SOCCER
ICON, pioneer, legend, stalwart – choose any one or choose all four for they apply in equal measure to 81-year-old Tony Hall.
Once viewed by the sport’s establishment as a pariah for masterminding the birth of a breakaway football association Hall is now the most decorated football personality on the peninsula.
He is a life member of Peninsula Strikers and the Bayside Football Association, recipient in 1985 of a Victoria 150th anniversary medal, holder of a certificate from FIFA issued in 2001 honouring his contribution to the sport and in 2010 was declared a Sporting Legend of the municipality by Frankston council.
Hall and football have been partners for decades.
In his native England he had two chances to realise his dream of becoming a professional footballer.
As a schoolboy he trialled with Arsenal the club he supported but the Gunners never followed up on their initial interest.
A family connection led Hall to join Hendon – one of the finest amateur clubs in the country – and he caught the eye of a scout from Tottenham Hotspur.
Hall played for Spurs in a trial match against a West Ham side featuring Geoff Hurst who was to become a football legend and World Cup winner.
Spurs sent Hall a letter saying they would monitor his development at Hendon but they never contacted him again.
Some years later and now a married man Hall and wife Nancy and Hall’s mother and father arrived in Melbourne along with other new migrants to begin their Australian adventure.
It was Saturday, 2 January 1965.
The Halls were greeted at Station Pier in Port Melbourne by representatives of Victorian State League club Essendon Lions who had been alerted to Hall’s pending arrival by his friend Nigel Bevis who was playing there and Hall signed up to join him.
“We’d come to Melbourne through the Church of England and stayed with a vicar in Sandringham so the journey to and from Mongomery Park in Essendon was a fair bit of a trip back then,” Hall said.
Hall left Lions after just one season and in 1966 joined Frankston City due to a friend of his father who was playing with the local club.
Hall became the first player in Frankston’s history to command a transfer fee.
“They were forced to pay that money to Lions who had put a fee on my head and I decided that I needed to repay them.”
Hall didn’t just repay Frankston through his playing exploits he became a junior coach, compiled matchday programs, organised bingo sessions to pay for new strips and served in various committee roles over the years including the presidency during the club’s last senior championship success in 2007.
His playing career with Frankston lasted six seasons and ended when the club sacked coach Tommy Newbiggin.
This sparked a player exodus and Hall and many of his teammates joined Rosebud.
“They didn’t make it easy for me and it took a few weeks before they signed my transfer.
“Strangely enough we were in a cup competition and Rosebud drew Frankston City away so I had to go back to my old stamping ground.
“It was sad to go back and play against them because I loved Frankston City – that was my home.”
In the mid-1970s the Hall family went back to England for 15 months but returned to Melbourne and an idea that Hall had toyed with for some time took root in reality in 1977.
He embarked on a bold plan to form a league not affiliated with the VSF in response to what many saw as exorbitant club and player fees imposed by the state federation.
This involved locking horns with officialdom often in the form of VSF secretary George Wallace who was keen to discover the planned structure of the new organisation and report back to his board.
“When I first tried to get a Bayside League under way Bob McIntosh from Karingal was going to be president and I’d also approached Frankston City and Frankston Pines.
“The VSF got wind of this and told those clubs they couldn’t go in it.”
After much toing and froing and threats of sanctions Hall and his influential ally Bill Morrey from Seaford United convinced clubs to participate without using their VSF club name.
Frankston City entered its thirds team as Mount Eliza, Seaford entered North Seaford and Belvedere, Hall organised Skye, Carrum and Botany Park and Rosebud entered a side called Dromana.
In 1978 the league was up and running and the clearest sign that its mastermind was “legitimised” in the eyes of the establishment came in 1985 when Victorian premier John Cain awarded Hall an anniversary medal “for services to soccer”.
Prior to that award Hall had started a junior program at Skye Rovers (not linked to the modern-day Skye United).
