Review Footy Books

[dogwatch]

There are plenty of footy books published every year. A lot of them are purportedly by particular players (but usually have the support of an experienced author or journalist). I tend to avoid these as they are usually fairly trite and uncritical hagiographies. As such, they have a very short shelf life and are never books you'd bother re-reading.

In general there have not been that many about the Doggies. This last year has been an exception since we surprised everybody and won a flag just 18 months ago.

So I think it's worth having a thread about footy books - to list them, review them, ask questions about them or even try to locate copies of those that are out of print. Books about the Bulldogs are probably of most interest here, but there are some that have broader appeal (general AFL or footy culture books) and sometimes there are books about other clubs that might be worth a read.

If you are going to post a book review here I recommend you keep it to under 300 words. There's no problem having multiple reviews of the same book. Probably the more the better where it's a good or a controversial book. A case in point might be Martin Flanagan's A Wink From The Universe (WFTU) which has just been released and is attracting some interest.

To help kick off discussion here are books on footy I have. Some of them I've had for a while and haven't read yet ... but I will one day. I've usually found them on a remainders table. I've marked these with a *

Bulldog Specific

• EJ by Ted Whitten with Jim Main and friends (1995) published just after his death
• Southern Sky, Western Oval by Martin Flanagan (1993)
• The Mighty West by Kerrie Soraghan (2017)
• The Footy Lady by Stephanie Asher (2017)
• A Wink from the Universe * by Martin Flanagan (2018) - have just started reading this

General AFL/VFL

• A Game of Our Own * by Geoffrey Blainey (1990)
• The Winter Game * by Robert Pascoe (1995)
• Up Where, Cazaly? * by Leonie Sandercock and Ian Turner (1981)
• The Greatest Game * (an anthology of football writings) edited by Ross Fitzgerald and Ken Spillman (1989)
• The Australian Football Business by Bob Stewart (1983)

Yearbooks and Record Books

I've got a pile of the AFL's annual season guides taking up space on the bookshelf, especially from the last decade or so, but also some that go back a fair way (one from 1977, for instance - it was a much slimmer volume then!)

I also have a fair number of WB publications to members (I've been a member since at least 1996).

I also have a book called Tooheys Guide to Every Game Ever Played 1897-1982 compiled by Stephen Rodgers (1983). Useful for its season by season history of the competition. It has quarter by quarter scorelines for every game over that period, as well as a 2-page narrative for each season.​

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I know I'm not alone but I'd love to get a copy of Too Tough to Die, the story of the 1989 Fightback campaign that saved the club. I gather it has long been out of print.
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Anyway I'll post a review of The Footy Lady (a biography of Susan Alberti) in the near future. Others to follow.

Reviews and other contributions welcome.

 

[fitzroybowiedog]

I read Time and Space: Footy tactics from origins to AFL by James Coventry a while back and really loved. great journey through the way the game has changed on the field.
highly recommend it.
Also Night Games which is not just AFL but other codes as well is a phenomal read. pretty dark look into the problematic culture that often comes with sport.

 

[grassman75]

They are getting on, butbi have the "just for kicks" books with all the funny stories from the players.

Some great stories in there

I read Kerries book while on holidays last year and thoroughly enjoyed it

The other one I've got which is really good is Unleashed - story of Footscray Football Club

 

[worbod]

After our fabulous grand final victory in 2016 I was inspired to buy a copy of Footscray's Royal Year: How Footscray Won the 1954 VFL Premiership by Marc Fiddian. I bought it from Melbourne Sports Books during a trip to Melbourne but after reading through it, I feel I can not rank it as a great book. The book is 84 pages, and when it reaches page 61, the book moves in a different direction, moving onto who won the VFA premiership that season. This is not a major fault at all, I am simply pointing this out. I do not rank this as a great book because it reads as extremely simple. When I bought the book I thought Fiddian was going to deliver insights from within the inner sanctum as to how we played and progressed throughout the season. Instead he merely summaries each round, explaining the results of each game for all teams and how the ladder changed from week to week. I do not feel this exactly explains how we won the premiership. Considering the book was written in 2006 I guess it would have been somewhat difficult for Fiddian to talk to many people who were involved with the club in 1954, but surely there was some material and some people still living who could have given him inside opinions and memories of 1954. I feel as though I could easily write my own book wherein I simply recount each round's results and how the ladder changed.
I do not feel this is a worthless book but it comes across as very basic in what it divulges. I have three of Fiddian's cricket books which I find very thorough in dealing with their topics and I also have his football book Goals, Goals, Goals which I like very much.

 

[TiAn_]

A few others that I own. Might review down the line.

 

[worbod]

I don't know that many Big Footy Bulldogs supporters live in or nearby the Bendigo area but The Book Grocer at Lansell Plaza in Kangaroo Flat were selling copies of The Mighty West for $3 last week. Naturally I took to the deal like a canine to a fire hydrant.