Football rivalry in Tasmania has led to some classic encounters. Top of the list has to be that unforgettable, 1967 Tasmanian State Premiership decider between Wynyard and North Hobart, held at West Park, Burnie.
At the end of the fourth quarter the game was about to be decided by a kick for goal by North Hobart. The siren sounded, and with scores level, even a point would have secured a win for the Hobart side. However, the Wynyard fans surged onto the ground and removed the goalposts. 😎 Of course these were club sides battling for supremacy, but in earlier times there were contests between representative teams from the North and South.
Geographical rivalry in Tassie meant that the first football match played between the two halves of the State created enormous interest. It took place in Hobart on September 8 1883. For some reason not many northern players turned up, so their makeshift team included numerous ring-ins. I think the range of ‘North’ may have been extended to include stray players from Melbourne. Anyway, it was an emphatic win for the South, who won 6 goals 20 behinds to 1 goal 12 behinds. It was a very windy day, which may explain the inaccurate kicking.
I was unaware until recently that nicknames were applied to the combined teams. Coutas (as in barracoutas) for the South, Mutton Birds for the north.
The barracouta, certainly a fearsome looking fish.
The muttonbird may look inoffensive, but it has a powerful presence!
When the nicknames were bestowed I have yet to discover, but by 19o9 they were appearing in match reports. The following was published under the headline FOOTBALL NORTH V SOUTH – A GREAT BATTLE.
Two special trains, all the way from Hobart, and loaded right up, brought a swarm of Southerners to augment the local attendance. Naturally, under the circumstances, there was lively barracking throughout the contest, but, withal, the utmost good feeling was displayed, and ‘mutton-bird’ and ‘couta’ were epitaphs hurled round more in the spirit of banter than of animosity. (Critic, 24 July 1909) Norths won by two points.
The following year the Coutas crushed the Mutton Birds.
In the inter-island match, contested in Hobart last Saturday, the ‘Coutas’ of the South came down whacks on the Muttonbirders from the North, and decimated them to the extent of 14.12 to 6.11. Such a drubbing was totally unexpected by the visitors and locals alike….at the end of twenty minutes North began to hand out signals of distress. From that period to the finish the ‘Coutas’ maintained ascendancy over the Muttonbirds, and the final bell saw the latter thoroughly trounced and their supporters lamenting the amount of foreign capital they were supplying the ‘Coutas’ for future expenditure on scallops and tanglefoot [Whiskey] (Critic, Aug, 20 1910)
Four years later a young man ended up in court after he attended a football match carrying a barracouta on a stick. In itself that was not such a problem, but he became very drunk and used language that was said to be more offensive than the smell of the aging couta. He was let off with a severe warning. As a northerner I hope there were a few mutton birds being waved around as well. They would certainly have won the odour battle. 😵💫
When WWI broke out many young footballers enlisted. By 1917 some had been fighting for years, initially at Gallipoli and subsequently in France and Belgium. A letter home published in The Examiner gives an account of a game in which the Coutas and Mutton Birds joined forces against a South Australian team behind the lines in Belgium. The men were enjoying some recreation after a long period in the trenches. The Tasmanians were captained by Harry Brain.
‘The day and ground were, unfortunately, very wet, but as the lads have been living in mud and slush for the past two months the combined mutton birds and ‘coutas were in their glee.’
The game at times was a trifle rough, and in the interests of both sides it was thought desirable to have ‘Doctor’ Gus Solomon standing by with his bed – in other words the battery stretcher. The scores at half time were very even, being our side 2 goals 7 points; their side 2 goals 6 points. Both teams were very fatigued and our great supporter Vet.Sergt. Pierce Thompson came in our hour of need with a bottle of Johnny Walker, which may have had a great deal to do with the result of the game. (Examiner, Jan 9 1917)
Perhaps Thompson should have been declared ‘man of the match’, because the whiskey fuelled Coutas and Mutton Birds won 7 goals 9 points to the South Australians 3 goals 6 points.
As the old saying goes. united we stand. I think this is a good place to leave the story, although the football nicknames continued into the 1920s.
FOR THE FULL STORY OF THAT CONTROVERSIAL 1967 GRAND FINAL. CLICK HERE.
