The Best/Worst Footy Books.

[Mr_Bojangles]

John Harms' "Loose Men Everywhere" is a favourite being a Geelong book and all but what is best/worse for you out there as there has been some real thrown together hatchet jobs.

I have the Ken Piesse 1993 book about Gary Ablett in 'the throne room' at the moment after buying it when around 16/17. There's no real depth to it and wasn't sanctioned by the man obviously so a piss poor read. The worst one though is a joke book done by Mark Jacko Jackson full of jokes that don't belong in the 50s let alone the 80s with their content.

Example:
"Who do you make a whore moan?"

"Kick her in the campaigner"

 

[TheJanuaryMan]

doug hawkins "hawk namure" is one of the bigger wastes of your time you will find. the section on joining fitzroy was quite interesting, but much of the rest of it was pure dross of the top order.

a few recent books struggle without a lot of first hand input from the subject and it shows in the final product. there was potentially a very interesting story in the Malcolm Blight book but it was lost in too much opinion and bordered on adulation at times.

 

[windyhill]

Beware any book with the afl logo on it. Wayne Carey's book is fantastic, wow ! No afl endorsement. never wanted hirds book, but of course it popped up in the Santa sack. Boring as bat s**t and yes,afl endorsed. As much as I loved Lloyd, his book is a snooze fest,yep afl endorsed.

 

[NarrowMind]

Fan memoirs in the style of Nick Hornby's Fever Pitch are always a good read. As well as Harms' work Matthew Hardy's Saturday Afternoon Fever, Clinton Walker's A Football Life and James Gilchrist's Torturted Tales of a Collingwood Tragic are well worth a look.

Also those little footy fan books by Lorraine Wilson were crackers. It seemed every primary school in the state had a stockpile.

 

[IschenkoUBeauty]

Beware any book with the afl logo on it. Wayne Carey's book is fantastic, wow !

Have too read Carey's book. Reading about his childhood leaves very little wonder why Wayne did the some of the things he did off the field (affair aside...no excuse for that)...if the accounts of his old man's exploits are true.

 

[windyhill]

Have too read Carey's book. Reading about his childhood leaves very little wonder why Wayne did the some of the things he did off the field (affair aside...no excuse for that)...if the accounts of his old man's exploits are true.

Oh my lord, what that father put the whole family through, let alone The Duck. Ripping book though.

 

[The Punter]

I didn't mind Lloyd's offering. But most of them are "this happened, then this happened".

Misson's on the 2010 St Kilda season is pretty good, as is Ian Ridley's on the merger (of the autobiographical narrative genre).

Harms' is wonderful.

 

[Nostradumbass]

Probably read them 20 years ago now but I enjoyed Daicos's book and Brian Taylor's as well.

 

[Hammer#8]

I've read
-Aka: The Battle Within
-The Truth Hurts by Carey
-Blight's autobiography by Watson
-Billy's Book for Blokes by Brownless.

Aka's was quite good, a little self indulgent maybe but a few interesting stories in there.

I bought Carey's book the week it came out and couldn't put it down. Fantastic book.

I bought Blight's book on the assumption it was written by Blight himself, so was a bit let down when most stories were 'heresay' to how Blight either reacted or felt to events in his life.

Brownless' book was honestly a waste of time. Just thin on material and lazy, covers things like his favourite top 10 takeaway foods, top 10 grounds to play at, top 10 BBQ rules, things of which cover half the book.

I got 'Time and Space' by James Coventary as a present which I'm yet to read.

 

[windyhill]

Probably read them 20 years ago now but I enjoyed Daicos's book and Brian Taylor's as well.

Agree. B.T's in particular.

 

[LeakyValve]

"The Red Fox" (Norm Smith) by Ben Collins is excellent.

Believe it or not, the official AFL book celebrating 100 years of footy (pragmatically entitled 100 years of Australian Football - Viking Press)
is also a fine book.

Beautifully edited and worth tracking down.

Far superior to the other later and bigger publication, but dreadfully formulaic, "The Australian Game of Football since 1858".

Let down by Kevin Sheedy's predictably numpty foreword and Mike Sheahan's best 50.

A good coffee table book though as it has some glossy photos.

 

[raymond35]

The best I've read:
- Stephen Phillips biography on LouRichards
- From the outer by Garry Hutchinson ( I think )

So many crappy ones but one that stood out for being super boring was Barry Halls offering. And yes, that Billy Brownless thing was a waste of time.

