The Society’s Committee today agreed to digitise eleven cannisters of 1978 16mm film which were found recently.

The exercise is an expensive one with a quote of $35 per 100 feet (30.5 metres) accepted by officials however they have resolved to apply a ceiling limit to costs.

A box of the films, including a cannister of offcuts, were located at the league offices, Moore Park.  Apparently no-one there knew the origin of the film but since, former league CEO, Craig Davis, has indicated that he had the box together with other historical material, in a store room for some years.  The image shows two of the Society’s committee, Jenny Hancock and Ian Wright with the film.

Also, author of the website, Footystats Diary and former League Publicity Officer, Kevin Taylor, told the Society they were part of his World of Australian Football Panel Show which filled the half time slot in Channel Seven’s VFL direct Saturday telecast.

“A number of the rolls of film do not have sound but I believe they are in excellent condition, possibly only being shown once” Taylor, now 81, said.

“We used them in the show and those on the panel with me would comment on the games.  There was only one cameraman at the ground but from memory he did an excellent job with a range of lenses to capture the games with his camera in a very professional manner.”

Those were the days of some great footballers in Sydney, including one of the best to come out of NSW, John Pitura, who was coach of North Shore.  He was recruited from Wagga to South Melbourne then transferred to Richmond.

All the senior teams in the competition are shown in this vision, apart from Balmain.  Some are shown on a number of occasions.

These are the match film currently being processed:

ROUND	DATE	MATCH	VENUE
2	9 April	Western Suburbs v Pennant Hills	Macquarie Uni
4	23 April	St George v Newtown	Olds Park
5	30 April	Southern Districts v St George	Rosedale Oval
6	7 May	East Sydney v Southern Districts	Trumper Park
8	21 May	East Sydney v Western Suburbs	Trumper Park
9	28 May	Newtown v Southern Districts	Erskineville Oval
10	4 June	East Sydney v Newtown	Trumper Park
16	16 July	East Sydney v St George	Trumper Park
18	30 July	St George v Newtown	Trumper Park
19	6 August	Pennant Hills v Newtown	Trumper Park
1st Semi	27 August	Newtown v Western Suburbs	Erskineville Oval

 

Also, besides the players it will give an idea of the grounds and facilities clubs had to put up with 46 years ago and obviously too, show some of the supporters and patrons of the game in Sydney in the period.

The decision to digitise the film was motivated by a need to secure the vision while still in a good condition and then make these games available to the public on DVD for a reasonable cost.