Football history is in the Allsop family blood. Richard Allsop is well-known for his insightful and entertaining Football Flashbacks, which run on the club’s website each week of the AFL season. He has co-authored books on the 1957 Hawthorn Finals campaign and the 1961 Premiership side. Now, there is another Allsop following in father’s footsteps.
Matthew Allsop, 10, not only collects Football Records, he writes and illustrates his own! Matthew’s Football Records preview and highlight the games he plays (and wins) in his own backyard football league – the MAFL. He has also produced a magnificent special edition Record advertising the Hawthorn players, the great games and the club history that can be found in the Hawks Museum.
Read his story and you’ll see the budding author and Hawk historian. Matthew is proof that you don’t need to be above a certain age to get involved in the Hawks Museum. We are delighted to welcome Matthew aboard!
Matthew – in his own words
I’ve always loved the footy. Since I was four, I have watched the footy all the time. I became really interested just before the 2012 Finals Series and even got to go to the Grand Final. I was very upset when the Hawks lost but I was much happier the next three years. Only now do I realise how lucky I was to go when I was so young.
I’d always liked getting the Footy Record at the games and reading them at home. In 2016, when I was re-reading my Records, I thought I should make my collection bigger, so I started collecting old Records from as far back as the 1970s. In 2017, I also began making my own Footy Records for the games I play in the backyard as part of the MAFL. In that competition Hawthorn are even more successful than in the AFL!
In the photo I’m holding the Record for the 2017 MAFL Grand Final which Hawthorn won of course. I’m also holding a special Record I made about the Hawks Museum. I am so happy to be the Hawks Museum off-site volunteer for Footy Records.
A page from the Special Hawks Museum Edition of Matthew’s Football Record.
