English clubs to look at australian raised talent. It may have had the effect in that it showed moving to Australia wasn't the end of your career though.

Good article David V, the 1974 Socceroos stand up well to history, don't they..... ?

DD, I remember 'Love Thy Neighbour' as a truly wonderful comedy. The Brits were unbeatable at comedy in the 60s & 70s. Years later, they brought the English lead down to Australia as a supposed immigrant. When he discovered his new home in Sydney would be in the suburb of Blacktown, you could imagine his reaction!

Given Alston could score goals in a strong First Division (a goal every three games is no disgrace given he played in a struggling side), which was a very strong league at the time (and the same applied to the La Liga, Serie A and Bundesliga, and most others of the time) and packed with quality home-grown players, you can say he did not disgrace himself.

I have to strongly disagree with that. So he is a migrants. Don't migrants have a right to be considered Australian. To be honest I considered Eduardo to be Croatian as well (although I don't recognise the likes of Simunic. I think the nationality of your parents are irrelevant, it's living in the country and contributing to their society is more important than blood line. Although if Simunic choose to represent Germany, I would have considered him to be German) After his professional career finish. Adrian Alston moved back to Australia and coached in Australia for the rest of his career .He probably in the end lived much more of his life in Australia than in England. How long does he have to live in Australia until he becomes Australian?

I'm sorry gentlemen, but I think we need to tighten up on just what being an "Australian footballer" is. Alston was a full time apprentice at Preston North End, and locally born and raised. He came to Australia as an adult. He was in fact a recycled English footballer. To call him an Australian footballer is really stretching it. All you could accurately say about Alston is that he was an English footballer who became an Australian citizen as an adult. He was no more Australian in 1974 than Eduardo is Croatian now - less in fact, because the residency qualifications were a lot more relaxed them. As an Australian kid growing up in the 70s, I recall how conscious I was of the fact that that our 74 team was to a large degree made up by British rejects, A universe away now, thankfully.

Another historical curiousity about the 1970s was the dearth of black players in the football league. Especially in the early part of the decade. Back then there was a comedy show called "Love thy Neighbour" which by today's standards would be impossibly risque to show on TV. Its premise was the racial tension between an ordinary English couple and the West Indian neighbours who had moved in next door. It was trying to get a laugh out of what were genuine racial tensions in the UK at the time. I mention this only because I remember that one of the episodes centred around a home defeat by Manchester United, of whom the white man was a huge fan, to West Ham United. Why to West Ham? Well, so that it could be written into the script that the Hammers striker Clyde Best scored two goals. Clyde, no relation to George, (that was actually one of the gags from the show) was a Bermudan who was at the time probably the only prominent black player in the Football League. Of course within a few years, the children of the West Indian immigrants who had come to Britain in the wake of the second world war would grow up and become prominent in the game. Before the decade was out, Viv Anderson would become the first black English soccer international. And less than 20 years later came the Bosman ruling. So now the English Premier League isn't really English any more.

Johnston began his career at Middlesbrough. His sale to Liverpool in 1981 began a terrible decline for Boro that they got out of by the end of the decade. Alston played in a league with such players as Brooking, Bowles, Hudson, Currie, McKenzie, Birchenall, etc etc. And yet today's England stars are some kind of "Golden Generation" when they don't have half the ability or entertainment of those. Not even half.

Craig Johnston left Australia for England around 1976 or 1977? Am I right in saying that? Also I seem to recall Ray Baartz getting a Man Utd contract in the mid-1960's. There's a book by Neil Montagna-Wallace which discusses the Socceroos from these days. The book came out around 2003 or 2004.

Jorge Robledo and Preben Arentoft were but two. In Scotland, Aberdeen had Zoltan Varga for a year.

When Alston left for the USA, Cardiff replaced him with the extremely gifted and enigmatic Robin Friday. It was him in a Cardiff shirt that inspired an album cover! Friday didn't last long but was still voted an all-time cult hero.