 

[Ben Johnson]

50 pages into "Fabulous Fred. The strife and times of Fred Cook"

Bloody awesome so far. And we've only just scratched the surface.

 

[NarrowMind]

50 pages into "Fabulous Fred. The strife and times of Fred Cook"

Bloody awesome so far. And we've only just scratched the surface.

A cracking read.

 

[rank and file]

Ben Cousins "My life story" top of the range

 

[Kwality]

Ben Cousins "My life story" top of the range

Sad is my description of the Ben book - knew Brian for a couple of years just out of school so I followed Bens career from underage, and it became tough. Might reread the book when its not so real in my memory.

Try Polly Farmer by Steve Hawke, revised & updated in 2014, it was originally issued more than 20 years back (1994). Covers Pollys life across footy, interesting new chapter by Gareth Andrews* of Polly meeting the 2014 Geelong team in Perth in 2014 (Pollys 80 these days) - interesting coverage of Ray Gabelich back home in WA at West Perth, his role in WA winning the national carnival in Brisbane in 1961, and the manoeuvring to get him back to the Pies.

*http://australianfootball.com/players/player/gareth+andrews/9741

If you are interested in indigenous footballers in our great game, its a must read, going back to the 50s.

 

[worbod]

"From Cardinals to Dragons" (2013) is a history of the Bendigo league club Sandhurst. It has games records for all senior players in the statistical appendix, a bonus for a book about a country footy team. A well researched book by a local author (Darren Lewis) who has also written a book about Castlemaine Football Club.

 

[Kwality]

The best I've read:
- Stephen Phillips biography on LouRichards
- From the outer by Garry Hutchinson ( I think )

So many crappy ones but one that stood out for being super boring was Barry Halls offering. And yes, that Billy Brownless thing was a waste of time.

Does it cover his life pre Collingwood, how he came to be A pie - no doubting Lou's relevance nationally, one of the games greatest because of both his footy & multi media work.
The 3 wise monkeys of League Teams, a bewdy ...

 

[Harry Yorkie]

I have always enjoyed the 'Footy Almanac', match reports from a fans point of view. You don't have to buy the printed version anymore as all the reports are available online:
www.footyalmanac.com.au

 

[MisterMarcus]

Worst AFL book I have to say was Stan Alves' "Sacked Coach".

It has a fascinating premise: what goes on at weak, unstable, and under-achieving clubs. The toll that chronic lack of success takes on players, coaches, and administrators. Plus the tragic death of Alves' son, and his subsequent embrace of New Age mind-body-spirit stuff.

But the writing itself is terrible. I think the ghostwriter was trying to capture a very casual "Alves telling his story to a mate over a beer or two" type style, but it comes out like a cross between a rambling Grandpa and a twelve year old on Facebook. Plus there's some shockingly careless editing ("Nathan Bourke"!) and all these weird tangents that come out of nowhere and then peter out just as quickly.

It's a great pity, because Alves has some interesting things to say. But the book reads like he and the ghostwriter were both half-cut and on a 1 day deadline.....like they cobbled together a very rough first draft and thought "bugger it, this will do!"

 

[Brock 'n' Roll]

Really enjoyed Jim Stynes book as well as David Schwarz's maybe because of the Demon factor but both ripping reads.
Have read Careys and Cousins as well which were both enjoyable and very interesting.

 

[Deathray]

Clinton Walker's A Football Life

Thanks for that will have to check it out now. Didn't realise the learned rock historian also wrote one about footy.

 

[NarrowMind]

Thanks for that will have to check it out now. Didn't realise the learned rock historian also wrote one about footy.

It was published some time in the late 90's so a second hand copy will be your best bet.

 

[doug85]

The 'Jigsaw man' about Sheeds is quite good as well as 'Playing God, the rise and fall of Gary Ablett'.

 

[Hellgood]

I got 'Time and Space' by James Coventary as a present which I'm yet to read.

Read it! It's terrific - very insightful and covers a multitude of eras in an impressive amount of depth.

Really enjoyed the Polly Farmer biography mentioned earlier too - always knew of his brilliance as a player, but before reading it had never realised the magnitude of his achievements as a coach, a very inspirational story.

Also read the book on Blight last year as well - thought it was pretty good, do tend to agree with above poster that the author was in awe of him a little bit, but to be honest I think Blight is the kind of figure in our game that deserves that sort of reverence.