Australia’s forgotten goalscoring king
The history of football is littered with supremely gifted players who, for one reason or another, never attained the kind of enduring star status that their talent deserved. Australia’s Reg Date is undoubtedly one such player.
A charismatic and colourful character off the field, Date’s scoring record was nothing short of astonishing. From his debut as a raw-boned teenager in 1937 until his final outing in 1954, Date tallied an incredible 664 goals across club and representative matches.
“The best Australian player I ever played with or against,” was how he was described by Joe Marston, Australia’s football pioneer of the era, who enjoyed a high-profile career in England decades before his compatriots did so.
On several occasions, Date has been referred to as the ‘Don Bradman of Australian football’, in reference to the Australian cricketer of the same era who, statistically, is unquestionably that game’s greatest player. Yet the Newcastle-born Date, who passed away exactly 20 years ago today aged 74, is barely known even in Australia’s football community, let alone further afield.
Partly that is a result of the era in which he played, when - unlike today - media coverage was minimal. During that period Australia’s sporting focus only infrequently turned to football, a situation that largely remained the case until a decade ago.
Partly too it was a reflection on the personality of a man who eschewed the limelight, following his own path. Date worked as a coalminer during the week, and was seemingly happy to play on weekends with the local team. Never one to follow a conservative path, he owned a pub in a tough neighbourhood just down from the docks in Newcastle, and was known to enjoy partaking in boxing, even in his latter years.
“A great player and a great bloke, but boy he could drink,” said Marston. “The selectors, they never liked Reggie. He was too much of a larrikin. They couldn’t handle him.”
Football in that era could be hugely physical, and it was an environment in which the stocky but powerfully-built Date thrived.
Despite his roguish nature and physically imposing style, Date was renowned not only for his technique and finesse, but as a team man who played with old-fashioned sporting values. “Never did I see a footballer play the game more fairly,” Jack Mathews, sporting editor of the Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners’ Advocate, said following Date’s retirement. “Never did I see one more brilliant, one more spectacular or dangerous to his opposition than was Date. Date was all those things, yet was always a team man who shunned every chance to shine as an individual.”
"[Date] was always a team man who shunned every chance to shine as an individual."
Jack Mathews, sporting editor of the Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners’ Advocate
This prolific striker reportedly turned down offers to play with Cardiff City and for Glasgow Rangers, in moves that would have pre-dated Marston’s breakthrough move to the mother country by several years. Reg Flewin, captain of an England XI which toured Australia in 1951, said of the local hero: “He’d be a top-liner in an English team.”
Date, who grew up in Newcastle’s outer suburbs, was never coached as a young player. His upbringing was against the backdrop of a working-class city, where the local coal and steel industries were the dominant employers. As a result, Newcastle was arguably the home of Australian soccer in the 1930s and '40s. Date’s local team, Wallsend, was the epicentre of the game in Newcastle, with their Crystal Palace ground playing host to international matches during that period.
Encouraged by his grandmother, Date practised as a youngster by kicking a tennis ball against the wall of the local power station. This self-taught approach mirrored that of Bradman, in fact, who famously honed his skills by hitting a golf ball with a cricket stump against a corrugated-iron water tank.
Date scored hundreds of goals at junior level, and in one season reportedly scored seven or more every time he took to the field. Wallsend soon called and the 16-year-old stepped seamlessly into the rough-and-tumble of senior football in a working man’s town.
His rare on-field ability and off-field magnetic persona quickly made Date a hero. And the local boy-made-good flourished in familiar surroundings. He spent his entire career at his hometown club, aside from three typically prolific seasons with top Sydney side Canterbury. One season in Sydney produced a record 73 goals, a tally that will surely never be surpassed.
Brief taste of glory
Sadly, though, Date’s international career in the national team colours was brief. While it spanned six years, he only played in just five full internationals, all of which came over the course of a single month during 1947. Date, however, typically displayed his ability for the exceptional by scoring after just four minutes of his debut against South Africa, en route to a tally of eight goals in his five outings.
World War II and the paucity of internationals played by Australia were contributing factors to Date’s limited outings in the green and gold. But equally, according to his contemporaries, were his brushes with officialdom.
“He [Date] was the outstanding player of those years, no doubt about that,” Australia forward of the era Frank Parsons said of his fellow Novocastrian. “[But] Reg was outspoken. Reg didn't make either of those tours to New Zealand [1948] or South Africa [1950] and he should have made both of them. He should have been the first picked to go to New Zealand.
“We had a few nights together in Newcastle and enjoyed each other’s company. He just loved to talk about soccer. Reg was a character and that pub of his … He was a tough hombre, Reg - the right man for a hotel."
Australia has produced numerous headline names in recent years, but the Socceroos’ lineage stretches back to arguably the greatest of them all: A knockabout coalminer with little interest in fame or fortune, simply playing the game he loved.