Page 76 - History of Parkside Football Club (1897-2017) Editied Version Completed_optimized

Parkside Football Club 1897/2017

The sport's cry as a battle cry

“World War II was a tragic episode in world history, which caused millions of people to suffer,
costing 55 million lives. Almost a million Australians, both men and women, served in the Second
World War. They fought in campaigns against Germany and Italy in Europe, the Mediterranean and
North Africa, as well as against Japan in south-east Asia and other parts of the Pacific.”

https://www.awm.gov.au/atwar/ww2/

Jeff Dowsing rightly pointed out that,

“There was some level of guilt shrouding players and supporters partaking in such a comparatively
frivolous exercise, though an alternate point of view (supported by former PM Robert Menzies) was
that footy served a valuable psychological and social purpose, in addition to contributing money for
patriotic funds.”

http://australianfootball.com

In 1942, the shadow of WW2 reached Australia's shores for the first time and the Second World War
entered its second phase. The Australian mainland came under direct attack for the first time, as
Japanese aircraft bombed towns in north-west Australia and Japanese midget submarines attacked
Sydney harbour.

Dowsing argues that,

“The game was undoubtedly much slower. Given the lack of running capacity with brief pre-seasons
and training that often entailed little more than kick-to-kick, positional play had to be the order of
the day.

Yet, as unsophisticated as that all sounds, frantic rolling mauls and 36 players flooding one-third of
the ground isn’t exactly progress either. Perhaps the war era wasn’t so bad after all.”

Even the horrors of the war and the terrible suffering it inflicted on a whole nation could not stop
Australian rules from retaining significant popularity.

“The executive of the Victorian Football League expressed its pleasure that many games under
Australian National Council rules have been played by our lads, and that the spectacular features of
our game have, as they did in the last war, greatly impressed the British, French and other Allied
soldiers: It added that in order to encourage the playing of the game among Australian soldiers, 'it is
intended by the League to contribute towards the supply of further footballs:"

The pervasiveness of Australian rules football among the Australian troops in the Middle East was
described in 1942 by a returning veteran, Victorian Football League ex-umpire Warrant Officer Alf

Once a Parksider, Always a Parksider