“We had some great coaches at Skye among them Harry Chalkitis, Alan Parrott and Graham Baulk and among our junior players was Adam Jamieson who coaches Mornington and Chris and Anthony Simmons whose sons all play in the senior team at Somerville.”
Outside football Hall worked with leading market research company AC Nielsen for over 30 years and his interest with facts and figures may have stimulated his son Laurence’s fascination with statistics.
“Laurence does all the stats for Long Island Cricket Club and Peninsula Strikers and he has written club histories about Frankston City, Karingal and Langwarrin too I think.”
Laurence Hall regularly takes his father to local games and introduced his dad to Woodlands Primary School 20 years ago.
“Laurence teaches there and up until last year I coached the grade 6 boys and girls in interschool matches with the girls becoming state champions one year.”
Tony Hall remains actively involved with football.
Last week he was at Centenary Park as pre-season training was underway but he wasn’t only there to watch today’s players being put through their paces by head coach Scott Morrison.
“I was down there to organise a small sponsorship because I buy training balls for them every year.
“I spoke to Adrian (Scialpi, club president) and he was telling me they’ve had 40 players down to training which is a good sign.
“I really think they are on the right track by trying to use youth with a few experienced players.
“They have a young reserves side that won the league last season for the first time in 30 years and they’ve got a very good committee.
“Adrian does a lot of work for them and I’d hate to think where the club would be without Clayton (Lee).”
Hall has a point.
As do those who wonder where football on the peninsula would be today if not for the commitment and tenacity of Tony Hall.
Meanwhile five local clubs were involved in pre-season friendlies in the past few days.
On Thursday Springvale White Eagles defeated Skye United 3-0 at the Serbian Sports Centre.
On Saturday Somerville Eagles beat Seaford United 2-1 at Centenary Park, Chelsea lost 4-3 to Rowville Eagles at Parkridge Reserve and Langwarrin drew 2-2 with Brunswick Juventus at Lawton Park.
Somerville broke the deadlock around the 30-minute mark after Nick Simmons won the ball high up the park and found Conor Mcfall who turned and from outside the area beat Hayden Hicks with a curled effort inside the far post.
A few minutes before the break a handball inside the area resulted in a penalty but Marcus Anastasiou smacked his attempt onto the crossbar.
Both teams made multiple changes at the break and Somerville wasted no time in extending their lead when Corey Riddle hammered a low cross across the face of the box for Connor Phillips to slide in at the back post and score from close range.
Seaford heads never dropped and were rewarded when a misread pass from Sommerville keeper Arthur Karagiannis allowed Toby Mullins (ex-Eastern Lions, Langwarrin and Eltham Redbacks) to gain possession then smash the ball into an open net.
Alex Van Heerwarden made a surprise appearance for Seaford who had over 10 senior players unavailable.
Chelsea was down 4-1 against Rowville before staging a comeback and hitting the post in the final minute.
Chelsea’s goals came from James Stinson (2) and former East Kilbride player Sean Allan.
Aaran Currie and Tom Hawkins have been training with Chelsea and Hawkins played against Rowville.
Langwarrin striker Archie Macphee opened the scoring against Brunswick Juventus in the 10th minute. His free-kick struck the wall and he volleyed the rebound into the bottom corner.
Not long after Jacob Brito made it 2-0.
Both teams made plenty of changes at half-time and Juventus scored six minutes into the second half from a penalty then equalised with 20 minutes to go.
In the under-23 clash Langy ran out a 3-0 winner.
The local youngsters were 2-0 up at half-time with goals from Allen Dzemidzic and Juan Ramos.
Dzemidzic rounded off the scoreline with his second after the break.
In other news the 2024 fixtures for the renamed VPL1 (Victorian Premier League) competition have been released and Langwarrin’s first three games are at home starting on Saturday 10 February when it welcomes Bentleigh Greens to Lawton Park for a 7pm kick-off.
This Thursday Langwarrin closes its pre-season preparations with a friendly against Nunawading City at Lawton Park, 7.30pm.
