Behind the Goals

The history of the Victorian Country Football League

Paul Daffey is a Melbourne journalist who has written about local football in the metropolitan press for 20 years. He has written two books, Local Rites (2001) and Beyond the Big Sticks (2003), and was a contributor to the history of the Melbourne University Football Club, called Black and Blue (2005).

Behind the Goals is a history of the Victorian Country Football League, the body that ran country football in this state for 90 years before being wound up in 2016. It explores the reasons the body was formed and its success in administering the game in town and country through the boom years of the 1950s and through the upheavals brought on by the corporate era in the 1980s. It traces the VCFL’s transformation from an almost entirely voluntary organization through to a body with salaried workers in the managerial age of the 2000s. It features larger than-life personalities who brought bold visions and quiet achievers who made sure the books were right.

In tracing the story of country football, it offers sweeping insight on the story of football through Australia. His history of the Victorian Country Football League, Behind the Goals, is due for release in May at the Geelong-Essendon game.

Paul Daffey was a founding editor, with John Harms, of The Footy Almanac. He has appeared regularly on ABC Radio and SEN. His show on SEN, The Bush and the Burbs, is a staple on the Evenings with Finey program, and has been going for 10 years. In recent years, he has produced weekly podcasts on local footy through his PD Footy project. In 2017 Paul is conducting occasional country footy tours through PD Footy.

Behind the Goals will be of interest to our many country supporters and players who now reside in the Brunswick area. Make sure to book your seat and table for this special event. A two-course meal and drinks will be provided throughout the course of this luncheon held noon to 2:15pm.