AUSTRALIAN FOOTBALL
THE PEOPLE'S GAME
1958 - 2058
Stephen AlomesWith a Foreword by Kevin Sheedy
Paperback and epublication • illustrations • Notes • Bibliography • Index
Walla Walla Press, Sydney, September 2012
ISBN: 978-1-876718-16-9$34.95
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Despite the dire predictions of doomsayers that Australian Football could be dead in 50 years, this book demonstrates that the Australian game is thriving and will prosper in 2058. It celebrates ‘the finest form of football … the most athletic to play and the most exciting to watch’, as described by English cricketer C.B. Fry. It shows how the people’s game can remain Australia’s leading sport and compete effectively against global culture and sportainment.
The first book to present Australian Football in the widest panorama over time, it evokes the eras of Barassi and Baldock, Brereton and Ablett and Franklin and Naitanui, and explores the future.
‘If you love Australian football, its past, its present and its future, then you have to read this book’ (Kevin Sheedy, coach of Greater Western Sydney and former coach of Essendon).
‘A book for generations of Aussie football lovers ... a great read for the real football addict’ (David Parkin, former Subiaco, Hawthorn, Carlton and Fitzroy coach).
About the author
Stephen Alomes went to the footy before he went to school. Since then he has played, at the lowest level, and written articles on Australian Football and books on Australian expatriates in London, nationalism, Australia and France and Australia and Japan. He last played in the Sugadaira Cup in Japan in 2000. A writer, broadcaster and painter, he is an Adjunct Professor in the Globalism Research Centre at RMIT University.
Introduction: Australian Football Faces the Future
1. The People’s Game: ‘That’s the Thing about Football’
2. The Times They Are a-Changin’: The Swinging Sixties
3. Club and Class Wars Give Way to Professionalism — the 1970s
4. Turbulent Times, Changing Times 1980–96
5. Media Stars
6. Footy Heroes and Celebrities: Fame and Falls
7. Grassroots: The Game of the People for the People
8. A National League: Number One in a Globalising Era 1990s - 2000s
9. Australian Football Traditions and Global Sports 2012–
10. Australian Football’s Triumph: Holding up the 2058 Premiership Cup