https://goodonewilson.substack.com/p/puskas-in-australia-ferenc-football?r=i4rkv&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

"If you did a poll of a hundred journalists or people who know football and said ‘name the ten best players of the last century’, ninety percent would have him in it.
And yet this titan of the game finished his five decade football journey in the small pond (internationally speaking) that was Australia’s National Soccer League. Puskás lived with his wife Elizabeth in Ashwood, Melbourne, behind a garden supply business run by his Hungarian friends, Arpi and Val. He didn’t drive, so Ange drove him to training in his old Datsun 200b and a bond was forged."

3 min trailer on what promises to be the Australian Football doco.of the year... well worth a watch, even for those who refuse to acknowledge soccer in this country prior to the Aleague.  "The boss" was larger than life and some of the footage is astonishing... great memories..

Have a watch and throw a couple of bucks to the guys if you are able to as they are trying to get the final bit of funding to be able to distribute... Optus, SBS, Stan ?!?!?!!? If anyone is listening, THIS is the sort of content we need... 

Thanks for posting this, MSC. 

Thanks for putting this up .....

Ferenc Puskas a genuine legend of the game.I always wondered how he finished up coaching South Melbourne and how he was induced to come to Australia which was regarded as a football backwater ,especially in Europe.To use an analogy from another sport it would like Ricky Ponting going to coach cricket in Fiji.

I lived in NSW  and though the NSL was covered in mainstream media( more so than the A-League at present) the fact that this iconic player was coaching in Australia was only mentioned occasionally.Did he receive more interest from Victorian media?

On a lighter note are there any photos of the great man holding or kicking an Aussie Rules ball.?f there are the AFL should be approached for funding especially as the production team did them a favour when they did "The Galahs".By the way  I met Harry Beitzel who was in that documentary many times as he lived on the NSW Central Coast in his latter years-though he was a Aussie Rules man he was quite a character.

Great line Booney, a mate once used the analogy "it would be like rocking up to the VICROADS to get your license and Michael Schumacher being your driving instructor" hahahahahah

Not much interest at the time in mainstream media, a few articles here and there.. I have never seen a Sherrin photo but remember an anecdote that once, playing Marconi (at the Palace I think) Puskas came to the social club for the end of game dinner before the players had changed to find a huge bowl of pasta on the table..... he tucked in and finished the lot, not realising that that was for both teams. hahahahaha hope it makes the doco..... 

Welcome, should be good. Wadey's face can be bloodied and bruised in the trailer... Such a shame a player who played, bled and was worshipped at the club for 200+ games now shits on us at every chance he gets... Oh well, some people I guess. 

This is the sort of thing KeepUp should be getting behind mate but ....... 

Ricky Ponting going to coach 🏏 in Siberia’d be much more accurate IMHO(not least bc in Fiji they do know of cricket)

Supposedly one of the reasons Puskas took the SMFC coaching-gig is because he rather liked the idea of working in one of the few parts of the world where he could walk down the street completely unrecognised..I imagine not-entirely-dissimilar reasoning would’ve been at play re. Tommy Docherty and Dragoslav Sekularac’s own NSL coaching-stints.

AND same for players like Rush, Beardsley, Georgie Best. looking for a break from the relentless limelight.. Soccer (apart from us crazies) was invisible back in the day. ... Nowadays every New Dawner knows the most beautiful goal of the year is awarded the Puskas award by FIFA but I bet most have no idea why..... 

Football was not completely a non event in Australia prior to Puskas's arrival.An Australian player,the late great Joe Marston,had played in a FA  Cup in 1954 and in the 1960s Prague had  a coach called Stefan Cambal who had played for Czechoslovakia prior to WW2 in the 1938 WC and later another Czech coach,Joe Venglos,who went on to coach Celtic and his native country.However Puskas was the biggest name by far and that is why I used the Ponting analogy as he would be coaching in Fiji where cricket is known but it is not a big game.

Dr Venglos was a very interesting cat and probably deserves a doco all on his own. 

Rereading my post, it can be misinterpreted.

Fenenc thought the technique of Aussie players needed improving - not Wadey. The latter said one of the assistant  coaches at South Melb got them doing a few sprints - and they weren't that fit. Ferenc was keen on 2 to a ball to improve technique.

Wadey idolised Puskas! He thought he was a lovely bloke too. Wadey acknowledged that their fitness at South M wasn't what it could be under Puskas though.

I've met Wadey. I thought he was very likeable, although  he was raving to me about my daughter's football ability and leadership in assisting him in a few days coaching course. At the time he and Craig Foster were running coach clinics across Aus. Despite them having a friendly crack at each other in the media a few times.

Another massive name from world football coaching in Aus in the NSL.

How did we ever attract Puskas  and Venglos to Aus? It was  considered more  of a football backwater than now.

As an international  football nation, we are increasingly recognised as a quality football team - from people in the know, not the media. Only 10 nations have qualified for the last 5 WCs in succession -  coming 11th in Qatar was big.

