Two emotional Socceroos, advocacy and Rale Rasic: The 2022 Football Writer's Festival had it all

Despite the continued challenges of COVID and late withdrawals due to mandatory isolation periods, a sold out 2022 Football Writer’s Festival took place in Jamberoo New South Wales over the weekend.

Attendees ventured from interstate and abroad to share their works, ideas and passion for football, with three days of engagement, conversation and debate culminating in an appearance by the head of Football Australia James Johnson via Zoom on Sunday afternoon.

Earlier, there had been much emotion, a few stunning revelations and plenty of fury expressed at the current state of the Australian game.

The event began on Friday night with the Portraits in Football Exhibition at the nearby Jamberoo School of Arts. A previously hidden stash of thousands of historical photos that vividly capture the games’ Australian past were put on display and a full house wandered slowly through the collection, spotting names and faces that triggered memories from as far back as the 1940s.

The images were acquired after being sold by Fairfax Media to US interests in 2013. When the powers at be in Australian football saw little point in taking possession of them for the purpose of accurately capturing and retelling Australian football history, Fair Play Publishing’s Bonita Mersiades took it upon herself to do so, with a consortium of individuals.

The works are also beautifully presented in the stunning book Portraits in Football, with the images selected and organised by Mersiades herself.

After a night of nostalgia, former Matilda and Canberra United coach Heather Garriock hosted a breakfast early Saturday morning, focussing specifically on the 2023 Women’s World Cup and the most effective ways to parlay the event for the betterment of the game domestically.

Networks 10’s Simon Hill took to the stage next, in conversation with Socceroo, Reading stalwart, former drug-addict and right-hand man to David Beckham during the Englishman’s time in Spain, Andy Bernal.

The Canberra-born Bernal had a room of people transfixed by his story in a very unique way; open about his time spent playing the game abroad as a future star, his time in England and also the cocaine addiction that almost destroyed his life once his best football had been played.

Hill took a back seat and allowed Bernal to convey his painful and what must sometimes be difficult to repeat stories, with the subject moved to tears as he recounted the events that form the basis of his biography Riding Shotgun.

Bernal has a rare honesty and sharpness in his eyes now, knowing full well that he is somewhat lucky to be here after being ravaged by crack cocaine.

CEO of the Australian Professional Leagues (APL) Danny Townsend appeared next, with some rather passionate and frustrated people keen to push his buttons when it came to A-League Men expansion, plans for whatever a national second division will look like and the financial ramifications of the global pandemic that made the last two domestic seasons incredibly difficult to navigate.

Most interestingly was reference to the private equity funding about to become available to the APL and the best means by which to use it. According to Townsend, A-League marquees are ‘back on the table’.

Off the back of his National Press Club speech earlier in the week, Craig Foster took questions from the floor around the issues for which he continues to advocate and the role football could and should be playing in addressing them.

Photo by Don Arnold/WireImage)

The games’ reaction to Russia’s recent military moves, the appalling treatment and detention of refugees and the continued failings around providing self-determination for, and true reconciliation with, Indigenous Australians had Foster in fine form.
His passion and commitment to injustice are inspiring and the connection between the game Foster played at the highest level and its role in providing solutions and leadership is constantly on his mind.

His analogy that every goal scored in Qatar at the 2022 World Cup will be stained with the blood of around 40 deceased workers whose plight has been attempted to be removed from history by the Qatari government, was powerful to say the least.

Foster increasingly becomes the head line act wherever he appears and the Football Writer’s Festival – his third consecutive – was no exception.

Jason Goldsmith and a name familiar to Roar readers, Lucas Gillard, presented a wonderful session on their book, Be My Guest, a work that journeys through the best and the worst of the foreign players to have ventured to Australian shores. With Socceroos John Kosmina, Gary Cole, and former Socceroo and NSL coach Rale Rasic there to provide the hilarious background and details to some of the signings who found themselves in Australia, the session was a laugh a minute and the reverence given to the 86-year-old Rasic as he named his best, worst and everything in between was palpable.

The poignant fact that the coach of the 1974 World Cup Socceroos was speaking in a pub still owned and run by the extended relatives of Johnny Warren was lost on no one.

Issues in the women’s game were also discussed, including getting a broader demographic of women engaged in all aspects of the game.

In a moving session featuring former Young Matilda Elissia Carnavas, a woman who left football in fear and subsequently backed up the recent allegations made by Lisa De Vanna in regards to inappropriate behaviour in the national teams, the ex-player spoke of feeling dread when trips away with the team loomed, stating that what she saw going on clashed with her values; something that eventually saw her leave the game forever, barring a short stint at Perth Glory some years later.

Former Socceroos coach Rale Rasic speaks during a Football Australia Live Stream at NEP Studios on February 04, 2022 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Jenny Evans/Getty Images for Football Australia)

I had the pleasure of chairing a few sessions and as the festival drew towards a close, I spoke with former journalist and author Vicky Krayem, Worimi Aboriginal man and Director at the Wollotuka Institute of Aboriginal Studies at the University of Newcastle Emeritus Professor John Maynard, as well as Former Socceroo Gary Cole about the importance of recording and learning from the history of the game in Australia.

When I asked Cole about the importance of preserving Socceroo history, the former Heidelberg and Preston star welled up when he reflecting on his time in the green and gold.

It was a truly touching and slightly out of character moment for a man quick with a joke and seemingly a smile always on his face. What national representation meant for Cole was obvious and moving, and despite recent scuttlebutt around the current squad, a similar emotion no doubt is felt by all given the opportunity to be a Socceroo.

The festival ended with Johnson’s appearance and the raising of governance issues that continue to provide frustration for fans; those waiting for the change that appeared to be promised when he returned from abroad with an unquestionable CV.

The Football Writer’s Festival is the highlight of my year, bar the Eurovision Song Contest and despite the constant health challenges still being faced, was once again a brilliant event, filled with debate, conversation and robust discussion.

Few issues will have been neatly resolved as the dust settles on the three days, yet the seeds of change and the demand for increased accountability of those over-seeing the game in Australia have been planted during this and the previous two festivals.

May it long continue in the future.