Golden Soft Sombrero Moment with Jack Reilly

Overseas Clubs:                                 

Nil.

Aussies transferring to clubs overseas was virtually unheard of in the 60’s and 70’s but how about this for a little aside…

Forget about the issue of Harry Kewell not playing for Australia, ‘club versus country’ issues were a lot tougher in Jack’s day.

To get home to play for Australia in the 50’s and 60’s, an Aussie abroad would have had to travel via Ocean liner on a six month round trip, literally missing 52 games for his English club.

How do you reckon David O’Leary would cope with that?

Aussie Club:                                       

Juventus (Melbourne), Chairman of the Carlton Soccer Club

Green & Gold Honors:                        

Socceroo appearances:             35

World Cup campaigns:  World Cup finals Germany 1974

Diegos Verdict:                                   

Playing for the Socceroos in Jack’s era meant pulling on the gardening gloves and literally laying your life down for your country trying to stop the inflated pigskin from hitting the back of the net.

Socceroo trips in the 60’s and 70’s to war torn Vietnam, and World Cup qualifiers in Iran and Iraq before any type of weapons inspections makes a trip to Montevideo (in 2001) look like spending a couple of weeks on Temptation Island.

‘Rambo’ Reilly congratulations you’re a Four Diegos legend amigo!

The Four Diegos special Soft Sombrero Moment with Jack Reilly

Reilly on the Socceroos World Cup visit to Iran in 1997…

Diegos: “There’s been a lot of drama attached to the away leg of the World Cup qualifier between Australia and Iran in Teheran.

The media has described the trip as an ‘Aussie invasion into enemy territory’. They’ve painted the scenario as a scene out of ‘Desert Storm’. They have Venables and the team ‘halled up in a desert bunker in Dubai’, described Soccer Australia as ‘HQ’ and the team as ‘a crack 26 man force ready to launch an in and out offensive’.

The war jargon is great to build up the game. You’ve been there personally with past Socceroo teams.

Will it be a war Jack?”

Reilly: “I’m sitting at home with my Khaki greens on.

This will be real test for the Australian players. I was there in 1970 and also 1973 and it’s an intimidating experience.

They’re not hostile but very, very vocal and fervent. It’s not only a question of being at the game where they’ll get over 100,000 people but when the team arrives in Teheran they’ll be 20,000 screaming supporters to greet them and follow them all around the city. It will be an environment that they really haven’t experienced before.”

Diegos: “Adrian Alston, your 1974 World Cup teammate, has been quoted in the media saying that the crowd was actually wielding swords at the game.

Does it really get that bad?”

Reilly: “It certainly is different. There is no doubt in the world about that.”

Diegos: “You’ve partied in Iran with the best of the swingers.

Have you got any tips about the best discos or parties that the current Socceroos can go to socialize a little between training sessions?”

Reilly: “Just a bit of advice boys – ‘stay away’”

Soft Sombrero Moment 1997

Reilly on the 1974 Heroes…

Diegos: “Tell us about the 1974 team. How close were you all?”

Reilly: “I think that they were the most closely knit bunch that’s ever represented Australia.

I think that there have been many better teams but that team was a group of guys who banded themselves around Rale Rasic as a coach.

Again I’ve seen better coaches than Rasic but I’ve never seen a better handler of men. Everybody gave his last ounce for him and I think that was the strength of the squad.

The current squad has certainly got much more skill. They are physically better prepared and when we were playing 95% of the squad were other than Australian born. Now they’re all Australian born.”

Soft Sombrero Moment 1997

Reilly on the yummy Iranian food…

Diegos: “It’s been reported that the current Aussie squad is taking its own chef to Iran. In 1973 your team apparently took three or four days to organize its food in Teheran.

Obviously the preparation of food is a huge concern.

Can you tell us a little about what you experienced and did you end up leaving Iran craving some of the local tucker?”

Reilly: “I can tell you we didn’t leave craving any of the Iranian food that’s for sure.

What I do know at the moment is that Ian Hewtson can’t understand why he didn’t get the gig to Iran.

It did take the best part of three days for us to get a settled regime with respect to food. It appears this squad instead lives in the lap of luxury. They are living amongst the Sultans of Dubai and enjoying the best fruits of life and good luck to them.”

Soft Sombrero Moment 1997

Reilly on Aussie soccer administrators…

Diegos: “You have been very critical of soccer administrators over the years for not being able to cash in on the successes of 1974.

How important is it for Australia to make the World cup first and what business plan should Soccer Australia implement if they are to capitalize on an appearance in 1998?”

Reilly: “I think the situation at the moment is that we must qualify.

There’s no ‘maybes’ attached to it. There has been an enormous amount of money spent already to ensure that the best possible facilities have been available and warm up games scheduled.

Let’s face it we are not looking only at moving players out of Australia. We are moving them from all around the world. So it’s been a particularly expensive exercise and the ledger will only be balanced if we qualify for the World Cup finals.

I think that we will qualify and the investment will be well worthwhile. To ensure that we maximize on it we must continue to bring through the number of young players that we are presently.

I don’t care whether they play in Australia or overseas. We must have a plan that is not so short term. We have to be brave enough to set a 10-year plan with definite targets.”

Soft Sombrero Moment 1997

Reilly on Socceroo tours before evolution began…

Diegos: “The Socceroos have had to make a number of treacherous trips to some hostile places around the globe to fulfill their World Cup commitments over the years.

You represented the Socceroos in an era where you had to play in some extremely primitive and unsafe places.

Does one trip stand out as your most memorable?”

Reilly: “We went to Vietnam when there was a war on, and l was still a very naive young goalkeeper.

There was about 80,000 Vietnamese in the stadium and the pitch was surrounded by military police carrying automatic machine guns. I saw this fellow wandering around the goalmouth and I thought ‘gee this bloke is carrying a pretty big walkie talkie on his back’, but upon closer inspection, I realized that what he was in fact, carrying was a mine detector.

So you can imagine how l felt in the first twenty minutes of that game. It was a question of me waving goodbye to the ball as it went past because there was no way l was going to dive around trying to save it”.

Soft Sombrero Moment 1997