This is  gleaned  from the media in the countries we have played, from their media interviewing opposition coaches and players  - after the games.

 Insiders, international coaches and players in Peru, Denmark, Argentina and Ecuador, highly respect Aus as a football nation. 

He was nothing special as far as a coach was, but as it settled in for us, he was just somebody who made you think wow.
https://www.insidesport.com.au/news/paul-wade-talks-development-diving-and-disrespect-422694
Certainly doesn't sound like idolisation to me Decentric.

No I didnt misunderstand your post however Paul Wade has certainly ruffled a few feathers with the "old soccer" crowd over the years. 

You can thank migrant football communities for that. If Lowys Aprtheid policy hadn't put and end to that who knows who else may have coached down under over the years?

Frank actually hired a German for SFC in season one. Hardly apartheid.

The point is that was just bc of Lowy’s personal willingness; one that hasn’t been shared by all that many other ALM club-owners/CEOs etc. if the no. of o/s non-English-speaking-background coaches throughout the league’s history is anything to go by..

It’s beyond laughable IMO that this league has actually seen peanuts like Zadkovich and Moon be head-coaches, and under the readymade pretext of “Aussie coaches need to be given a chance” escape scrutiny bc of it.

Fascinating. Anyone I would have heard of mate? Cant think of anyone German of the same ilk that coached/played in Australia? Matthaus? Gerd Muller, Rummenigge, Rudi Voller, the Keiser Beckenbauer himself maybe?

Pierre Littbarski, 3 time world cup finalist and winner in 1990. Not greatly unknown.

Fark, great player... I remember Littbarski well... Quick little bugger with a jinky dribble. Nice, I didnt realise he managed in Australia....

On another note, How dour was that 1990 final though?

In his book, Captain Socceroo, written a couple of decades ago, Wadey was lot more effusive of Puskas. The South M players watched some old videos of  Puskas playing - they were gobsmacked how good a player he was!

Thanks for  posting the Wade interview article. He isn't gracious about the tactical improvement  of the A L over the NSL. Game sense and tactics are interrelated. Even  when he wrote decades ago, like Robbie Slater in his book, both elucidated how far behind tactically Aus were - before the emergence of Hiddink/Pim/Baan/Berger and the NC.  Tactically, Aus players are almost as good as anywhere now. It is the main reason we finished 11th in Qatar.

I wonder how Wadey is appraising the junior/youth coaches he assesses?

I knew that - but only just  before he coached SFC in the first season.

He had fond memories of Aus.

Im sorry Decentric. When you take the opinions of Paul Wade and Robbie Slater as "evidence" of tactical improvement and some sort of perverse validation of the NC I guess Ill just leave you to it.... 

It would be interesting to hear/see comments from Baan,Berger,Ange and Arnie about the  current Olyroos,,U/20s and U/18 and 17 squads.Evidently Arnie was going to cast an eye over the U/17 s after he finished with the senior team.

Would these coaches say that the current crop of 15-to 22 year old players are better than their counterparts of say ten years ago? Arnie and Ange would be able to think back to their playing days and note improvements in technique and tactical awareness.I should have included Craig Foster in the list of ex-players,coaches and pundits whose opinions would be worthwhile.

Came across this one as well that I hadnt seen, some amazing footage from his playing days for anyone keen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70pc9kr9QcA

Australia was an "international football nation" over 60 years ago - why do you think we got suspended by FIFA? Leading European first division players, esp. Austrians came here and Sydney clubs refused to pay transfer fees for them -claiming they were economic migrants. The standard lifted overnight and we were arguably much less of a backwater when the likes of Venglos, Vlasits, Puskas and Docherty came here to coach.

Remember when  I was a kid watching Hellas v George cross prematch and I seen Puskas mangling in the crowd and he was large man at that stage short and stubby thinking to myself who's this bloke , and my old man put me in my place told me your looking at one of Real Madrid best ever and one of the best to play the game.

Hehehe yeah I was sort of the same. I had heard the name but no real idea how players like Eusebio, Di Stefano and Puskas changed the world. My old man, uncles and the other elder geezers down at Middle Park would look at him with awe, conversations would stop when he walked past and they would smile from ear to ear that our Hellas had a coach like him.... No internet back then but SBS used to do a 5 mins player highlights package at the end of the weekly world soccer show back then (remember those?) and Les Murray was gushing about his compatriot.... my eyes were opened... RIP both Les and Ferenc... legends.... 

it is wonderful history - I was a young tacker back then but would see the footage highlights back in the day.
You used to wonder why did he pick Oz but what a coup by the local hungarians, a Legend.

Yeah, just wish the modern day "local Hungarians" chose to honour him in a more appropriate way than in the weeds next to where people dump their dog poo, overlooking a public park where rugby league and franchise footballers train....... 

https://www.sportingnews.com/au/football/news/disgraceful-football-fans-call-for-ignored-ferenc-puskas-statue-to-be-relocated-in-melbourne/15chkpsjogui81oki8qa82dlpn