Beyond the Big Sticks
Country Football Around Australia
by Paul Daffey and Ian Kenins
Overview
From the Publisher
A history of Australian country football, covering legends of the bush, interesting and significant grounds and looking at how clubs raise funds to keep going.
My thoughts
This is another book by Paul Daffey about country football in Australia that is a good read but this time we also get some awesome photographs by Ian Kenins. The photography alone is worthy of the cost of this book.
Even though I'm a huge sports hound, I'm astonished at the impact that Australian Rules Football has on the citizens of Australia. Yes, we have high school football, college football and the NFL in America, not to mention other leagues that pop up from time to time such as Arena League and the XFL, but we don't typically see organized adult leagues in competition around the country with 40 and 50 year old players, and the occasional 70-year-old who can't keep his boots hung up! It's quite remarkable really.
It's all spelled out in living color and living history in this book. Well worth the time spent meeting characters of country football in the land down under.
Favorite Passage
By the 1950s, players from remote regions were still going to the footy on horseback, but most clubs piled their players into the back of a truck. Seated on wheat bags, players stayed warm with a nip of port before changing on the back of the truck and running out to play. After the siren, they would wipe down and hop back on the truck for the journey home. Defeat was softened by a singalong. If it rained, they got wet.
