Resource Australian Rules Histories

[TheSportDoctor]

I asked a friend of mine for a recommendation as to a good general history of Australian Rules football. Not the VFL/AFL but of the game in general.

He recommended A National Game: The History of Australian Rules Football published in 2008.

Has anyone read it?

Can anyone recommend any other histories of the sport?

 

[The Speaker]

There are very few. A National Game is probably the best of the lot.

 

[The Speaker]

Here's a review of A National Game, as well as The Australian Game of Football since 1858:

http://artsonline.monash.edu.au/eras/files/2014/02/scully-review.pdf

 

[The Passenger]

I know it's not what you were asking as this one is related to VFL/AFL but it's worth mentioning as people who open this thread might have an interest

The Clubs: Complete History of Every VFL/AFL Club

It's a little dated now as was written in 1997, but it's still got some great info in there

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/like/251...e&hlpv=2&ops=true&viphx=1&hlpht=true&lpid=107

 

[Gough]

Blainey's A Game of Our Own is pretty good, and The Winter Game by Robert Pascoe is also decent. Footy writing as rule is pretty pathetic sadly when you compare it the literary tradition of some other sports.

 

[the croucher]

I know it's not what you were asking as this one is related to VFL/AFL but it's worth mentioning as people who open this thread might have an interest

The Clubs: Complete History of Every VFL/AFL Club

It's a little dated now as was written in 1997, but it's still got some great info in there

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/like/251...e&hlpv=2&ops=true&viphx=1&hlpht=true&lpid=107

Might be worth paying a few dollars if you want to look at copies of interesting photographs,
printed documents and ephemera.

But please, don't buy it for the information.
In my opinion it is one of the more error-riddled publications about the game.

 

[SJ]

Might be worth paying a few dollars if you want to look at copies of interesting photographs,
printed documents and ephemera.

But please, don't buy it for the information.
In my opinion it is one of the more error-riddled publications about the game.

From memory it's one of those books that lists 'Champion of the Colony' awards and so on.

 

[SJ]

I asked a friend of mine for a recommendation as to a good general history of Australian Rules football. Not the VFL/AFL but of the game in general.

He recommended A National Game: The History of Australian Rules Football published in 2008.

Has anyone read it?

Can anyone recommend any other histories of the sport?

Even that book is heavily biased towards the VFL/AFL.

 

[TheSportDoctor]

Thanks everyone. Really appreciated the time you took to make recommendations.

On a similar note, beside the 1996 docu 100 years, are there any other great visual documentaries that you can recommended?

 

[killer]

The only books I'd recommend would be
Hess and Stewarts "More than a Game" (Victorian history)
Lionel Frost's "Immortals"( influential players)and
Robert Shaw's "Heart and Soul" also good for football voices you wouldn't normally hear

didn't think much of "Winter Game"

in terms of visual the national archives brought out 2 volumes of " VFL on Film "
in the VHS days I haven't seen a copy on disk
good luck finding non VFL visual
I know of a Barry Cable film and a and a Peter Hudson film from the late 70s other than that
its limited

 

[Gough]

Not a history of footy per se, but Way to Go by the late great Matt Price is a collection of his articles from The Australian documenting the tragic early years of the Freo Dockers. Written with humour, and with a foreword that makes you look at Mick Malthouse in a new light, if you can find your self a copy, it was a small print run, I would recommend it with all my heart.

 

[threenewpadlocks]

I know it's not what you were asking as this one is related to VFL/AFL but it's worth mentioning as people who open this thread might have an interest

The Clubs: Complete History of Every VFL/AFL Club

It's a little dated now as was written in 1997, but it's still got some great info in there

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/like/251...e&hlpv=2&ops=true&viphx=1&hlpht=true&lpid=107

I've got a copy of this. A really great resource in understanding (Victorian) footy before WWII which a lot of the general footy public overlook, and it details and explains very well events and the impact on the club through timelines and the like. Very good all-around book.

 

[royals1922]

The truth is that there are very few good football histories because with trove people have got lazy and don't go looking off trove and before trove finding the information was just too difficult.

I've been involved in 5 football histories in relation to pre 1930s and there is a lack of understanding of them.

 

[Jim Dixon]

I've just started reading my copy of Clubs of the SANFL by John Devaney which is very comprehensive and includes the 19th century oddities like Bankers FC.

So far so good.

 

[JA27]

Football Ltd by Garry Linnell is interesting as it focuses on the clubs during the changeover from the VFL & AFL,

lots of proposed mergers and dealings that were going on behind the scenes.